Dan Kennedy Speaks On Laziness

Are you dragging ass lately? The potent message in todays post will serve as a wake up call

Hey you,

It’s #2.

I’m currently going through my August 2009 “Look Over Dan’s Shoulder” newsletter for a client project and I came across a section of it I thought you’d love to read.

See what you think…

“There’s an entire cottage industry of anti-Obama bumper stickers, presumably employing writers.  One apropos to us all might be…

“Don’t re-distribute my wealth.  Re-distribute my work ethic.”

Writing, even writing bumper stickers, takes work.  I’m nearly done with a book about using humor and comedy in public speaking and in speaking to sell and I know it’s revelations about how much work goes into writing even one good humorous story to then use on the platform will be unwelcome.

This world rarely sees all the preparation invested in any sort of exceptional success – business and financial, or other, sports, entertainment, whatever.  Audiences tuning into Jay Leno’s nightly monologue on the Tonight Show didn’t know and wouldn’t have cared about the time spent almost every week testing new material on local comedy club audiences before using it on TV, and the long hours invested by Jay and his writers, writing hundreds of jokes vetoed, given up on and never used, to wind up with a dozen or so “Keepers” each night.

Most advertising copywriters are woefully unprepared for success in two ways…

First, they do not have enough on-going, eclectic input feeding their understanding of human behavior, psychology, consumer behavioral trends, politics, finance, pop-culture as well as advertising, marketing and sales, enough supply to their subconscious for it to produce great stuff.

Second, they don’t prepare for each project in sufficient depth.

The outstanding new autobiography of advertising legend David Ogilvy includes a description of all the preparatory work he put in before writing the now iconic ad for Rolls Royce with the headline he ended up swiping, after deciding it was superior to his 100 original attempts.

Halbert used to claim he wrote out at least 100 potential headlines for an ad before choosing one.  I never believed him – but I do believe he “wrote” 100 in his mind.

I am in the 2^nd month of mountain-sized project for a new client in the health field, but before writing copy for him, I met with him for a day and got our day’s discussion transcribed for my reference, I read three books, a gigantic 3 ring notebook of his previous materials, had somebody fetch about a hundred pages of material for me from websites, raided my archives and “Swipe files”, created piles of raw material sorted by purpose ie, the headlines, the opening, the personal mission story, presenting price and so forth.

Then I started writing.

As a result of my preparation, I am now quite knowledgeable about oxygen therapy, oxygen assisted exercise, anti-oxidant therapy, and a number of other related subjects, and about professionals’ attitudes, concerns, fears and skepticisms about using them.  I could certainly hold my own through dinner conversations with a bunch of doctors discussing these topics.

If you were actually here, present, shadowing me in person for days or weeks rather than looking over my shoulder from afar, you might be dis-pleased, maybe discouraged, maybe bored and undoubtedly fatigued with the amount of preparation I invest in each thing I do.

I could certainly get by with less, especially at this point – reputation ironically permits cheating and getting away with it.  Most do get by doing a lot less of this work behind whatever copywriting they do – but damn few earn 7-figures a year directly from their copywriting either.  I don’t really know what to tell you about this to make it more easily palatable.

If you can buy true top performance at a discount, I’m not the guy to tell you how.  I don’t know.  I sometimes wish I did.

LOS subscribers are a much more serious and intent lot than readers of all my other newsletters, or they don’t stay around here very long – fortunately, we enjoy a very high, 85%+ a year retention with over 50% as “Lifers.”

These folks, you, are pretty damn serious and seriously committed to “mastery” of copy that sells.  Still, I know the temptation is to chest the preparation, rush to the work itself, and hope to get by.

In many case, in many markets, you can get results good enough to get by with, without my level of investment of time and effort and preparation, and in recognition of that, I always hand you shortcuts and quick n’ dirty “pieces” you can lift, tweak and use.

But I want you to know what I devoutly believe about all this – that the work you see here is not the result of haste or ease, nor can any work consistently delivering exceptional results be.

By the time you read this, I will have conducted my 7-FIGURES ACADEMY, discussing the requirements of earning of 7-figures.

There are many requirements to meet and fit together in a matrix, it’s a complex topic deserving the 3 days it was given, and it required monumental investment in preparation.  But if you held a gun to my head and demanded I provide the single most important (and probably least understood) requirement for earning 7-figures, I could answer.

I could tell what it isn’t, that most think it is – such as: talent or genius or even extraordinary skill, or the finding or invention of a unique and extraordinary opportunity, or timing or luck.  Definitely not luck.

If required to cite but one thing, I would tell you: exceptionally high tolerance for what most view as pain and suffering. There, I said it.  What the elite few top copywriters know.

So… what’d you think?

When I read it, I instantly thought of a couple of things.  The first, being my sister who lives in a plush condo in New York City.  I’m exceptionally proud of her for numerous reasons, but specific to business building, I beam knowing she put herself in a position to run her office from home where she can dote and fawn over her 11 month old daughter.

6-7 years ago she’d have never dreamt this was possible.

Back then times were tough as dry beef jerky.  Her little up-start business’s office was in a not so nice section of Brooklyn, an area where she actually had a NYC full deluxe jumbo rat crawl across her foot one time at the threshold of her door to the office.  And that office was her home too.

She and her husband slept there, ate out and showered at a local gym.

And during this period while trying to get their business off the ground they were pounding out 16-17 hour workdays.

Finally the work paid off.  I won’t go into details about her company but a little conglomerate called Warner Brothers Music Group snatched them off the market and made sure they worked exclusively for them.

Some of my family might look at them today, see or hear about the $650,000.00 cabin they just bought and say they’re lucky.  Right place, right time.  I say bullshit.

They made their own luck while sleeping on futons, laden with bedbugs, hearing rodents in the walls all night, and then logging brutal hours to produce an outstanding service despite their future being uncertain.

