Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

Probably one of the worst mistakes any article writer can make is to write in a way where the reader feels absolutely nothing after they are done reading. This is like the kiss of death to any writer. There are many ways to make your reader feel something. This article is going to cover a few of those ways.

One way to make your reader feel something is to take a very strong stance on something. Let’s face it, opinionated people usually bring out the emotions in others, especially if those opinions are very strong. Writing about topics that are very controversial, such as abortion, drugs and anything related to sex, usually bring out the emotions in people…especially if you take a stance that isn’t very popular. This is almost a sure fire way to light a fire under your readers.

Another way to make your reader feel something is through the compelling and heart warming story. People love to be moved and touched. There are many people out there who love a good cry. The key is knowing who your audience is. For example, if you’re writing articles for the Nascar racing crowd, I seriously doubt that these people are in the mood for a good cry. On the other hand, if you’re writing articles for cancer survivors, this is a great way to get their attention. You just have to know who your audience is.

Finally, there is humor. Who doesn’t like to laugh? Now again, you have to know who your audience is. The cancer survivors might not find much humor in telling jokes related to cancer patients. They might find it in poor taste. On the other hand, the Nascar crowd might be more receptive to humor. And if you’re writing for writers, humor could be extremely effective in making them feel something.

Whatever you do, don’t be bland. If you write like a wallflower, people might notice you, but they’re not going to give you a second glance and it’s the last article they’re ever going to read that you’ve written. That translates into a stillborn writing career.

Now if THAT thought doesn’t make you feel something…nothing will.

Now go out there and make them feel something…anything.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people’s attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.

Sitting down to write a sales letter can be an overwhelming task, especially if you’re writing one for a high end product that you know you’re going to have to write a pretty long letter for. Sometimes just deciding how to start can be hard enough, let alone know how to finish it. One great way to come up with a crystal clear sales letter that does the job is to write an outline first. This article will hopefully give you some ideas in this area.

The best way to create an outline, ironically, is to use one of the features of writing copy itself…a bullet point. In the case of an outline, you’re going to need quite a few bullet points. You need to sit down and think about what it is you want to say in your sales letter and in what order. There is no one way to do this. Thus, not all outlines are going to look alike. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say that you’re writing a sales letter to promote an online course that teaches people how to play the piano. You understand what’s involved in the process, such as learning how to read music, fingering, exercises and so on. All you need to do is present the course in a step by step manner through your copy. So in this example, I might first start off with my headline telling the prospect what benefits they can expect to gain from this course.

After the headline, I may start off the actual copy with my story of how I became proficient at the piano. People love reading stories. If it’s an interesting one, they’ll be hanging on your every word. After the story, you might want to go into the specifics of the course itself and what the prospect can expect to learn. You might want to follow this up with a few key bullet points detailing what the prospect will learn.

The next part of your outline you might want to include some testimonials from people who have already taken the course. Testimonials can go just about anywhere in your copy, so your outline might want to break up the testimonials…something like this.

copy
testimonials
more copy
testimonials
more copy
testimonials

And so on. You don’t need to have all the testimonials in one place.

After the testimonials, you might decide to make your offer. Tell the prospect what you’re giving them and at what price. Finally, finish up the outline with the actual call to action.

The above is a simple outline, but it’s very effective. The point is, if you map all this out before you write one word of copy, you’ll find that your sales letter will flow quite nicely.

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.

So, you’ve created your first product. Hey, that’s great. But have you thought about the delivery system you’re going to use to get it to your customers? If not, you really do need to give it a lot of thought. Not all delivery systems are alike. Choosing the wrong one can cost you hours of frustration in product delivery. Choosing the right one can literally turn the process into a hands off approach. In this article, I’m going to present you with a couple of options.

Not everybody uses an automated system of delivery. There are still folks out there who will put up a sales page and after they receive your payment, will send you an email with a file attachment. In today’s highly advanced world, there is just no reason to do this. The problems that you will run into, not the least of which is email delivery problems, will cost you a lot of time and even money when people don’t get their products.

Now, one option you can use is to get a simple payment processing button from Paypal and have it direct to a download link for the product. The problem with this method is that the link has to be a static one. That means it’s easy enough for the purchaser to pass it along so that others can just download your product without ever paying for it. While it’s true that you don’t have to physically deliver the product, it is still not the most efficient way.

