Going From Brand to Religion

Millions of people worldwide are members of a cult. As  loyal members, they never give up an opportunity to proselytize. Over the years, they have helped recruit family and friends into their religion.

The cult they belong to is represented by a symbol. It has distinct colors. It has a special language that other cult members recognize. They love their religion. They worship at its altars. They sing its praises. They believe that anyone who is not a member of their cult is silly, stupid, or foolish. And they will argue with you if you say one word against it.

When this cult asks for contributions, they give and will give again. They are happy to do it because it confirms in their minds that they have chosen the right moral path. To give, for them, is infinitely better than to receive.

I am talking about the Apple computer cult. Me and my children are Apple users. I had happily used PCs for many years, but I yielded to the influence and never looked back.

Apple is probably the best example of a brand that has achieved cult status, but there are others. Starbucks is one. LL Bean is one. So is Oprah. And The Grateful Dead. Volkswagen is another. Star Trek is another. BMW is halfway between a brand and a cult. So is Mercedes. And Juicy Couture. And Polo.

The difference between a brand and a cult is the level of passion its customers feel about its products. That passion translates into making easier front-end sales, more back-end sales, and far fewer refunds. It also means more word-of-mouth sales, fewer public relations problems, and higher customer satisfaction.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn your customers into fanatics? Wouldn’t it be terrific if they were so loyal to you that they would never even think of buying a product from one of your competitors?

How cool would it be if your customers fervently defended you against any and all criticism? How much richer would you be if your customers actively promoted your products to everyone they knew?

If you are wondering how you could turn your business into a cult, you are thinking smart. It’s not easy to create a cult brand – especially for a small-businessperson – but the closer you can get to it the more successful you will be.

So what does it take?

That’s what we’ll talk about today. I don’t have all the answers. (If I did, SYTSF would already be a cult.) But I’ll tell you a few of the things I’ve figured out, and you can let me know if you have other ideas. Together, we can figure this out.

The first thing that comes to mind is that most cults have charismatic leaders. I’m not sure how well this applies to businesses, though. Steve Jobs was interesting, but few would have hardly called him charismatic. Still, there certainly are examples of strong personalities in the information-publishing industry.

One of the most successful investment newsletter writers back in the 1980s was Howard Ruff. He was a Mormon conservative from Utah who believed that the road to salvation was paved in gold: gold bullion and gold mining stocks. He was immensely popular in his day, with more than 100,000 subscribers to “Ruff Times” who did virtually everything he said. They bought all his products – even the record he made singing hymns and inspirational songs. And they kept renewing his newsletter despite the fact that he had a very bad record of picking stocks.

They loved him because he espoused an idea they had about the world – that it was going to hell in a liberal handbasket and that those who stuck with “hard money” would eventually be saved. He was a brilliant writer. He spoke clearly. He articulated a strong point of view. He was both humble and megalomaniacal. He was, in short, a guru.

I can name a dozen super-successful investment advisors who have since fit into that mold. Doug Casey, Jim Davidson, John King, Steve Sjuggerud, and Porter Stansberry, for example.

Dr. Robert Atkins was the Howard Ruff of the alternative health publishing industry. He was a visionary as well as an immensely gifted communicator. He challenged the American Medical Association power structure by advocating a low-carb diet. He was pilloried in the press but adored by his following. Eventually, he was proven right.

Following in his footsteps were Andrew Weil, Julian Whitaker, Joseph Mercola, Al Sears, and Mike Adams – each with his own unique view of how to achieve perfect health through natural medicine. And they all became very wealthy by developing fanatically loyal followings that bought virtually everything they sold.

So that is one element of cult-like branding: having a charismatic visionary to spread the word.

But not every cult-like brand has a guru at the top. Who knows who heads up LL Bean? Who can name the mind behind BMW?

LL Bean doesn’t have a guru at its helm, but it definitely projects an image of how to dress for success. It is practical. It is outdoorsy. It is quality. Every time an LL Bean buyer slips on a moccasin, he feels that he is making a statement about himself as a practical, outdoorsy, and quality person.

Think about your company and the products it sells. Is it clear to your customers what worldview it expresses?

Another element of cultishness is language. Religions use unique terminology when referring to important concepts. These shibboleths are well known to the faithful but mysterious to outsiders, which lends them a magical power that ordinary words wouldn’t have.

A very successful financial guru named Harry Schultz practically created his own language when talking about economics and investing, including unusual spelling that was difficult for the uninitiated to interpret. 

Matt Furey uses a mix of Chinese and wrestling terms to keep his readers linked to him. And Jim Cramer has a unique vocabulary that millions of Americans relate to. Cramer also has a host of little rituals – like clanging bells and whistles – that have become part of the cultish nature of his mega-popular TV show.