She and her husband have done such a magnificent job for Warner that an English competitor tried to come in and under bid their services after my sister wouldn’t sell to them.  Warner told them to shove it and take their ass back across the big pond.

My sister has indirectly been a mentor to me.  She’s a business woman who has zero to mild interest in talking business because her life outside of the company is so fascinating.  In my eyes, she sees business a necessary evil that allows her to live the lifestyle she wants to.

It seems to me that because she has a life outside of business and she takes pride in her work, she can pour herself into her career while not being burnt to a crisp because she takes the business home with her.

And guess what?  She built this multi-million dollar business without the help of any guru’s.  No Kennedy, No Abraham, No books, seminars or programs at all.

They wouldn’t even know their names if you brought them up to them.

The biggest contributing factor to she and her husband building a 7-figure income was what Kennedy hammered at above…

“Exceptionally high tolerance for what most view as pain and suffering.”

Is there a situation in your life or business that you’re being a wuss about right now?  One you might be whining to others about?  If so, you might want to see your challenges as blessings because overcoming them is what separates the boys from the men, the girls from the women.

Defying the odds in your life is what forges pride.

If you’ve got a story like my sisters, please feel free to share it with everyone here by posting below.  You’ll be giving a gift of immense value to someone who really resonates with your experience and sees possibility for themselves as a result of your contribution.

Talk to you soon,

Note Taking Nerd #2

P.S. It goes without saying, that if you’re serious about marketing, you should highly consider buying any and all of Dan Kennedy’s newsletters.  Today’s post gave you an excellent sample of prolific writing you can’t get just through his books.  As well, you get a prime example of how to write to influence.  If you look at just the small sample I gave you today you’d find almost every one of the 31 principles he tries to inject into every communication with his list so he can keep them fascinated about hearing from him.  CLICK HERE to discover what those 31 principles are and what they can do for you…

This guy seems to be doing pretty good with one of man's top fears of having a razor sharp beak anywhere within 5 feet of Captain Winky and The Boys

Do You Take A Fearless Approach To Life?

Hey you,

It’s #2.

Quick question.  How much do you let fear control your life?  A smidge or a lot?

For me, I was wired up real young to be afraid of everything from what people thought of me to confrontation all the way to physical pain.

As I’ve evolved directly/indirectly under the wing of mentors like the Chief, Tony Robbins, Dan Kennedy, Larry Crane, Robert Dilts and other geniuses, I’ve slowly but surely began living life freer and freer of fears that rob you of a life where you’re comfortable in your own skin.

“I Was Born Alone And I Will Die Alone.  I’ve Got To Do What’s Right For Me And Not Live My Life The Way Anybody Else Wants It.”

-50 Cent

The quote above comes directly from the book, “The 50^th Law” written by Robert Greene, the author of “The 48 Laws of Power”, “The Art of Seduction”, and “Strategies of War”.

Robert Greene is a shining example of a writer who “gets” the power of story.

Every one of the books he’s written are teaching the principles historic figures used to become icons and he does it by telling concise tales, giving you snap shots of how they embodied this principle in their life.

Everyone from Genghis Khan to Marilyn Monroe, Napoleon Bonaparte to Elvis, George Washington to Miles Davis, Barack Obama to 50 Cent.

World Famous Author Meets Thugged Out Rapper?

I’m pretty embarrassed to say that Robert’s book was on the front shelf at my local Barnes and Noble and I completely shunned it once I saw 50 Cent’s name as the co-author.

I enjoy some rap but not 50 Cent.  On top of this I think I thought Robert was out of his mind joint venturing with a gangsta rapper.  After hearing CD 1 of this program I knew I had behaved as an idiot.

My prejudice kept me from this magnificent resource.  This book should’ve been in my library as soon as it came out.  Thanks to the chief, it is now.

Robert had his radar open to what he could learn from anyone and so when 50 Cent approached him to do a book together, he at least heard him out.  As they got to talking, they found that even though they were raised in complete opposite surroundings, they saw the world in similar ways.

“How Open Are You To Wisdom?”

Today, I want to share with you a piece of a particular chapter directly from “The 50^th Law” that grabbed me based on the idea of living fearlessly.  You be the judge on how valuable this information will be for you…

“You came into this life with the only real possessions that ever matter – your body, the time you have to live, your energy, the thoughts and ideas unique to you and your autonomy.

But over the years you tend to give all of this away.

You spend years working for others – they own you during that period.  You get needlessly caught up in people’s games and battles, wasting energy and time that you will never get back.

You come to respect you own ideas less and less, listening to experts, conforming to conventional opinions.  Without realizing it, you squander your independence, everything that makes you a creative individual.

Before it’s too late, you must reassess your entire concept of ownership.

It’s not about possessing things, money or titles.  You may have all of that in abundance but if you’re someone who still looks to others for help and guidance, if you depend on your money or resources, then you will eventually lose what you have when people let you down, adversity strikes, or you reach for some foolish scheme out of impatience.

“True ownership can come only from within”

It comes from a disdain for anything or anybody that impinges upon your mobility, from a confidence in your own decisions, and from the use of your time in constant pursuit of education and improvement.

Only from this inner position of strength and self-reliance will you be able to truly work for yourself and never turn back.  If situations arise in which you must take in partners or fit within another organization, you are mentally preparing yourself for the moment when you will move beyond these momentary entanglements.

If you do not own yourself first, you will continually be at the mercy of people and circumstance, looking outward instead of relying on yourself and your wits.

Understand:  we are living though an entrepreneurial revolution, on a global scale.

The old power centers are breaking up.  Individuals everywhere want more control over their destiny and have much less respect for an authority that is not based on merit but on mere power.

“We Have All Naturally Come To Question Why Someone Should Rule Over Us, Why Our Source Of Information Should Depend On The Mainstream Media, and On, and On”

We do not accept what we accepted in the past.

