Colors That Sell or the alternative title – Colors That Sell Shit… i.e. that make you a profit, put money in your pocket, allow you to live your dreams. Now this started off tongue in cheek, but it is serious too.

If you are watching the video, please disregard all of the Ums and Aas in there. I just listened to it and jeeze.. who is that guy talking. But, here again it goes back to my my 80% rule, 80% and out there will beat going for 100% and never getting done every single time.

OK, well I started this off a bit tongue and cheek and then once I thought about it, it got more serious. One of my partners in a back and forth email to one of my other partners said and I quote “We need to find the best colors for selling shit“. But as Frank Kern says, the goal of everyone should get people to ” Buy Your Shit Man” and when it comes right down to it, Ryan and Frank are right in spades.

Also, this is a little exercise in SEO that I will tell you about later….

Red brings arousal and excitement to most men, hence, read lipstick and nails. So, if you are selling lingerie to males or even women for that matter, red could be a good place to start. It also attract attention immediately.

Red lips as a physiological response due to dilated blood vessels from arousal in women is often sited as one of the many reasons why this happens. While this works for most guys and gals that swing that way, there is also perhaps the sub-conscious competition for mates that it brings about in other women as well.

That and that somewhere back in our reptilian brain (now this is entirely me theorizing here) , it either means pain or pleasure in that there might be blood which means food or danger in that something caused the blood. Either way, it shouts “Pay Attention” Dude or Dudette, something is going on here.

So, are there colors that actually can help sell your shit? Absolutely there are and they change over the years and sometimes they even change over a period of months.

Colors affect us almost immediately too on a subconscious level. For instance when you ask some what they think of when they see green, they often say that Money automatically come to mind. But now the Feds are adding purple and other colors… come on guys… no funny money please… Green is good.

Right now, I have heard that Orange buttons on order pages seem to work the best for some reason. I guess they are OK  if they do indeed work.

And for those people that make over $100,000 per year, their favorite colors are Forest Green, Light Gray, and IBM Blue.

So your color scheme you use on your website and your products do matter.

I think that if you are trying to sell something to men, that you more than likely want to stay away from pink for instance. But pink has also been shown to reduce violence in prisons.

And I am sure you have your own version of hideous colors and those that you like as well. but you have to remember that while may like them, your customers may not.

But at the end of the day, you do need to have a good color scheme and while you won’t be able to please everyone, there will be one that will sell more of your shit to your customers than others. The trick is in actually figuring out which one that is….

Please note the above.  You can lose 50% of your possible sales. That is why I laugh every time I see this.  I just think you poor sap. And what gets me is that a lot of the supposed Marketing  Gurus fall for this basic mistake.  You just have to wonder what else they are screwing up.  Don’t you do that OK?

A good design and the right colors really can help you sell more of your products and services. And while you may have not put that much thought into it, colors really do matter.

And yes, I am changing my site around again. Long  story but it will be done soon.

Now this little doozy of a button can actually add 17% to your sales just by having it.  The color of the button is Orange which you notice but it won’t stop you.  It is outlined in dashed red which is just enough read to get the reptilian brain to notice but, not go into flight mode.  The links are underlined and it has the brand recognizable credit cards  as well.

For everyone else, I will give you some more scientific information on this subject soon. There are colors you should be using for certain clientele.

Cheers,

Andrew Anderson

Profit Consultant

PS My favorite color it Green.

Claude Hopkins, one of the first Profit Consultants

If you want to improve your Profits, then here are 4 books and 1 report from Google that I am making available to your for Free. You should download and read them right away.  These are my gift to you at absolutely no charge. You do not have to pay anything, nor sign up for another list. And I am also going to show you one of the books that you can get for free for 14 days read it, use it to make money, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to pay for it.  But if you do like it, you only pay for it after you have read it.  How is that for an Author that thinks his material is good? This guy is one of my favorites and you will soon see why. The other 3 books and Report is yours for free forever.

The technique of giving things away is called a reverse risk factor and it is very effective as you can imagine but, most people are afraid to use it.  Which is good because it makes it even more effective for those that do.

Why Am I Giving These To You?

The reason why I am giving them to you is because I know that no matter where you are in your Business, they can have a huge impact on your profitability. Plus, it makes me feel good that I can give something of really high value that most people have never heard of before that can dramatically improve their life for the better. It is a complete kick in the pants. Plus, it is good Karma.

If you are an old hat at the online game, or are just starting out, these can help you immensely.  They will even help you in your Brick and Mortar business as well. You don’t have to sign up for an email list or anything as I mentioned.   How is that for a change? Just click on them and save them and you can start reading them right away.  They are all in PDF format except for the last one.

If you are trying to sell anything and have to write copy, Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins is a must read. It will dispel the myth about long copy that I see ignorantly bandied about these days.  It  shows you why it is good and how personal stories focused on your niche can really help sales.  The things that he talks about in this book  still work today.   Most people don’t have a clue as to who he is or use his techniques.  Now you don’t have to be one of them.

The Art Of Money Getting by PT Barnum is about as a good of a self-help book for business people there is.  You will note that it is the basis for many of the new ones that have been written recently.

Words and Phrases that sell is a handy guide you can use when writing any sales copy that you have.  Imagine having words that compel people to purchase your product at your fingertips!  This one is edited by yours truly.

Then there is the Google guide to Search Engine Optimization.  Read it, learn it, use it and it will help with traffic to your site.

Let me know what you think.   I hope these help you as much as they have helped me.

These are also the books are referred to in  Start On Monday by Andrew “Easy” Anderson, hey that is me.    I have just released it and it is on building your business online and how to find a JOB if you must.  You can check it out by clicking on the cover and you get to keep it for 14 days before you decide if you want to pay me for it. It has what I have learned in 20 years of being online, plus advice from some of the best Marketers in the world who have sold billions of dollars worth of products and services.

Even if you don’t keep  “Start On Monday” I suggest that you go snag it.  There really is valuable information and resources in it.  And you definitely need to get the other 3 books and reports.  Remember, often times it is just one small idea that takes you to a whole new level in your business and life.

