Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Top Misc Content on Internet

Top Misc Content on Internet

Bridging Loans - Buy Yourself Some Time

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

Bridging Loans provide instant finance that allow you to complete large transactions, whilst alternative financial arrangements can be concluded.

Do I Need a Good Credit Rating to Take Out a Debt Consolidation Loan?

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

Not sure if your credit rating needs to be in line to take out a debt consolidation loan? Let us fill you in...

Knockout Thank You Notes

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

This articles describes the importance of giving thank you notes to potential employers after an interview.

Simple Guide to Used Car Insurance and Finance

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

Car insurance and car finance are the two key elements of the Indian car industry. When it comes to buying a used car, these elements significantly reduce the burden on the buyer's pocket and heart as well.

Perfect Dress for an Interview to a Top Kolkata MBA School

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

The article talks about how one should dress up when appearing for an interview at a top Kolkata MBA School.

Fast Secured Loans

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

Applying and getting a secured loan approved is extremely easy and much faster nowadays. Let us discuss about these loans.

Debt Settlement - Exactly How to Get Through This Process and Be Debt Free in no Time at All!

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

No one needs to tell you that getting yourself into debt is an incredibly easy thing to do. When you find yourself unable to meet the monthly minimum payments on your credit cards, and you keep seeing your balance rise higher and higher because of late fees, increased interest rates and over-limit fees, it may be time to consult a debt reduction specialist.

Bankruptcy - All You Needed to Know

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

If you are unable to fill your financial obligations you might be required to fill for bankruptcy. Discover most relevant aspects of this state of being unable to repay the taken loans.

How to Choose a Chinese Website Translation Agency

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

Tips on choosing a Chinese website translation agency.

The Truth behind Special Tax Debt Relief for Single Moms

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

It is true that there is some special privilege for single moms on tax debt relief. And it's not so secret actually; this has existed for a while now. This is maybe because nobody cares except single moms who ask IRS about this. However, what makes it so special?

The Buck Stops Here: Owning the Results

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

The buck stops here means accepting responsibility for a situation and its results. Managers, who own their results, both good and bad, lead by example and motivate their employees to own their work. This article explores President Harry Truman's concept and how we can apply it to our daily business.

Getting a Casino Tax Rebate

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

Dealing with the IRS is difficult and can be very confusing for those who live in the US, let alone those who are not even citizens. This is why it is important to hire a refund management company to help you get the money back that is due you from this taxing entity.

Tax Debt Relief - Some Facts about Outstanding Tax Debts

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

To most people who are facing large debt problems, reducing the amount owed is a great help. However, this can be impossible with IRS because the agency will try to collect what you owe in full or through a payment plan.

Tax Debt Relief - Hiring Only a Legitimate Firm or Tax Professional

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

Why should you wait until the IRS finds you? Getting tax help is now easier with the many companies offering debt relief. There are also many tax professionals and lawyers who can help you when it comes to settling tax dues.

Tax Debt Relief - Federal Tax Amnesty

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 09:00 PM PST

Are you familiar with the Federal Tax Amnesty? This is an offer given to taxpayers who voluntarily pays tax dues. In this offer, the criminal charges and penalties can be forgiven.

Using SCAMPER to Generate Article Ideas

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 09:02 PM PST

SCAMPER is an acronym for a set of actions that force you to ask yourself certain brainstorming questions. The letters of SCAMPER stand for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify, Put to Other Uses, Eliminate, and Reverse. You can perform any of these actions on any component of any product or process.

Customer Feedback & Ideas for PoppyCopy

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 02:59 PM PST

Triond ~ Publish Writing, Poetry, Music, Video & Content Online

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 01:36 PM PST

20 Tips on How to Write for the Web | Webdesigner Depot

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 01:19 PM PST

Seed.com ~ Where Your Content Flourishes

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 01:16 PM PST

It's simple. You create it. You're heard. You earn.