Where we are naturally headed with all of this is the right and capacity to run our own enterprise, in whatever shape or form, to experience that freedom.  We are all corner hustlers in a new economic environment and to thrive in it we must cultivate the kind of self-reliance that helped push Fifty past all the dangerous dependencies that threatened him along the way.

For Fifty it was very clear – he was alone in the house he grew up and on the streets.  He lacked the usual supports and so he was forced to become self-sufficient.

The consequences of being dependent on people were so much more severe in his case – it would mean constant disappointment and urgent needs that went unmet.  It’s harder for us to realize that we’re essentially alone in this world and in need of the skills that Fifty had to develop for himself on the streets.

“We Have Layers Of Support That Seem To Prop Us Up.  But These Supports Are Illusions In The End.”

Everyone in the world is governed by self interest.

People naturally think first of themselves and their agendas.  An occasional affectionate or helpful gesture from people you know tends to cloud this reality and make you expect more of this support – until you’re disappointed, again and again.

You are more alone than you imagine.  This should not be a source of fear but of freedom.  When you prove to yourself that you can get things on your own, then you experience a sense of liberation.

You are no longer waiting for people to do this and that for you (a frustrating and infuriating experience).  You have confidence that you can manage any adverse situation on your own.

Prime Example of This…

You think you’ve got problems?

Look at a man like Rubin “Hurricane” Carter – a successful middleweight boxer who found himself arrested in 1966 at the height of his career and charged with a triple murder.

The following year he was convicted and sentenced to three consecutive life terms.  Through it all Carter vehemently maintained his innocence, and in 1986 he was finally exonerated of the crimes and set free.

But for those nineteen years, he had to endure one of the most brutal environments known to man, one designed to break down every last vestige of autonomy.

Carter knew he would be freed at some point.  But on the day of his release, would he walk the streets with a spirit crushed by years in prison?  Would he be the kind of prisoner who keeps coming back into the system because he can no longer do anything for himself?

He Decided That He Would Defeat The System

He would use the years in prison to develop his self-reliance so that when he was free it would mean something.

For this purpose he devised the following strategy:  He would act like a free man while surrounded by walls.  He would not wear their uniform or carry an ID badge.  He was an individual, not a number.  He would not eat with the other prisoners, do the assigned tasks, or go to his parole hearings.

He was placed in solitary confinement for these transgressions but he was not afraid of the punishment, nor of being alone.

“He was afraid only of losing his dignity and sense of ownership”

As part of this strategy, he refused to have the usual entertainments in his cell – television, radio, pornographic magazines.  He knew he would grow dependent on these weak pleasures and this would give the wardens something to take away from him.

Also, such diversions were merely attempts to kill time.  Instead he became a voracious reader of books that would toughen his mind.  He wrote an autobiography that helped gain sympathy for his cause.

He taught himself law, determined to get his conviction overturned by himself.  He tutored other prisoners in the ideas that he had learned through his reading.  In this way he re-claimed the dead time of prison for his own purposes.

“When He Was Eventually Freed, He Refused To Take Civil Action Against The State – That Would Acknowledge He Had Been In Prison And Needed Compensation”

He needed nothing.

He was now a free man with the essential skills to get power in the world.  After prison he became a successful advocate for prisoners’ rights and was awarded several honorary law degrees.

Think of it this way: dependency is a habit that is so easy to acquire.  We live in a culture that offers you all kinds of crutches – experts to turn to, drugs to cure any psychological unease, mild pleasures to help pass or kill time, jobs to keep you just above water.  It is hard to resist.

But once you give in, it is like a prison you enter that you cannot ever leave.

You continually look outward for help and this severely limits your options and maneuverability.

“When The Time Comes, As It Inevitably Does, When You Must Make An Important Decision, You Have Nothing Inside Yourself To Depend On”

Before it’s too late, you must move in the opposite direction.

You cannot get this requisite inner strength from books or a guru or pills of any kind.  It can only come from you.  It is a kind of exercise you must practice on a daily basis – weaning yourself from dependencies, listening less to others’ voices and more to your own, cultivating new skills.

***One of the most important skills and entrepreneur or business owner could ever cultivate is the ability to communicate influentially…in all formats, verbally, in print, pixel, on video, on stage.  CLICK HERE and you’ll have direct access to what I learned from Dan Kennedy’s Influential Writing seminar about and how he mastered this…

As happened with Carter and Fifty, you will find that self-reliance becomes the habit and that anything that smacks of depending on others will horrify you.

Do you agree or not?

Talk to me.

Talk soon,

Note Taking Nerd #2

Ryan Deiss & Perry Belcher’s 43 Proven, Brain-Dead-Simple Tweaks You Can Make To Your Site, So You Can Make More Money

Piggy back on these test results so you don't waste any of your precious traffic

Hey You,

It’s #2.

I know the Chief has expressed his gratitude to you for stepping up big time and getting all in WordPress’s face like an angry coach for “accidentally” suspending our blog.

If the chief and I didn’t have loyal friends like you protesting, it wouldn’t have taken our Junkyard Dog attorney to get everything straightened out but thankfully we didn’t even have to call him.

Now I’d like to thank you by giving you one hell of a set of notes I took on Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher’s 43 Split Test Program. This is where they went through the notes they took on all the tests they ran in multiple industries (not just internet marketing) and broke down the results.

This is perfect for those of you who own this already but haven’t taken notes on it yet.  If you don’t own it and you market online, you should go find it today.  It’s that good.

During Eben Pagan’s “Get Altitude” seminar he asked everyone who split test something on their site, every single day, to stand up.  What he found was that everyone who was standing had a site that was making them over a MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

My suggestion, take action on at least one of the suggestions today so you can get move beyond the million dollar mark or get closer to meeting it.

