I’ll wager that 9 out of 10 people who read this won’t get it. Why one internet marketer makes $20,000 per month and the other one is flat broke
Well, they might not really but the point is more accurate than not. They’ll say, “Yeah, that’s probably right,” and then they’ll blow it off like they never read it.
But the fact is, I’m nearly certain that’s why some people crush it online and others never make more than a few hundred bucks here and there.
A short story about an average person and internet marketing.
For example, imagine you’ve got some individual who maybe isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. You might even be that person and that’s ok.
And they think they are the king of the internet and the master of their niche.
Now even though their products are average and ordinary, and even though they are not all that bright and certainly not clued in on what’s happening, they still do really, really well.
This story is about a “smart” person and internet marketing.
Then you’ve got this other person who is smart as can be. They really care about their customers and want to help everybody and anybody they can.
They try their very best to put out products that can revolutionize lives, but they wonder if they’re falling short. Maybe they need to work harder or find more answers to give in their products, or just be an even better person.
And they’re failing miserably.
Let’s compare the two groups again
The first group KNOWS for a FACT that their products ROCK (as they would say) and that they’re “THE STAR.” And this comes across in everything they do.
Their emails, their videos, and their websites all exude a crazy amount of confidence, and customers pick up on that and are drawn to it.
But on the second group’s site, and in their emails and videos, they hesitate.
And customers pick up on their lack of confidence and don’t buy.
Simple, right?
Now here is the question: Are you going to think about this concept of sales confidence and find a way to use this in your business? Or are you going to dismiss it?
“Because I really do think, or at least I believe, that I’m on to something here.”
“In fact, I KNOW I am.”
Take a look at those last two sentences and notice the contrast.
Which one makes you sit up and take notice?
Which one makes YOU confident that I know what I’m talking about?
See what I mean?
You don’t need to be a jerk about it, but confidence and belief in your products will go a heck of a long way towards making you sales and customers who become raving fans.
A friend of mine works with brand new marketers on setting up and building their businesses. Can you guess the number one problem these new marketers make for themselves?
They want to target EVERYBODY…
When getting started you need to choose a smaller target market
Also, everybody who wants to make money and everybody who wants to lose weight. My friend has to go around and around with them to convince them of one simple, powerful fact to specialize.
The more you specialize, the more you sell.
Think of a general practitioner doctor versus a brain surgeon. Who do you think makes more money?
Consider a general contractor versus a contractor specializing in high-rise buildings. Which one do you think makes more money?
Also, think of a regular fireman versus one who puts out fires in oil wells. who do you think makes more?
Well online marketing is no different than these examples. If you want to make more money then you need to narrow your blog down to a specific group.
You cannot target senior citizens the same way you do twenty-somethings or new mothers or busy executives.
And even if you are STILL thinking you can target every single overweight person with your diet product, ask yourself this how are you going to contact and sell to all of these different people?
Do you want to teach marketing to ALL small business owners? Then I wish you the best of luck.
Say you want to teach marketing to chiropractors? This is an opportunity worth pursuing, especially if you drill down further into local areas such as chiropractors in regions.
You think that you want to teach dating techniques to every single person out there? Yeah, right.
Instead try doing it this way; teach dating techniques to single guys under 30? You can make a fortune.
Let me say this again. First you want to pick your niche, and then you want to pick your audience within that niche.
You’ll have a far easier time finding your prospects, knowing how to talk to them and how to sell them.
So if you really want a fighting chance at success in business, learn to be selective and target your niche carefully. Serve the needs of a carefully selected niche well, and the sky is the limit for you and your business!
Everything you want to do in life has to be learned.
“I want to: start an online business but I don’t know how.”
“start my own blog and list build but I don’t know how.” “create a product but I don’t know how.”
“[insert whatever it is you want to do] but I don’t know how.”
Well, guess what, neither did every single person who did it for the first time.
To chase your dream you have to get started and learn as you go!
You can see may not know how you will achieve your dream now, but you need to start right away. You’ve got to take the leap anyway, and take it on faith that you will land on your feet.
As you are working towards your dream, you will see things come to you to help you on your way. You will learn some things that come to you from seemingly out of nowhere that you will learn “on the fly”.
Figuring things out on the fly is a learned skill and will take a few, or several tries to get the hang of it. The more often you take the leap, any leap, without knowing exactly where you’re going to land, the better you get at it.
