CinchHomeBiz Successful Internet Business Blog

There is so much disinformation on this that I just have to weigh in. No doubt you've been told or read that you should create a fancy autoresponder sequence where each email builds upon the previous email. And that if you make it fancy enough, and complicated enough, you can get prospects to take any action you like, blah blah blah... But guess what? You don't know how people are going to respond to it. You can make a prediction, but your guess might be 180 degrees off. So now you've come up with an elaborate system that accomplishes nothing. More importantly, building a sequential series like sections of a story might have worked 10 years ago, but these days I guarantee that even your best customers will not read and digest every one of your emails. Some of your emails won't even get through, and many will be lost in a sea of OTHER emails from other marketers. No matter who you are or how famous you might be, not every message of yours will get read. Remember that. Th

Notice the headline doesn't say, “How to Create a Product and Sell It.” Frankly, that's exactly what most marketers do – they create a product without any thought to what the market wants, and then they try to figure out a way to sell it. Result? Most times: failure. To create a product that sells, you want to first identify a niche that's hungry, and then offer them whatever it is that they are hungry for. The hard work is in finding that target audience that is ready and eager to buy. Once you've done that, creating the product is the easy part, as well as the fun part because you know in advance that you are about to make money. So how do you identify a hungry niche? Here are keys to look for when investigating a possible market: Are they in pain? Are they seeking relief from that pain, and are they willing to pay for that relief? Do they have a problem? If so, are they willing to pay to get the solution to that problem? Are they seeking a specific pleasure? Are they

When someone asks what you do for a living – what do you tell them? That you own a business? That you write a blog? That you create products or build websites, or that you're a doctor or a lawyer or a plumber or a race car driver? I hope not, because while all those things are professions – they're still NOT what pays your bills. The only real answer to the question of what you do, regardless of what your profession is, is that you are a marketer! Your specialty is attracting new customers or clients, persuading existing customers to make larger and more frequent purchases, and ensuring that they continue to buy from you – forever. Your answer to “What do you do?” says a great deal about how YOU think about your business or job. If you're defining yourself by the service you provide or the products you sell, you're setting yourself up to lose business that otherwise could have been yours simply because your head is in the wrong place. Every business is first and foremos

Whether you're doing product reviews or simply sending traffic to an affiliate page, here are 5 ways to capture attention and get your prospects seriously interested in purchasing the product you're promoting... 1. Use screen captures . This might be of the vendor's website, the product itself, the download page, etc. Anything that helps your reader to see themselves on the page and buying the product. 2. Use a benefit picture . Depending on the product, you might be able to find a photo that depicts a benefit of using the product. For example, if it's an herbal supplement to provide energy, then a photo of a leaping, jumping or a somehow energized person may boost interest. 3. Use product pictures . If it's a physical product, by all means use photos provided by the vendor or ones you've taken yourself. If it's a digital product, only show the e-cover or product images if they look highly professional. 4. Show the data . Are there tables or charts on the sa

I mentioned in a previous article that you don't want to become one of those many one hit wonders that make a big splash on the Internet and then vanish – but how do you make sure that you're not? Because it's really easy to say you won't be, but the fact is that no one PLANS to be a one hit wonder; in fact it happens when you DON'T plan. I'm going to offer some tips here for ensuring that your success is not the flash in the pan variety, but rather the type of success that continues to pay off day in and day out for years to come. Really what we are talking about is becoming what you might call a “repeat success.” Because isn't that the opposite of being a one hit wonder? There is nothing at all wrong with that initial success – it's repeating that success over and over that gets you the outcome you're seeking. Sort of like being a one hit wonder a hundred or even several hundred times. And when you view it like this, you see that it becomes easier.

