| You will accomplish your career goals much faster if you put yourself "out there." That's where you'll meet prospective partners/employers/proteges/vendors. One of the best ways is to attend industry trade shows. Yes, the formal aspects of these programs -- the speeches and the product presentations -- are often superfluous. But the networking that surrounds them can be invaluable. I am a reluctant show-goer. But every time I force myself to attend a trade show, I am rewarded. A trip several years ago to a health show resulted in a multimillion-dollar deal with a doctor/publisher I literally bumped into on the exhibition floor. A cocktail party in New Orleans led to a relationship that completely revolutionized the way I thought about a certain type of business. If you have ever attended an industry function, you know what I mean. You can't help but make some useful contacts and get some helpful ideas. So do something right now. Take a look at a trade publication for your industry. Check out the calendar of upcoming events. Pick one that offers you the best chance to meet as many people as possible. Book yourself an airline ticket. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Increase Your Wealth by Managing Risk Like the Pros Do - You can't take all the risk out of investing. But you can take much of it away. More important, you can remove the worst aspects of risk -- those that cause fear and result in bad investment decisions. ETR'S own Charles Newcastle has developed a quick and simple four-step "risk removal" system that could bring you 132%+ gains in a matter of weeks.
"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way." Edward de Bono An Online Marketing Tactic Powerful Enough to Move the World
By Brian T. Edmondson "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world," said Archimedes. But gaining a mechanical advantage isn't the only way to apply this powerful force. You may be more familiar with the use of leverage to get higher potential gains with an investment -- borrowing funds to expand a business, for example, or using options to control a stock. Simply put, think of leverage as a way to get more with less. In the case of online marketing, this means getting more products, traffic, and sales with less of your own time, energy, or money. Today, I'm going to share a powerful strategy you can use to add multiple products to your product funnel. The idea is to work once to create a product, and then leverage that product into several products with different formats and price points. It's a different approach to what most online marketers do. Most marketers start by creating an e-book as their front-end product. Then they create a midlevel product, perhaps an audio course. Then they create a high-ticket product, perhaps a video recording of a live event. Three different products, created on three separate occasions. I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like a lot of work. Using my strategy, you achieve the same goal with much less work. You start by creating a product at the high end of the funnel, then work your way down. Here's an example... - First, you record a video of a live event. That video is your high-ticket product.
- You then extract the audio from the video and turn it into your midlevel product, delivered through MP3 or audio CD.
- Finally, you have the audio transcribed and turn it into an e-book. That gives you a good low-ticket front-end product.
Right about now, you might be asking yourself, "Will people really pay more for the same information just because it's in a different format?" The answer to that is "Absolutely!" Take a look at the above example. A video of a live event can sell for anywhere from $297 to $497 -- even up to $997. Keep in mind that attendees of a live event can pay five to 10 times that amount. Why would they pay so much if they can get a video of the same event for much less? Because there is extra value in actually being there. The same is true of having video of the event instead of just the audio, or having the audio instead of just a transcript. People will pay more money for the same information if they get it in a format that adds something to the experience. Now, let's take this strategy one step further. - Instead of simply selling the video as your high-ticket product, you could package it into a home study course. This would include the video, the audio recording, and the written transcript. If you wanted to add a little more value, you could turn the transcript into a "workbook." You might call this your Platinum Level Package.
- Instead of simply selling the audio as your midlevel product, you could include the workbook and call this your Gold Level Package.
- Instead of simply selling the transcript, you could include the workbook and call this your Basic Package.
As you can see, all we've done is repackaged the same products to make them seem more valuable. However, we've still used the power of leverage by starting with the highest-level product and working our way down the product funnel. We worked once to create the original product. Then we created three separate products, in three separate formats, at three separate price points. Now that's what I call leverage! By the way, there are many other ways to leverage your existing content. Here are just a few ideas: - If you have a series of articles, turn them into an audio product by reading the articles into a microphone and saving them as an MP3.
- Take that same series of articles, combine them into a single PDF file, and make that a special report that you can give away or sell.
- You could even take your longer articles and break them down into smaller chunks to use as blog posts on your website.
The possibilities of leveraging content are really endless -- limited only by your imagination. So the next time you're thinking of developing a new product from scratch, think, instead, about how to get more from what you've already got. [Ed. Note: Brian Edmondson, successful Internet entrepreneur and online marketing expert, is the Director of the Internet Money Club. In IMC, Brian walks you through the process, step-by-step, of starting and growing your own profitable online business in just six months. We just opened the class of 2010, and spots are limited. If you're at all interested in making extra money -- or making a living -- online next year, go here.] -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Think You're Too Young (or It's Too Late) to Be Thinking About Financial Freedom? - You're wrong. In his book Automatic Wealth for Grads, Michael Masterson lays out a plan anyone can follow to achieve real, life-changing security...
