How is your week?

Hope you are feeling awesome right now.

If not, let me share with you a quote that hopefully will brighten you up.

“Little drops of water; little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land” — Julia Carney

Yeah..

You may be feeling small right now, but with every little effort that you do to move toward your goal, you will conquer mountain and make your dream come true.

You shall not be denied.

So much for motivation, let’s zoom in on Hardcore copywriting #4

Hardcore Copywriting principle #4
======================

Capitalize on the people desire for the “need to feel belong”.

Let’s face it…

Since we are born,  each and everyone of us want to feel belong, feel importance.

Have you ever wonder how religious cult leader is able to direct their disciples to do things against their will, even to the extend of death.

The cult leader exploits on the “need to feel belong” mentality in them.

How?

Upon recruitment, disciples are induce into the group with frequent fellowship.

Slowly but surely, it make them feel comfortable enough to open up to share their deepest fear, need, desire…etc with the group.

This way, a strong emotional bonding among the disciples are established.

Overtime,  the bonding will be so strong that you can picture it like a three tonnes magnet attracting paperclips.

It will be very difficult emotionally to leave the group eventually even when the intelligent mind suspect that the doctrine taught by the cult leader is not sound.

So much of this heavy cult leader stuff…

How can we use “the need to feel belong” trigger in our sales copy?

Well, you can telegraph in such a way that every one like themselves are buying the product.  People like to follow people who is like them.

If they miss out on getting the product, then they are not ‘normal‘ as everyone just like them own such a product.

Alternatively, you can encourage their need to feel belong based on an aspiration that they have.

For example, all internet marketers want to emulate the success of those guru out there.

So you can telegraph something like:

“Hey, you know something?  Every gurus that you know of have one way or another Joint Venture with each other.  Unknow to many, they are part of a close-door mastermind group.  That’s way, inflood of breakthrough marketing idea alway come from them. The reason?  They belong to the multi-millionaire Internet guru mastermind group……

to join this group, you need to make at least one million dollars every year for the last 5 consecutive years……

Now here is your once in lifetime chance to join this Internet millionaire group by measely paying a small back-door entrance fee of $1000……”

If you are a Internet Marketer, do you not want to get in?

Sure you do, right?

I know today lesson is a bit heavy, well let’s hope next copywriting lesson will be a little lighter.

Nonetheless, i hope you have enjoy today posting

Meanwhile, continue to watch this space…….  and if you would like to find out more about writing sales copy like a master wordsmith, go to http://www.masterwordsmithsecret.com and register for your priority VIP notification seat now.

In our last copywriting lesson, we capture the essence of the importance of leveraging on empathy.

You need to make your readers feel that they are not at fault for not getting it right in the problem that they are facing.

Once they feel that you care, they will most likely to read on.

However, empathy is not sympathy.  The last they need is for you to sympathize them.   Thyey don’t need sympathy but just your understanding.

In this series of copywriting lesson, i have this to say of you.

You.. A Liar!

Hold it….

Do not throw a stone at me, not until you read on….

Remember the last Hardcore copywriting lesson?

We talk about using emotional word to influence your prospect’s subconscious mind.

And i share with you two example.

example 1:  “You are wrong”

example 2:  “You are a Liar!”

Example 2 have a stronger emotion impact as compare to example 1.

Still want to throw the stone at me?

I hope not.

Well, here is Hardcore Copywriting #4

Hardcore Copywriting #4
================

American greatest showman and marketer, P.T. Barnum delivered his 21 secret principles to his business success in his article “The Art Of Money Getting”

Though P.T. Barnum has passed away for more than a century, but his principles are still applicable, if not more applicable to date.

Interestingly, one of his 21 principles is simply “READ THE NEWSPAPERS”

What have reading the newspaper have to do with copywriting?

Well, let me tell you, EVERYTHING!

Write your salescopy based on the current Fads.

This will definately command the attention of your prospect.

During the 9-11 terrorists attack on the Twin Tower in the United States, the media and newspapers are flooded with news on the aftermath of the event.

