Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

There is an old saying floating around the Internet that goes something like this.

“Fake it until you make it!”

This slogan has been the downfall of more Internet marketers than all the mistakes that Napoleon made at Waterloo. The “fake it until you make it” syndrome is why Internet marketing has such a bad reputation in many circles. People who have NO business giving advice to others, end up giving bad advice and then those who follow it end up broke…or worse. This article is meant to be a hard hitting wake up call to those who think they can go through life faking it.

Just today, I finished doing my first radio interview show. I was interviewed by the great Willie Crawford who is a marketing legend. I was asked a number of questions throughout the interview, some of which were very tough. I got through them all with flying colors and no problem at all. Why? Why was I able to get through this interview without breaking a sweat? Very simple…I know my stuff. Now, I don’t say this to brag, but after over five years of marketing online, writing articles, sales letters, ebooks and whatever else I’ve written in my life prior to that (over 30 years of experience), I better know what I am talking about. In other words, I don’t have to fake it.

But some people think that they can just go out there, know nothing about the subject they’re talking, and make others think that they are an expert. Let me tell you, under pressure, you can’t do it and you WILL be found out.

Okay, so what can you do to make sure that you DO know your stuff and don’t end up getting exposed as a know nothing?

The first thing you have to do is really study up on the subject of marketing you profess to be an expert on. So if you claim to be an expert on pay per click, then you better know how to set up an effective pay per click campaign from scratch and explain it to others.

The next thing you have to do is actually have success with whatever it is that you’re telling others you’re an expert on. If you can show proof of this, you’ll be able to add to your credibility considerably.

Finally, you want to write your own books or articles on the subject and get them out there so that people can see your expertise in action. This is the fool proof test.

If you honestly do what I have shared with you in this article, you will never have a problem with your credibility and nobody will think that you are faking it until you make it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of busting your behind for peanuts online? Go to my web site and find out how I earn a monthly income that exceeds 5 figures and how I can help YOU do the same. Get your free report at http://www.mysecretarticles.com/report.html

I’m old. I have a lousy memory. I have to deal with that. So the last thing I want to do is sit down to write some copy and forget something important, like reading the product before I start writing. Unless you’ve got a mind like a steel trap, I don’t think it’s a good idea to trust your memory to anything. This article is going to give you some of my top tips for making a checklist to follow for any copywriting assignment that you’re going to take on.

The first thing you want to remember to do is send your client a contract so that he understands what is expected from you and what you expect from him in return. All terms as far as payment and delivery should be clearly spelled out in the contract such as if you require 50% up front. A timeline for when the copy will be completed should also be stated. Naturally, things happen, but you need to give your client some idea of when the project will be completed.

The next step is to get all of the materials from the client that you will need in order to write the copy. You can’t write copy for a product unless you actually review the product. Most of what you’re going to write is going to come from what the client gives you. You need to go over these things with a fine tooth comb. Otherwise, you might miss something that you will end up kicking yourself for, especially if it could have been the one thing that pushed the prospect over the edge to buy.

After you have all the materials read, the next step is to start on your copy. Even for this, you should have a checklist of all the items that you want to include such as headline, subheads, bullet points, testimonials and so on. Don’t leave the nuts and bolts to writing sales copy to your memory, especially when you’re first starting out. Trust me, you WILL miss something. I missed things when I first started. By having a checklist on the actual copywriting points, you won’t be able to miss anything.

After the copy is written, get it to the client and get ready for any rewrites after he tests it. Most copywriters do at least one rewrite to increase conversions.

If you make a checklist on all the above items, your copywriting assignments will go a lot smoother.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to save $2,500 to $15,000 in copywriting costs? Want to write copy yourself that can command that kind of payday? 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.

Sometimes the lights in your head are off. You can’t think of things to write on. Hey, it happens to me too and I’ve been writing for over 30 years of my life. Okay, so what do you do when those lights go off and you can’t even come up with an idea, let alone a coherent thought? Well, don’t panic. This article is going to share some of my best secrets for coming up with ideas. Some of these are a little off beat but you’ll like them. I promise.

My favorite is what I call random generator. I use this a lot when I’m in the recording studio writing songs. I created this little random generator. The first part picks a number from three to six. The second part picks letters from A to Z depending on how many numbers are chosen. So let’s say I pick the number four. That means there will be four words in my article title. The letters that are then picked, from A to Z, are the first letters of each word in that title. Okay, sometimes you come up with nonsense, but many times, those letters will make you think of titles that practically write themselves. I’ve written some great songs this way and it works with articles too.