The better way is to get a product like DLGuard. In a nutshell, what DLGuard does is it creates a download link on the fly that expires after a certain length of time that YOU designate when setting up the product. So the chances of somebody being able to pass that link around so that others can steal your product are slim to none. Plus, you can always trace these downloads and kill the link if you have to.

Don’t trust your product or your business to a shoddy delivery system. A good one is relatively inexpensive and it will save you tons of money and aggravation in the long run.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of getting your stuff stolen? Check out my review of the best digital protection software ever made at http://dlguardprotection.blogspot.com/2008/09/protecting-your-business-download.html and stop thieves dead in their tracks TODAY!

Many affiliate marketers will pick a product to sell without giving any consideration to the ROI they are getting from the sale of the product. In many cases, they could actually be losing money for each sale they make. Not sure if this is you? Well, then this article is one you’re going to want to read. After you’re done with it, you won’t be throwing good money after bad any longer.

One of the most common ways to promote affiliate products is pay per click. It’s probably the most efficient way of getting traffic to your web site. But is your pay per click campaign worth running for the product you’re promoting? Well, there is an easy way to figure this out…just using a little math. Yes, you know…math. That thing that you said in school that you’d never need.

Let’s say you decide on promoting a product that’s a $47 ebook and it pays 50% commission. Well, that means that you get about $23.50 per sale, less processing fees. Let’s say it’s $20 for every sale to make this very easy. Now, you’re running a pay per click campaign for certain keywords that are costing you 10 cents per click. Now, let’s say, for argument sake, that the product converts 1 in 100 clicks. That means that you’re spending $10 for every sale you make.

Now, on the surface, this doesn’t look too bad. You’re making a $10 profit on each sale. But what if you could find another product that also pays $20 per sale after fees but the keywords only cost 5 cents per click and that product converts 2 sales for every 100 clicks. In this case, you’re making $40 for every $5 spent. This is a much better ROI and you’re selling the same priced product.

Naturally, a lot of these things you’re only going to find through testing. So when you find a good product to promote, don’t settle on it. Always look for something that might pay a better ROI. That’s how you constantly grow and improve your business. If you follow these simple tips, you’ll find that you’ll be quickly heading in that direction.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.

I don’t care how good your emails are. If they don’t get delivered, they’re worthless. Unfortunately, there are a ton of things going against marketers today that cause delivery rates to plummet. Well, fear not. I’m going to share 3 top tips for almost guaranteeing that your emails get delivered. After reading this article, I am sure that you will find that your delivery rates improve substantially.

One of the biggest reasons that emails don’t get delivered is because of the domains that they marketers are promoting. Many domains, maybe even your own, end up on the spam list because of a variety of reasons, not the least of which is affiliates spamming your URL all over creation. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t do it. Once an affiliate abuses your domain, you need to head on over to places like URIBL and make sure that you’re not blacklisted. If you are, you need to contact them and request that you be removed from the blacklist. In most cases, this won’t be a problem.

Another reason for poor delivery is subject lines and email content. Because of the amount of spam that is generated daily, ISPs have no choice but to put very aggressive spam filters on their email services. As a result, many emails don’t get through if they contain certain words. Therefore, you need to keep up with what the spam triggers are. There are a number of sites online where you can check your email content to make sure that it registers a low enough spam score that the chances of delivery are greater.

Finally, there is the problem of how your emails are actually being delivered. Many marketers either use their own servers to deliver emails or third party services that, quite honestly, aren’t very good. There are several email delivery services online that specialize in delivery. They have excellent reputations and your best bet is to go with one of them. Certainly don’t try to deliver them yourself. One spam complaint and your ISP could shut you down.

By taking the steps that I’ve outlined above, you will greatly improve the delivery rate of your email campaigns.

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.

A lot of writers think that they have to sit down and crank out an article in one sitting. While some of us can do this without any problems, many people find it hard to motivate themselves to write a 500 word article all at once. The thought of putting in all that time is enough to make some people just want to turn off their computers. Well, the truth is, you don’t have to be an article writing machine to get your articles out. I’m going to show you a great process for writing articles that will so break things up that you’ll have no problems putting together that 500 plus word article in no time flat.

First step is to come up with the title for your article. Give this some thought. If your title isn’t a really good one, people aren’t going to read your article. So take a lot of time thinking up a good title. Then, after you’ve done that, put the article aside. That’s right. Don’t write another thing. Think about how you want to start off the article. A good intro is important to keep people reading. Let your mind go through some different ideas for intro paragraphs.

