Coffee Break Blogging

In the first installment of what will be a 4-part series, we will discuss conversion triggers. In other words, we will talk about the psychological principles behind much of the marketing you see today and why they work.

Understanding these "triggers" will allow you to move people into action.... whether that be to buy something, to opt into your email list, to open an email, to click on an email, to post a comment, to click on a tweet.... whatever it may be.

Moving people into action is the name of the game, and these conversion triggers are a very important part of doing it.

In this series, we will discuss many different conversion triggers, why they work, and examples of using them.

And perhaps you'll even learn something about yourself. ;-)

So first of all, I want to welcome you to 2016. This is the first episode of Coffee Break for 2016.

I took a few weeks off for the holidays. Christmas, New Year's... spent a lot of time not in my office. And then last week; it is was just kind of an interesting week, getting back into the groove in terms of business. But then, there are some personal stuff going on; not bad, in fact, very good. We actually purchased another RV for the family, not that matters very much to you but it is a little time consuming on my part. And it did have something to do with why I didn't release a couple of podcast episodes last week and kicked off 2016 earlier. The new RV is definitely a huge improvement over the one we had before. And you know, sometimes we travel and I do business from there, not like actual business; it is an online business so I can run it from anywhere. So sometimes while we are traveling the country, I can just run the business right from there. It is a lot of good times. One of the things that define me is that I love to go out and do that kind of thing.

Anyway, enough about that. What I would like to do now is we are going to jump right in to our topic here. And this is going to be the topic that we are going to talk about for the next few episodes; and it is about Conversion Triggers.

This will be our final Coffee Break installment for the year 2015. We'll be on a brief hiatus and then hitting the ground running in the new year.

But, to that end, I thought it'd be a good idea to review where we've been this year, how things are moving along, and where I intend to take the show in the year 2016.

In this episode, we will discuss:

• The original reasons I started Coffee Break Blogging
• Why I do solo shows and don't generally have interview guests
• A review of the "7 Stages To Building An Online Business" and where this podcast currently stands in the 7 stages
• What I'm looking to do with this show in 2016
• What is going to happen after the 7 stages are done?

As we bring 2015 to a close here on Coffee Break Blogging, I wanted to take a break from the usual programming.... and just talk to the general idea of growing your online business.

... Especially if you feel you are lacking for time.

I've gotten that feedback from many people - including some Lab members. Short on time, not enough time... and for this reason they put their business goals on hold and go put out fires.

And I get it. Jobs, kids, family. Life can be a messy business sometimes. :)

So, in this situation, how can we continue to make headway on our business and not put the whole thing on perpetual hold?

In this episode, I share my thoughts on expanding your "sphere of influence". It is the idea of being able to spend time on those other things.... AND your business at the same time.

I also share a few productivity tips - and the underlying reason for each - to help you make more headway with your business.

Hope you find this episode helpful.

So today, we are going to take a little bit of a hiatus from what we have been talking about. We have been talking here about monetization, so to speak; about making sales, about generating revenue. And we are going to continue on that track. But here is what we are going to be doing… We are going to take a little break today, we are going to talk a little bit about how to make progress or how to grow your online business when you think that you have got no time.

And I am injecting this in here for a couple of reasons: One is because I have been seeing these feedback coming from many different people; including some of my Lab Members. The other thing is that we are heading into the Christmas break here and so I am going to be taking a little hiatus, myself. The next episode is going to be kind of a little pit stop episode; so to speak, that will be more clear when we get there, and then we are going to take a little bit and come back in going full steam ahead in 2016 with Coffee Break Blogging. So we are going to have a lot of fun with that.

You can't sell something on the Internet without some kind of a sales page. Whether it is a written sales page or a video one, the components are primarily the same.

So, this episode is going to give you a full grand tour of the major elements of a converting sales page.

We'll discuss:

• The headline
• Opening text
• Stories
• Credibility
• Sub-headings
• Testimonials
• Proof it works
• The offer
• Risk Reducer
• The Close

For each of these 10 components, we go into detail about how to do it and what you should be thinking about in each.

If you are new to copywriting or making sales pages, then this Coffee Break episode is highly important for you.

So let's get in to our topic for today, and that is... A Sales Page. Specifically, we are going to talk and give you a grand bird's eye view of the 10 components of a converting sales page.

Now what this episode is NOT going to be for you is a full breakdown of copywriting and sales conversions and all that... We couldn't possibly cover that in one episode if I tried. But what I am going to do is kind of walk you through the 10 big components; the 10 big things to keep in mind when you are putting together a sales page to sell your product.

So let's jump right in because there is 10 of them; it is going to take us a little bit to do. :-)

When it comes to giving your product a name, this is something you want to put some thought into and not just "shoot from the hip".

I've had some real doosies for product names. My first product was called "3 Day Money"... which is probably my worst product name of all time. But, even the Blog Monetization Lab itself used to be called "Inner Circle"... then the "VIP". :D

What is wrong with these names?