That’s another thing most cultish brands have in common. Ritualistic tools and symbols that eventually become closely associated with the big message and provide followers with Pavlov-like stimuli. The guru will use them when needed to evoke an emotional response. His followers can’t help but respond on cue.

Religions and religious cults have fundamental tenets. (Heavens Gate members believed that the Earth was about to be “recycled.” Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Scientologists believe that souls are reincarnated.) They also have traditions. (Orthodox Jews walk to Temple on the High Holy Days. Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Mormons wear special temple garments under their clothing.)

Cultish brands can create tenets and traditions too – prevailing beliefs and ritualistic actions that come to have symbolic meaning. When such actions are tied to products, the result is instantaneous sales. In the 1960s, for instance, fans of The Grateful Dead would follow the band around the country, trying to attend as many shows as possible. Some “Deadheads” even started selling food and clothing at Grateful Dead concerts to finance their pilgrimages, and freely exchanged recordings of past live performances.

Apple lovers are very anti-PC. They will always spring for the updated model of the iPad, iPhone, etc., waiting in line for hours on release day if necessary.

Oprah fans buy anything she recommends, propelling books high up the bestseller lists and crashing websites with a rush of orders.

These are some of the elements of cults that can be put to work for your business. I’ve been thinking about how to make them work for my clients, and I have a few suggestions for you:

• The guru must be authentic. He must believe he has a better way to live, and he must be able to continuously recreate his vision in the form of new and interesting products.
• The worldview of the franchise must be one that is both emotionally compelling and intellectually avant garde. It has to provide a sense that this is a new and better way to live. It must be forward thinking but not too far “out there.” It must be a tipping point worldview. Then it will sell.
• The language and rituals and tenets of the brand must be easy to understand and fun to use. Most developed religions lose the fun of their franchises over time. But when they start out and bring in loads of new believers they are always, in some way, fun.

That’s what I have so far.

What do you think helps transform a brand into a cult? Let me know what you think and we’ll figure out how to build on our ideas and make your business a little Apple or LL Bean.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…
 

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

A New Way To Look At Your Real Estate Investing Business

Most parts of the country are experiencing that beautiful time of year when the leaves start to change colors and fall is in the air. However, as the seasons change, so will your maintenance priorities. With the coming of fall, owners can expect a lot more yard work. For both practical and aesthetic reasons, most homeowners do not want their yard covered with leaves. In fact, how an owner takes care of their yard can tell you a lot about their engagement as an investor.

The Plan: Depending on the size of your yard, the first thing you will notice is that there are probably a lot of leaves to pick up. Just like your investing business, you have to start somewhere and you have to have a plan. Are you going to mow the lawn first? Are you going to use a tarp? Do you want to use a blower? These basic questions are not dissimilar from the ones you ask yourself when starting your investing business. Where will you invest? What types of properties will you invest in? What neighborhood? These are just some of the questions you should ask yourself before starting a business. Without a plan you are doomed to fail.

Old School vs. New School: There is always more than one way to get things done, regardless if you are talking about raking leaves or getting deals. With leaves, you have the old reliable rake or you can take advantage of leaf blowers. Investing is no different. You can use tried and true methods to get deals. Networking and investing club meetings remain a popular place to acquire deals while some investors will take advantage of the new technology. With social media and iPhone applications, you should be able to find the most efficient and easiest way to run your business.

Problems Don’t Fix Themselves: There are many homeowners who will wait until every last leaf has fallen from the tree before they start any form of cleanup. Others will spend some time every weekend taking the new leafs off until there are none left. Instead of putting off work or making excuses for the wind, they take action and constantly keep the process moving forward. Deals will not just fall into your lap on a regular basis. You have to do things to get them, even if this means doing a little bit every day or every week. You can keep putting off seemingly mundane tasks, but you will find procrastination to be the bane of your career.

Sense of Accomplishment: Raking leaves and doing yard work may be considered fun for some, but for most, it is something they would rather not do. The real reward comes after you are done and the fruits of your labor are realized. Your hands may be sore and your shoulders tired, but you feel good about what you have accomplished. This is the same feeling you get after you close a deal. It may have been a difficult process with plenty of twists and turns along the way, but after you are done, you want to do it again. Once you close a deal, you figure out what you did wrong and what areas you can improve on. Success brings a feeling that you want to have again, even if the process was difficult.

Work is work, whether you are talking about closing a short sale deal or spending four hours with a rake and a tarp. How you approach respective tasks will separate you from your competition. The next time you are stuck spending a weekend raking leaves, think about how it may be applied to your investing business. You may be surprised on how similar they are. At the very least, it puts things into perspective.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…
 

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

How to Get the Right Traffic to Your Website

I know what you’re thinking. Every day you wake up wishing you could just “get more traffic” to your website, as if that alone would solve your online business – and money – problems. But it wouldn’t.

