Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

A lot of people tell me that they want to work from home. The first question I ask them, and the first question they should be asking themselves, is why. If your answer is to make money, then you need to seriously reevaluate why you’re doing this. Why? Read this article and you’ll understand why. The very last reason why anybody should want to work from home is simply to make money, because trust me, there are easier ways to do that.

I guess part of the problem is that many people have a misconception of what working from home is all about. They have this picture, courtesy of all the hacks out there promising overnight riches, of sitting in front of their computer in their pajamas, pushing a few buttons and having hundred dollar bills falling from the sky. My friend, if it was that easy, CEOs of major corporations would give up their jobs in a New York minute. The truth is, making money online is NOT that easy. So if it’s simply to make money that you want to do this, do yourself a favor…pick up the want ads and go find yourself a job. You’ll be a lot better off.

However, if the “why” is that you want the freedom to be able to work when you want at what you want, then that is a valid reason. However, please understand that you will only make money WHEN you work. There is no such thing as a push button home business. Anybody who tells you otherwise is a bold faced liar. There is just no other way to put it.

Naturally, there can be other reasons for why you want to work from home. Maybe you’re physically incapable of holding down a job outside of your home, such as myself. That is certainly a valid reason and I do feel for those who can’t get out of the house. But please understand, it’s not going to be a picnic running your own business. On those days when you’re not feeling at your best, if you don’t work you don’t get paid. There are days I have to force myself to get my work done, even though I enjoy this so much.

The point is, please sit down and ask yourself why you want to do this. If it’s simply to make money, then there are easier ways to do it. My last job earned me $50,000 a year. Yes, I am doing much better than that now with my own business.

But I am also working a lot harder.

Think about it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Looking for a solid 4 step plan to building your own business…FREE? Pick up my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/4steps.html and get started TODAY!

Everybody has a blog today. It’s almost a requirement if you’re going to be an Internet marketer. The problem with blogs is that many marketers don’t really use them as efficiently as possible. I’m not saying there is a right and wrong way to use a blog. All I am saying is that there are certain things you can do to make your blog work a little better for you, at least when it comes to marketing. This article is going to share some of my top tips that hopefully will turn YOUR blogs into real money makers.

One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make with their blogs is that they use them the same way that they would use a sales page…to sell. Blogs are not for selling, at least not directly. Blogs are for giving other marketers information. Information is the driving force behind everything that sells as far as Internet marketing goes. People in this niche are constantly screaming for information because they are constantly struggling to better themselves…and information is the only way to do this. So treating your blog like a sales page is defeating the purpose of the blog.

Instead, how about putting up an article about some topic of Internet marketing itself? This is what people are looking for in their attempts to be better marketers after all. They’re more likely to read an article than they are to read a sales pitch. For that matter, if all they see on your blog is one sales pitch after another, it is doubtful that they will ever return to it. You’ve effectively just lost a potential customer.

Another thing that you can do is put up reviews to several products that pertain to Internet marketing. Maybe you purchased an ebook that you thought was pretty good. Why not review it? Maybe you bought some software like Keyword Elite or SEO Elite that you also thought was excellent. You could share your opinions on those as well. I’m not saying not to use your affiliate link to promote these products at the end of the review. That’s fine. But at least give them a good reason for going to the site. An in depth review will do just that.

Don’t treat your blog like a sales page. Give readers good solid content that they can actually get something out of and they’ll come back time and time again.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to earn a 6 figure income like I do but get there in half the time? Please visit my blog at http://work-at-home-based-business.com/2007/12/06/review-of-nitro-marketing/ and read my review of the greatest info product ever to come out online in the 4 years I’ve been doing this.

We copywriters are always telling folks what TO do. Well, it’s about time that maybe we focused on what NOT to do. Sometimes the mistakes we make can hurt us more than the good that we put into our copy. And unfortunately, it only takes one screw up to destroy our whole sales letter. So, in this article, I am going to reveal the three things that will turn your salescopy into dust faster than just about anything else. If you can avoid doing these, you’ll have a much better chance of writing a sales letter that actually makes sales.

The first screw up I want to go over is not researching your target market to see what hot buttons they have to push. If you don’t know what your prospect is looking to get out of the product that you’re writing copy for, how can you possibly know what to write? You can’t. You’re only guessing and groping in the dark. That is just plain dangerous and an invitation to disaster. So hit the forums and ask questions. Find out what the prospect REALLY wants as far as a solution to the problem that he or she has.

