You have traffic coming to your website. People are seeing your ads, your product. You’re great at writing headlines, and your product is well presented throughout your salesletter.

Now it’s time to turn your site visitors into buyers and get them to cough up some of their hard earned cash. It’s time to earn money online and close the deal!

In traditional offline sales, face-to-face, closing the sale can’t happen if it’s never attempted. Rule #1 when it comes to closing the sale, or “call to action” - it must exist! You can not simply leave your salesletter (and your prospective buyer) hanging on the product benefits, the sales pitch, an order button and expect to earn money online. You’ve got to have a call to action. Demand action…make it attractive…make it essential.

You’ve seen the routine on every infomercial you’ve ever watched on television…

“Operators are standing by … call NOW!”

Don’t wait.  Quantities are limited.  The next 12 callers receive a “special bonus”.  Yippety-do-da! Sound familiar?

Listen, as every good copywriter will tell you:  you must create a sense of urgency in your call to action.  In other words, you don’t want anything to stand in their way of making the decision to buy…NOW! You may have only one shot at getting their business and make money…

You’ve got their attention…NOW, so you want them to make their decision to buy… NOW.

Perhaps the best way to get people to buy now is to enforce some kind of cut-off date or limit which makes it essential to purchase quickly to take advantage of a discounted price, bonus incentive, or limited quantity.

Special Price: By offering a discounted price to those who purchase within a specific time-frame (or to a limited number of people… I.E.  The first 50), you create a sense of urgency, close more sales and make more money.  This is even more effective if you are offering a high quality product at a premium price, than if you were offering a product in the $20-30 range.

Extra Incentive: You also may consider offering an extra bonus to those who order within a specified time or specific number. For example:  If your product is about teaching people “how to earn money online with blogs” you might state, “The first 50 people who purchase will receive a special report that shows you step-by-step how to setup your autoresponder to help build your list…”

Availability or Restriction: Another option is to eliminate the special report from circulation after a specific date, or after a certain number of units are sold. Yet another strategy is to take your special report off the market for an unspecified period of time.  In other words, you “retire” the report for 3-5 months and then bring it back afterwards.

Or better yet, you can even add more “updated information” to your report and convert it into an even bigger product.  Another suggestion is to no longer offer the report at your site, but only make it available as a backend product to a second report you create later.

For a restriction to work it must appeal to your readers interests, such as “earn enough for one last vacation before the holidays”, or “earn more money for Christmas presents before Santa arrives!”, etc.

The point is this, you must create a desire to act now, to buy now. If your prospective buyer have read to the end of your salesletter…they’re interested! So close the deal, ask for the sale! If you expect to earn money online with your call to action, you’ve got to have one, right?

Listen, if you’ve created a product that you believe in, then you’re justified in asking them to buy…demand that they buy…NOW! You’re not a thief, or a liar. You’re simply making it wiser to act now than to wait until later.

Perhaps that sums it up best… making it wiser to act now than to wait until later… when it’s too late

Now that you’ve begun writing articles and submitting them to the article directories, it’s time for you to start promoting them. Even though it’s a good thing that you’ve got your marketing articles scattered around the web for others to read, to get the most of out of your marketing efforts, you must also promote. There are five simple steps you can take to ensure you get more exposure for your articles:

1. Tweet!  - It’s easier than ever to let people know when you’ve posted a new article, simply by tweeting the link to your followers on Twitter. If the post really rocks, then there’s a good chance it will get retweeted by your followers. Keep your tweet short and sweet, the topic and the link will work just fine. Also, keep the characters below 120 so people have room to retweet your message without it getting cut off.

2. Post Articles To Your Blog – When posting to your blog, post a snippet of the article you wish to promote and not the full article. For example, “If you liked this blog post on driving more traffic to your site, be sure to check out: “How to Increase Blog Traffic in 3 Easy Steps!”, and then link to the page.

3. Article Reprint Page – Create a separate page on your blog or website, and include articles there with permission to reprint. Then, link to the reprint page from the main page with a sentence saying: “Want more information on increasing traffic to your site, or would you like to reprint my articles on your site? Click here for more information.” Then include links to all your articles, as well as information of how people who are interested in using your material can contact you for more information.

4. Article Linking – Tell your readers about additional information you have available as often as possible. This is another good reason to have multiple marketing articles out on the web – you can mention one in your newsletter, another on your Facebook page, another in your signature line with your emails, another in forums, and so on. When you create targeted, relevant content, people will take notice and seek you out!

5. Republish Content – Once you’ve published 10 or more articles on a similar topic, edit them to flow from one to the next, then combine them into an e-book or a special report. Again, add additional information so it transitions well, or “bridge the gap” so to speak, and use and site your resources well.  Once you’ve finished, you’ve got an instant info product you can either give away or sell!