A List Apart: Articles: Words that Zing

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 12:32 PM PST

Buy Website Content, Order Articles - Constant Content

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 11:46 AM PST

A List Apart: Articles: Words that Zing

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 11:12 AM PST

Home | Content Science

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:13 AM PST

found via: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/words-that-zing/

A List Apart: Articles: Words that Zing

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:07 AM PST

A List Apart: Articles: Words that Zing

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:05 AM PST

Nice article about content and web

Your First Week of Blogging – Write Compelling Content

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 07:41 AM PST

A List Apart: Articles: Words that Zing

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 07:04 AM PST

Power Article Rewriter

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 04:52 AM PST

Five “Old School” Tactics That Can Ruin Your Sales Page

Posted: 17 Feb 2010 06:05 AM PST

image of old school bus

Do you despise long sales letters, yellow highlighters and blood-red, hype-laden headlines?

These tried and true copywriting tactics are proven winners at converting “cold” traffic into paying customers – and $10,000-a-page copywriters use them without hesitation because they appeal to the baser instincts of the easily swayed. They may be embarrassing to look at, but historically, they’ve just plain worked.

But if you’re a Third Tribe type of marketer, you’re in a quandary because you know these push-comes-to-shove sales page tactics just won’t work in your case.

They won’t work for you because you won’t be able to sleep at night. They won’t work for your audience either, because they’re smart and savvy, and they’ll lose faith in you and go off in search of someone more professional.

But these cheesy tactics are tempting nonetheless, because you’ve seen them on pages that you know are converting a lot of customers. Against your better instincts, you might feel a pull to use just one or two of them to stack the deck in your favor – especially if your current page isn’t converting as well as you’d hope.

There’s good news, though – you don’t have to sell your integrity to sell more of your products. All you need to do is learn how to use some semantic aikido to harness the power of these psychologically effective strategies – all the while saying “hold the cheese.”

Let’s take a look at 5 “hard sell” tactics and apply some Third Tribe magic to make them feel better for you and your future customers.

The “Everything Will Be Better In A Week” Tactic

You see this one all the time, online or off. Online it’s usually “Give me 7 days and you’ll have a horde of customers trampling each other to give you their money!” Offline it could be more subtle, such as the SlimFast slogan “Give us a week – we’ll take off the weight.” The promise is significant (as it should be in a headline) but it’s not realistic.

Sure, it works on those desperate for results, and that’s why it will never go away. But your customers are smart enough to know that they can’t really get those results, and that hurts your credibility. They know they’re not going to go from zero to $20,000 in a week or go from a complete unknown to A-list blogger in 7 days, no matter what people tell you.

But it still works on the easily swayed, because they’re desperate for results. Your audience may be desperate as well, but they’re just too darned smart to fall for the idea of an “instant solution.” So what can you do?

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of promising instant victory over a situation, promise them immediate progress instead. For example, “Give me 7 days, and you’ll have a detailed and doable plan of action for getting more customers in the door this month.”
You’re still making the implicit promise of getting more customers, but you’re explicitly promising something more realistic in the short term – a sense of certainty about what actions to take next. That’s what gets product sold while protecting your credibility.

The “Set It On Autopilot” Tactic

I’m seeing this more and more online, and I’m sure you are too – phrases like “The Lazy Marketer’s Guide To Building an Email List” or “(result happens) automatically while you sleep!” Again, this tactic works on the easily swayed, because they are likely to, well, be pretty lazy people. They don’t want to do the work. They want to push that big red magic button and get their results.

But when you’re pitching to a more savvy, successful audience, this tactic backfires almost immediately. They know that success takes hard work (because they worked hard to be successful!) and that there’s very, very little in life that falls into the “set it and forget it” realm. And beyond that, they know if something seems “too easy” it’s either not legit or something that's bound to be ineffective.

But in reality, there may be things about your product or service that for the most part have a “hands-off” aspect (for example, building a fantastic landing page that brings opt-in subscribers to your list day in and day out). How do you position these types of things without resorting to cheesy language?

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of using words like “lazy way,” “autopilot,” or “does the work for you,” focus on how this aspect of your offer is truly something that streamlines a process that your reader knows is time or effort-intensive. Then follow up with the measurable benefit they receive.

For example, an email autoresponder service that “pulls in new subscribers like clockwork” sounds corny. But a service that automates opt-in form creation and has reporting statistics frees you from coding so you can spend that time tweaking forms for higher conversion.

Now you’re talking about automating one aspect so you can redirect time to higher-value activities … and that kind of benefit-driven description makes for a stronger selling point.