Cheers,

Andrew “Easy” Anderson

OK, dang 420 character wall limits on Facebook. Seriously. I am all about chunking down but 420 characters? Can you tell that I am not an in the box kind of guy? Just another reminder that you need to have a Blog if you have a Business or want to make money. Or to explain anything in detail which brings me to one of my points.

Anyway, I was reading a Post over at a Women’s Entrepreneur site last night by an “Expert” Marketer/Web Designer. And no, I am not going to link to a bad article or their website. Whoops, kind of gave it away a bit huh?

Now I am sure she, the Authoress, is a nice lady and all but… Oh heck, I don’t actually know that, she could be a Harpy, but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt anyway and say she is a really super duper nice lady and she probably is. Regardless of her demeanor however, I have to point out that she is just plain wrong about some things in her article.

So, good guy that I am, I tried to post a comment addressing the error several times yesterday and today. No joy, apparently they do not like dissent in their comments that is factual.  Another rule, make sure you have smart people on your team and especially as gate keepers for you Blogs and Social Media.  Stupid mistakes can cost you big time there.

But to be fair, it could be some intern that does not know squat about Blogs and marketing that they have as the gate keeper (see above)  that could be costing them thousands of dollars every day by not managing their Blog correctly. Again, having smart people on your team pays way more than they they cost.

Dissenting Comments On Your Blog Are Good For Business

Which brings up another point. Dissenting comments are great as long as they are business like and well thought out.  In fact they are good to have on your site!  They can help make you money.   It allows you to to point out your case or, correct yourself if someone brings you new info and it gets people involved.  Either way it is a win.  So, do not be afraid to post dissenting comments on your Blog.  Well, they never posted my comments.

But the Silver lining is that I can give you a couple of Profit Consultant tips from good old Easy Anderson here on my Blog. That, I do control. Yea for me and it should be Yea for you too.

Well first off back to the Authoress, she said basically that Long Copy or rather Lengthy Text does not work as well as Short Copy on Websites because the Web is different than printed text. Oh really??? Hmm…. Alarm bells went off right then and I started laughing.

Two things went through my mind. Wow cool, another competitor who’s clients that if they listen to her, are going to have their butts kicked by my clients. Cool, cool, cool !

Then I thought, awe darn it. There are going to be a lot of people, well OK, a few anyway, that may read that aritcle and believe and implement what she is saying and hurt their business and it is bad Karma for me not to point it out to at least them and perhaps her.  That I do believe.  Pointing out and trying to fix things that you know are wrong are one of the things that make America great as a habit.  In most other countries, it is frowned upon to point out errors or to even make mistakes at all.  Which is one of the reasons why most everyone wants to still come to the US.  Back to making mistakes.

Lord knows I have been ignorant about things in my past as well. Heck we all are for that matter until we learn otherwise.  I know I learn something new every day but, if you are going to be in business and especially Marketing and offering advice, bone up on the basics and learn from the people that have been doing this for a while.

Anyway back to Long Copy, here is the scoop.

Long copy when done right can outsell short copy by over 1,000 %. That is not a typo! Now do you still have to have catchy headlines and bullet points that grab attention? Absolutely.

Just think about any subject that you are interested in for a few seconds. If it is interesting, do you want to read once sentence about it or more information that explains what you are interested in and read details?  My point exactly!

If you get a chance, go buy the book, Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy. Great book on marketing and the other book you should get is, Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins, which if you go to my contact page above and request it by typing in Scientific, I will send you a complete copy of it in PDF for FREE.   But you have to make the effort.

Both go into factual evidence why Long Copy works.

And while I do pride myself on my marketing skills,  Go friend Drayton Bird who is on my friends list on Facebook and read his content and you will learn a lot about Long Copy and Marketing in general.

I like him because he is way more irreverent than I and makes fun of Ignorant people in Adverting and Marketing and does it with a rye sense of humor.  Plus, he is a much better speller and better a grammar and punctuation too or is that as well?

He is truly one of the worlds best Direct Marketers for sure and which reminds me I owe him an email on the Twitter and Social Media experiment. (it has been one crazy month but I digress) You can follow the experiment on Twitter Here and over at www.CommonSenseMarketing.org. Drayton has some serious marketing chops and is one very sharp guy.

So, out of curiosity, I went and looked at the authoresses site and low and behold true to her word, I do not see any long copy at all but,…. I do see Flash. Arghh….

Here is a Flash on Flash for you. You should avoid Flash like the plague on your Website. I have been saying this for a couple of years now but, put in on your site now at your own peril. Especially now.

Steven Jobs of Apple has said they will not support Flash on any of their systems.

There are a couple of reasons why. One, it royally sucks for SEO or Search Engine Optimization purposes. Two, it is not all that elegant from a programming stand point, Three, several million iPad users won’t be able to view your site, nor will 50 million iPhones as a general rule and all new Apple systems will have to find outside resources to use it. How is that for a bunch of reasons?

It is kind of like Bell bottoms except Flash will not make a comeback or cost you business.

Anyway, hopefully you have learned something here. And just to give you some Short Copy in an appropriate manner. Long Copy is good, and Flash is bad.

OK, it is almost 1:00 AM and I had better put this post and myself in Bed misspellings and all.  My old editor starts back next week thank God.  Those of you who care greatly about spelling and grammar and such will be tortured less.   

Have a Profitable Day!

Cheers,
Andrew “Easy” Anderson

Work With Your Competition And Make More Money?

While this may sound crazy, this is one of those counter-intuitive techniques that I see very few businesses using that is one of my top 5 Profit Secrets.

First off, most people don’t even consider it.  Their competition is their competition.

But for those that do, there may not be easier profits to be had.

For one, it is truly free.  It usually just involves a phone call or an email to get the ball rolling.

Secondly, in many cases, your competition is not really your competition anyway.  If you are in a decent sized niche, if you pick the right company, you both end up coming out so far ahead of the game it is not even funny.

I find this in the Consulting end of things especially but, it is true no matter what you are selling.  You both have a customer base and you may even be selling the same products, but at any given moment, that customer base may not want to buy what you are selling, so why not offer them your competitions products or services and make money from them?