Enough said.  Happy plundering…

43 Split Tests

#1 Guarantees

1.1 365 day guarantee increased conversion 5.6%

1.2 Reduced return rate 38% – Huge Impact

1.3 “No Small Print”  weasel clause guarantees

#2 Post Sale Autoresponders

2.1 Changing your follow up autoresponder series to be sent from a “Personal Success Coach” and including 6 messages that help to teach consumption and satisfaction will reduce return rates by 17%.

2.2 Adding video instructional messages will reduce the return rate by about 24%

2.2.1 Can use the flip video for this.  theflip.com or Camtasia

2.3 Instructions, success stories, what to do first – Quick Start Guide – always from the “personal success coach”.  then ask them to give you feedback, NOT testimonials.

2.4 Not always good to have the “Big shot, face of company” emailing everyday, “success coach” gives a different feel.

2.5 People feel better about returning things to a faceless corporation rather than a person.

2.5.1 Most returns come from people not using rather than it not working

#3 Order Form

3.1 Placing testes on the right hand side of your order form will increase conversions 28-30%

3.2 Kennedy’s car dealership story- best car salesman he ever knew had a wall full of pics of smiling customers with their new cars in his office.

3.3 If you’re awesome you’re probably getting 80+% cart abandonment

#4 Payment Area

4.1 Placing a small video in your payment area explaining your site security will increase conversions by 12%

4.2 Get these logos on your site to help create trust in you:  authorize.net, verisign, 128 bit encryption, BBB (Better Business Bureau), hacker safe.com, truste.com, honesteonline.com

#5 Payment Area

5.1 Placing seals from reputable sources like the BBB or Online Business Bureau in your buy areas, next to your buy now buttons, top right corner of site will increase conversions by 13%

5.2 Do Not use the logo or seal if you are not a member!!!

5.3 Take a look at what Amazon and those guys do

#6 Guarantee

6.1 Placing your guarantee in a text box with a seal and a red border can increase conversions by 17%

#7 Offer Look

7.1 Placing a dashed 4 pixel red border around your buy area can increase conversions by 28%

#8 Body Text

8.1 Changing all body text to Arial 12 point font can show a 31-36% increase in readability

8.2 12 point and 12 pixels (Dreamweaver) the same

#9 Headline Colors

9.1 Changing headline to rust-burgundy will increase conversions 28% conservatively

9.2 Lighter shade of blue is a close second

#10 Headline Font and Size

10.1 Changing headline to 20 pt Tahoma font and adding “Quotations” can increase conversion 17%.

#11 Headline Templates

11.1 Changing your headline to one of the following 3 best headlines…

11.2 How to, numbered headlines, 7 ways…good for subject lines, Who else wants—almost impossible to beat… best long form “Discover how a …”

11.3 Consistently increases conversions over more “Creative” headline templates (up to 44%).

#12 Testimonial Boxes

12.1 Creating a yellow (hex={ff,ff,e8}) johnson box and put all testimonials in them can increase conversions 16%

12.2 Never label them as Testimonials: Google hates that language.  Always label as Customer Feedback and even try to use the customer review star system.  Watch out for making every one 5 out 5.

12.3 Use blue (trust) border

#13 Testimonial Headlines

13.1 Make sure you place a red headline on all testimonials and you can increase conversions by 34%

#14 Headlines

14.1 Negative subject lines almost always beat positive ones

14.2 Changing your headline and supporting images to negative can increase conversions 20%

14.3 If it bleeds it leads

14.4 Look to Digg.com’s most popular articles for amazing headlines

#15 Intro Paragraph

15.1 Inserting a drop cap letter into the intro paragraph of your salesletter can increase your readership by 40%

#16 Backgrounds

16.1 Changing your background color to robbin’s egg blue (hex={64,95, ED}) triggers trust and can increase conversions 31%

#17: Pre Headline

17.1 Adding the following pre-headline before your headline: “ATTENTION: Blank Discover blank…” can increase conversion by 9%

#18 The P.S.

18.1 Placing very best testimonial below P.S. can increase conversions by 19%

#19 The Opt-in

19.1 Placing a testimonial directly below your optin box can increase optins by 16%

19.2 Not a teste for product but for what they get when they optin for

19.3 You get it from someone who bought something from you before and they subscribed from the newsletter or free report/video

19.3.1 All you do is call and ask them if you can do a brief interview with them

#20 Background Color

20.1 Changing from white to light grey (Hex={EE,EE,EE} can increase conversion by 7%

#21 Text Area Width

21.1 Changing sales letter text area from 560 pixels to 600 pixels can result in a 24% increase in scroll rate.

21.2 Perry also never has more than 3 sentences to a paragraph

21.3 95% of people coming to your site don’t buy

21.3.1 3-5% conversion is what we’re looking for

21.3.2 1 in 3 people who scroll will buy.  Which is why it’s important that your opening is good

#22 Scroll Bar

22.1 Changing your scroll bar color to red increase scroll rate by 12%.

22.1.1 Works in I.E., Not Firefox

22.1.2 John Reese uses this

22.1.3 Same color is headline

22.2

See document: colour_scrollbar_generator.html

22.3

See document: scrollbar.php

#23 Opt-in Box

23.1 Change your opt-in box to look like Yahoo’s email login and moving it to the top right corner of your site can increase your opt-in rate by 77%

23.2 Millions of people pre-programmed to use this format

#24: Live Chat

24.1 Products over $300 awesome idea to have

24.2 Adding live chat to your website can increase conversions by 39%

24.3 Screw yourself if someone’s not working it at all times

24.4 php live support-cheapest-least reliable

24.5 live person.com quite expensive

24.5.1 You can incentivize this person and tell them just for asking your question you can get your 10% off.

24.5.2 Don’t let them get over salesy

24.5.3 Free shipping might outperform any other bonus you can do

#25 Johnson Boxes

25.1 Five really good reasons you should act now

25.1.1 Right above where you ask them to order

25.1.2 People won’t read your letter

25.1.3 People make decision to buy based on your headline

Then they zoom to price to see if they can afford it

Then they go back and read reasons “Not to buy”

Looking for holes in your argument

25.2 Recap of offer in 5 bullet points

25.3 Placing a text box with a light blue background color on your site titled “5 good Reasons to Buy” can increase your conversions by 25%

#26 Order Pages

26.1 Adding a product image or virtual pic to the top of your buy page can increase conversions by 15% and decrease cart abandonment rates dramatically

26.2 The progress bar is something that he uses to…step 1, step 2, step 3

26.3 1 shoppingcart allows you to do this

26.4 quickpaypro.com allows this too.