You could get 1 million visitors per day, but if it was the wrong traffic, and you didn’t have the right message on your page, you still wouldn’t make any money, and it would just crash your website.

That’s why you have to figure out what to sell – and how to sell it – first. To help you with that, I have some questions for you to make sure you’re on the right track. One of them you won’t like. You might even get upset with me for asking. Very upset. So I’ll start with the “easy” question first.

It’s a very simple question, one that I first heard while listening to my Dr. Nido Qubein marketing CD’s.

The question is simple, yet powerful.

Now in order to get traffic – and in order to find affiliates to promote your product – you need to first have a great product (duh!). You must be selling the RIGHT thing. But this is where 95% of people struggle. After all, you’re probably in a crowded market and you probably feel all of the good ideas are gone.

So Dr. Qubein – and I – want to ask you this question:

“What do your clients NOT have?”

Very simple.

What do your clients NOT have that they need to make their lives better?

Once you figure this out, you can build your business around providing this product or service to help people in your marketplace get results.

Let’s take a look at an example – this blog.

In the internet business world, there are plenty of experts and companies sending almost daily “pitches” trying to sell you everything from $1995 traffic-getting software to high-priced consulting to low-priced monthly membership “inner circle” programs.

But who is out there delivering daily tips, motivation, and guidance?

No one.

Heck, who is out there providing any CONTENT at all? Hardly anyone.

I noticed this opportunity, and so I started doing the opposite of everyone else, delivering a ton of free content here on Seven Years to Seven Figures.

Can you use that same strategy to identify a new product that your marketplace would like and doesn’t have already?

There is always a gap in the marketplace. Not every problem has been solved. Identify what is missing, and then create a unique product.

That’s today’s task for you. Look at your product you have now. Is it something that your marketplace can get somewhere else?

If it is, then spend some time identifying what your clients do NOT have that will make their lives better.

Solve their problems. Add value. Be a Go-Giver.

Get to work on that solution and I’ll be back with harder questions soon.

Take action today!$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…
 

Click here to watch the video and start your own premium traffic business today!]

Why You Must Master Direct Marketing for Real Estate Investing Success

When you think about real estate investing, my guess is that you don’t immediately think “direct marketing” as well. But direct-marketing skills are essential to almost every aspect of real estate investing… from finding motivated sellers… to buying a property… to finding your ideal buyer… and more. In fact, mastering direct marketing can help make practically every step of the real estate investing process more profitable and a lot less risky.

Here are three rules that you can apply to your real estate investing ventures:

Direct-Marketing Principle #1. Find the Starving Crowd

As a real estate investor, one of the biggest risks you’ll ever have to deal with is carrying the costs of a vacant property. Empty units can suck the profit from a property in a single month, and consecutive months of vacancies can sink you.

How do you minimize this risk? You figure out who your most likely prospects (tenants) are and what they are hungry for. It’s a brilliant way to approach finding low-risk properties to buy.

You can do this fairly easily by visiting open houses and chatting with the realtors or calling a few property managers in the city. Ask them about the houses that people are buying – and why they’re buying those houses. Ask them about must-have features. Ask them about the people who are renting. Ask where people in the neighborhood usually work, and what attracts people to that area. You can even ask about rental rates and popular apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

Then walk around and chat with people in coffee shops and parks. Find out where they work, what they like about the area, and other general information. And pay close attention to apartment buildings with no-vacancy signs. What size units do they have? Where are they located – near a subway or bus stop, across from a park or something else that might be drawing tenants? Do they have any special amenities?

Finally, you can go online and read the ads people are posting. You can even call some of them and ask questions. Find out what features everyone highlights. Be curious.

Pretty soon it will become apparent what it is that tenants in the area are hungry for – maybe 2-bedroom units with dishwashers, or 3-bedroom homes near George Washington High School, or 1-bedroom condos off Granville Street. That’s the kind of property you want to buy.

Direct-Marketing Principle #2. Develop a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

As Michael Masterson says, “The feature or benefit you decide to promote with your USP does not necessarily have to be unique to your product, but it does have to seem like it is.” When you apply this principle to investment real estate, it means that you don’t have to find a property that has some feature no other properties in the area have. But you’d be wise to ensure that any property you are considering has appeal. The more appealing it is to your starving crowd, the higher the rent you can command, and the easier it will be to sell at a great price in the future.

