Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

Good question, don’t you think? I mean everybody goes around saying, “Write articles!” Well, why? Some valid reasons to take the time out of your day to do this would be nice. After all, just following the herd and doing what they say without just cause is a pretty poor way to run your business. Well, this article is going to give you the main reasons why you’ll want to write articles for your business to profit from.

The first, and maybe the most important reason, is because content itself is very important when it comes to establishing an online presence. Think about it from the perspective of a possible customer and not as a marketer. If you have a problem that you need a solution to, what are you going to do? You’re going to head straight for the search engines and do a lookup of the problem. What do you think you’re going to find when you do this? You’re going to find content…lots of it. And this content will be in the form of articles, mostly.

The next reason is because writing articles on a subject that you are knowledgeable about makes you an authority on the subject over time. Why is this important? Well, if you’re viewed as an authority on the subject and people respect your knowledge, there is going to be a greater chance of them purchasing one of your products or services related to your area of expertise. People respect experts…and that’s never going to change.

Finally, article writing is probably the cheapest form of effective promotion that exists online. How cheap? It’s free. It doesn’t get any cheaper than that. How effective? Well, 67% of my monthly income comes from writing articles and submitting them to directories, other sites and even selling them outright. Yes, article writing is big business…provided you can write well.

If you’re having problems with your writing, check out the link in my signature. Yes, I am an authority on this subject having written thousands of articles for the Internet and earning a nice income from doing it.

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.

Do you have any idea how many beginning marketers don’t even know what a USP or unique selling proposition is? More than I care to admit. And for those who do understand the concept, many of them don’t have one or don’t know how to come up with one. Well, this article is going to cover USP briefly. Hopefully, by the time you’re done reading this you’ll know what it is and have a decent idea of how to create your own USP.

Okay, a USP, or unique selling proposition could be just about anything, a phrase, a statement, a logo even, that shows your prospects what your company or product is all about. To give you an example, my personal USP is that of the “no nonsense, to-the-point, honest” marketer. I tell it like it is and don’t sacrifice integrity just to make a sale. Every one of my products and sites reflects this in the way they are designed and in the message I get across to people.

The reason this works for me is that I don’t have to think of a USP for each individual product. I simply use the same approach in my sales copy (telling the real truth about the product and what it will do and won’t do for the prospect) and let the chips fall where they may. No, I don’t make as many sales as some of the big boys because I refuse to hype things up, but the following I have appreciates the angle because they know they will get the truth.

This USP may not work with everybody. But that’s not the point. By developing your own unique USP, you set yourself apart from the competition. Look at the way some of the big companies do it. Take Nike, for example, with their saying “Just Do It!” They’re another no nonsense company that basically tells you that you need to take action. Burger King, with their “Have It Your Way” means that you can come into their place and order your burger any way you like. That’s their USP.

Comb the Internet, the TV, radio, newspapers and just about anywhere that advertisements run and check out the USP of each ad. The really great ones will stand out.

And that’s how you get YOUR business to stand out as well.

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 try to keep this blog to basic marketing tips and don’t usually post my personal feelings about things, but I am making an exception here. You may or may not want to read this. That’s your choice.

This past year I lost my mother. No, I’m not looking for sympathy. Death is part of life and we all have to go through it. So I’m no different from anybody else. However, I hope that when a person loses somebody close to them that they get something from it other than just sadness. This is what I got from it.

Life is short…way too short if you ask me. And because of that, there is no room for negativity in it, not when this negativity does nothing to improve the quality of your life. When that happens, you have to cut it out or it will suck the life out of you like a cancer.

Today, I had to abruptly cut somebody out of my life. No, I won’t mention any names. It’s not important who it is. Point is, this person had been making me feel less than good for quite some time, always needling me and pointing out my shortcomings and other faults. I’d end up getting annoyed and would allow it to ruin my day, no matter how good the day otherwise was. Well, this is something I no longer have to worry about with this person. I’ve made it so that I won’t have to hear their needling any longer.

What this does is it allows me to now concentrate 100% on my business without having to worry about spending even a fraction of my day throwing things around the room because somebody pissed me off. And if I have to cut off 10 people tomorrow, then that’s what I’ll do. I have decided to surround myself with only people who are positive influences on my life.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I cut off people who have constructive criticism. In fact, I welcome people to show me where I can improve my business. Hey, if my sales page really can use improvement, just don’t tell me it sucks, tell me what’s wrong with and give me an idea of how I can make it better. That’s the kind of criticism I can take and welcome.