If you are limited pie type of person you won’t get this.  But if you are not, and you know that the pie is ever expanding you will and you can trounce those people that don’t get it.

Right now for instance, I get calls on a regular basis from other consulting companies to do Marking, Social Media, or SEO work for them.  And guess what, that is fine.  I am happy to do that for them.

And upon occasion I will call them if they have a field of expertise.  They are happy because they make money, my client is happy because they get the best service, and normally the can’t believe that I would be honest enough to tell them I want to bring in someone else to handle a specific part of their needs.

I usually end up with clients for life. Why, because I am honest with them and I never worry about the other consultants stealing clients.  One, because I am honest with my client, they would tell me, and two the consultants I work with just don’t do that.

And if the client or the consultant were to do that, then they both did me a favor by pointing out that they are scumbags in the first place and I know longer have to work with either of them ever again.

If there is other work they they end up doing for the client, guess what?  I get a piece of the action on that.  Everyone wins.

There are other ways to to do Joint Ventures as well that are beneficial to all parties.

Perhaps you can share mailing lists, do joint advertising, do joint presentations, sell each others products that are not in your line, make use of under utilizes facilities or capacity, or even employees or contractors.

There are dozens of way for you to work with the competition and in turn, trounce your competition.

Think out of the box about your “Competition” and both of your will be glad you did.

Cheers,

Is a Chameleon In Your Future?

There are a lot of choices today in the world of Websites and Blogs for your business.   The tough part is choosing the right one for your business that will make you money and not cost you an arm and a leg.

Having worked the nearly every platform out there today, the choice has gotten easier than ever before and there has been a clear winner for quite sometime now and the general business world is finally finding out about it and the winner is……

WordPress by half a lap!

With the latest release of WordPress 3.0, WordPress has extended it’s lead far ahead of the other platforms out there.  Even with the heavy duty expert system like Vignette that would cost around $250,000 to build a full blown site, you can now duplicate the same functions for 1/2 to 1/5 the price and have a much easier user interface and do it in 1/3rd the time.

As we have been working with Drupal, Joomla, TypePad, Posterous and others in that past and still support customers that us them, we are fast seeing how they are slipping away in comparison to what WordPress can do.  It is not just getting better a little bit, it is fast becoming 10x better not just for Blogs, but full blown Websites of any shape or size for business.

The plug-ins and widgets are becoming better as well although they are a good 6 months to a year behind of what the core of WordPress 3.0 capable of because of the nature of how they are put together.

What is going to leap-frog whole process though is that we are getting ready to launch one of the first “Chameleons” for WordPress that takes over the functionality of widgets, plug-ins and theme, all in one.

This will be a large shift in giving someone that only knows how to check their email with zero tech skills to build a fully richly featured Business website of unmatched functionality.

It is being called a Chameleon because it can mimic the look, feel, and functionality of nearly any site, running on any of the other platforms more quickly, easily, and better than anything else out there up until now.

Imagine being able to build a Website that looks like any of the best ones out there in a mater a few hours or days.  Now imaging being able to do it yourself our have someone do it for you and not break the bank or have to be a rocket scientist to ad any content you want from text, to graphics, to audio and video.  Or to be able to set up a completely functioning eCommerce site within an hour or two complete with Affiliate programs and upsells and downsells and in place.

Well, the wait is nearly over and it is going to blow everything else right out of the water.

The end result is that you have a Website that not only costs less to put together, but to maintain, add data and content too, and keep fresh and up-to-date without being a tech genius.

This is not to be confused with all of the cheap or free website builders out there.  You know the ones that are free or only cost $10 – $100 bucks a month.  The time for those if you really want to make money on the Web is long past and those business that stick with them are suddenly going to find their business drying up over the next year or so to business that are using WordPress and a Chameleon.

I will be able to show you a demo video of what can actually be done and just how fast you can do it here before the end of the month.  This will be an exclusive and you can say that you saw the future of Business Websites here first before anyone else.

Cheers,

Do you want more sales no matter what you are selling? Be different. Seriously as more and more competition is out there, the one thing that stands out is being different.

But be different in a good way, Be smart about it, but sometimes even being just a little different can mean a lot of money ending up on your bottom line.

Here is an Noodle Jolt. An easy way to come up with ideas is to look at your competition and see how White Bread boring they are? Don’t be like that, get out of the box, get out of the rut.  Do anything different than what they are doing.

You will be glad you did.

Cheers,
Andrew Anderson

Believe it or not, you really can get a complete eCommerce website done for under $2.500 these days.  And no we are not talking about those out of the box template monstrosities that you only pay $5 per month for or are from a template that 10,000 other business have that look exactly the same.

I am talking about having a full blown custom design that does not look like it comes from the 80′s.  I am not talking about a Website that is not centered in your browser.  That is the surest sign I know of these days to quickly ascertain if a company has their act together on the web.  If it is left justified and not centered on your screen, be careful about doing business with them.    Just saying… 

Today, you really need to have the following.

1. A Centered Website that lets people know how your product or service can help solve their problem or pain, or make their liver easier or more enjoyable.
2. You need to have an integrated design to the site which include a look and feel that is consistent throughout the site.
3. You must have a Blog, even if you don’t want to write in it, have someone else do it.
4. You must have RSS feeds and social media integration.  While I have not heard too much about this from the so called Gurus, your RSS feed can be your most important traffic source.  The same goes for your Social Media.
5. If you have products or services to sell, ( I mean why else would you be in business) then you need a way for your customers to purchase them. You need buttons and a shopping cart.   Here are some examples of some pretty cool buttons. Note the buy now button and the sign up for twitter button.

• Click Here Or On Image To See The Button In Action

Most companies can get a great looking Website, Blog, online Social Media Framework, and Shopping Cart/Way to collect money, Video Integration, and all done for your including graphics for $2,477. Where? Right here with www.21to21.com and www.MadFunMarketing.com.

So what are you waiting for? It does not matter if you are a just starting out, or need a serious rehaul of your Website. You don’t need to spend more in 85% of the cases.