Plus, each time makes you better equipped to leap again and again and again. Learning to operate at a high level within unknown scenarios is more valuable than learning a specific set of skills for a specific situation.
Prepare yourself mentally for being unprepared.
You can never anticipate the exact skills you will need until you need them. In fact, you don’t know what you don’t know until you find out you don’t know it.
I used to think about this marketing strategy as a good strategy and maybe even my second most powerful one. But was it really that good or was it even better?
Regardless of what niche you are in, there is no doubt that building a list of prospects and customers who know you, like you, and trust you, is your most powerful business marketing strategy.
I think this is a really great idea.
So what’s the second most powerful business marketing strategy? It’s up for debate, but I’d like to suggest the following: writing a book in your niche to give away to your prospective customers.
And no, I don’t mean a 20-page report, although that’s far better than nothing. Nor am I suggesting you write a “book” that’s nothing more than a cleverly disguised sales letter, although those can be useful as well.
Let’s stand in our prospect’s shoes for just a moment.
Let’s say you live in Chicago and you’re looking to invest a substantial amount of money in marketing your brick-and-mortar business online. Obviously, you don’t want to hand the work over to just anyone and you want someone knowledgeable.
You do want someone who clearly knows exactly what they’re doing and can deliver the results you seek. Someone who will get customers streaming through the door and the cash register ringing non-stop.
Bottom Line: Someone who won’t waste your time and money.
Then a fellow drops by out of the clear blue and offers to do your marketing. You’ve never heard of this guy and you’re cautious.
You do some research, ask your fellow business people, and locate 3 more small business marketing types. They all say that they’re experts at marketing small businesses online too.
They even have references. Still, you’re cautious.
Now here is a fascinating story about your potential book.
Then one day you’re at a friend’s place of business when you spot a book on his desk. The title immediately grabs your attention: Effective Online Marketing For Small Businesses In The Chicago Area.
It’s not a snappy title by any means, but you don’t care. You’re riveted.
You want to know everything in the book and you especially want to know who the author is and can you hire him.
And all you’ve seen so far is a book title. So why are you so interested in hiring THIS guy?
Why does he stand head and shoulders above all the other small business online marketers you’ve already spoken to?
Authors are mysterious and have a level of credibility.
First, he’s an author. And like it or not, authors carry a mystique and an air of credibility virtually untouchable by any peers.
That is, by any peers who haven’t authored a book.
Second, not only did he write a book on marketing your small business online. He also wrote about marketing your small business online in the area in which you live.
It’s akin to having the name Abdul Anderson. Then finding a book titled: What Abdul Anderson Should Do Right Now to Solve His Problems.
Tell me you wouldn’t pick that book up in a heartbeat if your name was Abdul Anderson!
You need to answer the question currently being asked?
Okay, you’ve got the point. When you write a book, you’ve got instant star attraction and a ton of perceived credibility.
People are no longer asking, “Can I see 5 references?” They’re not asking, “What if you can’t do what you say you will do?”
They’re not asking about your guarantee, how long you’ve been in business, and all those other questions.
Instead, they’re asking how much you charge and when can you start.
Imagine someone comes to your website. They have never heard of you before or been to your website before.
There on your home page they see the book that you’ve written. Do you think you’ve just scored some serious credibility with that new visitor?
Absolutely!
Or what if you’re sending traffic to a squeeze page to capture their email address? Do you think offering them the e-version of a REAL book that is currently being sold on Amazon will increase your conversion rate?
You bet!
Back to marketing to offline businesses. If you hand a prospect a copy of your book, do you think you’ve increased the odds you’ll close them on a $5,000 marketing package?
Of course.
Give as much information in your book as you can.
Your book should contain tons of dynamite information and no sales pitch. Yes, it’s fine to refer them to your website, but the main focus should be on educating your reader.
The more information you give, the more of an instant expert you become in your reader’s mind. Make the book comprehensive, covering a great deal about your particular niche.
Don’t be afraid of telling too much. Generally when a prospect realizes how complex your service is, if they can afford you then they will hire you rather than attempt it themselves.
Include your contact information, including phone number, address and of course your website. Realize that people hang onto books. Even if they don’t need your service right now, they might refer back to it in a year or even in 5 years, so don’t change your contact information unless you absolutely have to.