Well, in this episode, I boil it down to 3 things to keep in mind with your product names:

• Brand-ability
• Communicating the benefit
• Avoiding Confusions

I explain each of these in this episode. I also talk about the exercise you should go through to arrive at an awesome product name. Lastly, I discuss 3 specific followup tasks you should do, both while considering a name, as well as after you've chosen one.

Don't take the name of your product lightly. This episode of Coffee Break can help you avoid problems down the road in your marketing.

So let us go in and get into our topic of today...

We have already talked about it in several episodes of the show; the process of creating a product. We talked about that in a few different episodes here. Again, you can go view the archives and go back and find that.

But we need to talk about naming the product, as well, because what you call the product is an important part of the marketing of the product and it then has something to do with selling it. So we need to discuss how we name it. Do we just name some summary type of title that just kind of says what it is about or do we need to think about some other considerations there? At the end of the day, your product name needs to serve as a brand name for that product. The name of your product needs to be something that can stand alone. It does not mean that it needs to go out and be on a whole separate website or it needs to stand alone from you, but it needs to be able to exist as a brand unto itself.

To show you some examples of kind of how I have screwed this up in the past; because I am not going to sit here and tell you that product naming has always been my thing, even to this day this is something that I struggle with. Now, it certainly helps that today, my main offer with my business is the Blog Monetization Lab. So, right now, I only really have one central product and it is fairly well named, actually. But I want to give you a little bit of background into some of the stuff that I kind of pulled in the past and you can kind of see what I am talking about here.

So, you have that new product you'd like to bring to market. It could be a new ebook, a new course, a new membership site, etc.

So, you start thinking about product launches.

Launches are sexy - no doubt about it. You've like heard the tales of the huge pay days. The million dollar days. Hell, you'd be OK with a multi-thousand day, right? :-) And it seems as if some big product launch is the way to go.

But, is it? Do you really need to do a traditional product launch?

In this episode, I talk about the fun parts of a launch... as well as some of the realities of a launch. Behind the scenes, it isn't always as sexy as it can seem.

When is a launch a good idea? When does it make sense?

And when should you slow down and think a little longer term, and perhaps forget about a traditional launch?

And how do you get started setting up an evergreen launch funnel?

All this and more... in this episode of CBB.

For anybody who creates digital products for sale, there will inevitably come that concern of other people stealing it and making it available for free somewhere.

It happens.

How much should you really worry about it? Is it really that big a problem? And, what can you do to keep it from happening?

In this episode, we'll talk about tools you can use to protect your paid content from getting stolen (at least easily).

Keep in mind... if a person has the right tools and right knowledge, there is little you can do about this. Where there is a will, there is a way. :-)

So, let's talk about what to do about it and to what degree you should let it occupy your thought process.

So, let us get into that... Let's talk about Securing Your Product... Namely, how to keep people from stealing it.

Now, here is the thing... I know that especially when you are first getting started and you put products out there for sale that you want to prevent people who have not bought your product from being able to gain access to it. Now, I will be upfront with you, that I believe that many people who are first starting out tend to worry about this problem a lot more than they probably need to. I mean, the thing is... the nature of digital products is that it can be duplicated. There is not much that you can do about it at the end of the day. If it can appear in somebody's web browser and if somebody has the know-how, they can get it. They can download it; even if you try to keep them from downloading it, if they have the right knowledge and the right software, they can get it. Okay?

So the first thing that I want to do is discuss the question of:

Should you even worry about this? Should you put a lot of effort into keeping people from stealing your stuff?

There's always that tiny risk, yet many bloggers who are new to all this fear it almost out of proportion to the reality... You put your product out there, and somebody gets mad.

"You've sold out!", they say.

How do you deal with the haters, if they happen?

There are two aspects to this that we discuss in this episode...

1. The truths about the haters
2. The truths about YOU.

It goes both ways. So let's address this fear head on, in this episode of Coffee Break Blogging.

Now, let us talk about our topic of today which is... HATERS.

We'll end off this multi-part series on pricing with a bird's eye view of the whole thing...

So many bloggers out there don't have any product yet. They just use banner ads... or affiliate links. And, all this stuff about pricing doesn't yet apply to them.

If that's you, then realize this...

Until you make your first offer and name your price, you haven't even really gotten to the starting line.

Your offer is the starting line.

Give this episode a listen. It is important if you ever intend to make your blog the crux of a full-time income.

Figuring out your price for your product is usually a touchy subject. What if you price it too high and nobody buys it? What if you shoot too low?

This is an episode you might want to have a note paper handy for before listening.

In this episode, we'll discuss:

• The most common mistake product creators make when pricing their product
• How YOUR perception of value of your product can be different than your customers...
• The basis for determining your price
• How to survey your audience to find out what they'd be willing to pay
• How to ask them what they'll pay without directly asking
• 4 specific questions to learn price sensitivity
• Looking at the prices of your competition... and how to compete with them

This is a meaty episode. Get ready. :-)

So let us get in to our topic for today, which is pricing.