Another real big one is the format of your sales letter. You may not think it matters, but a sloppy looking sales letter, no matter how great the copy itself is, is going to turn off prospects. Heck, I’ve seen sales letters that are so badly formatted that the copy itself leaks into the dark borders and you can’t even read it. Yeah, that’s a great way of getting the trust of your prospect. There are plenty of professional templates out there. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just get one of them and use it.

But the biggest screw up of all…and this is the one that just boggles my mind…is not busting your gut to think of a killer headline. Like it or not, your headline is going to account for about 80% of your sales. If your headline sucks, guess what? No sales. That’s why when I see weak headlines I just want to cringe. Yes, it takes a long time to think of a great headline. But once you’ve done that, the rest will come so much easier and you’ll see sales the likes you’ve never seen before. So slave over your headline until it’s perfect. And then split test it against another one to see which one pulls better.

The lack of research, a badly formatted sales letter and a crappy headline are the three killer screw ups that will turn your sales letter into dust.

And you can take that to the bank.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Discover How YOU Can Write 6 Figure Copy For Pennies…And Save Up To $15,000 In Copywriting Costs For Yourself. Visit my site at http://www.bcipe.com/ and discover killer copywriting tips that have allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a year income selling my own products.

Some interesting discussions have popped up at the Warrior Forum lately having to do with hype and product promotion. This has actually been a long standing debate for a while now. I really don’t think anybody has a definitive answer to this question but ultimately it comes down to this. Will you have more success selling people what they need or more success selling them what they want? I’m going to give you my own personal feelings on this using my own personal situation. Hopefully this will answer your question.

I was sick for a very long time. It was my own fault. I didn’t eat right. That’s really what it came down to. I lived on Yodels, Ring Dings and Coke. I didn’t even know what a salad looked like. And forget about fiber in my diet. The only water I had was the cupful I spit out when I brushed my teeth. I was a real mess. I knew I needed to eat well but I didn’t want to. At the time I still felt okay so I figured why bother. So I ignored what I knew was best for me. I didn’t want what I needed.

Then I got real sick and ended up in emergency. I almost died. Suddenly, I realized that I had to take care of myself. So overnight, I started to eat properly. I ate salads, got plenty of fiber and drank plenty of water. No more Coke or chocolate or any of that stuff that was bad for me. I completely turned my life around. I did this not because I needed to. I did it because I wanted to. I didn’t want to be sick anymore. So because of that, I changed the way I lived.

Some might say there is a fine line between wants and needs. Maybe in this case there is. I don’t know. I do know a lot of people who smoke and don’t quit, even though they know they need to. They just don’t want to. So I’m more inclined to believe that people will buy what they want and not what they need.

The point is, when you’re selling YOUR product to whatever niche it is you’re targeting, focus more on what that niche wants than on what you know they need. I have a feeling that you will make a lot more sales that way.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

If you want to discover the REAL truth about Internet marketing and get some solid tips to take your business to the next level…get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/realtruth.html and subscribe to my REAL Truth newsletter where you’ll discover more than from all those high priced ebooks combined.

When you send emails to your prospects, you want to send them good quality info. But how much is too much? Is there a line you cross either in giving them so much that they don’t buy your product or bore them to death because your email reads like War and Peace? Well, this article is going to take a look at this issue and try to come up with some answers. Note…these are not written in stone. Ultimately, you need to decide what’s best for YOUR business.

Let’s start out with the email that has just one sole purpose…to inform. In other words, there is no sales pitch at the end and the only thing you’re trying to do is give your reader good quality info…no strings attached other than you’d like to build up your credibility with this person. In that case, the email simply needs to be as long as it needs to be to get the information across. Now, having said that, it would be a good idea, if the email is going to be unusually long, to warn the reader at the start so that they can decide whether they want to read the email at that point in time or save it for later on. That’s just common courtesy. If you do this, you’ll cover yourself nicely.

What about the email that’s sent with the intention of getting a sale afterwards? In this case, you need to look at the actual information that you’re sharing. Is it going to make it so that the person reading will want to get more information or is it going to so completely answer all their questions that there will be no reason for them to check out the link at the end to the product you’re promoting? If the answer is the latter, then you seriously need to look at what you wrote and decide what you’re going to leave out. My personal rule of thumb is I provide 50% to 67% of the info in the email with the rest, and the most important part, coming from the product I’m promoting. This seems to work well for me.