So find the USP for a property before you buy it. Imagine yourself placing ads to attract tenants, and even imagine yourself selling it in the future. What will you say about it? Is it positioned for perfect sunset viewing? Is it a short walk to fabulous shopping? Does it sit on a peaceful and beautiful street? Does it have a gorgeous yard that brings a country feeling into the city?

If you’re looking at a property and you can’t find or create a USP for it, you could find yourself struggling to rent it if the competition for tenants gets tough. Worse, you could lose money when you go to sell it.

Direct-Marketing Principle #3. Focus on Benefits Not Features 

When you write an ad to attract tenants to your property, base it on the juicy USP you created – and include plenty of additional benefits that tenants will enjoy by living there.

The typical ad – “2 bedroom apartment on Granville Street, dishwasher, washer/dryer, hardwood floors, and full en-suite bathroom in master suite available July 1″ – is all features. Instead, you want to focus on things like the spectacular view from the terrace and the apartment’s easy access to award-winning schools and the best nightlife in the city.

It’s important to appeal to the positive emotions that might make someone want to buy your house. That same emphasis on your prospect’s emotions is true of rentals.

So why not try to attract the best tenants at the highest price by describing how convenient and comfortable your apartment will be for them?

Apply the above direct-marketing techniques to your real estate investing efforts, and you could see a big difference in your profits.$

[Need additional income to help support or supplement your real estate business? Ray is offering a complete blueprint to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

The Easiest Way to Start an Online Business

If you’ve caught the Internet entrepreneur bug, you probably can’t wait to get started making money with your own website. Of course, you’re going to need a few things first – namely, products and effective sales copy to sell them.

But while you’re working on your products and sales copy, there is a way to start bringing money in the door almost immediately. I’m talking about becoming an affiliate marketer.

As an affiliate marketer, you make a commission by selling other people’s products via your website. And they make it easy for you by providing both the products and proven marketing copy (such as banner ads and sales letters).

Your affiliate business can be up and running in a flash – and it requires very little in the way of start-up costs. All you really need to pay for at the beginning is your website domain and a website hosting service.

While working as an affiliate, you’ll hone marketing skills that you can use to make your “real” Internet business even better… if you decide to go ahead and launch it. Like many affiliates, you might make so much selling other people’s products that you never get around to creating and selling your own.$

[Ed. Note: David Wood – founder of Empower Network – and a handful of other Internet marketing experts have just revealed a powerful “blueprint” that’s responsible for generating over $70 million a year in Internet revenues. David's goal is to create 100 new millionaires per year! Right now, you can not only get your hands on this blueprint to creating lasting wealth… you can get expert, step-by-step instruction in how to make it work for YOU. Learn more here. WARNING – this offer ends soon. So make sure you snap up your copy of this incredible wealth blueprint – right now.]

Building Business Momentum

It is amazing how everything can change from one phone call, one deal or the addition of one new contact. Business momentumcan differentiate the successful from the unsuccessful. When things are going great in your business, there always seems to be new deals coming in faster than you know what to do with. On the flip-side, when you are in a rut, it may take weeks or months to generate new leads. Ebbs and flows are part of any business, but fortunately there are things you can do to reduce the ups and downs. In most cases, it has to do with your vision and how you go about attacking it.

Coming up with a long term vision and having long term goals is an important part of your growth, but you need to know how to take the steps to get there. If you watch the many investing shows or infomercials on TV, you may get into the business thinking anyone can do it. You will quickly find out that getting leads and closing deals takes time and a lot of hard work. Finding a good deal is much harder than simply calling your local realtor and asking them to show you some houses. You need to do the grunt work that most people are not aware of. This effort will shape how successful you are in your business. Ultimately, business momentum is generated through your initial hard work. Accordingly, a pace will be set that helps you succeed.

Having a clear vision is a good start, but it is not enough. You need to write down the action plan you intend to use to make your vision a reality. There will be many bumps in the road and days when you want to give up, but if you really love the business you will stick with it. Make little goals every day that you could accomplish. Instead of trying to close five deals in a month, start with trying to set up five meetings for next week. Each meeting you set will give you a sense of accomplishment and leave you wanting to do more.

Many new investors start out like a ball of fire, but eventually slow down and let frustration set it. Investing is a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t expect immediate results from one email campaign. These things take time and need to be done on a consistent basis. Most new contacts aren’t made until the seventh attempt. For many, they would have given up long before that attempt is ever made.

You should view your business similar to a flow chart. You need a steady mix of new leads coming in and deals closing. To get those deals, you have to reach numerous people or send out many letters or emails. Ideally, you will get referrals from the people you meet but, again, that takes time. It is not enough to grab a business card and ask them to be friends on Facebook. You need to constantly stay in contact and ask for business when the time is right. If you are out of sight, you are probably out of mind. The more newsletters and links to your latest blog post they get, the more they will think of you the next time they have a deal.