When you’ve finally come up with a good intro (give it about 30 minutes or so) come back to the computer and write it out. Make the intro very specific. In other words, let the reader know EXACTLY what you’re going to tell them in the article itself. If possible, break it up into sections or tips. I like to break my articles up into three or four different tips. That way, I can write one paragraph on one of the tips and then take a break without losing my train of thought since each paragraph is self contained.

After each individual paragraph is done, all that’s left to do is finish up the article with your summary. This shouldn’t take you long to think up at all. Basically, all you do is summarize what you wrote in the three or four paragraphs above it. And then you’re done. Simple, right?

Writing articles doesn’t have to be a chore if you take them one piece at a time. By breaking them up into your title, intro, individual tips and summary, you’ll be putting together decent sized articles with no problem at all and it won’t feel like you sat down and did them all at once.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people’s attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.

No, this isn’t some voodoo or magic. There is a very easy way to double your home business income, providing that you have something to double in the first place. Yes, you do have to be earning at least something for this method to work. If not, the first thing you need to do is figure out why your income is at ground zero. That is the subject for another article.

Okay, so how do you easily double your home business income? Well, let’s take a hypothetical example. Let’s say you’re earning $500 a month from article marketing. You’ve been promoting affiliate products and you’re writing about 3 articles per day in order to achieve this amount. Okay, there are two ways to go about doubling your income. The first is obvious but the second is not so obvious.

If you’re writing 3 articles a day and generating enough traffic in your niche to earn $500 a month, then the obvious way to double your income is to double your article output. So instead of writing just 3 articles a day, write 6 articles a day. Given that it shouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes to write an article, this won’t take you more than 3 hours out of your day. Okay, that’s the obvious solution. Here’s the not so obvious one.

Let’s say you’re making that same $500 per month and want to double it. Take a look at the products that you’re selling. If they’re making you, on average, $25 per sale and you’re getting 20 sales per month, why not look for products that will make you $50 per sale? The conversion rate should stay about the same if the products are good. This way, you’re doing the same amount of work and making more money.

Of course, if you like, you can do both. Write more articles each day AND sell higher priced products. This could effectively triple your income each month. The point is, once you know that something works, all you have to do is either increase your efforts or sell a higher priced product to effectively increase your income each month.

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 5 years I’ve been doing this.

Okay, I know I am probably going to date myself here (yes, I’m old so get over it! LOL) Do you remember those old potato chip commercials? You know the ones I’m talking about, where you can’t just eat one. Yes, that’s the one. I have to admit, they are good, and it’s almost impossible to eat just one. After you’ve had that first taste your mouth just cries for another and another, until you’re stuffed and you’ve ruined your dinner. Well, that’s what killer sales copy should be like. Your prospect should want to keep reading and reading until he just has to click on that “buy now” link. This article will show you how to do that, so he doesn’t just stop after your headline.

The headline is the starting point. You must agonize over it. That headline has to be so powerful that your prospect will literally smack himself if he doesn’t read beyond it. It has to make him say, “Darn, I have got to know what this fantastic product or service is about because it sounds too good to be true.” That’s what you need to get your prospect to say with your opening. If you don’t, you’ve lost him. It’s that cut and dried.

After you get him to read on, you must engage him with a compelling story or offer. One of my favorite tactics is to start out with how I was broke and ready to put a gun to my head. This really gets their attention. Then I slowly transition into the part of my life where I finally started to see some success, drawing the prospect in with me. This works very well.

Of course another tactic that works great is to start out with a killer offer. I sometimes use something like, “How would you like it if I could make you $1,200 in the next 30 days and it won’t cost you a cent?” Now THAT has got to grab somebody’s attention. If they’re looking to make money online and you present them with an offer like that, they’re going to want to read on and see what it’s about. In copywriting, it’s all about the offer and what’s in it for the prospect.

If you’ve done your job well, incorporating the other tricks of the trade such as testimonials, social proof, guarantees and so on, by the time they get down to the bottom of the page, they’re practically hunting for that “buy now” link. That’s when you know you’ve written a killer sales letter.

The potato chip principal works.

Provided you have some great potato chips.

Want to find out just how to create great potato chips in your sales copy? There’s a link in my signature that will do the trick.

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.