So you slaved over your latest blogpost – and nobody tweeted it or shared it on Facebook? Or perhaps you wrote a dozen new articles – and all you hear are the sounds of tumbleweeds drifting across your screen? It's harder and harder these days to capture attention – namely because attention spans are getting shorter as people are deluged with more and more things to watch/read/do. Here are some fast tips to make your writing – shall we say – more readable. Forget your honors English class and write like people speak . Not sure if you are? Try reading your writing out loud. If it's awkward or stilted, work on it. Break it up . Seriously. Ever get an email that's a one page paragraph? Could you read it? DID you read it? Hit the enter key like this. Often. Use subheads . People like to scan what they're reading, and if something captures their attention they dig deeper. That's why you want to add subheads to your blog posts and articles. Not Sure What A Subhead Is? It&

To make your email stand out and get it opened, make it clear that your email is useful to the reader, that it's specific to what they want or need to know, and that it is also unique. Here are a few additional tips to help ensure you get the most bang for your email buck... Identify yourself . Don't send an email from a generic name in the hope of confusing them into opening it – they'll just resent you for it. Use your own personal name. Always send your emails from the SAME name . You're building brand loyalty, even when that brand is you. So if you keep changing your “from” line, even if it changes from “Bob Smith” to “Robert Smith” to “Bob,” you're confusing your recipients. Don't pretend your email is what it's not . More and more we see emails that say, “Your order is complete” or “Here is your download link” something similar, when it's got nothing to do with anything the receiver ordered. This is spammy at best and downright deceptive at worst.

Has anyone ever told you to set goals? I know, silly question. People are always telling you to set goals because goal setting can and does work. But has anyone told you there is a right way and a wrong way to choose those goals? For example, you want to earn $10,000 a month so you set a goal to reach that $10,000 mark. So far so good, right? Actually, no, because this is what's known as a “static” goal rather than an action goal. Static goals sap your motivation because they're focused on outcomes that are, for the most part, outside of your control. Bottom line – they seldom work. Imagine you're in your living room and the house is a mess. You set a goal to have a clean, straightened, neat house in the next 2 hours. You visualize your house being clean, you look at pictures of your house taken when it was clean, you write down your goal, and 2 hours later? Your house looks exactly the same. Why? Because you didn't DO anything. You took no action because it was a stati

You already have a sign-up form on your website – but are you doing everything possible to get as many subscribers as possible? Here are 7 tactics for growing your list faster with simple things that only take a few minutes... Place your sign-up in as many places as possible – preferably on every page. You might also place it in the header or footer as well. Get in their face . Your opt-in form should be prominent, in bold colors, with background color, maybe animation, etc. Make the sign-up totally visible and eye-catching. Use pop-ups . Love 'em? Hate 'em? Either way, pop-ups just plain work. Test to see if it's best to use a pop-up that appears after a few moments, or when the visitor is leaving the page. Do not have the pop-up appear immediately when they get to your page – you'll just irritate your visitors and encourage them to click away. People need time to see if they like your website and if they want to subscribe. Sell it, baby! Don't just ask them to s

I don't need to tell you how important the conversion rate on your squeeze page is. The better it converts, the more prospects you get. The more prospects you get, the more sales you can eventually make. So how do you get your squeeze pages converting like gangbusters? Here are 13 things you should be doing on every landing page you create to ensure you're capturing every prospect possible: Know who you're talking to . On your squeeze page you are speaking directly to your prospective customer. So who are they and what do they want? You've got to know your customer and use the words and images that will appeal directly to them. Keep it simple . Really. I've seen squeeze pages that are cluttered with so much stuff you don't know what to look at first. So what happens? Rather than try to sort it all out, many people will simply close it. Remember, you've got about 3 seconds to capture attention and hold it. Keep the clutter out and only share enough to get the

There's always a lot of talk on how to recruit affiliates to promote your products, right? But what if instead of recruiting affiliates, you TRAIN affiliates? homebusinessideas.com/images/affiliatemarketingtraining.jpg" alt="How To Build Your Own Army of Affiliates"> That is, announce you're offering affiliate training once or twice a month, live on a webinar. The training is free, come one and come all. You put out the call, and then using your own products as examples, you train them in how to make money by promoting affiliate products, especially yours. This reminds your list month after month that they can make money promoting your stuff. It also builds loyalty, since you're giving free training on how to make money doing this. And it forges partnerships between you and your affiliates. When they can speak to you on the webinar, or at least ask their questions and hear your voice, you're building rapport. At the very least you will most certainly s