Negativity will kill you, especially if it’s not constructive. All it does is weigh you down and takes your attention off the things that are important. Up until I lost my mother, I put up with it. But now, like I said, life is too damn short and I won’t let anybody drag me down just because they enjoy doing it.

So here is my advice to you. If there is somebody in your life who has nothing good to say to you, and if it’s possible (with family it’s tough)…remove them from your life.

You’ll be a lot better off for it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

This article may be a little basic for most, but maybe somebody will actually get something out of it. I constantly hear from people how they can’t generate traffic to their site and need ideas to do just that. Well, that’s where this article comes in. I’m going to go over three basic ways to generate traffic to your web site. I hope you will find these helpful.

At the top of my list is article marketing. The reason this is at the top of my list is because it’s cheap. Actually, you can do it for free if you want. All you need is a niche to write about, a product to sell and a blog to promote that product. Usually, what I do is I will get a copy of the product that I want to sell, go through it and then write a review of the product. I will then put this review up on a blog. If you want to do this at no cost, get yourself a Blogger blog. However, if you want to go a little better route, spend about $9 on a domain, get some hosting for $5 a month and setup a WordPress blog.

After you have done all that, simply write some articles on the subject that you’re interested in and start submitting them to various article directories around the Internet. Probably the best one is Ezine Articles. It currently has an Alexa rank of about 186, though you have to take those rankings with a grain of salt.

Gradually, with proper keyword research, these articles will not only be seen at the directories but will also climb up the SERPs, thus generating traffic to your site PROVIDED that you have a resource box with a strong call to action to get people to your site. Point is, this is a great way of generating traffic IF you write quality articles.

Another great way of getting traffic to your site is with pay per click advertising. The reason this is such an effective method is because, through keyword targeting for your ads, you are reaching people who are specifically interested in what you have to offer.

Pay per click advertising itself is beyond the scope of this article as far as exactly how to setup an effective pay per click campaign. There are a number of things involved such as picking keywords, geographical targeting, writing an effective ad and making sure you have a landing page that is going to have a high quality score. There are many good books on the subject but quite honestly, since pay per click changes so often, your best education is simply to go to Google’s site (the top PPC service) and read their rules and what they look for. This will give you the best chance of setting up a successful PPC campaign.

Finally, there is social networking. Twitter, in particular, is all the rage today. Marketers are following everybody and their grandmother, or so it seems. This is a great way to generate traffic IF you approach this method with the attitude of give more to get more. In other words, don’t go to a social site like Twitter with
the intent of spamming your followers with link after link to products to buy. Instead, give them links to articles you’ve written so that they can learn something. With social networking sites, the more you give, the more you will get.

Naturally, the above outline is just a basic guide and there is a lot involved with actually pulling off effective article marketing, PPC and social networking campaigns. But the point is, these are all very effective ways of generating traffic to your site and certainly worth exploring.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Want to discover how to use the crappiest forms of promotion online that earn me over $3,000 each month? Visit my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/crapads/index.html

In case you haven’t heard, Google has thrown the hammer down on affiliate marketers who use PPC advertising yet again. If you’re an affiliate marketer who uses AdWords, you probably already know this. What you may not know is how to get around this problem. Well, it is going to take some work, but if you follow this blueprint, you should have no trouble at all.

For those that don’t know, Google has essentially lowered the quality score of blogs with affiliate links on them. Now, I know what you’re thinking. How can I do affiliate marketing without an affiliate link? And the really bad part is, blogs with really good content are getting slammed too. It doesn’t matter how good the blog is. If there is an affiliate link on it…you’re toast. So, how do we fix this problem? The fix, is really a very simple one. Let me explain.

What you need to do is not sell to prospects directly off your blog. At least not the affiliate product. There are two ways of getting around this. The first way is to, instead of giving them a link to the product, giving them a link to your autoresponder series and have them opt in. This way, you get them as a subscriber and have multiple chances to pitch to them instead of just the one. You will have to offer up some kind of free report on the subject or newsletter to get them to opt in. This shouldn’t be a problem.

Another alternative is to sell your own product on the subject. Yes, this is going to take some work on your part, but it doesn’t have to be a full blown product. It can be a short report that you sell for $7. Your conversion rate on this should be very good. Then, inside the short report, you include your affiliate link to the main product.

Of course, you can combine the two methods above…get them to opt in, sell them a short report to start with, in order to get them into your sales funnel and then pitch them the affiliate product and other products down the road. As long as you’re providing them value along the way, this method should work very well.