You never know if the next person you do a deal with is the one that will change your business momentum. Do something positive for your business every day and you will see things start to turn for you. To steal an old baseball term, momentum is only as good as the next days starting pitcher. Subsequently, business momentum is only as good as what you have done today.$

[Ed. Note: David Wood – founder of Empower Network – and a handful of other Internet marketing experts have just revealed a powerful “blueprint” that’s responsible for generating over $70 million a year in Internet revenues. David's goal is to create 100 new millionaires per year! Right now, you can not only get your hands on this blueprint to creating lasting wealth… you can get expert, step-by-step instruction in how to make it work for YOU. Learn more here. WARNING – this offer ends soon. So make sure you snap up your copy of this incredible wealth blueprint – right now.]

Seven Years to Seven Figures: Turn Your Hobby Into a Business

Setting up an e-newsletter or blog starts with a subject you love, a simple website, and some useful content. But unless you want your newsletter to be nothing but a hobby, you’ll want to find ways to generate income from it.

You can create your own information products – e-books, special reports, teleseminars, and more – and sell them to your e-newsletter subscribers. This is the easiest and most cost-effective type of product to sell, because you can deliver it digitally.

You can also sell practically anything else that might appeal to your subscribers. If you are a yoga expert, you can sell yoga equipment. If you’re a gourmet chef, you can sell homemade biscotti. If you’re a prize-winning gardener, you can sell seeds from your blue-ribbon tomatoes.

If you don’t want to produce or ship these products yourself, there are two ways to make money online without having to tie yourself up with inventory. You can find a supplier who offers drop-shipping. (You take the order and payment, and they send the product directly to the customer.) Or you can become an affiliate to a company in your niche that sells products your subscribers would be interested in.

So look at your newsletter and niche. What products would appeal to that market? Brainstorm some ideas, test them, and then roll out with the winners. That’s the quickest way to e-newsletter profits.$

[Ed. Note: David Wood – founder of Empower Network – and a handful of other Internet marketing experts have just revealed a powerful “blueprint” that’s responsible for generating over $70 million a year in Internet revenues. David's goal is to create 100 new millionaires per year! Right now, you can not only get your hands on this blueprint to creating lasting wealth… you can get expert, step-by-step instruction in how to make it work for YOU. Learn more here. WARNING – this offer ends soon. So make sure you snap up your copy of this incredible wealth blueprint – right now.]

Why Testimonials Work So Well

What do you do if your prospect knows nothing about you, as is often the case? How can you sway or “nudge” their thinking about your business, products, or services?

You do it by including plenty of testimonials in your marketing materials.

Testimonials overcome a prospect’s skepticism (“Who the heck are you? And why should I listen to you anyway?”) by helping them connect emotionally to other people who’ve used and liked your products. Reading those true-life stories makes prospects more receptive to what you have to say. And sell.

Testimonials are a cornerstone of direct-marketing success because they are real comments from real people. Not, as David Ogilvy said, “the puffery of an anonymous copywriter.”

Today, I’m going to show you not just how to get testimonials… but how to get really good ones.

Based on What I’ve Learned Over the Years, Here Are Some Tips…

1. If you know the customer on a somewhat personal level, just call them. Say that you’d like a testimonial about your product, service, or a particular experience they had. (“I was lost in the woods with bears all around, and your plane-in-a-suitcase saved my life.”) If they seem open to it, ask if they can give you the testimonial right there on the phone. You can write it down or use a handheld recorder. When you hear a particularly good snippet, say, “That’s good. May we use it?”

2. If you’re on less familiar terms with the customer, write a short letter or e-mail first. Explain that you’d love to share their good experiences with your product with others, and ask them to e-mail their testimonial to you. If you don’t hear back in four or five days, phone them.

3. Say thank you. Even if you’ve already thanked the customer over the phone, write a thank you note. Include a copy of the testimonial. Tell them when and how you expect to use it. I’ve always included a small gift, too.

4. Before you call or e-mail a customer to ask for a testimonial, prepare some questions to help them get into it. Questions that will evoke more than a yes/no response. For example: “What’s your favorite dish on our menu?” “Could you share a little more about the day you got trapped in the snowstorm? How did our emergency beacon help the rescuers find you?” “How does the yield of our seeds compare with other brands you’ve used?”

5. It’s okay to edit the testimonials. A customer may give you a page-long story with rambling non sequiturs — but that’s not going to help your business. Cut it down to get to the point. Keep the meat and trim the fat.

6. Try to use all the testimonials you get. If you get something that’s not appropriate for the promotion you’re currently working on, use it in the future.