In 99.99% of all of the sites that we have looked at, most can be done for under $10,000 using our new tools. 94% can be done for under $5,000 and of those, 88% can be done for under $2,500.

And putting money in your Web Presence is by far the best money you can spend for Marketing/Sales and in practically any other category you can think of for sure. Simply because in case you have not noticed, people go to your Website First!

Plus, you can keep it up-to-date and humming for less than $200 with hosting and fresh content for your blog. You don’t even have to write it yourself!

Why are we doing it so inexpensively?

Well, because we are tired of seeing crappy looking Websites for one. Secondly, we are tired of coming in after the fact when a client has spent $5,000 to $50,00 and still has a site the will not make them money and then having to convince them that it can be done form $2,400 or in the larger ones, for only $10,000 and that it can bring in 5 x the business they are bringing in now. It is painful to watch. And frankly, just silly and totally unnecessary.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer, and get access to our new tools, plus a whole lot of other bonuses such as marketing and SEO assistance then just click on the Button below to get started.

Oh, and you will be able to easily maintain, change, and update your site as well. Complete training on how to do this is provided as well.

DO TESTIMONIALS REALLY WORK? PART II:

By Marilyne Woodsmall

WHEN TO USE THEM AND WHEN NOT…

In our prior discussion, I talked about the Evaluation People Pattern™. This critical Evaluation People Pattern™ determines how an individual makes a judgment. In the context of sales, this pattern reveals how an individual makes a judgment to buy a product or service.

If you remember, there are two types of people when it comes to the Evaluation People Pattern™: Internal People and External People. Individuals who have what we call an Internal Referential Filter don’t want to hear about what other people are saying about a product or a service that they are thinking about purchasing. On the other side of the coin, there are those who have an External Referential Filter. They need to know what other people think before they purchase something. Remember, too, that there are some Internal People who will rely on what another person is saying if that person happens to be a proven expert on the product or service and has accurate information.

It makes a huge difference whether you are selling to someone with an internal pattern or an external pattern. Most Internal People think that the public at large is totally lacking in awareness and taste when it comes to making evaluations or judgments. In fact, our term, the Science of Idiots™ is quite apropos here, since Internal People view External People to be idiots for the most part. The former ask in referring to the latter: How is it possible to be such an idiot as to need another person’s opinion before buying something?

On the other hand, External People can’t imagine how a person can buy anything in life without getting feedback from others. They think that Internal People are idiots for not wanting the opinion of other people.

So what can you do to tailor your sales communication, whether one-on-one or on your site to reach these types of people? First, let us consider External People. If you are dealing with External People there are two viable strategies. One, you can position yourself as their external point of reference. The second strategy is to have people they respect or admire talk about your product.

The first strategy means that you have to be knowledgeable about your product or service as well as be trustworthy. Even sleazy car salesmen types don’t fare well here. Customers are much savvier than you may think and they certainly don’t want or need the traditional hype that has worked in the past in certain niches. The best rule of all is to always come from a place of integrity. In our work professionally modeling top salespeople over the years, my husband and I have always found that the best of the best have integrity and also create trust among their customers. I’ll delve more into this topic in a future article.

The second strategy involves telling your customers what people they respect have to say about what you are selling or providing. This means finding out who those people are for your particular customers.

In brief, with External People:

1. Provide as much information or referral material that you can.
2. Give as many testimonials as possible (more is better than less here)
3. Stress what others think about your product.
4. Have them see and or hear others’ reactions to your product or service.
5. Know that they are easily influenced by others.

Now, with Internal People, the strategy is totally different. With them you want to go out of your way to avoid telling them what other people are saying about your product or service. In fact, an Internal People will think less of you if try to sell your product based on testimonials or based on others’ opinions. They simply will view you as another idiot who has no clue about things.

In brief, with Internal People:

1. Suggest that they have their own internal check regarding the buying decision.
2. Stress that it is up to them and not up to you, as to whether to buy or not.
3. Avoid giving testimonials.
4. Tell them that you know that they are ultimately making the buying decision.
5. Know that telling them what others think is useless and may cost you the sale.

Also, remember that if you are an expert and or have someone else’s expertise to present regarding your product, it may be helpful to the Internal Person and only if the information is from an expert and is relevant.

In summary, it is critical in sales to know what criteria your customers are using when buying anything. This is why it is so important to appeal to both the Internal and External People in your presentation. In this way, you cover all possibilities; and you increase your sales as well as avoid missing half your customers and thus, avoid losing sales.

————————————–

As I have said before, Marilyne Woodsmall is one of the smartest marketing modelers out there, which is why many of the Marketing Gurus have sought her and her husband Wyatt, out for training.

While you may not have heard of them before, I can guarantee that if you have ever purchased anything online, you have seen their techniques being used.

To find out more information, you can go to The Science Of Idiots .com

I also suggest that you listen to the interview that I did wit her here.

Cheers,

DO TESTIMONIALS REALLY WORK?

Long before the internet came along, people have been giving testimonials for products. TV sales have always played a huge part in the conspicuous consumer society in which we live and still do so today. With the onset of the Internet, we have been overwhelmed with the typical and quite annoying bottomless sales letter that is riddled with endorsements and testimonials to convince prospective buyers to purchase a product or service.

And with TV shopping channels like QVC and the Home Shopping Network, testimonials play an increasingly important role in selling. Or do they? The question is do they really work with everyone? The answer is NO, NO, NO!!!

In fact, only about half of the population cares about what others think about a product before they buy it. The other half simply couldn’t care less what other people say about what they are buying. Which type are you? And more important, which type are your customers? Just because you may like to hear what other people are saying about products before purchasing them doesn’t mean that all of your customers think the same way. Or you may not care about testimonials and yet some of your customers won’t buy your products without them.

Are you a person who thrives on hearing what others have to say about a particular product? Or are you a person who can’t stand listening to or to reading about what people are saying about a product or service that you are contemplating buying? And there is another possibility as well. Are you someone who occasionally likes to read or to hear testimonials from certain individuals? How you answer these questions is quite revelatory.