The book you give to someone today could result in a $20,000 sale 5 years from now, but only IF they can easily find you.
Your book should be easy to read.
Make it easy to read. Just like a sales letter, you don’t want page after page of fat paragraphs.
Use plenty of headings, bullet points, and space to break it up. And by all means, edit it.
Get someone else to read it over and tell you if there are any errors or places where it’s difficult to follow. You want it to read as professionally as possible because it is a direct reflection of you and your business.
Maybe you are giving away the e-version of your book on your squeeze page or website. By all means, either give them a link or a screenshot that shows your book on Amazon.
Anyone can SAY they are giving away a $19.95 ebook. But when they see that you really do charge that much on Amazon, your free gift suddenly becomes more valuable.
This increases the likelihood that they will opt into your list AND read your book. Do encourage your readers to review your book on Amazon.
You want to get reviews about your book.
The more reviews you get and the better reviews you get, the more credibility you build up. After all, if you see a book on Amazon with 1 or 2 reviews, and another with 50 reviews, which seems to be the more popular?
People tend to be followers, not leaders. That’s why they look for social affirmation that others are reading and liking your book.
You might even offer a free gift for every unbiased review you receive. Just be sure not to offer a free gift for every POSITIVE review you receive.
If you try to stack the cards in your favor, you will lose much of the credibility you’ve worked to achieve.
Writing a book isn’t as difficult as you think.
Is writing a book hard? Yes and no.
The real question is, do you THINK writing a book is difficult? For some people, it’s extremely difficult.
Not because they’re not intelligent, but because their intelligence lies elsewhere. We all have particular skills we’re good at and others that we really should leave to the “experts.”
So if you don’t like to write, consider hiring a ghostwriter to write your book.
Time to set a date to have the book completed.
If you’re going to write it yourself, set a deadline by which you’ll have it finished. Then decide to write 2 to 5 pages a day, every day.
If you’re writing a 200-page book at 2 pages per day, you’ll be finished in 100 days. At 5 pages per day, you’ll be done in just 40 days.
See? It doesn’t take long if you stay consistent.
Here is a great tip to get your book started.
The secret to writing a book? Write your table of contents first. This will become your outline, and it’ll break the book up into manageable pieces.
It seems like a daunting task to write 200 pages about your subject, but 10 pages about one particular facet of your niche is a breeze.
Your book cover is worth investing in a professional design.
For your book cover design, I recommend hiring a professional. People really, truly do judge your book by its cover.
Sure, you can create your own, and if you’re a graphic artist then maybe that’s the way to go. For the rest of us, we put too much time and effort into our book to make do with our own amateurish cover.
So do some research and find a professional book cover designer with a portfolio you like, and spend the extra money to get it done correctly.
Once you get your book finished, I believe you’ll find it’s the second most important tool in your marketing arsenal, right behind your list of customers and prospects.
Your book has the potential to generate more business for you than perhaps a dozen full-time salespeople, and through the power of the Internet, it can be working for you 24/7, making you an instant expert and the go-to person in the eyes of your prospects.
Being forewarned is forearmed about these two obstacles to achieving success will help you on your way to success. By knowing in advance what can stop you from realizing your goals you’ll be able to do what’s necessary.
Necessary to overcome these obstacles and move straight through to victory.
The first obstacle is engaging in limiting beliefs.
If we believe that we don’t deserve success, do we get it? Not likely.
And if we’re always being negative, thinking negative, speaking negative, what happens? Nothing good.
If we get what we think about, and we think we don’t have what it takes to accomplish something, what happens? We don’t accomplish it.
We achieve what we believe. Period!
It doesn’t matter what we hope for or what we desire, or what we wish for. You will get and acheive what you believe.
There used to be a computer expression called G.I.G.O. and stands for garbage in, garbage out. It’s the same way with your thoughts and beliefs, put bad thoughts in you get bad results out.
The second obstacle to success is giving up too soon and quitting.
There is a quote I like that goes like this.
“While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. – Henry C. Link –
You’ve no doubt heard the story of the man who mined for gold and gave up just inches shy of hitting the mother lode. It’s the same way in anything.
Every time you give up, you lose. Wayne Gretsky said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
You’ve got to keep taking the shot, keep moving towards your goal because it is only through quitting that you will fail. If you do not quit, you cannot fail because you are not done yet.
As Winston Churchill said, “Never, never, never, never give up.”