#27 On-Page Audio

27.1 Adding an audio testimonial at the top of page and setting it to auto play increases conversions up to 11%

27.1.1 Can’t be just you saying to buy-sales message

27.1.2 Testes work best

Perry likes using people with less teeth than a jack-o-lantern in his.

27.1.3 Tell them if they do it they can get a gift from you

27.2 audiogenerator.com

27.2.1 gives a phone # so it’s just like them leaving you a voicemail

27.3 byoaudio.com

#28 Getting Usable Testimonials

28.1 Asking your customers leading questions can increase the number of usable testimonials you get by 100%

28.2 For example ask questions like:

28.2.1 Were you skeptical when you first ordered this product?  Please explain.

28.2.2 Did you get the product on time?  Was the packaging intact and presentable?

28.2.3 Who would you recommend this product to and why?

#29 Testimonials

29.1 Creating a feedback forum on your site and sending customers there can increase the amount of testimonials your customers give you by 800%

29.1.1 Make it look like ebay feedback section

29.1.3 8X more likely to fill in this form than asking them to think me up

30 #30 Buy Options

30.1 Offering customers the option to buy using a payment plan can increase conversions 32%.

30.1.1 Honesty discount if they buy even after choosing payment plan

30.2 However, only about 17% of the sales chose the payment plan

#31 Price Points

31.1 Changing your price point to end with “7″ will increase conversions by 13%

31.2 Leave off cents

31.3 Wal-mart everything ends in 7

#32 Signature

32.1 Adding your signature to the top fold of your website right under the testimonial can increase conversions by 19%

32.2 Use for promise headlines

#33 Multiple Order Opportunities

33.1 Offering multiple (first) order opportunities right after the first testimonial can increase conversions by 31%

33.1.1 Then after the guarantee

33.1.2 Then in the order box

33.1.3 Then at the very last bottom of the page

33.1.4 Always at least 4 links to buy in logical places

#34 Price Points

34.1 Adding a retail price with a strike through and then listing a sale price can increase conversions by 14%

34.2 Will get emails asking how long it’s going to be on sale

34.2.1 Answer:  we don’t know how long.  just get it while it’s available

#35 Buy Area

35.1 Placing the credit card emblems in your buy area and making them a hyperlink to your buy link can increase your conversion rate by 3%

#36 Phone Orders

36.1 Placing an 800#  on your site and taking phone orders will increase your conversions by 30%

36.2 Top right corner of the site

36.3 Committing suicide if you don’t have this and you’re selling something over $500.

36.4 everyone has a number they get paranoid about

36.5 Want 800 not 866, or anything else

36.6 answerforce.com

36.7 patlive.com

#37 Keyword-Loaded Domains

37.1 Buying a keyword loaded URL and sending traffic there can reduce your traffic cost by 40%-90% and increase CTR’s and conversions

37.2 Buy top phrases

37.2.1 microphonestands.com

37.2.2 coffeemakers.com

37.3 Better google quality score

37.3.1 Don’t accept superlatives in google ads but you can put it in your domain name-make sure you CAPITALIZE -WORLD’SGREATESTHOTDOGS.COM

#38 Action Word Domains

38.1 Buying URL with action words like “buy now” or “get rid of” and then your main keyword can increase conversions by 19%

38.2 examples:  getridofmicenow.com buydomainnames.com sellyourhousetoday.com

38.2.1 Should be GetRidOfMiceNow.com

38.3 Frames the buyer

38.4 helps you beat your competitors with 4 lines of copy in your adwords

#39 Print Ads

39.1 Directing prospects to an email address rather than sending them to a URL in print ads can increase your opt-ins by 1000%

39.2 By doing this you get their email without having them be stopped by your squeeze page

39.3 getresponse.com doesn’t require you to double optin these people

#40 Declined Orders

40.1 Allowing declined orders to go through and contacting the customer the next day telling them “your system made a mistake” can increase recoveries by 45%.

40.2 60% of online transactions fail.

40.3 Doing this allows you to get all their contact info no matter what

40.4 1shoppingcart.com allows this.

40.5 Most people won’t whether it’s their fault or not will only enter their info once

40.5.1 You should take the blame

40.5.2 Insurance salesman situation- say “I’m so freaking sorry.  I know I was supposed to be at your house and I screwed up and missed our appointment.”

#41 Multiple Sites

41.1 Putting up a review site and listing your product as well as your competitor’s will increase branding as well as allow you multiple streams of income and cheap traffic to your site.

41.2 Put you and your two competitors on a review site you make and then sign up for their affiliate programs.  Then at least you get half of the money instead of none.

