Even if you’re the world’s worst procrastinator.

I’ve used this technique to create all sorts of things. From a free bonus I put together and gave away for an affiliate product, all the way up to $1,000 training programs.

This is a challenge for most marketers.

Creating content and products is a huge obstacle for most marketers because it takes so much time and effort. But what if you had a way to create products, such as expensive training programs, that you could finish in a week?

And better still, what if you got paid for them before they were even done? The first key you need is a big, fat, public DEADLINE.

If your deadline is public, then you will move heaven and earth to get it done, or at least I hope you will. If you don’t, you’re in for some major public ridicule and embarrassment, not to mention the fact that you are letting people down.

Begin selling your program before you create it.

The second key here, and this goes hand in hand with the first, is you’re going to sell what you’re selling BEFORE it’s created.

You tell people what you’re creating, you tell them when it’s going to be done, and you sell it before you ever make it.

And in the case of a training program, you’re going to create your product LIVE and then continue to sell the recordings as a product after the event.

So, in a nutshell – decide what you’re selling. Tell the world what you’re selling and when it will take place, and take orders. Hold the live event, create the product and continue to sell it.

Let’s look at some of the details.

This works best if you are already good at something. This way, you know the material and don’t need to do any research.

But if you don’t know you may have to do some research and learn some things. Here is my blog titled “But I Don’t Know How” and it will help you get past your hangups.

If you need research, then you might need to add a day or two to this process or use this shortcut, bring in an expert.

If you’re using experts, then you can cover any topic or every topic. Because no matter what your topic is, there is someone out there that can do the actual teaching for you.

Then you just split the profits with them.

Let’s begin with training that you can do.

For the rest of this article, we’ll assume you’re the one with the information.

The big thing is to set a deadline. With a deadline and a hundred or so people depending on you to get your work done, you will get the work done.

It’s that simple. They’ve put their money on you, and they believe in you. You will not let them down, which ensures the training course you’re making will get completed.

A course that would normally be finished in a month or two, is completed in a week’s time.

Check out here how you can get a free money-making website.

This deadline idea works like magic.

Deadlines are magic this way, regardless of whether or not you naturally procrastinate. Without a deadline, your work expands to fill the time.

This doesn’t necessarily mean a better product it just means it takes longer to make. You can be surprisingly nimble with this method, getting products out fast on hot topics and things people want right now.

Simple plan to put together the teaching outline.

Now let’s figure out what the big 5 to 7 things are that you want to cover. What are the big ideas?

What are the giant takeaways? Instead of writing a sales letter, you write bullet points.

Remember, you’re doing this FAST. Don’t write a giant sales letter, write the high points.

Tell them what they’re going to discover and how it’s going to benefit them through bullet points.

People learn better when they are interested and curious.

One thing about being human is our curiosity so let’s use that to your advantage and keep their attention.

Time to transform your outline into a presentation, you’re going to do a webinar. Create a Powerpoint with an intro and all of the major points.

Let people ask questions at the end because some of your very best material will come from the questions. There will be questions about things you didn’t even think of.

Time to create a course that you can sell.

Cut up your recording into parts and sell it as a course. You’ll have an intro and each of the major points. You might also want to get it transcribed and then edit the transcription to give your customers a written copy, too.

Selling your course BEFORE you make it gives you a DEADLINE. You’re telling people when the live event will happen.

You’re giving them a deadline, too, because they have to sign up before the deadline or they will miss the class. 

Once you hold the class, upload the webinar into the member’s area and give access to everyone who bought. Some people will make it to the live event, some won’t, but they all get access to the recordings.

If there is something you feel you can do better, go ahead and record it again. Make a new recording of that section and replace it in the member’s section.

Managing the results of your webinar.

That’s the beauty of this system you get it done fast, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you feel like it, you can go back and improve on it.

And if you omitted something, make a new recording for that, too. And what if you create a flop?

That’s not even possible with this system. If you promote a product you’re going to create and no one buys, then you know not to waste your time making it.

Using this simple system, you get paid before you ever create your products, and you can crank products out faster than ever before. Plus, you can sell the recordings for a long time to come.

Just imagine if you create a new product every two weeks. In a year’s time, you’ll have 26 new products you can continue to sell, repurpose, use as bonuses, sell the rights to, and so forth.

26 new launches, 26 new products, and 26 new revenue generators.

Time to begin selecting your subject, creating your outline and Powerpoint, and presenting your first webinar.

The kid who got straight A’s in school is probably the most successful person from that class, right? You don’t have to be super smart to succeed online.

While good grades and a high I.Q. can be helpful, they not only don’t guarantee success – they sometimes hamper success.

After all, life is not school. And the skills it takes to get great grades don’t always transfer over into running a successful online business.

Heck, I know people who struggled in high school and never made it to college who are pulling down 6 and 7-figure incomes online. How do they do it?

People succeed by possessing the following traits.

They have the drive to succeed.

How you define success will determine exactly what this means to you. Success for you might be making as much money as possible, it might be furthering a cause of yours, or it might be one of a hundred other things.

Whatever it is, you’ve got to have a need to reach this success that you can feel in your bones. It should be your total focus so that your mind is constantly at work finding ways to make it happen.

They’re good at networking.

Even online, or perhaps especially online, it’s important that you build relationships with your fellow marketers and your customers. And even if you’re not a born schmoozer, don’t worry, networking is a skill like any other that can be learned.