Follow this timeless wisdom in your business and you will overcome obstacles every day.
Expensive products and heavy packages sell better.
You’ve stopped at the gas station for gas and got a drink. Can virtual “big gulps” line your pockets?
Many people, just go straight to the largest cup they have called the Big Gulp. There is more to it than just being thirsty, people carry those big, clumsy drinks with pride.
Compare that with the mega launches of super-expensive products that boast about how heavy the packing box is.
“You Get 32 CD’s, 22 DVD’s and 3 Big Manuals of 250 Pages Each! This package weighs a whopping 15 pounds, delivered to your door!”
Bigger is better for more than one reason.
As marketers, we think that bigger is better, even when it’s not. After all, more of anything seems like a better deal to the customer than less of something, right?
But thanks to a new study, we now know that “more” of a product is also more of another thing. Not only does “more” sound better, but it can also be a status symbol for the customer.
Take for example the Big Gulp drink which is 30 oz of sticky sweet carbonated beverage. Does anyone on the planet NEED 30 oz of sticky sweet carbonated beverage?
While some might say they do, the fact is it’s a flood of empty calories. Empty calories with a bevy of negative health effects, yet they sell like gangbusters.
It makes the buyer feel better.
And believe it or not, they can actually make the purchasers feel BETTER about themselves. No, I am NOT advocating you run out and buy one of these things.
But instead, I’m suggesting you SELL these things, in digital form. Follow this closely.
This is from the Journal of Consumer Research and it concerns a series of experiments. These experiments were carried out by Derek Rucker of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Tabulated results showed that the bigger the drink, the higher the status score each photo rated. No, I’m not kidding, and it gets weirder.
In the second experiment, half of the volunteers were asked to remember a time when they were bossed around. The other half were asked to remember a time when they were in a position to boss others around.
No surprise here, the volunteers who remember being bossed around felt the least powerful. (Yet another example of how the thoughts you choose determine how you feel.)
Those who felt least powerful chose bigger.
Okay, here comes the surprise, next those same volunteers were offered a drink in 3 different sizes. There was no choice on what KIND of drink, only of what SIZE drink they could have.
Those who felt the least powerful CHOSE THE BIGGEST DRINK. In other words, even in something as ordinary as choosing the size of a drink, it’s more involved.
Now let’s compare the micro to the macro, the worldwide economy. It becomes a reasonable conclusion that as people feel powerless to control what’s happening, more and more super sizing will be taking place, and not just in food.
Now then, here’s how to use this in your marketing.
Make your product appear larger and more valuable.
First, when you can make your product appear larger, do so. For example, you might take each chapter of an ebook and separate it into a report.
12 reports look like more than one ebook. If you are shipping audios or videos, place them on 12 discs rather than 4 and so forth.
Second, offer a super size version of your product. That is, you might have your regular product and a second version that offers more information, more promises, more benefits, etc.
Create a fancy name that sounds prestigious.
Third, offer them power and prestige. For example, if you’re creating a membership, don’t make it just any old membership.
Give it a name like The Exclusive Gold Club for Star Class Members or something that conveys the power and prestige so many people are lacking in these uncertain times.
Fourth, don’t forget to add an OTO to your offer. OTO’s are like supersizing the fries and drink.
They’ve already decided to order, now it’s just a matter of offering them more, and many times they will jump at the chance to upgrade to that virtual Big Gulp.
There is no need to feel guilty about your offer.
One more thing. Don’t feel guilty about up-selling your customers.
People want to feel they are in control, that they have power, and that they do matter.
Now they have a choice between buying a few Big Gulps that are going to rot their bones and pack on the fat, or your new product that can actually HELP them.
It makes sense and you’ve got a duty to offer them that product and let them decide for themselves.
Create a product that has a lot of value, an OTO, and a prestigious name.
Okay, so I spoke in an earlier article on the importance of having a list. Not that it’s good to have, but that you MUST have a list if you want to achieve long-term success online.
Put an end to the confusion about the funnel thing.
I’ve noticed the thing that really stymies a lot of would-be marketers. Figuring out how to set up this whole funnel thing that gets you the list.
Because it has to be really elaborate and it takes a lot. A lot of time, effort, and work to get it all set up, right?
Chances are you are overcomplicating it.
Wrong. Too many people are overcomplicating it. Here’s what you’re going to do, and hang with me so you don’t get lost.
