|
Straight Talk - An Open Letter To You
Looking Into The Eyes Of The Dragon
by John Glube, © 2003 and forward, all rights reserved of
Head's Up - A Copywriter's Journal
Each of us has gone online for a reason. I am going to be presumptuous and say it is to make money. But sometimes we get lost, or there is something which is holding us back. Often, it is that little word - fear. So, I thought why not write about it and bring that old dragon right out into the open.
When you first started out online, you were probably excited, bewildered and confused. As time passes, you may find yourself getting bogged down in trying to make everything just right and as a result nothing ever happens.
Or, you may be concerned about how much money you are spending without seeing any real results.
How can you overcome these and other potential show stoppers? Let me make a couple of suggestions:
1. You can easily spend a lot of money online (I know!) and at the end of the day feel like you have just thrown your money away. To avoid this mistake, let’s set up a budget. (Sounds basic, but how many of us do that?)
2. Goals - a lot has been written on this topic. What I can tell you from personal experience is you need a plan. Where do you want to be in 6 months or 12 months time? Now, break the project down, into smaller bits. This way, instead of being overwhelmed, each day, you can tackle a bit at a time. Then follow through.
3. Guidance is often a major problem. You want to have people you can talk to on a regular basis. You need to be accountable to someone other than yourself. Without this you can easily get lost. Choosing your guide is often a problem. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad counsel floating around on the Internet. What do I suggest? Choose the tested and the true.
4. Do not be afraid to pick up the phone. As the old saying goes, let your fingers do the walking. You and I tend to hide behind emails and auto-responders. Yes, I appreciate one of the lures of doing business online is no selling, no recruiting, just money rolling in. But, ask yourself, how realistic is this?
Why do you choose to buy one product or service over another? 9 times out of 10, it is because someone told you about the book, the course, the manual, the program, the product, or the service. The person who told you was someone you knew and trusted. Now, I can hear you saying, I am not a name, how do I get people to trust me?
You need to develop a relationship with your contacts. So that ultimately someone who is a total stranger comes to treat you as her friend.
(As an aside, I use her instead of him for a number of reasons. Shock value, as it tends to startle the reader out of his complacency. But more importantly, according to recent studies, at least in the United States, women form the majority online today and guess what guys? Women tend to control the purse strings. So, working on the basis that you want to put yourself in the ‘shoes or your reader’, you may want to consider writing her instead of him.)
This means a couple of things. Do not try and sell the person with exaggerated statements or promises. Don’t recommend a product or service you have not used yourself. Be realistic in your statements. Write in a style which is personal, like you were writing to a friend.
And always remember to have fun while applying the three p's, patience, persistence and practice and it will happen.
Until Next Time:
"The only failure is never to have taken a risk at all. So, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go at it again. For, you will never know what you can do until you do it."
- the unknown Internet Warrior -
Click here for the article - "The FTC Made Me Do It - Publishing Ads In E-Zines"
--------------------------------
John Glube, Publisher and Editor of Head's Up, A Copywriter's Journal. Not yet subscribed to the Journal? To get the details, plus your Free Courses "Discover How Anyone Can Get More Buyers" as your reward and learn how you can place your 400 character business to business ad Click Here.
--------------------------------
|