Bottom line is this. If you’ve been hit by the latest Google slap, this should solve the problem nicely.

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.

When you write your sales letter, are you selling too soon? Does this sound like a strange question considering that you’re writing a sales letter and trying to make a sale? It might to some people, but if you’re used to my articles by now, you probably already know where I am going with this. So sit back and relax and I’m going to explain clearly enough so that it is perfectly understandable.

Let me start by asking a question. When you go into a store to buy something, specifically the kind if store that has sales people, does one walk up to you the minute you walk in and say, “Hey, see this thing? It’s just perfect for you and it’s only $299.95. You really have to have this?” No, of course not. You walk in and somebody walks up to you and says, “Can I help you?” They ask if you need help. They don’t shove things down your throat right off the bat.

So why is it I see these horrible sales letters that, right off the bat, come at you with something like, “My super killer secrets…only $27″ and right below is a buy now button? I mean, for crying out loud, you don’t even know what the guy is selling yet. And you know you’ve seen them…sales pages with buy now buttons after every paragraph. If you ask me, it’s a joke.

When you write a sales letter, you have to start slowly. You need to gain the trust of the person who’s reading the sales letter. You might start with a headline that addresses their problem and offers a solution. Then, in the first paragraph, maybe introduce yourself and tell your story. Hopefully, that story will directly relate to your own experience with the problem and how you came up with a solution. You want to give as much information right at the start so that the prospect can make an informed decision later on.

You then want to present testimonials from other people so that your prospect can see that this solution does in fact work. At no time up to this point do you make a sales pitch. You want to show the prospect the value in what you’re offering. Then, after you’ve given all the info, show them the value of what you’re offering and how little you’re actually charging for it. Only THEN do you make your sales pitch. Yes, I am a firm believer of only one close and one buy now button before the signature and PS. Then, in the PS, you can remind them of the offer and give them one more link to buy.

This technique has worked for me for years. You might want to give it a try sometime.

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.

Did the title of this article get your attention? Good, I hope so. I know what you’re thinking. Of course there is such a thing as failure. Well, I guess it all depends on how you look at it. I look at everything as a learning experience and therefore, as long as you haven’t given up, you haven’t failed. Still not convinced? Okay, let me go into a little more detail. I’m sure that by the end of this article I’ll have you thinking just like me.

Let’s take a hypothetical example. Let’s say that you’ve decided to try article marketing in order to get traffic to your site. So you write a few articles, submit them to some directories and after doing this for a few weeks, you don’t see any results. You haven’t made one sale. Okay, so you try it a little bit longer but still don’t get any results. You’ve decided that article marketing doesn’t work and you give up. You sell your site and quit Internet marketing. Okay, in this case, you’ve failed. No question about it.

However, as long as you keep trying, every non positive experience is a lesson that brings you one step closer to success. For example, you decide that maybe you should get some instruction from experts on article writing. So you get a book or two. Suddenly, you’re actually getting people to go to your site because you have a better resource box than you did before. But you’re still not making any sales. Great, you know the articles are bringing traffic so the problem must be with your site.

Your next step is to get a hold of somebody who knows something about designing websites for the purpose of actually making some sales. You discover that your header isn’t attractive enough. You also find out that putting an opt in box on the site will help you build a list so that you don’t have to rely on the first visit turning into a sale. You neaten up your products page a bit to make it more attractive. Suddenly, you’re making a few sales. It’s nothing great, but you’re on your way.

Do you see where I am going with this? As long as you don’t give up, every thing that you do that’s wrong is one more bit of learning that helps you reach your ultimate goal of doing it right. Thomas Edison, when he was trying to invent the light bulb, failed about 1000 times before he stumbled onto the solution. When asked, he simply said that he discovered 1000 ways NOT to do it. He never considered it failing.

And either should you.

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.

So, you’ve written this really great article sharing all these fantastic tips. Now what? You want to finish your article with some kind of conclusion but don’t exactly know how to do it. No problem. In this article, I’m going to share three killer ways to finish any article that will have your reader following through to your resource box, site, or wherever you want to send them. Keep reading to find out how.

My most used technique is the summary. The summary is where you briefly touch on the points that you made in the main body of your article. For example, let’s say you wrote an article sharing three ways to promote your site online, touching on pay per click, article marketing and social networking. You could conclude your article with something like this.

“These are just three of the many ways available to promote your site online. But by concentrating on pay per click, article marketing and social networking, you will find three of the very best ways to generate traffic to your site.”