At the time, if you compose a headline that goes like this:
“My Friend Jump From The Twin Tower B When The Smoke Is Choking Him To Death, But He Survived…..”

Will this headline not catch your attention a few weeks after the attack?

What if you read this headline now? 

You see, in using Fads in your salescopy to capture your prospect attention, timing is important.

In fact, timing is everything.

Hope you enjoy this one.

Till then, see ya.

Stop…

Don’t go away.

Continue to watch this space for Hardcore Copywriting #5…

If you want to get notify of my lastest copywriting product, you can go to http://www.masterwordsmithsecret.com to register for FREE.

I have done a survey with my list and many have problems with ebook creation.  They find it hard to create an ebook to sell online. 

Well… it is not that difficult as you may think.  If you would like to find out how you can easily create a ebook from scratch, i would suggest that you check out Internet marketing guru Ewen Chia’ Ebook Money Machine at http://www.ewenchia-ebookmoneymachine.com. 

 Before you create any ebook, you need to select a great and profitable topic to write on.

Don’t not be alarm if you think that you need to write it all yourself.  In the next posting, i will share with you how to hire a good writer to write it for you.

In the meantime, let dig in to find out how we can find a great topic to your ebook.

It couldn’t be easier to select a topic for an ebook.  People are hungry for information, and people are looking to the Internet to feed their hunger.

After you’ve read this post, you will feel confident enough to choose your own topic, or you can literally pull your ebook topic directly from this posting and use it!   How’s that for a deal? Observe what’s going on around you If you’re smart enough to read this post, you’re smart enough to look around you and determine what interests you and those around you.

Think of what problems you’ve recently solved, and what kinds of problems others have had and solved. Any problem that has been solved in your world could easily be the subject of your next book.   People love to read how other have solved a problem that they currently have.

So, brainstorm a list of problems in your life and in the lives of those around you.  Your friend Bob lost his job? Your sister’s child had chicken pox?    How did they cope or find solutions? While you’re at it, start another list of unsolved problems evident in your corner of the world. Write down problems you wish you had solved.

Aha! These are subjects that people will really be interested in! How to lose the last ten pounds. The truth about UFOs. The straightest path to becoming a millionaire.  From your personal corner, your step-granddaughter is pregnant at age 14?   Your grocery bill is double what it used to be?   Your roof leaks?

These are problems waiting for ebook solutions! These unsolved problems would also be great ebook topics. Remember, you don’t have to know the solution, just the topic.  

You’re going to get someone else to do the research and write the book for you.

You will not actually be writing one word. Spend a few minutes Googling The Internet is a great way to find out what people are looking for at any given moment.   You can search for almost anything.    Google™ is a popular search engine you can use, or you can try any of the others like Yahoo!® or Mamma.com.

Type in phrases like “top concerns of Americans,” “best-selling nonfiction topics,” or “popular how-to manuals.” Common worries of 2005.    And while you’re on the Internet… Find out the most popular nonfiction books from the New York Times bestseller list, Amazon, and a Google search for ebooks.

Your findings will tell you exactly what book subjects people are buying right now.   Try this.   Go to www.amazon.com. From the tabbed menu running along the top of the Amazon home page, click “Top Sellers.”

I did this one day in September 2009 and found a Harry Potter book, several other fiction books, and titles such as Natural cures “they” won’t tell you about, How what you wear can change your life, How to profit from the demise of the dollar, and The official SAT study guide.

I’ve paraphrased to some degree, but you get the idea.   Here’s what I learned just from spending a few minutes on Amazon that day.    People are reading good fiction from already-best selling authors (Da Vinci Code, the Harry Potter series, and others).

Secondly, Amazon buyers, buying over the Internet, are interested in nonfiction topics such as improving their lives and making more money.    For these books, just about any author will do, even virtual unknowns or people who went to prison for lying to the American public.

And that quick visit only confirmed that the straightest route to ebook profits is in the nonfiction ebook market.  This is for a number of reasons. 