7. Keep a “testimonial file.” And remember that collecting testimonials is a process, not a destination. Always be on the lookout for good ones. Ask your customer service folks to do the same. (They will often receive calls and e-mails that can be turned into great testimonials.)

More Tips — From Some of My Own Marketing Mentors

From Bob Bly:

“What I look for in a testimonial — more than anything else — is SPECIFIC RESULTS. (‘I made a 100% gain in my portfolio in 12 months with the Trade Triangle.’) I’m less interested in superlatives. (‘Thanks to the Trade Triangle, I can trade with confidence and have shortened my learning curve.’)”

From John Forde:

“I like ‘real,’ so I try not to touch grammar mistakes or awkward writing. (Though I will do some editing if it speeds up the testimonial a bit.)”

From Michael Masterson:

“I much prefer testimonials with full names. And I don’t like testimonials that seem made up. The grittier they are the better. Testimonials that express doubts are terrific. In fact, I wish I had one for every doubt the prospect might entertain. A testimonial that states and then refutes the doubt … what could be better than that?”

Your Testimonial Action Plan

Every experienced marketer I know swears by the power of customer testimonials.

So start building your testimonial file today. And use those testimonials everywhere. Your website, direct-mail promotions, and pay-per-click campaigns. Your press releases, postcard mailings, and e-mail signatures.

Remember, all you have to do is ask.

P.S. Securing glowing testimonials for your products and services is one of the keys to growing a profitable business. They help set you apart from the competition. And they make your prospects feel like they are taking less of a risk by making the decision to buy from you. For more tips on marketing your Internet business, check out our Kalatu Blogging System. We are the ONLY Blog service online ANYWHERE that creates blogs for marketers specifically designed to increase sales and boost your bottom line regardless of the business or industry you're in.

Rental Property Advice: 4 Ways To Promote Long-Term Wealth

Investing in rental properties is one of the best ways to generate long-term wealth. In addition to long-term wealth, you can also realize short term cash flow and build a portfolio that will give you options in the future. While rental properties can be highly profitable, not everyone will be a home-run. In addition to buying the right property, there are a few fundamental tips that every landlord needs to follow. There is often a very fine line between rental property success and failure. Here are four tips that will give you the best chance at rental property success:

1. Know the Local Market: It is critical for any potential landlord to know the market they are buying in. Market conditions and demographics can quickly change in a matter of just a few days. Before you make an offer, you need to know everything about not only the property, but the area you are buying in. The area you buy in will directly impact current market rents and demand for the property moving forward. It is far better to buy a lesser quality rental property in a better location. These will hold their value much better over time and make your job as a landlord much easier. Rental markets can quickly change, seemingly overnight. You need to know if there is a problem with the town’s budget that could cause taxes to rise. You need to know which areas have a high concentration of foreclosed properties. Before you make an offer, you should leave no stone un-turned. The more you know about your market, the better properties you will get involved in.

2. Buy With a Plan: There are differing opinions as to what the best strategy is for owning rental properties. One camp insists that you buy rentals with the thought of long-term appreciation in mind. The other side will tell you that the property needs to have cash flow. Both sides are correct, in that the property needs to be in an area with a good long range forecast, but it also needs to produce cash flow. Before you buy, you need to have a defined plan with the property. You need to know exactly what work you will do, how much you have to spend, how you attract tenants and who will take care of the property. These items shouldn’t be done on a wait and see basis. Time is money, starting from the first month you own the property. It is important to have a plan so you can hit the ground running.

3. Always Have a Reserve Fund: This is probably the single most important rule that successful landlords follow. Everything may run smoothly in your rental property for months, but there is always the chance that something will come up. Without the funds to take care of items, big or small, you will run into trouble. If you neglect seemingly small items like clogged toilets or a broken washing machine, you will lose the confidence and trust of your tenants. Instead of treating the property like it is their own, they will neglect it and may not disclose problems with the property. If the items are larger in scale, such as a roof or furnace, you have much bigger issues to worry about. These big ticket items require immediate funds to solve the problem. Without this money available, you will scramble to pull money from other sources. This could mean borrowing money at high interest rates or relying on credit cards. If you can’t find the money, your tenants will move out and you will have a depreciating assent on your hands. This can happen pretty quickly if you do not have a reserve fund in place.