First, you’re going to create a squeeze page.
Second, you’re going to grab your autoresponder code and add it to your squeeze page.
That’s it.
Seriously. Building your list really is this easy.
“But I don’t know what to put on the squeeze page!”
Make a squeeze page the easy way.
Here is an easy squeeze page to create. All you need is a great headline and 3 to five short, snappy bullet points.
“But I don’t have a free gift to give them for subscribing.”
Seriously you don’t have a free gift? Have you ever heard of a PLR?
A PLR product is a publication that you can make your own. It stands for Public Lable Rights.
There might be a minimal one-time charge of $5 to $15 and then you own it. Now you just spruce it up, make it yours and resell it a million times.
There are PLR products all over the Internet, any one of which you can adapt into your own product in about 30 minutes.
Or you can create your own report – simply find the burning questions people ask the most in your niche and answer them.
Another way is to send your customer directly to a sales page.
OR, forget giving away a freebie. Instead send them to your sales page.
“I don’t have a sales page!”
Then send them to the sales page of an affiliate product you’re promoting.
Seriously, so many marketers make this so darn difficult when it should be the easiest thing in the world.
Your highest priority right now is getting your squeeze page up and running. NOW.
Later you can create your own super-duper extra special freebie to give away if you like, but in the meantime you can be collecting names.
To get, or not to get, subscribers is the determined by you.
Think about this, you decide to create the ultimate free gift. It takes you a month to create that gift.
Sure, you thought it would take 3 days, but darned if the project didn’t stretch out for the entire month. Had you set up your squeeze page right away, you might have captured 10, 20 or more names a day while you were creating that ultimate freebie.
But you didn’t create the squeeze page and the result is you lost 300 to 600 or more subscribers that should have been yours.
Start advertising and let your squeeze page do the work.
See what I mean? Just put up the squeeze page, and then no matter what you’re doing online, be sure you’re sending people to that page.
Send out tweets, advertise it on your Twitter profile, place it in your signature file on forums and in emails, advertise it (paid and unpaid) on Facebook, etc.
And once you get started building your list, you’re going to find that it’s easy. It’s not the big deal you thought it was.
Then drive targeted traffic to your squeeze page just so you can watch those numbers increase daily.
The important thing, the really important thing, is to target your list. That is, if your niche is on hot rod cars, be sure that your squeeze page is geared towards people who love hot rods.
For example, if you’re sending them to a sales page after the squeeze page, then the sales page should be promoting an excellent product specifically on hot rods.
You want the people who opt into your list to be heavily into your niche, whatever that might be.
If you have a good offer on a good product it will work.
Everyone always thinks they’ve got to give away the farm to get someone on their mailing list. But think about this, if you’re sending them to a sales page after they opt in, some of those people will buy.
Not a huge percentage, but if it’s a good offer for a good product, you’ll get sales. And the money you’re making from those sales can actually PAY to send traffic to your squeeze page.
Now, with some money coming in, you can advertise on Facebook, in solo ads, or where ever you want. And the more you advertise, the more sales you make, the more you can advertise.
It’s all self funded once it gets going, so you’ve got your list building system on autopilot. It only took you 30 minutes to set up, plus the time it takes you to set up your advertising.
What about other ways that are promoted as faster?
What about shortcuts? You know, like co-reg lists, safe lists, harvesting, and renting lists, aren’t those easier ways to build your list?
And the answer is no, absolutely not, because they don’t work. Not only are they unresponsive, but in many cases you’re spamming and you just don’t want to do that.
That’s why you want to build your own list of people who get to know you. People who open your emails just because they see your name and they want to know what you have to say today.
Building your subscriber list becomes a real asset.
Now you can go to that list anytime you want and send them an offer or even ask for their help on something and they will respond.
Here is a neat way free way to get traffic to your link.
And if you’re just starting and you don’t know where to go to get traffic to send to your squeeze page, start with the forums. Google your keyword along with the word ‘forum,’ and find all the forums in your niche.
Look for forums that allow you to have a signature line. A word of caution here, you don’t want to blast out your squeeze page info.
Many people do that and that’s not what you want to do. Instead, enter conversations and help people and become the go-to person in that niche.
Use these forums consistently to build your authority.
If you’re on these forums every day for a week, you can become an instant authority. Just be real, help people, and don’t hype anything.