Fiction readers tend to like to curl up in a chair with an actual book.  Some of them attend book clubs where the physical books are brought around someone’s kitchen table with wine and cheese.  Fiction readers tend to purchase from authors they’re already familiar with. Fiction can be more difficult to write and deliver well.

Also, many of the classics in fiction are available as free ebooks. A reader interested in fiction could just download those. So stick with nonfiction unless you’re feeling particularly bold and experimental.

Here is some more good news Read more »

Recession is here to stay… for at least another one or two years at least.

It is not going to be a ‘V’ shape recession but a ‘L’ shape one.  

Huh? Why am i so pessimistic?  No i am not.

If given a choice, i would love to be optimistic about it.  However, the way the US solve their problem is simply printing more money from selling treasury bills to bailout bad companies that should have file chapter 11.

In so doing, the whole US economy is inflated at a phenomenal rate and yet still in bad shape.  This is what we call Stagflation.  Soon, another dollar crisis is in the pipeline and things are not looking too good.

One this happen, the Stock and property market will tank in the US.  The rest of the world will suffer with it as US is the main trading partner for them.

When will the second wave of crisis come?  Nothing know.  Only God know and he ain’t telling you and me.

In time like this, we can only do our utmost to protect and groom our business for the next wave.

Here are some  thing we can do now.

1)  Reduce operational expense.  We can do so by negotiating cheaper insurance, mortgage payment.  If need to, we can close down operating branches that do not generate good profit for our business.   If the financial pinch is too huge, we should even retrench unproductive staffs.

2)  Flush out our inventories quickly by reducing the cost or through smart marketing.  The more cash we are holding, the better we are in a time like this.

3)  Extend your credit limit from the banks to your business as far as you can.  In time like this, you need more bank credit to do more with less.

4)  Change your marketing plan to adapt to the recession so that you can squeeze in more profit to your business with less advertising dollar.  As an example, you can use this opportunity to get rid of 80% of your bad customers and focus on your 20% of your best customers.  By freeing your business resources the burden on attending to the 80% of your bad customers which contribute to only 20% of your overall business profit, you can then focus on growing your 20% of your good customers base which give your business the 80% of the profit.

5)  Reduce the period of credit extension to your customers.  You can do so by giving your best customers a 5% discount on your inventories and services so as to motivate them to pay earlier.  The earlier you collect cash in your cash register, the better you can use it to grow your business in other area like advertising and buying property and tools at a discount.

6)  Maximize your advertising cost by utilizing the internet for cheap and effective marketing.  In a recession, many of your clients will be buying stuffs from the web as it is cheaper that way.   Flow with what your customers and prospects are moving and you can’t be wrong.

7) This is also a good time to expand your market share by increasing your advertising dollar from the saving and cash that you receive from point 1 to 6.  In a recessionary time, where advertising cost goes down, it is your best opportunity to really squeeze that advertising dollars to expand your business and take away the cakes from your competitors.

As mentioned in point 7, it is not all gloom and doom for your business in a recession.  Do the right thing right and your business will not only survive the recession but emerge from it stronger and more profitable than ever before.

Whow!  Almost one week has passed since i put up a blog post on Hardcore copywriting lesson #1.

Hope your week is fruitfull and enjoyable.

Let’s recall what you have learned last week.

Hardcore copywriting lesson #1: We must write in way that telegraph with the reader on what they want. 

Do not focus on the feature of your product but on what your prospect want.

Now…. we move into

HardCore Copywriting Lesson #2
======================

Have Empathy!

Yes, put “Empathy” in your copy.

Write in such a way that your reader feels that you understand them, that you care for them.

People will not care for you unless they know that you care for them.

Yes, in order to capture your reader attention, you need to show them that you care for them. 

Care for them even if you do not know them.

This way, they will read your salescopy because they know you care for them!

Write to them like a friend.

If your friend is sick, what do you do?

You call them?

You sent them a bouquet of flowers with a “get well” card?

You visit them at the hosiptal or home?