Another great way to get ideas for articles is by going for a walk down the street and taking a look around. Whenever you see an object, say it out loud. You’ll be surprised at how many things you see that you never really gave much thought to. For example, the one day, I saw a fence, a garbage can, a fire hydrant and a stop sign that I had never noticed before. The fire hydrant gave me an idea for an article in a niche I’m in having to do with water products. It just clicked. Yeah, I know, no logical reason why. But it happens.

Finally, when I’m really stuck for ideas, I put on the stereo, plug in the headphones and lie down on the couch. I’ll listen to some music for about an hour or so. Eventually, I’ll hear a song that will give me an idea for an article. It’s all in the lyrics. Songwriters write about so many different things. You’d be surprised what you can get from a song.

Try these sometime. I promise you that if you’re ever stuck for an idea for an article, random generators, walks and music will do the trick.

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.

Pretty ominous title, I know. But the truth is, your home business may very well be in danger. There are so many things that could go wrong at any given time that you’d need a mystic to be able to predict them all. This article is inspired from a piece of news that was brought to my attention from one of the members of a forum that I attend. His name is Ian Jackson and I want to thank him for posting this very interesting bit of news.

Essentially, what’s going on, and the gist of the article in a nutshell, is that the Internet has gotten so clogged with users that it is being predicted that eventually, it will slow down to such a crawl that it will become almost useless for conducting any kind of real business.

Now, I’ve heard my share of gloom and doom and in my life and usually take things with a grain of salt, especially when dire predictions are made, but in this case, maybe it’s something to consider. After all, as much as we’d like to think it’s so, the Internet is not a limitless resource. There is only so much bandwidth to go around. And if the article is accurate, YouTube alone takes up more of that bandwidth in a month than all the Internet did in the year 2000. That’s a scary thought if it’s true.

Okay, but how does this affect YOUR business? Well, if connections slow down and if PCs slow down, people trying to connect to your site to purchase your product or service, if they find the wait too long, or if they can’t get to the site at all, this translates into a lost sale…plain and simple. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.

I know what you’re thinking right now. “Okay Steve, so what? What can I do about it?” Well, maybe nothing. However, by making sure that your sites are optimized and load quickly under normal conditions, this will greatly reduce the chance that you’ll lose sales because people can’t load it. One way to do this is to stay away from bandwidth hogging videos, especially if they serve no real purpose. If you’re going to have a Flash presentation intro, at least give the visitor the option to skip it.

I don’t know what the future holds. I do know that none of my sites are server drains as we speak, so I am not too concerned about it. However, if the Internet ever DOES become a useless “toy” as the article states, I can always go back to working for a living.

Hopefully, by that time, I’ll be long dead and buried.

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!

Remember the show “The West Wing?” There was one episode, “Take Out The Trash Day.” Take out the trash day at the White House is when they dispose of all those news stories that nobody really cares about. If I’m not mistaken, it’s either Thursday or Friday. But that’s besides the point. As an Internet marketer, I too have to sometimes take out the trash. I don’t do it on a weekly basis, but every couple of months or so, I go through the process. This article explains.

Like it or not, not everything we do when it comes to marketing and running our business is going to be successful and profitable. Even I have done things that have turned out to be real dogs. Whole projects have been scrapped because they didn’t bring in the return that I expected. And that is the point of taking out the trash.

You can’t run your business in a fog. You must constantly keep track of everything you do. If you are running an ad campaign, you have to make sure it is turning a profit. Naturally, you have to give it some time. That’s the most difficult part of taking out the trash. See, you don’t want to pull the plug on something prematurely. Not everything is going to turn a profit right from the start. Some things take time. But how much time? How long do you wait before that trash starts to stink up the house?

Unlike real trash, you can’t smell the Internet trash rotting away. That’s why so many people will hang onto something for months and months before finally giving up. I don’t have that much patience. I know that a decent product should convert at a minimum of 1%. If I don’t get at least one sale after 500 hops, I’m done. I don’t need to be hit over the head to see that this thing isn’t going to fly. My best products convert at crazy percentages. So when I put something out there and 1,000 people haven’t bought, I know I made a turkey and throw it out with the next trash day.