Writing articles and submitting them to the directories is just the beginning of increasing your online exposure. Think from your potential readers point of view, and about how they would like the information you’ve written, and of how you can get it to them. Done correctly, and you’re well on your way to creating a steady stream of traffic to your web site…FREE!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this post, until next time…

Blessings to you and yours!

James

*Warning: This post may contain words or phrases offensive to some.*

I received this UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email, aka Spam) message at my inbox this morning; one of several that periodically manage to get past my security software, it doesn’t happen very often but occasionally one will slip thru. What I’d like for you to take from this post today is how NOT to do business online, as well as a few pointers of how to do business online.

Let’s roll…

I’m sure by now you’ve received your share of crap like the following email below: (copied & pasted email as sent to me, edited to protect the goofballs that sent it!)

—————————————————————————-

“From: payments@easy…….biz.com - Subject: eCheck payment in progress”

“Notification of payment received floods in my inbox after using this Plug-n-Play Software that pulls instant profits! (Oh now I see, you mean the subject line was about you and not me. How clever – loud vomiting sound)

Hi (First clue, they don’t know my name!)

Do you need Instant Cash this week? (Uh, duh!)

URGENTLY Download this software that makes me $4793.65 in 24 Hours! (What they’re not telling you is, it took them years before they started making this - if they truly do at all!)

It’s Easy To Make Money Everyday From Home With This Software…Even If You’re Starting From Scratch With Zero Knowledge, Experience Or Budget! I’ll Show You Exactly How. (Is it me, or do you smell snake-oil too?)

Click Here for Instant Access!

These are just a few of the benefits: (Trust me, these are not benefits!)

NO Advertising required (BS!)

NO Affiliate Marketing (More BS!)

NO Selling required (Even more BS!)

NO Additional Costs involved (And lastly, more BS!)

So, How Does This Work? (Not like they’re telling you, I promise!)

It’s simple and takes just 15 minutes to complete. (And a lifetime to try and make money with!)

This program is hands free (only if you don’t have any) once you have it setup you never need to touch it again (see first parenthesis). Just wait for the checks to come every month and enjoy! (OMG, I can’t wait. Sign me up now!)

Click Here for Instant Access!

To your success, (LOL)

(Name removed to save them the embarrassment)

http://Instant………co.cc (another clue)

If, at any time, you wish to be deleted from our system, you may unsubscribe here.” (Link didn’t work)

- end of email, thank God! -

——————————————————————————–

So, what’s wrong with this, you may ask?

Well for starters, I can assure you beyond any reasonable doubt, I did not subscribe to this person’s list. In fact, once I traced the email back to its original source, note the ‘co.cc’ ending at the end of the URL, I saw who it was from… A spammer! But even more importantly, the subject line and the email address from which it is sent is misleading at best, not to mention false advertising.

Listen, if someone has to resort to using “payments” as a prefix to their email address, and then try to hook someone into opening their email by “informing” them that they have an eCheck payment in progress, then they are either inexperienced, stupid, desperate or all three! Anyone with any sense at all knows exactly what this type of email and, uh, “business” is about…

Get-Rich-Quick!

In other words, people who are too lazy to get off their butts and make it happen and build a legitimate online business that serves other people’s interests and solves a problem. Forgive me, please. I’m doing my best not to offend anyone, and if you’ve bought into this type of business model or system, then please, do you, me and everyone else online a favor and get out of it ASAP.

Listen, please. There is no such thing as getting rich quick, with little or no effort, and especially without having to invest in your business. Ain’t gonna happen, not now, not later, not ever! Now, do you want to know how to do business the right way online?

Okay, I thought you would

It’s as simple as this…

These three things are what you need to succeed with an online business:

1. You need a legitimate product and/or service to sell

2. You need a hungry crowd of people who want to know more about what you’ve got to sell, and

3. You need a place for these two to meet… A website and/or blog!

In other words: Product+Website+Traffic = Sales

And sales, done correctly, lead to even more sales, more profits and a better lifestyle. However, what you do not want to do is Spam people who did not ask about your business, and who will only get pissed-off by this and then tell all their friends. The end result, we all end up looking bad.

Doing business right also means…

When building your list, be sure to attract only those people with whom you have an interest in. Be specific in who you target as a market to service. Swap the shotgun approach with a sniper-rifle approach. Don’t get me wrong, you first want to pick a BIG market of people proven to spend money, such as: Golfers. Then you want to whittle it down to Golfers within a specific age range, lefties vs. righties, etc; etc.

Next, collect name and emails with minimal or no opt-in incentive. Listen, I know this sounds contradictory to what most everyone else online teaches. However, when you send out your first email, your first follow-up email after opt in, send them an unadvertised bonus along with that email.