41.3 And he never rates his stuff as #1.  Usually sandwiches in between.

41.3.1 Be honest in fleshing out the advantages and disadvantages

41.3.2 most people take middle options

41.3.3 You can make money again if they buy yours and theirs too.

41.3.4 This is how review sites make money

#42 Modeling

42.1 Giving an outsourcer your competitors site to rewrite will give you a sales letter with a different style than yours is written

42.1.1 We want to rewrite our letter.  Here’s the original.  I want a whole new one.

#43 Buy Button

43.1 Adding an Amazon.com style buy button to your site can increase conversions by 14%

43.2 Key elements: Orange background Blue Border “Add To Cart” or “Add To Shopping Basket”

43.3 Orange border with blue text – “Add to Cart” 58% higher click rate than order now

43.4 Over sized buttons are working awesome now…

43.4.1 almost 300 pixels on bottom of page

43.4.2 This is the time to stick it in their face

43.4.3 People want to know what you want them to do next

If you’ve seen this as valuable, please feel free to share it with your friends.  And once again THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support.  The chief and I greatly appreciate it.

Now go out and test something and bring home some money to spend on shiny bright objects.

Talk to you soon,

Note Taking Nerd #2

P.S. If you think these suggestions are awesome and you want to enhance your testing game even more, I can’t suggest highly enough getting a hold of our notes we took on Stompernet’s Formula 5 program.  That program gives you everything you need to incrementally, systematically increase the profitability of your business.  CLICK HERE to see what I mean…

You Can Learn Alot From John...

Who’s Rules Do You Follow?

Hey you,

It’s #2.

Quick question.

What do you believe is the fastest way to get the results you want in a specific area of your life?

Today I want to tell you one of my favorite stories that I’ve ever heard on what would be my answer to this question.

It’s one of the many genius stories from the vast peak performance library that is Tony Robbin’s brain told in his words.

This is about taking control of the information that comes into your mind.  Select the information, having a plan for that information and getting it from sources that do produce results.

This about a man who because he had a limited amount of information that he had at one point, thought he had no future and was ready to commit suicide.  And how when he changed the information he consciously sought out, when he sought out people who were getting results, was able to completely turn his life around and become a role model. In fact a man who’s known by Inc. Magazine as one of their hottest entrepreneurs of the year.

His name is John McCormack.

The neat thing about John is this is man who’s produced results and defied all the odds.  Let me tell you a little about his background.  He started out years ago in Brooklyn.

He grew up in environment where his father was a police officer, and his grandfather had been a policeman and his brother was a priest and he said he had one of two choices, be a policeman or a priest and it became pretty obvious to him that he was gonna be a policeman because he liked women too much.

Here’s a guy working in one of the toughest environments in America

And he goes out each day in an environment where wearing a uniform doesn’t protect you.  Some people it makes them want to shoot you.  And he had painful experiences day after day.  And a limited future of what his business could be.

And one day he had an experience that jolted him, that made him think differently.  That made him look at other options that he wouldn’t have looked at if he was just being seduced by following all the role models he was surrounded by.

This experience was that one day he got a call while he was on a one man patrol.

The call was to tell him that a local deli was being held up.  He sprinted to the scene and as he was going there he saw two other policeman who looked like they were going the opposite way.  He burst into the room…

…And Here Were Three Men With Shotguns

He didn’t know what to do so he what he did was bluffed his way through.  He decided to use his intellect because he’d die otherwise.  He said, “Look guys, I’m putting my gun down, put your guns down too.  You guys are surrounded, you can’t get out of here.”

One guy said “Kill him!!!”

He said, “If you kill me you guys are GONNA FRY!  Don’t be stupid.  You probably didn’t make any money on the deal anyway.  Put your guns down and I’ll let ‘em know you cooperated.  How much did you guys get anyway?  You didn’t get that much did ya?”

And it broke their pattern.  One guy said, “We got 28 bucks.”

He said, “Put your guns down, come on, it’s not worth it. Nothings worth 28 bucks.”

He talked his way out of it.

But That Day Made Him Look At His Life In A New Way

To think he’d put his life on the line for 28 DOLLARS, and no one else was willing to back him up.  To be in environment were people might shoot first and think second and to think this is what he’d limited his life to, he realized he needed to broaden his view.

So he started to search for new role models and started to search for new ways of doing things.  He quit the force and went in with brother at Christmas and they took a tiny bit of money and they went out and bought a bunch of Christmas trees.

They figured they sell ‘em down in Manhattan.  Slight problem.  He didn’t realize that most people in Manhattan buy their Christmas trees at night and they had no electricity on the lot they’d managed to rent.

So did they give up?

Everybody told him “hey, you’re outta business.  There’s no way.  There’s no electricity and no way to get electricity here.”

Fortunately, John didn’t buy everyone else’s view.  He didn’t allow their limited information to limit him.  He said “There’s gotta be electricity.”

He and his brother went knocking door after door after door until finally they got to an old woman who let them come in and it turned out that one of her family members had been a cop and long story short, she let them use her plug.

With the longest set of extension cords in history, they managed to open their lot.

In the end they both made a profit.  About $3,000 a piece.  Now that’s not enough to change your whole life except if you’re smart enough to say “I need to seek out a way to make this grow.”

So he started to look for possibilities and an approach to the stock market that would make sense and started to apply it.

He Turned $3,000 Into $100,000.00 In A Very Short Time

He was so successful that the head of the firm asked to meet this man.

He sat down with him and said, “Look, you need to get in this business.”  They started him out as a clerk and he moved his way up to being a broker himself.

In less than a year, John had taken his $100,000 and made a Million Dollars.

He was high on the hog living like few people could imagine.  As John said, his ego got totally inflated.  He had two limousines.  One for himself and one for his friends.

But you know what?  Within 3 months he lost the entire million dollars he made and he borrowed a quarter of a million thinking he could turn it around and he lost that too.

So now here he is, a quarter of a million dollars in debt, with no future, no job, he’s out of the stock market and he doesn’t know what to do, where to go, thinking, a quarter of million dollars, with the rate of exchange that it’d take him to earn that as a Policeman, It might take him a decade or more if he didn’t eat to pay that off.