In fact, it will determine still another People Pattern™ that comprises what we call Personality Language™. It is called the Evaluation People Pattern™. This all important Evaluation People Pattern™ determines how an individual makes a judgment, and in the context of this discussion, how an individual makes a judgment to buy a product or service. The emphasis is on how and not why.

Basically there are two major elements that make up the Evaluation People Pattern™. There are some individuals who make decisions to buy based on internal criteria and then there are some individuals who make decisions to buy based on external criteria. Those who make buying decisions based on internal criteria have what we refer to as an Internal Referential Filter or People Pattern™. They simply know inside that what they are doing or what they are buying, in this case, is the right thing for them. Those who make buying decisions based on external criteria have what we refer to as an External Referential Filter or People Pattern™. They need to hear what others think and tend not to buy anything without this feedback.

There are also some Internal People who, under certain circumstances, don’t mind having an expert give advice or information about a product, and only if it is information from an expert and not just anyone offering their opinion.

The bottom line is that Internal People don’t need feedback from others when it comes to buying products or services (unless, as mentioned, they want expert information under some circumstances); and External People need feedback before they purchase something. External People are often incapable of buying something without hearing first what other people think about it.

What this means for you in sales is that you have to tailor your communication on your sales page and/or in your presentation to both include testimonials for External People as well as include phrases that target the Internal People among your customers. Tune in next time to learn how to communicate with both types of customers in your audience, those with an Internal Referential Filter and those with an External Referential Filter.

This is from “ Personality Language” ™

By Marilyne Woodsmall

Add 50% Or More To Your Sales….. An interview with the author of the new book “Personality Language” Marilyne Woodsmall.

I did this interview when this book first came out and I see that there a few people have picked on just how valuable this really is and are starting to teach it.  But, why not get it from the Horse’s mouth so to speak instead.

Get comfortable and take a listen to an interview I did with the author of the new book Personality Language.  Listen in as we discuss how using Personality Language can dramatically boost your profits.

This is a totally new way to reach not only new customers, but get a lot more sales from your existing customers.

I hope to have more chats with her about this mind-blowing new way to communicate with your customers and increase your profits.

We talk about how Personality Language and you will find out why you want to layout all of your Blog posts, Sales Letters, and Information Products this way if you want to have the most success with them and become profitable.

Marilyne Woodsmall and Wyatt Woodsmall, who are Human Success Modelers  wrote  this as a primer to introduce this new way of thinking.

While you may not have ever heard of them before, I can bet that you have heard of, or seen on TV, or on the Internet, or read the books of some of the many people that either one or both of them have coached.  People like Anthony “Tony” Robbins, Eben Pagan of Internet Marketing fame (if you have never heard of him before, under the pen name David DeAngelo who sells over $20,000,000 of Dating eBooks and Advice on the Internet every year and doesn’t even have a published “real book”) , Joe Polish of Piranha Marketing, world-class Marketer and Joint Venture specialist extraordinaire, and finally a host of Olympic Athletes and Coaches that brought home oodles of Medals, and quite a few other people that you have heard or seen as well.

Again the Woodsmall’s don’t go out of their way to mention them as they don’t like to talk about the people that they have worked or are working with all that much. It is just the way they operate, and I can respect that.

The only reason that I bring these people up is help you give some weight to what I am about to share with you.  The folks that I mentioned have used what they learned from Marilyne and Wyatt to help make themselves tens of millions of dollars and to achieve success at a world class level that very few people are ever able to obtain.

Part of what those individuals did to obtain those ultra-high levels of success was to Leverage, with a capital L, what Marilyne and Wyatt gave to them to propel themselves to higher levels of success faster than they could have done on their own.

Now imagine if you had access to that same type of information that you could use to Leverage yourself to those ultra-high levels of success and profitability?  Now you can.

Take a listen and let me know what you think.

Press the play button and find out how to improve your sales with Personality Language.

Click below on the book cover to order the book and type in 21 to get a $5.00 discount.  I can’t recommend this book enough.  It is a game changer.  I will also be posting other interviews with Marilyne and Wyatt as soon I can talk them into giving up more information.

Even if you don’t buy the book, go and sign up for their newsletter at www.PersonalityLanguage.com as it is well worth it.

Here are 2 Twitter Rules that you must use on Twitter if you want to be successful on it.

Rule #1 Try and help, don’t try and sell.

Rule #2 See rule 1.

Cheers,

Oil Spill Gulf Of Mexico 2010

If the expected  moratorium on offshore drilling is placed by the administration as rumored, nearly every expert agrees that we could see $5.00+ gas prices at the pump and diesel could shoot up to $7.00.

Why should this matter to you other than it is going to make going to the pump painful and the price of everything you purchase could go up 10-15%, and heating a home could double this coming Winter?

Well, because it will drive even more people to the Web for services and products.   When even close trips cost $5 to get there and back, most people will be looking for even more things they can purchase without using their car and they will be looking to save money as the average consumer in America and Worldwide for that matter is going to get hit hard.

This is even without the proposed Cap and Tax bill on energy that Congress has said they are going to pass that will add a 25% tax to all energy costs including electricity.

So there has never been a better time to make sure that your Website is up and running and profitable.  I know we are getting busier than we have ever been.

How Is Your Business Going To Handle $5.00 Per Gallon Gas and $7.00 Gallon Diesel Fuel?

Just make sure you do not wait too long.  Gas prices are guaranteed to go up. Will they hit $5.00 per gallon?   Depends if they do put a moratorium on drilling.  But, I would say there is a 99% that you will see a 40% spike in prices even if they don’t.    With over 84% of all oil reserves in the US placed off limits to drilling by the Government and even tighter restrictions on coal and other normal energy sources with no real alternatives in site, it is pretty much assured that prices will continue to rise unless someone in Washington grows some brain cells.

But I have more faith in the Easter Bunny showing up at my door along with Santa Clause with a bottle of good Scotch asking me to sit down for a drink to discuss the Evil of Progressives than the DC crowd to get things right. 

Then again though, if you open your eyes to what is going to be happening shortly and you get your Website and marketing humming, you can do really well. That, and buying oil futures.