I will usually go through my inventory once a month. If I feel I’ve given something more than enough time, I chuck it…with no remorse. You can’t get attached to your creations, whether they be products, ads, articles or whatever. It’s business, and only the top producers will survive.

I can’t tell you how often you should clean house. That has to be a decision that you yourself make. But I can tell you this much…if you don’t clean it often…it WILL start to stink.

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.

If you’ve been in the Internet marketing game for a while, then you probably belong to quite a few mailing lists. I know I belong to my share. Occasionally, you’ll get an email with a certain subject line, like when we had the Frank Kern “bad news” email. What usually happens after that is a ton of marketers jump on the bandwagon and start sending out emails with subjects “bad news.” Do you know what happens when they do this? In most cases, not much. I’ll explain why.

See, when somebody comes out with a unique subject or even a unique style of email, it’s new and fresh. Others haven’t seen it before so it has some effect, whether it be good or bad. That doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it does have an effect. Well, when other marketers “mimic” the tactic, it then becomes old. It doesn’t have the same effect anymore. As a result, the emails don’t bring in the kind of response that the marketer had hoped for. Perhaps if you’ve tried this yourself you have noticed the same thing.

It’s really like this in all walks of life. Anything original is going to usually come off big. Sure, there are first time bombs. There is never any guarantee that a new tactic will be a successful one. Some of the most original movies of our time, like Tron, were bombs at the box office. Still can’t figure that one out. Point is, the imitations are usually never as good, and certainly not if they are done to the letter. That’s why even remakes of movies have some twist to them, usually. Look at the remake of “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” It was actually quite different from the original.

Point is, you’re never going to stand out as a marketer if you copy your emails from somebody else. You just become a clone of that marketer, and not a very good one. So be original. Do your own thing. Come up with your own email ideas.

That’s how you become a successful email marketer.

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.

The goal of every great article writer is to…ah, that’s a good question. What IS the goal of every great article writer? Believe it or not, the goal does not necessarily have to be the same for everybody and every article that they write. The goals of my individual articles are not all the same. So, the question is, how do you determine your goal and based on that goal, how do you go about writing your article? The answers you’re about to get might surprise you.

Let’s start with determining your goal first because that’s the easy part. At least it should be. When I sit down to write an article, any article, I think about who is going to be reading it. In the case of this article, I expect it to be read by people wanting to learn how to write articles. Make sense? Okay, great. So then my article should teach them something about writing articles. It doesn’t have to necessarily have to teach them EVERYTHING about writing articles, but it should be some kind of useful instruction.

But let’s narrow our goal down even more because behind every goal there is an underlying goal, especially if you’re a marketer, which I am. If your underlying goal is totally altruistic, meaning you’re not looking to get anything back in return other than a “thanks for the great article” then you probably aren’t going to hold anything back in your article. You’re going to spill all the beans about that particular subject. However, if your underlying goal is to have the reader go to a web page, whether it be your own or that of a third party, then the article has to be written in such a way as to lead them in that direction, or as I like to put it, it can’t spill all the beans.

Achieving that goal is a simple as editing your article to taste. If you need the reader to go to another site to get more info, then simply leave that info out. Of if the article is just a piece of a bigger picture, for example, one aspect of article writing as opposed to the whole ball of wax, then you can concentrate on that one piece just making sure you don’t include anything else in the process.

It’s a fine line and quite a balancing act to execute, but when you pull it off just right, your reader doesn’t walk away feeling cheated and you end up getting what YOU wanted out of the deal.

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.

As with everything in life, with video marketing and video creation, it’s not just about what you do well, but also about what you don’t do well and how to make sure that it doesn’t screw up your video. Yes, this article is about deemphasizing your weaknesses. This is just as important as doing what you do well. We’re going to take a very brief look at this issue. Hopefully, you’ll get something out of it.

Ego is a terrible thing. Many of us are so convinced that we are great at everything we do that we allow it to cloud our judgment when it comes to doing anything at all. I don’t suffer from this problem. I know very well what I stink at and I don’t do it. In the case of video, I know what I can and can’t get away with.

For example, take a look at one of Jason Moffatt’s videos. The guy is totally out there and off the wall. To say that he is outrageous is an understatement. If I tried to get away with some of the stuff that he does I’d be laughed off the screen.

So what does one do when they’re just not photogenic? I mean let’s face it, not all of us look like Brad Pitt. Well, there is a way to get around this. Instead of making a video where you’re right out there for everybody to see, make one that’s a slide presentation instead. This way, the viewer still gets the message but doesn’t have to look at your grotesque form on camera.