4. Spend Time Finding the Right Tenants: Your property is only as good as the tenants that are in it. Not enough time is spent on doing everything possible to find the best tenants. Without good tenants that pay on time and take care of your property, the process will be a nightmare. You will have to constantly chase the rent or even worse they will stop paying rent altogether. This will cause you to devote a good amount of your time and energy to one property. Conversely, a good tenant will make being a landlord almost seem easy. While you can never really know what type of tenant you are getting, you need to do everything possible to increase your chances for success. This means going through the application process and following up with any references. Don’t automatically rent to the first person that shows interest. Even if you are having trouble finding tenants, it is better to rent to a more qualified tenant than run the risk of taking on a bad one.

There is a lot that goes into a successful rental property. It is important to stay disciplined and put the time into every new property you think about buying. All it takes is one bad property, bad tenant or unexpected repair to set your business back. Conversely, if you can keep the process moving from one tenant to the next, you will reap the benefits of cash flow, equity and future appreciation.$

[Ed. Note: Need additional income to help support or supplement your real estate business? Ray is offering a complete blueprint to helping you take control of your financial future with a web-based business that you can operate from anywhere in the world – including a coffee shop, your kitchen table, or anywhere around the world where there is Internet access. Discover how you can achieve the American Dream and your financial independence here. You’ve never seen anything like this before.]

How to Become Wealthier in the Next Year by Creating a Second Income

I have a suggestion for your 2016 wealth goal: To create a second stream of income by starting your own business.

This is not the only way to get rich, but it is — far and away — the most reliable way. It’s also the way that most wealthy people got that way.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of small businesses you could start. With the Internet, there is virtually nothing you like to do that can’t be turned into a business. And there is no limit to the number of new businesses the Internet, with its worldwide reach, can absorb.

If you have an idea for a product or service that is needed or simply wanted, you can be successful. And you will be successful if you make a commitment to become the smartest person you know about the business you want to start. You do that by reading the industry press voraciously, taking home-study programs, seeking the advice of experts, networking, and more.

Make yourself a promise to devote a good part of your time next year to starting a side business. Allocate learning time every week. Develop a business plan. Make at least one new contact every month — a contact that can help you build your business.

Set a specific financial target for your first year in business, and reach that target by figuring out what you have to accomplish every month to get there. Break those monthly targets down to weekly objectives, and the weekly objectives down to daily tasks.

Get going. Choose a business you like. Learn everything you can about it. Have fun with it. And make some money.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…]

Entrepreneurship: Don’t Take a Chance on Luck

Luck seems to have a peculiar attachment to work. I’m sure that you have heard the Dave Thomas quote: “It seems the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

I would tend to agree with that statement, but I think there are a few other conditions that affect your “luck” — things like instinct, timing, market conditions, and public opinion, to name a few. I know plenty of folks that have worked their heads and hearts off, but for some reason or another, they just aren’t successful in what they accomplish.

On the other hand, I have witnessed others who seem to have fallen into a bed of roses — businesswise or financially. Predictably, most of their friends are totally amazed and can’t figure out how or why this person made it. Pure luck? Probably not. More likely, they were in the right business at the right time. Oh, we should all be so “lucky.”

Call it whatever you like, but I prefer not to rely on luck when it comes to business. I leave that for Las Vegas.

What is the correlation between luck and success? Frankly, I think Dave Thomas, who founded the Wendy’s chain, had it right. As for my business life, I prefer to do everything in my power to make my own “luck” — long hours, clear goals, calculated risks, good hires, expert advice, and a reasonable amount of fear have guided me.

I’ve had plenty of incentive too, like putting my name out there and building my personal brand. Nothing makes you try harder than putting your identity on the line.

Was it luck that led to the creation of so many well-known products? I think not. Rather, it was creativity and the courage to redevelop already invented products. For example, Coca-Cola started out as a headache medicine. Post-it Notes originated when a 3M inventor created bookmarks for his prayer/song book. Levi jeans — with rivets instead of buttons — were made out of leftover tent canvas when miners needed pants.

Speaking of leftovers, that’s how the Swanson TV dinner was created. It was Thanksgiving 1952 and the Swanson Company had 260 tons of leftover turkeys. The company filled 10 refrigerated boxcars and let the frozen turkeys ride around the country until they figured out what to do with their fowl problem. A salesman developed a three-compartment tray for the frozen turkey and two side dishes because he remembered from his Army days how he hated when his food ran together. Management gobbled up the idea. So did Swanson’s customers.

Ice cream sodas were invented not so much by luck as by necessity. In 1874, 16 years after the first soda fountain opened, Robert M. Green was mixing his popular drink, consisting of sweet cream, syrup, and carbonated water. When he ran out of sweet cream and there was no way to get more that day, he started substituting vanilla ice cream, hoping no one would notice. Everyone noticed — and he went from grossing $6 a day to $600.