Think about the term "financial independence." What does that mean? And why should you want it? Here are some possibilities: - You may want more freedom in your life -- more choice about where you live, how you live, how much you work, and so on.
- You may want more leisure in your life. You don't want to feel compelled to work 8 to 10 hours every day, or five or six days a week.
- You may want more tranquility in your life -- and end to the stress that lack of money sometimes causes. You want to be able to sleep easily at night and enjoy your days without worry.
These goals are all reasonable, laudable, and possible. And they are all attainable if you follow the advice in my book Automatic Wealth for Grads... and Anyone Else Just Starting Out.
Breathing is automatic and essential. Yet, most of us do not do it properly. This can be caused by, among other things, poor posture, stress, or a lack of exercise. Breathing incorrectly depletes your oxygen levels, taxes your immune system, decreases your energy, and allows toxins to accumulate in your body. So, how do you know if you are breathing properly? Place one hand on your abdomen and the other on your chest. Take a deep breath. If you feel your abdomen rise, you're doing it right. If you feel your chest rise, you are doing it wrong. If you've been doing it wrong, here's how to develop the habit of breathing properly: Two or three times a day, take a slow, steady, deep breath, inhaling through your nose and allowing your abdomen to expand. Then slowly expel all the air from your lungs. You will be amazed at how this simple exercise in deep and purposeful breathing will relieve tension, increase your energy, and generate a feeling of well-being. Convert 95% of Your Disgruntled Customers Into Satisfied Buyers
By Michael Masterson
If you're not convinced that customer service is an important part of your company's bottom line, consider these statistics from the Office of Consumer Affairs: - You'll hear nothing from 96 percent of your customers who received rude or discourteous treatment.
- Ninety percent of your customers who are dissatisfied with your service will not come back or buy from you again.
- Every unhappy customer will tell his story to nine other people.
- Of customers who do speak up, about 60 percent will do business with you again if their complaint is resolved. If it's resolved quickly, the figure rises to 95 percent.
The lesson: Make sure you have mechanisms in place for getting regular feedback from your customers. When they report a problem, resolve it immediately.
Latest News -
Already thinking of your New Year's resolutions? I hate to break it to you... but it's probably a useless exercise. Without a real plan, no big "change" will stick. But we do have someone who can help. His name is Bob Cox, and he's the founder of our Total Success Achievement goal achieving program. You'll be hearing a lot more about (and from) Bob in the next several weeks.
"That one has truly touched me." "I am writing to thank you for mentoring me in more ways than I can imagine since 2004, when I first subscribed to ETR. And thanks for the 'Thanksgiving' article. There are several others I've loved. But that one, coming from an American businessman, has truly touched me." Yvonne Mpanga Simwogerere
Kampala, Uganda
-----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended----------------------------------------------------- E-Mail Trash or Treasure Bob Bly wrote an e-mail in five minutes. It generated a $7,449 profit in a single week. Here's what he said...
The Language Perfectionist: In Its Way, It's a Frequent Error
By Don Hauptman
This is a "By Reader Request" column. Self-described ETR fan Peg Sausville writes to disclose her "biggest all-time pet peeve": mistakes that involve its and it's. "I see these errors every day -- on the Internet, in newsletter articles, in e-mail. Everywhere." Examples of such punctuation gaffes: "My cat is chasing it's [its is correct] tail again." Its [It's is correct] always sunny in Philadelphia. The word it's is a contraction of it is. The apostrophe stands for the missing letter. And its is a possessive personal pronoun that is not a contraction. Thus, it contains no apostrophe, although many people insist on inserting one.
If you're in doubt about whether to use the apostrophe, mentally substitute it is and see if the sentence is still intelligible. In Comma Sense, a fine guide to punctuation by Richard Lederer and John Shore, the authors cite these similar sentences with quite different meanings: A clever dog knows its master.
A clever dog knows it's master. To language sticklers, the abuse of apostrophes is especially irritating. A group of these curmudgeons even formed an Apostrophe Protection Society! Indeed, misuses abound, as I discovered when I saw this sentence recently on the menu of a popular fast-food chain: "Kid's make your own pizza." [Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]
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