Those that don’t, will probably go out of business or at least be in for a really, really rough time of things.  It is as simple as that.

Call me if you need help and even if you don’t do that, get your Website and your Marketing in order ASAP.

Cheers,

OK, this post is going to allow me to cover a couple of common themes that have been popping up over the past three weeks.

Recently, I have gotten at least seven different emails from seven different Gurus pointing me toward two of the same NEW products.

Both were HUGE NEW discoveries there were going to make me millions. 

Wrong Advice

1. The first one was that long copy sales copy and even copy was dead or did not matter, and that screen shot videos were the only way to go for sales pages.

Well, right off the bat I would have to put that in the Wrong Advice Column.  Long copy has been proven time and time again to out-sell short copy by several hundred times and copy always matters no matter what media you use.  So, the alarm bells went off on that one, so write that one off.

As far as doing screen shot videos for sales pages as a new thing,  well, I put down that technique in detail in my eBook, The Muse Blueprint and The 4 Hour Muse back in 2007.  So, nothing really new there at all.  I also went over it in detail a few years back at a big event for Internet Marketers in LA.

And to top it off, I also have an updated version of how to do this in my new Book  “Start On Monday”.  It is supposed to be released this week and I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

Late To The Party

2. The other New Discovery was that Brick and Mortar small businesses  need help with marketing was a is a huge market.  Well Duh, I have been in that market for several years now.  All I have to say is, you guys are really kind of late to that party and it is not all that new to anyone that has been paying attention for the last 15 years. 

They are also talking about getting 1st page Google results using Videos… Hmm, Oh, they couldn’t have looked the series of blog posts I did two months ago could they?  LOL

Guess what, that is in  “Start On Monday” as well. Except you don’t have to pay  $2,997  for it.  It is only $27.  I swear that are charging that much for it.  Arghhh..

Seriously, call me up and I will tell you what to do in 20 minutes for $100 and give you a couple of tricks they won’t teach you to boot.  Or better yet, just buy the book.

How To Pay For The Right Kind Of Help

I have to be a bit careful here on this one because I work with some of these folks.  But if I hear of another PR / Marketing company that won’t put there compensation on the line and guarantee results or claims to be a Social Media expert and only has 1,000 followers on Twitter, my eyes are going to pop out.  Or if they don’t use their Blog for SEO and can’t  show me how they tie in with the clients marketing and sales, then in my book, you are wasting my clients money.

This is especially goes for Marketing companies.  If you won’t take a retainer on a monthly basis (OK, this can range from $500 to $50,000 depending on how the big the job is) and then work off a percentage of sales, you are full of it to put it bluntly.

Seriously think about it.  And this especially goes for some of the bigger companies.   When I take on a Marketing client or someone that has a PR firm, I ask this simple question.

How are they going to show your Return On Investment, and are they working off percentage of sales?   If not, they are probably not worth it period.

I have worked off of percentages from 10% to as high as 60% of sales.  But guess what?  I pay for myself in every single case and if I don’t produce, the client does not pay me squat.

So if I bring in $500,000 in sales to a client, I might get $100,000 t0 $250,000.  Here again, they probably would not have gotten those sales in the first place or gotten them as fast and so in essence, it is about as close to free money as you are going to find.   If someone came to you and said” Hey, I am going to bring in $500,000 in sales and it will only cost $100,000 to do it but you only pay me after I bring in the money”, would you take them up on it?

Of course you should not have to think about it for even a nano-second as the answer should be ” Yes, sign me up for 10 of those please right now”.   If not, then you really need to do some soul searching and do it quick.

Why?

Because you are probably not going to be in business much longer if your competition is one of those people that said yes.  If you really did not say yes.  Please think about it for a few minutes.  You have some issues that need addressed pronto.

Firing Clients

I would like to discuss this as it is perhaps counter-intuitive.

The customer is not always right.   If you find yourself butting heads with one, fire them.  It will make your life easier and you can spend more time with the ones that you do get along with and you can more than make up for any lost revenue by spending time with them instead of the client that is an idiot or won’t listen to you, or you simply don’t get along with very well.

It does not even have to be any negative connotation.  Sometimes, there is just not a good fit or there are communication issues.   That is fine. You will be doing your client and yourself a favor by removing yourself or them.  I used to try and stick with the client no matter how bad of a fit even only a few years ago.  Now I don’t.

The same goes with hiring consultants or service providers.  If you have one that you butt heads with or just can’t communicate with, get rid of them.  It is that simple.  I have been on both ends of the equation and stopping a situation like that sooner is usually better for both parties.  I always try and do this amicably, because you may want to work with them in the future.  They might just not be right for right now.

Now, on the other hand, you don’t want to hire a yes man or woman, because that can be even worse.  Because if you hire someone that is good, you are not going to agree with everything that they say or do, but on the other hand, you more than likely need to do something different or you would not have needed to hire them in the first place right?

When all else fails, trust your gut.

Hope these things help just a bit and start some ideas rolling around in your noodle. but most importantly, add profit to your bottom line.

Cheers,

I have seen a lot said about the science of buying, heard PR firms, Advertising Agencies, pundits galore, along with every Tom, Dick, and Harriet out there discuss the psychology of buying and yet, not heard it broken down into these two simple truths in quite this way before.

Only Two Reasons

I have distilled this from many conversations with world-renowned performance expert and author Marilyne Woodsmall, who has written several books on human modeling and human behavior, with the latest being “Personality Language” ™  How To Persuade And Influence Virtually Anyone” which is available on Amazon or from

• The Science Of idiots.com

The only two reasons that anyone buys anything are these.

1. To move toward pleasure
2. Move away from pain

All purchases stem from one of these motivations.  The kicker is that some people are more inclined toward one and not the other.

Did you know that there is a way to write copy that will appeal to and target a person that leans toward each of these motivations?

Looking forward to your comments.

Cheers,

PS  Click on the map pins.  I just typed these to words in and this is what Google came up with. 

This is an interview that I just did with Dave Olson over at HootSuite which is one of the best tools you can use for Social Media and your business.