Yo-yos were used as weapons in the ancient Far East. Sixteenth century hunters in the Philippine Islands tied wooden disks together with a long piece of rope or twine. They would sit in trees and fling the weapon at prey. If it missed, they would pull it back quickly and try again. Donald Duncan saw the yo-yo in action in the early 1920s, changed the design, and created a child’s toy, now a longtime favorite.

Even Avon Cosmetics got its start when a door-to-door book salesman named David H. McConnell decided to offer a small sample of perfume to women. Soon the perfume became more popular than the books and McConnell established the California Perfume Company, which changed its name to Avon Products in 1939.

Lucky? No. Good business. Taking risks, being creative, and reading and reacting to markets will trump luck every day. You can bet on that.

Good luck usually depends on good judgment.$

[Ed. Note: Ray's personal team will create 10 six-figure earners before the year is over. Our system walks you through the process of growing your profitable online business using a proven online business model. Ray shows you exactly what he did to grow his six-figure business. To find out more about Empower Network, go here.]

How to Grow Your Business Using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter

Everywhere I turn, I hear about how fantastic social media is. People tell me they are spending six hours a day on Facebook. They are responding to Twitter tweets all day and all night.

Facebook’s 650 million active users collectively spend more than 8 billion minutes on the site each day. That’s amazing.

Many of these people think that social media will help them grow their businesses. They expect to make tons of money by using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as marketing tools.

But the truth is that the vast majority of people are NOT making money with social media and are just wasting their time.

That leaves a very big question. What are they doing wrong?

To get you on the path of profitable social media use, I have identified the top six ways businesspeople are wasting their time with social media. For each time waster, I have included some ways to fix it immediately.

Here they are:

TIME WASTER #1

Many people think that being on social media is, in itself, a business model. They just go out and start building a following. That’s a good thing — but you still need a separate, comprehensive business model. And you need to know how you are going to make money with it.

ACTION STEPS TO FIX IT

• Identify the exact product or service you want to sell through social media.
• Define, in detail, your target audience. Who is your ideal customer?
• Develop a system to close sales on the phone, on the Web, or face to face.

TIME WASTER #2

Another mistake people make is that they don’t have a strategy for using social media to achieve specific business goals.

ACTION STEPS TO FIX IT

• Identify your top three goals with social media (i.e., to generate leads, to find partners, to solidify current business relationships).
• Identify time frames for achieving these goals.

TIME WASTER #3

Another mistake is using the wrong tool. Some businesses work better on LinkedIn, some are better on Facebook, and some are better on Twitter.

ACTION STEPS TO FIX IT

• Get familiar with all of the major social media websites.
• Contact your customers or prospects and ask them which one of these websites they visit most frequently.

TIME WASTER #4

Yet another mistake: Social media abuse. You are making too many posts, sending too many messages, and ignoring standard social networking etiquette. You need to know the rules, and you need to follow them.

ACTION STEPS TO FIX IT

• Learn the rules of the particular site you are on. For example, Facebook can ban you for posting unauthorized commercial communications.
• Learn the limitations of the site you are on. For example, Twitter limits the number of direct messages you can send to 250 a day.

TIME WASTER #5

The next mistake is something I call social media fatigue. You are spending too much time on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn — not all of it business-related. And you get burned out.

ACTION STEPS TO FIX IT

• Put a time limit on your daily social media activities.
• Limit most of that time to activities that could generate business for you.

TIME WASTER #6

Are you failing to measure the results of your marketing efforts on social media websites? If so, you don’t know what’s working.

ACTION STEPS TO FIX IT

• Set very specific measurable goals. For example, you might want to get five new prospects a week and turn one of them into a new customer.
• Start measuring your results — and keep refining your strategy until you get it right.

One of the best examples of an individual who profited from social media is Gary Vaynerchuk, the star of Wine Library TV. Gary effectively leveraged the power of social media to explode the profits of his family’s wine business. He developed a Twitter following of more than 800,000 people and used his following, his blog, and his videos to skyrocket the business from $4 million a year to $60 million year in only five years.

Gary Vaynerchuk clearly focused on the right ways to grow his business with social media and avoided the top six social media time wasters.

If you keep these time wasters in mind while developing your social media strategy, you’ll be on your way to repeating his success.$

[Do you know how Facebook and Google became the most powerful companies in the world?

It’s NOT helping you share pics of last night’s dinner...
It’s NOT searching for drunken cat videos…

And it’s DEFINITELY NOT about free Gmail accounts.
 

The simple truth is Facebook and Google SELL TRAFFIC.

They SELL TRAFFIC to business owners, and that advertising revenue alone has turned them into billion dollar companies.
 

Traffic is the most valuable commodity on the internet, and that will never change.
 

This is why using the Traffic Authority business system is the ultimate way to make extra income in your business…]