If I hear one more person say to me that the money is in the list, I swear to Pete that I’m going to take a crowbar to my computer. The money is NOT in the list. The money is ONLY in the list IF you know the right way to build a list and then what to do with it AFTER you have built it. This article is going to teach you smart list building. I do it and it works. Keep reading if you want a list that actually buys from you.

Step one is to make the person an offer that he can’t refuse in order to even sign up for your list. That’s right. Just saying that he’ll get a weekly newsletter isn’t good enough anymore. People want more than that. So you have to give them something like a free ebook or piece of software, something that they’d normally expect to pay good money for. Yes, that’s what it takes today so get over yourself. Go crank out a 30 or 40 page book on a topic and give it away in exchange for that person’s email address.

Step two is to put together an autoresponder series that blows away most ebooks that are out there on the topic of your choice. Have as much excellent info in it as you can afford to give without giving away the store. As an example, I have a series that warns people of all the dangers of marketing online. It goes over all the mistakes that people make when marketing. It covers advertising, site design and so on. Just by avoiding all the mistakes, these people can increase their income. Then, when I make my offer to show them all the things that they should do, they’re more receptive to buying.

Step three is to put together a plan for frequency of emailing these people. You don’t want to badger your list. Nobody wants to be sold to day after day. You want to give these people a chance to digest the info that you’ve just given them. I personally email my list about two times a week. The only way you’re going to know what’s right for your list is by testing. If you want, put out a questionnaire and ask them how often they’d like to hear from you. Take the majority of the responses and make some kind of decision based on them. You won’t make everybody happy.

The last step is, when you do sell these people something, make sure it is something of quality. If you sell them garbage, your reputation will be shot quickly. Make these people glad that they’re on your list. In the long run, they’ll be happy and you’ll make money.

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.

As buzzwords go, web 2.0 is pretty much at the top of the list these days. The ironic part about the whole web 2.0 craze is that many people can’t even agree on what web 2.0 actually is, if it even exists. Well, while we’re not going to try to give you a clear cut definition of what web 2.0 is “supposed” to be, this article will try to give you some idea of what it actually is and then dive into the question of whether web 2.0 marketing is really as great as people say it is, or if it’s just another fad that will someday go the way of the dinosaur.

The arguments of what web 2.0 are will probably go on forever, but for the purpose of this article and to keep this as simple as possible, web 2.0 is the practice of having things that are not dependent on the computer that you are on. For example. When you browse the Internet, you use a browser. That browser is installed on your PC. If anything happens to your PC or that browser, it will stop functioning and you won’t be able to use it any longer. This is software that is dependent on your PC in order to run.

Web 2.0 is the total opposite. A perfect example of a web 2.0 site is Google. Google has a number of tools that you can use, similar to browsers whereby they perform a function, such as Adwords, Analytics, and Adsense. You can be at any computer in the world and use these things. They are not dependent on any particular software being installed on your PC. That is the basic concept and premise of web 2.0, in spite of the fact that there are those who will argue that any website performs a service, and since this has been going on since the beginning of time, web 2.0 is nothing but a new buzzword for old stuff. Well, like I said, we’re not going to argue that here. Maybe another time.

What we are going to try to do is answer the question of whether web 2.0 is really great for marketing or if indeed it is just another fad that will be replaced by something else down the road.

The truth is, the users are the ones who are going to answer that question. Currently, the answer is a resounding “wow!”. Web 2.0 sites are popping up all over the place. Social bookmarking sites, which are part of the web 2.0 craze, are all over. Marketers are reporting substantial sales by using these sites. Why? Simple. People are going to them. Once the people stop going, which will happen either when they are replaced by something else or the people simply get tired of going to them, then web 2.0 will most likely become just another buzzword that died along with all the other ones that came before it.

Probably not the answer you were looking for, but it is what it is. Think of some of the most popular rock bands in the history of music. Some only lasted for a very short time. As popular as the Beatles were, they were only around for about 7 years. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not very long. The number 1 song of 1971 was by a group that had about a 4 year career, at least as far as popularity goes. Today, few young people would even know who they were.

The point is, things come and go. That’s the natural order of life. Will web 2.0 go the distance? Will it still be around 10 years from today? As quickly as the Internet changes, it’s doubtful. But until that day comes, the future popularity of web 2.0 is nothing more than speculation.

For today, web 2.0 is most definitely alive and well and taking names.

Sincerely,

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.