As a Result He Got To The Point Where He Was Totally Despondent and Started Figuring Out How He Was Gonna Kill Himself

How would he commit suicide?  He went out to the beach one day and started thinking of what would be the best way to do this where maybe no one else would be hurt.  Maybe an insurance policy could take care of the people he cared about.

He started thinking about what he was gonna do and he started looking out at the water thinking, maybe if I swam far enough out there, til I’m exhausted, I could just sink below the water where know one will know.

Think about the place he was in.  What changed him?  Never forget the power of a pattern interrupt, the ability to break somebody’s pattern when they’re in an upset state.

He got one.  Here he is thinking about dying and this old man, about 75 years old, comes along, looks up and says “Hey you!  Hey you!  You’re ship, you’re ship!”

John looks up and says “What, What old man, What?

He said, “You’re ship isn’t gonna come in here.  If you want your ship you gotta go to the dock for your ship.”

John got totally confused and said “What?”

The man walked up and said, “My name is Abe.  You have something you want to tell me?”

And John looked up at him and said “Yeah.” And he started to tell him his whole story.  About being a police officer, the 28 bucks and almost dying, the Christmas trees and making a million bucks and here he was 24 years old a quarter of a million of dollars in debt and he had no future.  Didn’t know what he was gonna do for the woman he loved, didn’t know what was gonna happen, didn’t know how he was gonna pay it off, and then toward the end of his story all of a sudden this old man Abe turned to John and said “Hey, you got $50 bucks?”

He said, “What?”

He’s in the middle of his story and Abe asks him, “You got $50 bucks?”

He said, “Well, yeah, it’s about all I got.”

Abe said, “I betcha your $50 bucks 10 to 1 that I can beat you in a race to that pier.”

John said, “Whaddya talking about?  You’re crazy, what are you, 75 years old and I’m 24. There’s no question.”

Abe said, “You don’t know who I am.  I’m Abe and I’ll beat you.  I betcha 10 to 1 I got $500 bucks, put your little $50 bucks up and lets do it!”

He got John upset.  John said, “O.K.

Abe said, “Wait a second John, and he gave him a knap sack.  He said put your feet in this.  You’re gonna run in this.  You still think you can beat me?”

And John was so mad at this point that he said, “Yes, I still think I can beat you.”

Abe said, “Great.  Turn around.  You’re gonna do this backwards.”  And then he said, “Ready, GO!”

Before you know it you what happens.  John is stumbling all over himself through the sand and the old gentleman Abe has made it.

He comes back and says, “Thank you very much.” And he takes his $50 bucks.  And then he says, “Whaddya learn there John?”

John said, “I learned I got snockered by an old man.”

And Abe turned to him and said, “If that’s all you learned take your $50 bucks back and get outta my sight!”

John said, “Hey, wait a second.  I pay my debts, we made a fair deal, take the $50 bucks, I don’t care.”

Abe said, “If that’s all you learned you take your money, you go home, I don’t wanna see you or talk to you anymore.

John said, “No, no, I owe you, take it.”

Abe said, “I’ll tell you what.  You go home tonight and you think about what you learned from this.  You come back, we’ll talk.  If you learned the right lesson we’ll go on to lesson 2.  If not I don’t want to see you anymore!”

This guy is talking to John like he’s known him his whole life.  And like John asked him to be his mentor.  John doesn’t even know who this guy is

But he was mesmerizing.

John said, “Well… alright.”  On the way home he was trying to figure out how he was going to tell Maryanne, his lady, how he lost his last $50 bucks to an old man racing him down the beach.

But you what?  He racked his brain and when he came back to see the old man early in the morning, the man said to him, “So, what’d you learn John?”

John said, “Well, I thought about it a lot.  I think what I learned is what you’re trying to teach me is that if you can set the rules, you can win the game.”

Abe took his own hand and smacked it on his forehead and said, “My gosh!  Kid, you got it.  I’ve got two kids that are ivy leaguers, they haven’t figured it out yet.  They’re gonna blow my $75 million dollars.  As soon as I go they’re gonna go after my money and the money’s gonna be gone.  You, with your high school diploma, you know already more than they know.  Let’s talk.  Let’s start our lesson.”

And over the next 9 weeks they got together each day and they went through a series of lessons.  This story was like Karate Kid of the 90’s, you know.  Each day they went through a lesson.

The first lesson, the first day he said, “Let me ask you a question.   You think your life’s pretty screwed up don’t you?”

And John said “Well, yeah, I’ve got some major challenges.”

Abe said, “You know how to do a balance sheet?”

John said, “Of course, I’m a stockbroker.”

Abe said, “How do you do it?”

John said, “You draw a line down the middle and you put your assets down one side and your liabilities down the other one.”

Abe said, “Let’s do it with your life.” So he drew it down and said, “O.K., let’s start.”

John said, “Here’s my liabilities, I owe a quarter of a million dollars.”

And Abe looked at him and said “Why are starting on your liabilities side?”

John said, “Well, I guess that’s what I’m focusing on.  I know more about my liabilities than I guess than my assets.”

Abe Said,

“Any Man Who Knows More About His Liabilities Than His Assets Will Never Be A Winner”

He said, “You’ve gotta start on the asset side and build up from there.  You get enough assets, you can handle any liabilities.”

John said, “Well, I don’t have any assets.”

Abe said, “Come on, your assets aren’t just financial.  What schooling do you have?”

John said, “I’ve got a high school diploma.”

Abe said, “Put it down.”

John said, “I’ve been through the police academy.”

Abe said, “Put it down.  What else?”

John said, “That’s about it.”

Abe said, “Do you speak English?”

John said, “What?”

Abe said, “DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?”

John said, “Well, yeah.”

Abe said, “Write it down.  That’s an asset in this country.  Do you know currency?”

John said, “Well, yeah, just like a stockbroker I learned how to convert dollars to yen.”