As I said, there are no hard and fast rules. You have to ultimately do what you feel is best for your business. Just understand this. If you give somebody the chicken, they have no need to buy the eggs.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.

I know a lot of people are sick of all the hype that goes into many sales letters, especially the ones that are for Internet marketing products. I personally am not a big fan of it either. If you read my own sales letters, you will find them greatly lacking in the “hype” area. However, there is a big difference between hype and enthusiasm, which is something that you desperately need in sales copy. If you don’t have it, you’re dead. If you don’t know the difference, this article is going to paint a very clear picture for you by using examples. Hopefully, by the time you are done reading this, you WILL know the difference between the two.

Okay, our first example is going to be hype. I’m really going to lay this on thick so it is painfully obvious.

“I am telling you that these methods will have $100 bills falling from the sky once you plug them in and let them work for you. You’ll be able to sit out on the beach with your rum and cola and hang out with the pretty girls while this autopilot system churns out the big bucks.”

Okay, that’s hype. Now, here is enthusiasm.

“I am telling you that these methods will really change the way you look at making money online. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was when I saw how effective they were and how easy they were to implement. I never thought that I’d ever be able to make a dime, but this system proved to me that I was wrong, and now, I just want to share my success with you.”

That is enthusiasm. Notice, no exaggerated wild claims. Just somebody who is really excited because he found something for him that really truly worked.

This same approach will work regardless of what the niche is. For example, if it’s a book on how to improve at golf, don’t make wild claims that the person is going to start shooting in the low 60s when they never picked up a golf club in their life. However, you can tell them about how excited you were when you saw how much your game improved.

Okay, got it? Hype is bad. Enthusiasm is good.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Want to write copy just like the pros? Visit my site at http://www.bcipe.com/ and discover killer copywriting tips that have allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a year income selling my own products.

Have you ever watched some marketing videos and thought to yourself, “How boring” and just turned them off? Have you felt this way about your own videos? Perhaps you haven’t made any yet and want to know how to avoid putting your viewers to sleep? Well, you’ve come to the right place. This article is going to show you how to break up the monotony in your videos so that your viewers never get tired of what you have to say. I think you’ll find this interesting reading.

The easiest way, without having to go through any complicated machinations, is to keep the video short and right at the very top of it, tell your audience that this is going to be brief and therefore they need to pay attention or the info might fly right by them. They’re going to be so intent on following your every word that there is no way they’ll get bored. The key is to keep the video to under five minutes. If you can do this, you’ll have no problem is keeping your viewer’s attention.

If your videos are going to be a bit longer, then you have to shift the focus of them from time to time. One way to do this is to break up your talk (assuming it’s a live video of you speaking) into different views. In other words, show each segment of the video from a different angle or perspective. Move around the room. Shift your body if you’re seated. Naturally, this will either require multiple cameras or a brief stoppage of the shooting in order to get another angle.

Another thing you can do, for longer videos, is to alternate between live video and Powerpoint slides. This will break up the constant “looking at you” and give the viewer some relief. The slides don’t have to even be shown for any great length of time between shots of you. A 10 second slide with the title of the next part of the presentation is good enough to break things up. You may even include clips of other videos in your presentation to mix things up.

A marketing video does NOT have to be boring. All you need to do is follow the few tips I’ve laid out for you above and you’ll be more than fine.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to find out how to create killer videos like my friend Kevin Riley and rake in a 6 figure income like he and I do? Check out my review of his dynamite product at my blog at http://stevenwagenheim.blogspot.com/2008/06/kevin-rileys-recipe-for-success.html

Go to any home business forum and you’ll find the arguments about free versus paid education. You’re always going to have your supporters for each side. So, the question is simple…which is better? Can you go the free route effectively or is paid the only way you’re going to get the information that you need in order to properly educate yourself for running a home business? My explanation below throws a totally unique monkey wrench into this argument.

Okay, let’s toss in that monkey wrench. I submit that there is no such thing as a free education. How do I come up with that conclusion? Simple…what’s your time worth? If you say nothing, then in reality what you’re saying is that your business is worth nothing because ultimately, what you’re charging people for is your time. You charge them for the products and services you create, and those things take time. The more time they take, the more you charge for your service. It’s like that with anything. If you think I’m kidding, have a plumber come to your house for about four hours of work.