Well that’s is what friend are for, right?

But….

How do you do that in your salescopy?

Well, write in a way that give your reader an impression that you understand his problem.  If you can describe his problem better than himself, not only will he feels good about you, he will trust you better.

Better still, telegraph in such a way that you are also facing the same problem as him.

Chances are when you call for his action (to buy from you or to give you his name and email), your reader will be more than likely to obey you as he know that you care for him, not just gunning for his money.

Hope you do enjoy today lesson on “Empathy”.

Continue to watch this space for Hardcore copywriting Lesson #3….coming your way.

If you enjoy this post and want to find out more about my upcoming product on copywriting, you can get first hand notification at http://www.masterwordsmithsecret.com

In the next few weeks, i will share with you some of my most closely guarded secrets to hardcore copywriting.

Yeah.. it is hard core because it is for anyone who is serious in persuing a career in copywriting.

If you are the right person, then you are in for a threat in the next few weeks.

The first lesson to “Hard Core” copywriting is a question that i have for you.

Why do you read this blog post?

You just read for fun?

Most probably not!

You read to get information.. not just ordinary information, but information that you want.

What do you want?

You want to know what are the “Hard Core” copywriting stuffs that you can use immediately to boost your sales or maybe to boost your profession ( if you are a copywriter )

Gotcha!

See, you read because you want to boost your sales letter or be a better copywriter.

So let’s take a step back from here…

When you write a salescopy, you will want to write it in such a way that it will appeal to your readers ‘want’.

A lot of salesletter out there just dish out some facts and features to impress the readers.

Facts and features are good but it must be used in conjuction with connecting with the reader.

How then can you connect with your readers?

By writing information that your readers want to know, want to hear, want to find out….

Their wants and their needs are two different thing. 

Let me use an example to illustrate my point.  

Let say you are proposing a solution for a smoker to quit smoke. Now this may be what he need.  He need to STOP smoking as smoking is bad for health.  But.. is this what he want? 

No… he want to continue to smoke and taste the sweet aroma of the nicotine.   Maybe he want to have a different flavour of nicotine smell… could be that he want nicotine that smell like vanilla or chocolate?  Can we package some cigarettes that give them what they want? 

Hmm… this is be a Huge market huh?

How do you know what your readers want?

Go talk to them, understand them, read the magazine that they read, talk to their friends, read about them or even virtualize yourself as them…

This way, you will be able to see the world from their prospective.

When you see what they see, you will then able to write on what they want.  You will know how to press their ‘hot button’.

Ah..  It’s that simple.

Writing on something on what they want is hypnotic to your readers.

Once you capture their attention, you can then direct them to your proposal (sell them your product! )

Hope you have learn something here and enjoy this one.

WATCH THIS SPACE as exciting and breathtaking copywriting secrets will be posted in this blog, right in front of your computer.

If you enjoy this post and want to find out more about my upcoming product on copywriting, you can get first hand notification at http://www.masterwordsmithsecret.com

This is the best quote for the day:

“Our ability to learn and capability to do thing is only restricted by our negative mentality reinforce by our ingenuity in giving excuses not to start”

This only mean that we are limited by our mind and our bum.

Most of us are too comfortable lazing in our comfort zone that subsconsciously, we defense with our life for any opportunity that treaten to invade this little, tiny zone.

There are nothing wrong with that… just that it will destroy our life.  We will not be able to realize the FULL potential within us.  We will die with the inscription on the tombstone “Talents Unfulfilled In Life!”

This is SAD, VERY SAD….

Why are we limiting ourselves in achieving the full potential that we are capable of? Why do we choose to be comfortably broke?

In internet marketing business, just like in any business, we need pressure to succeed.  If there are no pressure, we will rest in our Laurie and do nothing contructive toward our goal of creating something for ourselves and our family.

Interesting?

Great talk?

Go DO SOMETHING for your life now if you are still living in your Laurie.. not tomorrow, NOW!

Be successful and achieve your full potential in life.  Go do it now.

To your success.