They just released a team collaboration tool to manage a Businesses Social Media that frankly, just totally rocks and you need to get it.  I allows you to have several people use your Social Media and collaborate while limiting permissions.

Below the interview, I have  a video showing you what it can do.

If you are using not using this great Social Media tool (and it is free) and your competition is, at least you will now know why you are losing your customers to the them!    I am sure the blog will get hammered so be patient while the audio loads!

You can download the interview here in MP3 format.

Below is a raw transcript of the interview.  I wanted to get this posted ASAP.   HootSuite really gets it unlike so many companies out there.  Keep an eye on them for sure and go get HootSuite for criminy sakes.  Here is a link,  HootSuite.

Hope you enjoy this!

Cheers,

Interview of Dave Olson with HootSuite by Andrew Anderson.

AA is for Andrew and DO is for Dave of course.

A.A: I’ve got Dave with HootSuite on the line here, and of course this is Andrew Andersen. Dave, you want to introduce yourself and let everybody know who you are and what you do?

D.O: Yup. My name’s Dave Olson, and I work for HootSuite as the community director. I oversee all the marketing and support related task as well as spend a lot of time out just spreading the message to our passionate user-base.

A.A: I happen to be one of those passionate users, which is why we’re having this conversation today. I’ve noticed that you’ve got a really cool product that is honing in on businesses, which really need to use Twitter, and I’m just gonna kinda let you go off on your riff and tell us about HootSuite, and tell us why you think Twitter is good, and go for it.

D.O: What HootSuite tries to excel in is using Twitter and other social media platforms within groups – It’s all about the teams for us. And really, from the very first iteration, HootSuite was built to solve the problem of how do you manage multiple Twitter accounts with multiple editors. It kinda came out of that agency background. But as we built this product, we’ve listened to users and really saw where the future trends are leading, which is more social networks – people don’t just hang out on one. It’s not either or with Facebook and Twitter, it’s both in most cases, especially so in marketing. But now we’ve taken it a step further to create a context of owner and team members. Which allow groups to control their different social networks at a very granular level where they can have owners, advanced team members, and basic team members – they can all be created ad hoc so you can create a group around a topic, a project, a client account. All without revealing confidential password information which is really great especially considering the transitory nature of a lot of work environments where you might have interns or people moving on, people changing jobs, changing departments, and so on.

A.A: Right. And the value of that account is becoming higher and higher as more people depend on it too.

D.O: Oh, absolutely. We find, by listening to what people are talking about out there – and I spend a lot of time on the road talking to agencies and enterprises, and consultants and so on – they really think of HootSuite as a destination. This is their dashboard that they open up first thing in the day, even before their email, to listen to the pulse of what people are saying about their pertinent brand names out there. It’s tremendously important, and I would say, to businesses who aren’t using Twitter yet, even more so that talking to the people, it’s even more important to be listening to what people are talking about right now about. They’re talking about your brand even if you’re not listening. If you’re not involved in the conversation, you’re not getting in front of potential PR disasters, and you’re not out there prospecting and gaining more customers by being out there, listening to the people, and responding and reacting to their comments. [00:02:58] your own company, but certainly your competitors as well

A.A: And it can if you’re out in front of it, and I just wanna give a real brief example: I had made a Twitter comment, I’d used a product that I wasn’t happy with. They’re well known, I don’t wanna mention them in here. I made a Tweet about it, and I wasn’t being mean about it, I’ve learned never to do that because I have problems too, and I don’t know any company that has these issues but they had seen the Tweet, I had the CEO and their VP of marketing get a hold of me within 15 or 20 minutes of that and take care of the problem. I was amazed. And I’m not sure if that could have happened without Twitter and everything else

D.O: No certainly not, and I think where Twitter is really powerful is in its limitations. The whole ‘It has to be a short message’ allows you to digest these little dim sum sized morsels really quickly and respond and react to them. When sending an email, which just gets lost in the shuffle and people write an email and there’ll be 6 different topics in there – so it’s like “Oh geeze, I can’t respond to all of this”. But if you can fit something into 140 characters, usually it can be answered in a fairly straightforward manner. So it kinda creates this back channel into the offices all around the world of these people who [00:04:15] are very difficult to get a hold of.

A.A: Right. You’ve nailed it ‘round the head. What happens is it’s the ultimate in direct marketing. You have to be very precise, as you said, to get your message out there so that it’s understandable.

D.O: Yeah, and I think direct marketing sometimes has this connotation that it’s very indirect, it’s kind of spreading the message too far and wide. Now with Twitter by setting up a listening column and HootSuite for example, where you can listen for everyone talking about llama feed because you’re in the llama feed business, And every time you see someone saying ‘I have to go feed my llama’, or something to that effect, you can be chiming into them saying “Hey, I’m interested in your llama’s too. [00:04:56]. How many do you have?” When it comes time for feed, they’re more likely to contact you. Although I don’t know what the shipping cost is for llama feed across the country, so I should probably come up with a better example – maybe fly fishing.

A.A: It doesn’t matter what it is though. It doesn’t have to be a world away. That conversation could be taking place right in your community, and you would never know about it without twitter.

D.O: Yeah, absolutely. People do forget about the power of – and you see this a lot with tweetups and such where it’s local people. People that might be working just down the street from each other, or hanging out at the same coffee shop, all of a sudden are able to build relationships because they have this Twitter tool, this social media tool sort of bridging that divide of awkwardness that sometimes is between we human beings.

A.A: Yeah, absolutely. It’s obviously added a few zero’s to your guy’s bottom line. It can do that for anyone else too. I know it has in mine, in my consulting business, and everything else that I do. It’s absolutely added a complete zero to our profit this year.

D.O: Bear in mind too that HootSuite is a free tool. While there’s a premium version of the mobile versions for both Android and iPhone at $299. There’s also free versions for Android, iPhones, there’s the web version which is free, enjoy it. And there’s also three flavors of standalone applications that a lot of people don’t realize. People that are accustomed to using a standalone Twitter or social media tool, and they prefer that rather than running it in the web. There’s some versions that you can run it as a standalone application too, and at this point there’s no cost for any of those.