Free information is free because you have to go out and search for it. It isn’t packaged nice and neat like an ebook or a membership site where everything is delivered to your doorstep. With free info, it could be all over the place. Depending on how much of it you have to find, it could take days or even weeks. How many hours do you think that’s going to come out to? How much do you think that’s going to cost you in time? Sure, you’re not taking actual dollar bills out of your pocket, but it’s still costing you something.

But there’s a bigger issue here. With free info, you’re on your own as far as accumulating it. You don’t know what’s good and what’s worthless. With an established ecourse that has been highly regarded by other home business owners, you have a pretty good idea of what you’re going to get and can be relatively sure that it’s going to actually help you. That may be the most important consideration of all. What’s the use of free info if it doesn’t get the job done?

The debates will go on, I’m sure. But I think you know where I stand on this issue. I’ll spend $97 on an ebook before I waste valuable hours of my time looking for something that may or may not help me or even be available for free.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Looking for a solid 4 step plan to building your own business…FREE? Pick up my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/4steps.html and get started TODAY!

Everybody loves getting gifts. As I am writing this, I just celebrated my 51st Christmas. I got lots of gifts and they were all great. Okay, some were not so great. But still, we love getting gifts. Well, guess what? Your list is no different. So, want to make them happy? Give them gifts. There are several ways to do this. I am going to cover a couple of them in this article.

One way to give your list a gift is of course to make it a real gift…no strings attached. Maybe come out with a new report or ebook and send them a link to download it for free. This is a great thing to do, especially around Christmas. However, it works for any holiday or special occasion. I give gifts at Christmas, New Years, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and many other holidays. It’s gotten so that my lists almost expect them. And that’s a good thing. It means that these people will stay on your list.

Another great way to give a gift is with a special offer. Let’s say that you have a product that normally sells for about $97. Can you imagine the surprise that your list will get when you offer that product for one day only at a deep discount of say 50% off? Do you think that maybe the sales will come pouring in that day? I have done this many times and I can honestly say that the results have been amazing. My last discounted products offer netted me thousands of dollars in income that I normally wouldn’t have gotten.

Ultimately, what this all leads to is a better relationship with your list. When you treat your list right, either though giving them gifts outright or by giving them deep discounts on products, you retain these people as list members. Think about it. How many people would leave a list that not only provides quality content on a regular basis but also gives gifts from time to time as well? I know that these are the kind of lists that I personally want to be a member of.

So treat your list right. Give them gifts. Make them feel like you care. In return, you’ll have customers that will last you a very long time.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/emailmarketing/index.html and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing…experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.

You’re probably familiar with the phrase, “X marks the spot.” You may not know that it was a film from 1931, 1942 and 1944. Most people associate the phrase to basically mean, “This is where it is”, whatever the “it” is. Could be anything from buried treasure to the best place to get chili. But what about Internet marketing? Can such a phrase apply to this as well? We’re going to explore the phrase and how it might relate to this business. You just might find this interesting reading if you like mysteries.

We’re all searching for that ultimate conquest as marketers. You know, the sales page that converts at an amazing rate or that ebook that does more in sales than anything in recorded history. Maybe we’re even looking for the best software for running a membership site…something so simple that anybody can use it no matter how technically challenged they are. These are our ultimate goals. But how do we know when we’ve reached these goals? Is there an actual “X marks the spot” in regard to Internet marketing?

Depends on what YOUR definition of X is. If you’re looking for perfection, you’re going to be hard pressed to find it. Even major league ball players who wind up in the Hall of Fame fail at the plate about 70% of the time. That’s certainly a far cry from perfection. So you have to put things into perspective. If the average “good” conversion rate on a sales page is 2%, then think about it. That means that 98% of the people who go to your sales page DIDN’T buy. Even at 10% conversion, which is considered excellent, you’re losing 90% of your prospects to indifference at best of downright distrust at worst.

I’m not going to try to define YOUR own personal X. You have to do that on your own. And it’s certainly important to have goals. If we didn’t, we’d wonder aimlessly in space and never get anything done. But don’t let those goals become unreasonable ones. Many successful marketers, making six and even seven figure incomes, are far from perfect.

Let’s just say that their “X” doesn’t have to precisely on the spot.

Even close to bring you nice dividends.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Want to make money TODAY without spending a DIME? Check out my site at http://www.hottrendsdaily.com/ and find out how.