The above paragraph reinforces what you just told the reader and keeps it fresh in their mind. This is one great way to conclude an article.

Another great technique is by hinting to other possibilities that you didn’t cover in this article and give the reader some references that they can check to get more information. For example, for this same article on traffic generation, you could conclude with something like this.

“There are many other ways to generate traffic to your site that are beyond the scope of this article. If you’d like some more information on this topic, you might want to check out…”

And then give them a site or two to go to. If the sites are helpful, your reader will thank you for the additional information even though it wasn’t directly given in the article itself. This is a great way to turn what could have been a 3,000 word article into a 500 word article. This is another great way to finish your article.

Finally, you could really make your reader think. I do this by asking a question at the end of the article. For the above example, I might ask something like this.

“What do you think would be best for you, pay per click, article marketing or social networking? To answer this question, you have to look at your bank account and skills. If you have the money to spend, you might want to consider pay per click. If you’re good at writing, article marketing might be for you. However, if you are a social person and like to BS with people, social networking might be your thing.”

By doing this, you’re helping your reader come to a decision on what might be the best course of action for them.

There you have it. Summary, additional info or a final question are three great ways to finish your article and keep your reader interested.

They work very well if used properly.

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.

In my last installment of my “inside the mind” series, I showed you how I go about choosing a product. In this installment, I’m going to show you how I go about getting a product to review. This part of the process can make or break the whole thing. If you don’t get this right, you’re going to have a very hard time making the kind of sales that you could be making. So pay attention.

A lot of affiliate marketers think that product creators don’t like to give out free copies of their product. This is not true. If you can show them a genuine interest in their product, and demonstrate why you feel you’ll be a good affiliate, you can get products quite easily. Here is how I go about it.

First thing I do is contact the product creator personally. Finding an email address is not hard. Even if you have to contact their domain proxy, it will eventually get through to them. I tell the product creator who I am and show them some of my past accomplishments. In my case, it’s not too hard as I have a name that’s pretty well known. Still, not everybody knows me. I contacted one guy who was selling a real estate product who didn’t know me from Adam.

I then explain to the person that I want to promote their product but can only do it if I can review it. I then explain my theory as to why I feel product reviews are best for making sales, especially honest reviews. I specifically tell the person that I will not lie in the review and if I find the product not to be up to snuff, I will not promote it. This approach shows the product creator that I am serious about this and 9 out of 10 times, I’ll be given the product to review.

Now, I don’t do this personally because I use my own tools for promotion, but another thing you might want to do is ask the product creator if he has any promotional tools such as articles, AR series, banners and so on. This will further show him that you are serious about promoting his product. Ask him questions about his product. Be as specific as you want. The more interest you show, the better.

In my next installment, I’m going to show you exactly how to write that review once you’ve gotten a hold of the product.

See you then.

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.

A lot of marketers think that, in order to create a video that will bring in tons of cash, you have to script this elaborate production. Wrong! All you need is a camcorder of some kind to have the bucks come pouring in. Think I’m kidding? Well, after reading this article, you’ll realize how easy it really is.

Do you know what tomorrow is? It’s the day we’re going to have another solar eclipse, as of this writing anyway. So what’s the big deal? Well, I happened to run over to YouTube to look up solar eclipse and wouldn’t you know it, there were almost 3,000 videos having to do with a solar eclipse…many of them actual footage of one. And guess what? Some of these videos had monetization at the end of them. That’s right. Some guy with just a camcorder and a way to upload that video to the Internet is making money hand over fist.

The key to the whole process is finding a subject where all you have to do is go outside and take some movies where there is a market for that information. Off the top of my head, how about a movie of a guy hitting golf balls for a golf instructional video? Or how about going to the local bowling alley to take some shots of a guy tossing bowling balls for a bowling instructional video? Or baseball, or football, or any sport where the best instruction is video? All you need is your camera and somebody to demonstrate the correct technique for whatever you’re doing.

Let’s say you’re making a video to show the proper golf swing. As I said, you don’t need to script some elaborate production. A intro as simple as, “Here is the proper golf swing for a T shot using a 3 wood” will do the trick. Then just let the guy do his thing. The beauty of these type of videos is that they’re action videos and therefore, a lot of words aren’t needed. Just tell the viewer what they’re going to see and you’re done.

Video marketing for many topics can be as simple as just walking outside and letting your camera do the work.

And it doesn’t get any easier than that.

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