Abe said, “No, do you know currency, how to exchange money, dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, that kind of stuff?”

John said, “Of course.”

Abe said, “Write down ‘know currency, you speak English, you’ve got this schooling.  What else?”

John said, “Well, I don’t think there is anything else.”

Abe said, “Come on, do you have any friends?”

John said, “Well, not very many left.”

Abe said, “Do you have any?

John said, “Yeah.”

Abe said, “Put ‘em down.  Do you have family?  Put it down.  Do you know your way around the Burroughs?  Do you know your way around town?”

John said, “Of course.”

Abe said, “Put it down.  Now look at your balance sheet.  How do you feel?”

John said, “I still feel like shit.”

Abe said, “Come on, look at you, you’ve got your quarter of million on the liabilities side.  It’s an asset.  How many people do you know John, who could convince someone to loan them a quarter of a million dollars?  Somebody with that kind of skill has got some real assets inside.  Put that over on your assets side.”

John did.  Abe asked, “Now how do you feel?”

John said, “I still feel like shit.”

Abe said, “John, you’re not listening.  You don’t have a right.  You’ve gotta remember something young man.  How many people have come to this country who didn’t have any of your assets, they didn’t speak English, they didn’t know their way around town, they didn’t know currency, they had no friends, no family here with them.  They couldn’t speak the language and the became MILLIONAIRES.  They’re part of our history, John.  You have no excuse.  You must find these people who have started with nothing, none of the assets you have, who in the worst of times, have done the best.  Find out what they know, seek out their information, their ideas, their strategies, learn from them and you will prosper too.  You must spend the next 3 years of your life working for these kinds of people specifically, immigrants, people who’ve come with nothing and have created tremendous abundance for themselves and others.  Start working washing their floors if you have to if necessary.  Start at whatever level you can but learn what they know and apply it and you will live your dream.”

Well, they continued to have these lessons.  When the 9 weeks were up, this man named Abe turned to John and said, “Our time together is over.  It’s time for you to go out in the world and start doing it.  You’ve gotta be able to learn the answers for yourself, now.  You have enough information.”

John said, “Well, I still want to be your friend, I don’t even know your last name.”

Abe said, “You don’t need to.”

John said, “Abe, I want to know it.  I want to come here and after I become successful I’m gonna build a statue right here on the beach in tribute to you.”

And Abe said, “You don’t need to do that.”

John said, “You don’t understand Abe, the day you saw me here on the beach, I was ready to commit suicide.”

Abe said, “I know.  It was easy to see.  What you don’t know John, is that same day I was walking the beach for a similar reason.  That same day I felt the same kind of pain because that same day I found out my wife had cancer.  And I was praying to God for an answer and I looked up and there you sat and there was my answer.  John everything happens for a reason.  We’re all here to receive our lessons.  It’s time for your next set.”

John McCormack went out and based upon that quality information he obtained, he sought out even more.  And for three years he worked with 2 incredibly successful businessmen, multi-millionaires that started with nothing, coming from other country’s.

Not knowing the language, not having an education, and having no money, having no friends, nobody in influential places, one of them even coming here in the depression turning it all around to become incredibly successful and John has applied what he learned to become one of the most successful people Tony knows, not only financially but emotionally.

What he did with his salon chain, Visible Changes, has not only earned him the title of one of the hottest entrepreneurs but has earned him unbelievable respect because of what he does with his people.

This is a man who’s found a way to teach his people to become more successful in an industry of hairstyling where the average person makes between $12 – $18,000.00 a year.  Many of John’s stylists were making over $40,000.00 a year by creating a greater quality environment than anybody ever dreamed of in the hairstyling business.  Greater environment and greater service than anywhere else.

The bottom line is, it’s never the environment, it’s never the economy, it’s never your potential, you’ve got all you need, all you need to do is feed your mind.  You’ve got to seek out those role models, those people who’ve done it who can give you the quality information that can both inspire you and instruct you to take your life to the next level.

Where you know that the human spirit is stronger than the environment.  Where you remember what you know inside about your capabilities and you make that capability into reality.

That’s the essence of this message.

The overall essence of today’s talk is to remember anything that you can dream can see, believe, act upon, and learn from, you can bring into reality.

EVERYTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE UNTIL IT’S POSSIBLE

Regardless of the environment and while the current economical season may feel like winter to you, I want you to remember there are those who learn to enjoy and even prosper in this season, right now, in these supposedly challenging times.

And two, it’s good to remember that throughout human history men and women have come up against much tougher situations than we’re currently experiencing.  You might want to check out a book called the “History of Knowledge:  The pivotal events, people and achievements of world history” by a man named Charles Van Doren.

Talk about putting things into perspective.  When you start thinking about what man has been through and you look at what little things we’re dealing with, suddenly you begin to realize, “Hey, this too shall pass.”

That the cycle of human history is one of continual improvement.  Right now we’re going through changes in our economy.  Companies are becoming more efficient, people are being laid off, it looks like a very scary thing.  How many times have we gone through it before?

***Guess what?  This talk was taped in 1997***

It’s an economy that is breathing.  It’s been blowing out and exhaling for a long time and now it’s inhaling.  A chance for you to take a look at how you want to position yourself over the coming years.

But if you allow yourself to get caught up in the mental trap, in the psychology of the crowd, then you get to live in fear.  Not only do you get to live in fear, but you get to let your life show up like everybody else’s life and I would submit to you that most people in our culture are not living their dreams.  They’re not experiencing the joy or happiness that they deserve.  They aren’t making the difference or contributing at the level that they really want or they’re doing it but they’re not feeling the joy that comes with it.

You don’t want to be one of those.  Don’t play by the herds rules.  Make and shape your own rules based on people who get the kind of results you want and feel the way you want to feel.

Talk to you again soon,

Note Taking Nerd #2