A.A: And $2.99, you don’t mean $299, right?

D.O: No, no. Although if you do want to pay $299, we’ll make sure that we spend the money to feed the developers tasty beverages on a Friday.

A.A: Ok. You’re talking about 2 dollars and 99 cents.

D.O: That’s correct.

A.A: Ok. Just wanted to make that clear for everyone else. What’s amazing Dave is, and we had this in our brief, previous conversation – I don’t know what your numbers are as far as penetration of people actually using Twitter for their businesses. But in my own experience in dealing with clients, I would say it’s really less than 3-4%, if that high, are really using it to their full advantage. It’s kind of amazing.

D.O: Yeah well a lot of companies get on and they don’t think of it holistically involved in their whole marketing and outreach in public media relations strategy. They think of social media as the red headed stepchild that’s sort of stuck in the corner. Sometimes within companies, they sort of randomly assign someone to manage this stuff. But really, this is just another tool in your marketing tool kit and once people start understanding the power of listening and talking in almost real time. It gets over that ‘Oh this is just a fad’ phase real quick if they do it right. The problem is a lot of people sign up for an account, they’re just using Twitter Web and they’re spending their time thinking about what to write rather than how to listen. When they do write, it’s talking about something like – maybe sending out a coupon offer, and they’re talking about themselves, when really you have to be out there building relationships which means talking about what other people are interested in. It’s not about being transparent; it’s about being translucent and sharing the interesting bits about you and your company.

A.A: Very well put. You guys definitely have a handle on it. It’s a powerful medium and I think that if a lot of companies would spend half the money that they spend on PR and advertising, and put in a social media like Twitter and everything else, they would get 10x return they’re getting now.

D.O: [00:08:46] return with spending 10% of the money. When I talk to people who are heavily invested in this kind of traditional advertising forms. I’m like how many people converted because of that billboard ad, or how many people converted because of that radio ad? And those numbers are really hard to quantify, whereas using Twitter and using HootSuite specifically with our onboard statistics, you can see immediately what Twitters generated clicks, how many clicks there where, where the people came from, and kind of the long tail of that – well there was a whole bunch here in the first couple hours, but look at that, it kept on going for another week. How many people re-tweeted that message – it’s real easy to find out. You can very quickly and efficiently generate metrics to justify the success and adjust your campaigns to fine tune them based on what you find is really working and what your audience is responding to. With a billboard once it’s up there, you can’t go in the next day and say “what we meant to do is”- you can’t do that.

A.A: Absolutely. As you said, you can track the links. If you set up your link to specifically deal with those people that were coming in from Twitter and the other social media, you can further leverage that as well and measure it. It just takes a little bit of common sense to get that put together.

D.O: Yeah, and if there’s some analytic stat geeks listening out there, they probably have discovered our custom URL parameters. It’s one of those features that we added, that we’re really excited about. This maybe 2-5% of our total user base understands or cares what this is. But this allows you to attach a whole bunch of information to your shortened URL that will tell you specifically what campaign, where it was sent from, who send it, and so on, so you can really slice and dice and compare – well what kind of conversions did we get from Twitter messaging as compared to Facebook messaging as compared to Myspace messaging, and you can slice and dice those statistics by campaign, which is a great way to turn in reports to your client. Or else for your internal use to hone your tactics. It’s a really powerful tool.

A.A: Can I rephrase what you just said? What he basically just said was “It’s gonna help you make more money”.

D.O: Yes. And spend less money to make more money.

A.A: Exactly.

D.O: And spend more time chilling out because rather than experimenting over and over and over again, you figure out real quick which platforms are working for you, which time of day is the best time to send messages out. You’re not caught in a spiral. You can adjust each campaign very specifically and very deliberately.

A.A: Very well said Dave. I know that you’re in on a tight schedule now. Do you guys track those metrics that you just spoke about? And do you guys have some ideas for that? You don’t have to give me all the information now, maybe perhaps we can talk again because I’m sure the audience is gonna be interested in this.

D.O: In other words, do we eat our own dog food?

A.A: Yes.

D.O: Absolutely. Like this morning when our new release came out, I had everything staged from yesterday to blog posts and the releases, and the videos and all the stuff goes out at a certain time. All of us here in the office, the developers included, released it, because it’s kind of a big deal, they’ll be able to keep an eye on all the conversation and all the chatter going on about HootSuite. Various terms about it, certainly we look at what people are clicking through, where people are coming from, and so on. Mostly the main thing that we look at is the sentiment. Who’s excited about it. Who’s talking about it. Who’s sharing it with their networks. What people are writing about it. We know about that kind of stuff in real time because we pay very close attention to it.

A.A: Good deal. As far as I can tell and as far as my use, it is the best social media product that I know from a business standpoint. And that’s why I wanted to talk to you guys, and I wanted to get the word out there. Great job on the new release there, it’s a fantastic tool. Everybody that’s listening or reading this definitely needs to go and get it. And the price is right, Dave.

D.O: The price is indeed right. And if anyone out there has ideas for features that they’d like to see added to HootSuite, we have a feedback channel: feedback.hootsuite.com

You can go there and put in your ideas for new features. Plus you’re allocated a handful of votes so you can go apply to other features that other uses have suggested that you’d really like to see on HootSuite as well. It’s another tool we use to pay attention to what the community cares about and where the passion is. I encourage you to use those tools.

If you need a little help getting started, check our help desk. There’s all sorts of ways to get in touch with us to get a helping hand to get you rolling with this tool.

A.A: I can attest that HootSuite is very responsive. I’m definitely impressed.

D.O: We try our best anyway.

A.A: Dave listen, I really appreciate you taking the time to have this chat. I know it’s gonna help a lot of people get their act together with social media, and hopefully get a bunch more users for an absolutely fantastic product that I can’t say enough about.

D.O: Appreciate the call and to all the HootSuite users out there, we truly appreciate your support of our product. And to all that aren’t out there using it, give it a try and I think you’ll be pretty happy.

A.A: Alright, thanks a lot Dave.

D.O: Bye for now.

A.A: Bye.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Cheers again,