Let them click on your signature line in their own time and they will. Because you’re helping them, they’re going to want to know more about you.
They see you as someone who really knows something about their subject. They’re also interested in what you have to say and will want to get your updates.
These will be some of the most responsive leads you get! They’re absolutely golden so treat them well and they will stick with you for years to come.
Once you’re good at forum posting you can add something else to your traffic driving arsenal. Now you can add social media or advertising to get even more traffic to your squeeze page.
Find what works for you, get good at it, and then add something else. Do you see how easy this is?
We try to make everything so hard and it’s really not. Just get started, get going and you’ll find out for yourself just how easy it is to build a list.
We’re always trying to overcomplicate things, aren’t we? Making things appear more difficult than they really are. Why is that?
The other day I saw a breakdown of the 7 things you need to build your online marketing business, which was 2 more than you really need. Here’s my list of 5 things: Network, List Build, Focus, Take Action, Produce.
That’s right, just 5 things.
So let’s break each one down to its simplest form:
Network with other marketers and support each other.
Make friends with other marketers in your niche, whatever that niche might be. When you need help (such as promotion) call on them.
Help them out when they need it. Why is networking so important?
3 reasons:
First,
working from home can be lonely, daunting, and just plain difficult. It’s easy to procrastinate.
It’s easy to get bogged down on some little obstacle. But when you’ve got others to turn to for morale support, it gets a whole lot easier.
Second,
you can get quick help. Having trouble loading that widget or formatting that ebook?
promotion. Do you think it’s just a coincidence when you get 5 or 10 emails promoting the same product?
No. Those are friends of the person launching the product.
It can make all the difference in the world to have a list of people to turn to when it comes to promoting your products. Without networking, your list is going to be a whole lot smaller.
Focus. I know I’ve hit on this before, but here goes – STAY FOCUSED! I wanted to add a swear word after that for emphasis, but in the interest of keeping this PG I won’t.
So many times I see people jump from this to that to the thing over there and around and around and they never stay focused on one thing for more than a day or two and then they wonder WHY they aren’t successful.
Pick something. ONE thing. Then FOCUS on that one thing until you’ve got it done. Eliminate distractions. If need be, REMOVE distractions from your immediate vicinity. Set a work schedule and STICK to the work schedule.
Here’s something to make it simple:
The more focused you are,
the more money you will earn.
Period.
Take Action.
Don’t just plan and daydream, DO. Move forward every single day by taking some real action that gets you closer to your goals.
Produce products.
LOTS of products. There are those who buy lots of products and those who PRODUCE lots of products. Who do you think is more successful?
Let’s put it another way, what are your odds of success if you produce one product versus 10 products? 100 products? Not all of your products will be grand slams, but when you produce enough of them then some of them will be hits.
Also, by producing your own products you’re also building your own reputation online, which furthers your success. So take the plunge and begin producing products to sell in your business.
In fact, make a HABIT out of product production.
That’s it. Do these 5 things day in and day out starting today and continuing as long as you’re an online marketer, and success will almost undoubtedly be yours.
How do you influence others over the Internet? Whether you want to change one mind or make one sale, the better you are at influencing, the more you’ll get what it is that you want.
Here are 27 tips to strengthen your online influence.
With that in mind here are 27 tips, in no particular order, to strengthen your own online influence and get more of what you seek.
Pick one niche and become the master of that niche.
The thinner you spread yourself then the less influence you will have. That’s why you want to thoroughly cover one niche rather than haphazardly trying to cover several of them.
Get out of your own online world and into new communities.
We tend to get stuck in a rut of our own making, and we view the world from that one perspective that we’ve chosen. But if you’re going to influence others, you need to hang out with them, experience their world, and see what makes them tick.
Build long-term relationships. The longer and better you know someone then the more influence you have in that relationship. Work on making your customers stick to you for years until they’re sure you’re a friend and there’s no hesitation on their part when you recommend something.
The oldest customers are almost always the least skeptical and most trusting because you’ve taken the time to really get to know them.
You want to be authentic and consistent.
If you are being your true authentic self, it will show and in being authentic, you never have to worry about being consistent.
You probably know how a liar has trouble keeping his stories straight with everyone all the time. As the real and honest authentic you, you’ll only have one story and that is yours.
For every product there is a buyer and they are your target customer.