Why is this important? Because it was unexpected, and it’s like a present delivered to their doorstep! When your brand new reader opens their very first email from you – not fully knowing whether to trust you or not - bam! (nod to Emeril) you just exceeded their expectations and helped to build trust and credibility with an unexpected free bonus. This is not rocket science, this is just good ‘ol fashioned business where you let your actions and your content speak for itself.

Lastly, always ensure that your products & services match your readers needs, and solves a problem they are facing. Let me ask you a question: “What business are you in?” Seriously, what business do you believe you’re in?

Affiliate Marketing?

Nope!

Internet Marketing?

Uh, uh…

Making money online?

No again!

So, what business are you in? You are in the problem solving business. That’s it!

Think about this. If what you are doing with your online business does not solve another person’s problem, and offer up a solution to that problem, then what are you doing? Nothing, that’s what! Sure you may feel good about what you’re doing with your blog, and we all enjoy the many friends and relationships we build online; and that’s okay if that’s the reason you’re online. But if you want to make money online, then you are in the business of solving other people’s problems.

The correct way to do business online, is: work only with those individuals with whom you wish to work with, and build trusting relationships by offering information, products and services that solve your readers problems. And, by sending only those emails and related materials to those who have asked for it, and have given you permission to do so. Anything less than this, and your doing you and your readers a disservice.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post, until next time…

Blessings to you and yours!

James

~+~

Now that you’ve got your blog up and running, it’s time to start making some money on the internet. All you’re missing now is traffic. No traffic = no money! And like most all of us using blogs to make money online, you’d probably like as much of your web site traffic to be free and not the paid stuff. 

Almost anyone can cough-up a couple hundred dollars in PPC advertising to get more traffic to their blogs. Seriously, if you throw a brick into the pond more than likely it’s gonna get wet, right? The problem is, most people either can’t afford to or simply will not invest in pay-per-click advertising. Why pay if you don’t have too, right?

So the question remains: “How can I get more traffic to my blog for free?” Perhaps the most successful way to increase traffic to your site is with article marketing. Simply write an article something like this one here, submit it to several of the preferred article directories, people read it and visit your blog. Presto, Chango… You’ve got free traffic!

There are a few article marketing pointers you need to learn first, but you don’t need a Degree in English to write quality articles that will increase traffic to your blog. Take this article for instance. Do you see anything “extraordinary” about my writing style? Not at all, I’m just an ordinary guy with an extra-ordinary attitude! And if I can do this, so can you.

What you need more than anything else to be successful at article marketing, is a belief in yourself, and an ability to convey a simple message in as simple a manner as is possible. A couple other things you need to know is:

• Focus on your reader
• Choose topics you’re familiar with
• State your point in the first sentence
• Stay on topic (focus) and
• Leave your readers hungry for more!

There’s no “big secret” when it comes to making article marketing work for you, but there is a learning curve involved. However, since article marketing costs you absolutely nothing, any blog traffic you do get is better than none at all! Well, I lied, there is one secret…

You have to stick with it!

Listen, if you write and submit just ten articles you will see a bump in traffic to your blog. However, the longer your articles “stay out there”, the better you get and the more you submit, the more traffic you’ll begin to see. Now, do you have to slave away at your computer keyboard eight hours a day? No, you do not!

On average I spend about 5-7 hours a week writing articles to submit to directories. I’m not a super article marketing freak dorked out on caffeine either! I simply plan (think) ahead what I’m going to write about, I then sit down to write with a timer set to go off in 45 minutes, and I rock & roll until the timer goes off! After an hours time is up, I usually have at least 2-3 articles that I can “pull” from my speed writing content.

One important note to make here is, I do not try to edit or make corrections until that timer goes off. Then for the remaining 15 minutes in the hour, I edit, make corrections and review for punctuation, etc.  I most often do all my article writing in one day, but you can stretch it to two, or three when you’re first getting started. Then after you start getting better, do your best to cut it down to no more than 2 days, and preferably only one day.

Here’s another pointer, this is MY routine, it does not have to be your routine! The most important thing to remember about article marketing, and writing articles in general, is that you have to do what works for you; and that the end result is what you wanted to happen to start with. Listen, if you can only write two or three articles a week to start, that’s ok, you’ll still get some much needed free traffic. Just keep plugging away, find your writer’s groove, and stick with it!

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post, until next time…

Blessings to you and yours!

James

PS: If you’re struggling to come up with good quality content for your blog, check this out…

When it comes to writing articles, there is unlimited subjects that you can choose to write about. However, in order for your articles to achieve the best results, your articles must address the needs of your audience. For instance, if your online business targets stay-at-home moms, who want to start a work-at-home business, then you’ll want to write articles that illustrate your expertise in this area.