There's more to making money from your list than simply getting people ON your list. In fact, it's once they're on your list that the real work begins because you not only don't want them to unsubscribe – you want them to actively look forward to hearing from you, to open and read your emails, and to act on your suggestions. Your subscribers will stay on your list if you are giving them value in the ways that they need. Tricky, huh? Because how do you know what it is that they need? The answer is to create a feedback loop so they can tell what they want to learn and what they want to buy from you. This way you can design your products and services in a way that is exactly what your readers want. You can get this information by using a survey to ask them for their number 1 questions on the niches or topics your list covers. SurveyMonkey.com can do this for you free. Or you can write a blog post that asks readers to give you information on what they currently need. Be sur

Bloggers, email marketers, copywriters and writers of all genres, how do you keep your readers coming back for more? By utilizing that literary gem, the cliffhanger. I'll show you how to use cliffhangers and teasers to increase your sales, but first a little background... We've all been caught up in a story only to realize it was continued in the next chapter, installment, episode or issue. And wouldn't you know it, they ended the present installment right when something HUGE was about to happen! Coincidence? Not at all. When Dallas ended their season with “Who shot JR?” it was all people talked about for the entire summer. Heck, that was over 3 decades ago, and people still refer to it today. But what if they had shown you who shot JR before they ended the season? It's likely no one would even remember that JR got shot at all. Just this morning I was reading a work of fiction in which one of the main characters realized he was about to be ambushed when POOF! It was the

You don't need a humongous budget when you begin outsourcing, but what you do need is the knowledge of HOW to get the best online workers possible. After all, no matter how much work you outsource, it's still your business and your reputation on the line. Not to mention the fact that better work equates to better profits, both short and long term. Doesn't it just make sense to find the very best people possible to work in your business? Whether you are a seasoned pro at outsourcing or you've never hired anyone to do anything before, here are some proven tips to get you moving with the least amount of hassle and the highest return for your money. 1. Be absolutely clear on what you want done. Whether you are posting a job or giving instructions to someone you've already hired, tell them step by step exactly what you want them to do. This will save you time, aggravation, and usually get the job done faster. Plus the bids you receive will tend to be lower, since the peo

No doubt you've been told to avoid using “hype” in your copywriting and sales messages, right? And I'll bet there have been times when you've closed a sales letter page because the hype was too ridiculous for words. But when it comes to defining hype and especially to determining how much is just right, the water gets murky and no two marketers can give you the same answer. That's because “hype” is subjective. One prospect's perception of hype is another prospect's perception of just the right sales message to get them to buy. In addition, you need some hype to sell. No hype = no excitement, which means no sale. Here's what I mean: Sales message example #1: “This system is for sale for $33.33, here's the order button.” Now you've got to admit, that's hype free. It's also benefit free, boring and will capture the interest of just about nobody. Of course, if the system is already well-known and you're discounting it to 5 bucks, you've m

Regardless of what you're writing – a blog post, an article, a sales message, etc. - your copy should sound personal and relevant to the person reading it. You don't want to sound like you're writing a textbook to a class of students or a news article to the masses. Instead, your tone should be similar to a one on one conversation with a friend. So how can you achieve this? With a little research and a healthy dose of imagination. This is one of those tricks that natural writers do without thinking about, and the rest of us can learn with just a little practice. What you're going to do is create a “persona” of your ideal reader. For example, if you're writing a sales letter, your persona is the customer. Hopefully you have a good idea of who your customers are, and if not you might want to engage in some research to find out. Choose one customer: Someone who has purchased your products in the past and reads all your stuff. This person might be real or imaginary, it

When you’re struggling to write your latest blogpost, you probably don’t want to have to worry about SEO, too. There is one theory that says you shouldn’t. After all, if you start focusing on SEO, then you won’t be writing the best content possible for your audience. But is it really an either/or type of situation? It would be nice to get free Google traffic from your articles and blog posts without going crazy about how to structure your writing, what to add and what to leave out. With that in mind, here are a few tips from the pros on how to do exactly that: 1: Your Writing Needs to Be Excellent The content should be unique, high quality and written to professional standards. Do this, and Google will likely reward you. If any part of you is interested in buying those spun articles that were prevalent years ago – don’t even think about it. Don’t even consider using them simply to pad out your website – Google will look for them, Google will find them, and Google will penalize you for

This may or may not work for your list, but… It can be effective for most marketers. If you’re not getting the open rates you seek, try using a negative headline. For example, instead of… You’re going to love this product This works amazing and even does the dishes Having an awesome day, here’s why Try something more like these: You’re going to hate this product, here why… This SEO product sucks (it won’t even do the dishes) She was having a REALLY bad day (and then it got worse) Of course, they’re going to ‘hate the product’ because it does a lot of the work for them, and now they have nothing to do The SEO product sucks because ‘it said it does EVERYTHING,’ but all it does is get your site to Page 1. And she’s having a really bad day, and it’s not even her fault, because… (You fill in the blank.) Try using a negative headline of your choosing in 10% of your emails, and then compare open rates and click through rates. You might get some very positive results.