The “You’re Lucky I’m Talking To You” Tactic

This off-putting tactic is a staple of someone following the heavy-handed marketing techniques that by and large, have worked on the easily swayed in the past. You’ll see it in phrases like “At my normal hourly rate of $2,000/hour (if you could even get me!) …” and implies authority (based on the price) and a tension-inducing scarcity of the marketer’s time.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with stating your rates – mine are fairly high, and I use them as a selling point – but when you use it as the predominant selling point, it can work against you. This is especially true if you bring it all up before you’ve made your other, more significant selling points. And talking about how you don’t have time for clients can come off as reputation-diminishing bragging.

Savvy audiences don’t fall for this – they know that bragging is usually a sign of insecurity. And who wants to buy from someone who’s working so hard to try and impress you?

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of leading with how in-demand you are and how expensive your rates are, save this selling point until later and gently position it in terms of the overall value you’re presenting and how the delivery medium causes a change in pricing.

There’s nothing pushy about saying “This workshop represents what I would cover in a ten hour, $2,500 one-on-one consulting package. But since I can only offer a large package like that to so many people, I’ve distilled those ten hours of consulting into a self-paced workshop that you can purchase for $197.”

With this approach, you’re not making a in-your-face statement that can turn off savvy customers, but you are effectively communicating the true value of what you’re offering in a way they can respect.

The “You’re Dead Meat If You Don’t Buy” Tactic

Since fear-based selling can be such an effective tactic, marketers often paint a post-apocalyptic picture of what will happen if you don’t buy their products. You may be told your business will fail, your competitors will eat your lunch and your spouse will leave you for a smarter, younger version of you who knows these “insider secrets.”

The idea is that if the sense of panic can be cranked up, the urgent need to find a solution will appear. And in 99 cases out of 100, you’ll find that same marketer telling you that only their product can save you from certain doom.

You’re too smart for this “Chicken Little” sales tactic, and since your customers are too, you need an approach that can boost the feelings of urgency and desire without resorting to panic.

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of saying “all is lost” and pulling out the melodrama, paint a picture of how a particular product will be harder to solve without your product (and easier with it).

For example, you could say “It’s certainly possible to network with other savvy online business owners simply by participating in blog comments and using Twitter, but that can be a slow process with uncertain results. Being in the Third Tribe forums, however, means you’re immersed in the highest concentration of willing-to-network entrepreneurs you’re likely to find on the Internet – and that can take your business to the next level much faster.”

Could you write an effective sales letter without this tactic? You could, but you’d have to work a lot harder. (Get it?)

The “There’s No Good Reason Not To Buy” Tactic

I recently read a sales letter with this message at the bottom and shook my head, knowing that a few easily swayed individuals would fall for it. Certainly, it stands to reason that this line could work, because it’s one of those “proven” staples of a “good sales letter.” But it falls flat when selling to a savvy reader. (Which is a shame, because this marketer had a relatively savvy audience).

Why is it such an off-putting phrase? For starters, it’s insulting. It implies that whatever reason you have for not buying isn’t a reasonable one, and calling your potential (and intelligent!) customers unreasonable is a sure way to lose the sale – especially since the marketer doesn’t even know the objection.

And that’s where it gets embarrassing – because when readers realize they do have valid objections, it’s the marketer who looks foolish. Goodbye sale.

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of trying to push your customers into this kind of hard-line close, do a little up-front research and discover as many potential objections as you can. Take each one and build a pre-emptive response into your sales letter.

For example, if price is an objection, remind them of how your product can pay for itself quickly. If satisfaction is an objection, re-emphasize how strong your guarantee is. The more thoroughly you defuse potential objections before the close, the less you have to work to close the sale.

And instead of bullying customers into having “no good reason not to buy,” you’re reminding them of all the very good reasons they have to give your product a shot.

What’s Your Sales Page Personal Pet Peeve?

These are only five old-school tactics that make your sales page unattractive to the Third Tribe type of customer – and as a savvy entrepreneur you’re likely to have your own set of sales page elements that drive you crazy. Share them in the comments below – and if you don’t mind, briefly tell us what you see as the “Third Tribe” alternative.

About the Author: Dave Navarro is a product launch manager who proudly wears his Third Tribe colors – and invites you to join the thousands of people who have downloaded his free workbooks in the Launch Coach Library (no opt-in required). There’s really no good reason not to. ;)

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