By targeting your readers interests and solving their problems, your readers are more likely to click on the link in your resource box once they’re finished reading your article.  For example, writing articles for parrot lovers when your target market is work-at-home moms who want to make money working from home makes no sense. If you want to get the best results from your article writing efforts, then stay on topic and add something of.

Perhaps one of the best explanations I’ve heard on writing articles was by Jimmy D. Brown, who coined the term “Useful But Incomplete”.  What Jimmy meant by this, was that your articles must be “useful” to your readers - but at the same time - “incomplete” in that they should leave your reader hungry for more information from you. This is why your resource box is so important, it is your readers link to you and… more great information!

Another key ingredient to writing successful articles is Quality. Listen, anyone can throw together a couple of sentences, combine a few paragraphs, and then paste on a resource box and call it an article. However, this “slop & drop” writing method is not very likely to produce the results you seek. Quality content is the key to your success as an article writer.

Online article directories can be some of the best examples of poorly written articles. Inferior article directories are crammed full of junk articles, many of which have been written by writers who are not native to the country they are writing for. If writers aren’t familiar with the language and customs, and who may not understand proper grammar or sentence structure, are doing more harm than good for themselves and to the article directories to which they post. Using such shoddy marketing methods will not help your article marketing efforts, and will likely brand you as unprofessional and harm your reputation as a online business owner.

Most editors in search of quality content would rather look to an expert on EzineArticles.com or LadyPens.com with only 10 high-quality articles, than one with 500 garbage articles. When editors and readers see garbage articles, they automatically assume that everything else that person does is garbage. This is NOT a great way to build a business!

When you provide well-written, relevant and quality content that provides your reader an answer to their question, or gain new insight and understanding of a subject they’re interested in, you’ll establish yourself as an expert and advance your article marketing efforts, and your online business. Like Grandma always said: “Son, if you’re gonna do something, you may just as well do it right the first time.”

Until next time,

Blessings to you and yours!

James

If you’re writing articles to increase traffic, but not finding any success in doing so, you might not be doing it correctly. Almost anyone can write articles, but writing ones that drive targeted traffic to your website is the challenge. How do you interest potential customers in what you have to say? And, once they are interested in your article, how do you drive them to your site and possibly convert them into customers? The following are some tips that will help you to master the art of article marketing.

(1) Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What information about your product or service would be helpful to your customers? If you were your customer, what types of things would you want to learn? Write about those things. Answering frequently asked questions, or solving problems that your target market is likely to have, will make you look like an expert in the eyes of your reader, and people are more likely to buy from someone they view as an expert in their field.

(2) Find the keywords that your clients will likely search for when looking for information on your product or service. Even if your website doesn’t rank well with the search engines, an article that makes good use of keywords might. Be sure that your keywords appear frequently in your article without reducing the quality of the writing.

(3) Don’t misspell or misuse words. Use a spellchecker and a dictionary. In particular, watch for frequently misused words that might not get picked up by a checker, such as “there” versus “their”, and “then” versus “than”. An article that is littered with misspelled or misplaced words will not look professional and this will reflect on you. If there are multiple mistakes within an article, readers will view it as poor quality and will not value its content, even if it contains high caliber information. Also, a well written article is much more likely to be picked up by individuals looking for quality content for their ezines and newsletters that could potentially be sent out to hundreds or even thousands of readers.

(4) Have someone proofread your articles. Proofreading your own articles simply is not enough. Often you miss typos and errors because your mind knows what is supposed to be written, and thus overlooks mistakes. Have a trusted friend or colleague proofread your article and ask them for feedback. They may be able to point out things that you haven’t made clear, or things that you hadn’t thought of mentioning. If you don’t know anyone willing to take on this task, consider outsourcing. Many Virtual Assistants offer proofreading and editing as a service.

(5) Use a thesaurus. Frequently repeating the same words throughout your article will make it seem as though little thought or effort went into its creation. You don’t have to litter an article with big words in order to sound intelligent, in fact the easier the article is to read, the better, but at the same time, it shouldn’t be dull. Repeating the same words again and again simply makes for a monotonous read.

(6) Practice makes perfect. The more you write, the easier it becomes and before you know it, the words will flow.

Using some or all of the above advice, almost anyone can find success through article marketing. A well written and informative article will drive highly targeted traffic to your website. Combine these simple steps with your expertise and you will be capable of creating articles that get noticed.

Using PLR content for blogs is a great idea for adding more quality content to your site. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to find good PLR content, especially if you don’t know what to look for. In the following video, my good friend Nicole Brown explains the difference when looking for PLR. Enjoy the video – James