Blogging is a great way to grow your business and brand. Here's 7 tips to blog better... Use images . People are more likely to read your post if there is an eye-catching image to go along with it. Break your content up . Use a big headline, sub-headlines and short paragraphs to make it easy to read. Reply to comments . It shows you’re paying attention and you care, which will get more people to comment. Plus, it’s the right thing to do. Comment on other people’s blogs that are in your niche . This can drive traffic back to your blog. Use a P.S. as a call to action . Sometimes when you sell within a post, it annoys people. But no one is upset at a P.S. at the end that says, “Hey, go check out my related product here.” In fact, most people appreciate that. Link to relevant posts . You can do this within your post or at the end. Adding additional value to your blog posts by linking to related and supportive content can make your posts more valuable to others - which is the real goal

Almost nothing is better than having your own product because you not only keep 100% of the sale price when you sell it – you can also get affiliates to sell it for you, thus simultaneously building your list and bank account through the efforts of others. So how do you crank out products quickly and easily that people are hungry to buy? I've compiled a list of proven methods – and none of these should take you longer than 7 days, with most taking only a few hours. Interview an Expert. This is a super fast and easy way to create a product, and you don't need to have any expertise of your own. Instead you're “borrowing” the subject's knowledge and packaging it into a product. So where do you find these experts? Search Amazon for authors in your niche – authors are often eager for the chance to share their knowledge and plug their latest book, and so they're open to being interviewed. And on Amazon you can find an author on just about any niche topic you want to pur

Here’s an interesting case study from a guy in the US. It seems he’s something of a big name in his day job, so he wanted a way to make extra money online without ever revealing his real name. He’s found a twist on the marketing method we all know and love – list building – that gives him multiple streams of income in several different markets without ever creating a product of his own, blogging, dealing with affiliates or creating a big name in any of his niches. Here’s how it works: ‘Mark’ targets all of the usual niches – make money online, dating and romance, embarrassing problems, losing weight, golfing, stop smoking and so forth. If there is a niche with good money, he goes after it. His goal is to build lists in each of these niches, but he doesn’t do it in the usual manner. He finds his prospects in both the offline and online world, with the goal of collecting as much data on each one as possible. As you know, when you offer a free download in exchange for an email address, th

I’ve got a friend who has used this business model for years as a ‘side’ business. Funny thing is, his side business earns more than many full time businesses – about $10,000 per piece of software per year. And yes, he doesn’t own any of this software himself, which means he never has to deal with programmers or customer complaints that the software isn’t doing whatever it should be doing. Here’s how it works: Find free software that people use – for example, cloud storage, help desk software, popular WordPress plugins, membership software and so forth. You might want to concentrate just on software that is used in the online marketing world, or you could branch out into other niches. You’re looking for software that is somewhat popular, but ideally it’s not all that simple to use. Anything come to mind? Forums are a good place to search. Look for a number of posts from people all looking for help with the same software, and you’ve found a winner. Now then, you can either do the next s

I’ve seen this time and again. Someone builds a nice little site, or product, or some sort of residual income stream. Then they spend their time tweaking it and trying to increase the income from it. They’re good at SEO and so they tweak and tweak and tweak to make the most money possible from that asset.   Good so far, right? But there comes a point of diminishing returns. The site or product or whatever is making $1,000 a month.   And after hours and days and weeks of tweaking, the site is now making $1,100. But here come the monthly bills (mortgage, car, insurance, etc.) and the bills are far more than $1,100. So, what’s a marketer to do? Sell the asset, of course. You might get $3,000 to $5,000 for this asset, depending on what it is and so forth. Now they have the bills paid and maybe go on a bit of a spending spree, but no asset and no residual monthly income. Of course now they have to do it all again – build an asset, tweak it and wind up having to sell it to pay bills. Did you