Know who your target prospects are and then find other people who already have your prospects on their lists. Now co-create products with those people in mind to put yourself in front of your prospects. The result is instant influence!
Speak for those who are afraid to speak.
Sometimes it takes guts to say what needs to be said. Become the person in the theater who asks the noisy patron to be silent, and the rest of the theater will love you.
It works the same way online, be the one to speak up for others and you will have influence over those you speak for.
Give lots and give often to as many as you can.
Too often we are focused on our goals, our business, and on ourselves. Try giving as much as you can and as often as you can without thought of what you might get in return.
An ounce of passion will out sway and out influence a pound of reasoning and logic nearly every time.
Share some of the internal stuff you’ve experienced, both bad and good.
Having a nightmare moving your website? Confounded by the speaker in the conference you’re sitting in? Thrilled that you just got a great big order? We’re taught to always keep it professional, but it’s through sharing both the good and bad that people feel they know you and your business.
Create video content for your niche.
In your videos, be bold, be passionate, be exciting. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, just correct them and keep going. You want to be human, fun, and entertaining in your videos and distribute your videos like crazy.
Share good content today, tomorrow, and every day.
Almost everyone has good information that they have acquired in their life experiences so share it. Knowledge from growing up, jobs you had, schooling you’ve gone through, and even tips from family life experiences. There are many more subjects you can choose from than these so make and present good content.
Learn how to tell stories to support the point you are making.
Who doesn’t love a good story and who can’t be influenced by the right story? Learn to become a master at storytelling and you can persuade even the most ardent enemy into joining your side.
Focus on a smaller niche.
It’s hard to exert influence when you are one of 10,000 bloggers writing about weight loss – it’s easy to be influential when you are writing about weight loss for new moms in the Phoenix area.
Choose 5 to 10 people you admire in your niche and gradually get to know them.
Share their stuff with your readers, ‘like’ their posts, ask them questions and pull them into your circle of influence. And don’t forget to thank them for what they have done for you, how they have influenced you, for the insights they’ve given you along the way.
Share of yourself, dreams, goals, and passions.
Share your ideas, your thoughts, your ambitions – share what you’re doing today or what you did today. Not the, “I ate oatmeal” stuff, but rather the, “I thought about my grandad today and wondered what he would do if faced with this decision.” People listen when you share what’s close to your heart.
Align yourself with the best people in your niche.
Not necessarily those who are making the most money, but rather those who are doing the best work and helping the most people. Those are the people you want as partners.
Don’t worry about how you’re going to get attention.
Instead, make or do something worthwhile, something worth talking about.
Be different than the rest to make a statement.
Defy convention and do what others aren’t doing and say what others aren’t saying. People notice those who dare to be different.
Do interviews and put it online for others to see.
Even if you have to get a friend to interview you, just do it. Get it online and make sure it’s seen by your people.
Become an advocate and help newbies move their businesses forward.
Identify people on their way up in your niche and help them to succeed. By becoming their advocate, they in turn become yours.
People like to talk so get them talking and listen.
People want to express themselves and they want to be heard. But start simple. Ask if they prefer smooth or crunchy peanut butter, or what their favorite food is. Work up to the bigger stuff. There may be no greater source of influence than simply listening – REALLY listening – to your people.
Choose who to influence and target them on social media.
You can, by micro-targeting, find just the right people for your blog, product, niche, or service. Let’s say you only want women in their 30’s who work in Albuquerque, New Mexico. So use Facebook advertising to find those people.
Make connections online and meet them.
When you make connections online then every chance you get, meet them in the real world. This might be at a conference, or it might be locally. Nothing beats meeting face to face.
Put your business ahead of your own fame and noteriety.
Sure you can become the top dog on a forum, but is it enhancing your business? If not, why are you doing it, for the fame?
Keep your eye on your business goals, and if what you’re doing doesn’t further those goals, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
Stop talking about your products and services and start talking about your customer.
No matter what you write or say, always keep in mind, “Is this what the customer wants to know? Am I communicating with them, or just tooting my own horn?” They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care is as true today as it was before the Internet.
Be the go-to person of your niche for content.
Filter and aggregate your niche content so that your website is a one-stop shop for the latest news.
Have a point of view and share it proudly.
Sure, not everyone will share your opinion but that’s a good thing. Those who do share it will follow you anywhere.
Leverage some or all of these tips, and you’ll become a better influencer in all you do.