What if your weakness is your speaking voice but you look really great? No problem…make a video with captions. Have yourself pointing to a blackboard or whiteboard. Make it humorous. Have a sign made up saying that you lost your voice and hold it up in front of the camera at the start of the video. To counter the quietness of you not speaking, have some music in the background. Heck, do a dance if you have to.

Point I’m trying to make is this. We can’t all be fantastic at every aspect of every little thing that we do. However, if we focus on what we do well and deemphasize what we don’t, our work will come across professional and be received with great results.

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

You’ve picked out your shiny new product from Clickbank or PayDotCom or wherever to sell, and you’re wondering how long you should give it before you chuck the product down the tubes because it’s not selling. Well, there really is no definitive answer to this question because every affiliate marketer has their own tolerance level. And let’s face it…some people are just plain stubborn. Well, if that’s you, you probably don’t need to read this article. For the rest of you, these tips might help.

First thing you have to do is look at the actual product itself. See, some products are going to sell better at some times than others. For example, if you’re selling a seasonal product like a snowblower, you’re less likely to sell these after winter just ends. Most likely, when November hits is when you’re going to start to see an increase in sales. So it’s important to recognize products that don’t sell all year round.

But what if it’s not a seasonal product, like a book on how to get out of debt? Certainly debt is something people face all year round. So this should be a product that sells all year round. Great, so when do we finally decide to pull the plug on it?

The one thing you DON’T go by is time. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been selling it for a day, a week or a month. What matters is how many people have seen your offer and how many sales you’ve made. For example. If you’ve been selling a product for three months and have only made three sales, if you only got 300 people to your site in those three months, then the problem is not your conversion (1% is certainly acceptable) the problem is your traffic. You’re not getting enough of it to make an informed decision.

Conversely, if you are getting 1,000 visitors a day and after 5 days you’ve made one sale, it is time to chuck that product in the trash heap. Actually, if I had 1,000 visitors in a day and made just one sale from them, I’d probably pack it in that first day…provided I know that the traffic I am getting is targeted to that offer and not just junk traffic. That’s another factor. You MUST know how good your traffic actually is to make an informed decision.

Rule of thumb for me is simple. If I’m not converting at a minimum of 1% after 1,000 clicks, I am out of there. I think that’s more than enough time to determine if a product is worth selling or not.

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.

This is a rant coming, so if you don’t want to hear it…go read another article. I’m serious. Okay, so what am I ranting about today? I’m ranting about cheap home business owners. Yes, you know who I’m talking about. These are the guys who think that they can squeeze $10 out of a shiny new nickel. Guess what? It’s not as easy as you think. Don’t get me wrong…you can run a nice business on the cheap, but there are just some places where being cheap is choking the life out of YOUR business. This article gives a few of those places.

Let’s start off with your web site. I can’t believe how many people won’t spring for a lousy $5 a month to get their own domain and hosting. Do you know what free hosting gets you? It gets you no bandwidth, no functionality and you have to put up with the host’s rules and regulations, not to mention their crappy banner ads all over your site. In short, your site is totally unprofessional and NOBODY is going to buy anything from it. Or have you already noticed that? Okay, go dig a crowbar into your wallet and spring for the lousy $5 a month to get a professional hosting solution.

Then we have your marketing efforts. Classified ads? You have to be kidding. Most classified ad sites today, with few exceptions, are worthless. Oh, you’ve noticed that? I’m sure you have. And what about all the other cheap advertising solutions that you’re using? Are they bringing you any results? I didn’t think so. Look, don’t get me wrong…you can get great traffic for free but it’s going to take some effort on YOUR part. You can’t just push a button and expect it to happen. By using poor advertising resources you are literally choking the life out of your business.

Finally, we have your limited mindset. You believe that nobody is going to buy anything from you that’s more than a few bucks. So you’ve limited yourself to $10 a month membership sites or $19.95 ebooks. You don’t think big. You can’t even conceive of selling a $1,997 coaching course. The thought makes you dizzy. Believe it or not, there is a HUGE market for high ticket items and businesses. You don’t have to lock yourself into the “cheap product” mentality.

There you go. So go get yourself some professional hosting, use methods of promotion that actually bring results and stop selling cheap items only. There is a market for big ticket items. Find it!

End of rant.

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!