Work on building yourself a large network of people you can turn to for advice, assistance, and so forth, and always focus on what you can do for them.

They stay focused.

Imagine you’re driving your car and you decide to go 5 different directions at once. How far will you get?

Or imagine chasing 5 different rabbits all at the same time. How many will you catch?

Business is no different. Decide what you’re going to do and then do it, rather than falling for the flavor-of-the-week business idea.

They’re persistent.

You’re not going to build a super-profitable business overnight. And if you’re looking at others thinking they became successful in a flash, know that in reality their success probably took years.

Remember, nothing worth having comes easy, and persistence does conquer all.

They stand on their own two feet.

I’ve seen people purchase a course on how to do something online, such as build a website or get more traffic. Then they bombard the author with a hundred different questions rather than figure anything out for themselves.

Are they ever successful? I doubt it. Being an online marketer, or any type of entrepreneur carries with it a certain autonomy.

So don’t expect others to hold your hand.

They work first, they work hard and they play later.

Sometimes MUCH later. Do you know those stories of working 2 hours a day and then laying on the beach?

That’s for AFTER you make it big and you can hire somebody to oversee things for you. Maybe.

Or even when you do make it big in online marketing, you may find that you still work hard. But either way, in the beginning, you’ll be working long hours to get your business up and running.

And yes, work does come before play if you want to be successful. If you want to play first, you might as well ditch the idea of being an online marketer and stick with a job.

Learn to outsource.

There is only so much you can accomplish by yourself, even when you are working long hours. So yes, you’ve got to outsource.

The first thing to outsource is anything you’re not good at, whether that’s website building, product creation, or whatever. Because if you’re not good at something, it makes more sense to bring in an expert than to spend weeks trying to master it yourself.

Then as you begin earning more and more, you can also outsource more and more.

To be an online marketer, you don’t need to be the next Einstein. Your grades in school don’t matter a hill of beans.

What DOES matter is what you do here and now. Adopt the above 7 traits and you are already halfway to growing an online business that can take care of you for the rest of your life.

Check this out. You can have an absolutely FREE website by clicking these blue words now.

A great tip to help you succeed online is found in my blog about doubling your traffic online and you can check it out here. How to double your traffic online.

What is “repurposing” and how you can do it?

Repurposing is a technique to change either the format of your content or change its target audience.

For example, you might convert a blog post into a video and publish it on YouTube. Or you might turn that blog post into a series of emails, a podcast, or even an infographic.

A blog post on your website will only attract people who are interested in reading content. But when you repurpose it, you reach a new target audience on different channels.

Possible results of repurposing your content.

Imagine converting your blog post into a Slideshare presentation, and then getting 50,000 views. It’s entirely possible to do this. And further imagine that at the end of your Slideshare, you had an appropriate and highly relevant offer to join your list.

Even if a tiny fraction of people who viewed your presentation joined your list, it could still be 1,000 or more new subscribers for you.

Have I piqued your creative interest yet and are you ready for creative ideas?

These are some conversion options for your content.

You can convert your existing content into:

• Social Media Snippets and videos
• Infographics and Slideshows
• Ebooks and Pdfs
• Case Studies and Podcasts
• Lead Magnets and Email Courses
• Images and more

Great ideas to get you going on repurposing your writings.

YouTube is one of the top search engines in the world and I’d recommend starting off with videos on YouTube. Medium is a forum for creativeness  in writing and republishing on Medium is a great addition to expand your blogging audience.

Twitter, Snapchat, FaceBook and pulling out social media snippets, and creating a slideshow on SlideShare will get you more traffic.

Yes, there are other ways to get more traffic by repurposing your content

These are some of the best and proven ways to repurpose content that will send heaps of traffic your way.

I also invite you to sign up for a FREE website here and you can check out my blog post on “How To Achieve Anything In 90 Days”.

I like to write, heck, to be honest, I LOVE to write. So here are 8 ways to beat writer’s/blogger’s block if you do have a challenge writing.

There are times I hate to write as well, like when I HAVE to write another newsletter and I’m thinking I just don’t know what to say.

Let me share some ideas to jump-start your writing.

That’s why I like to find ideas that jog me into writing, and I share them with you here. Because I know if I sometimes have trouble writing, then certainly there are those who are scared about writing.

Probably scared is an understatement, you are absolutely petrified of putting words to paper and the blank page paralyzes you. You are so scared that you would prefer to get a root canal than write another article or blog post.

Here are 8 hot tips to get your writing off the starting block.

Well if that is you, take heart, here are 8 suggestions that should get your typing fingers flying and your blog readers happy they stopped by your site.

Be impulsive and on the spur of the moment, WRITE!

If you write on a frequent basis, then there should be a part of your brain that’s always on the lookout for ideas, rants, complaints, laughs, etc. When inspiration strikes, WRITE.

Yes, WRITE, right then and there. If you can’t, then at least make lots of notes for later, and at the first available chance sit down and type it out.

You can always polish it up later. Some of my best writing has been where I feel possessed of spirit and the words simply fly into my head of their own accord.

It’s almost like magic, but if I don’t immediately type them out then I lose both the spirit and the enthusiasm. And usually, the post or article never does get written.

So be impulsive and write the moment the spirit strikes. You may not even know at first where it’s going, but that’s okay.

The odds are you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

It’s time to question everything and start asking why.

Question authority, rules, the way things are, and the way things are done. Always be asking yourself “Why?”

Why are things this way? Why do we do it this way?

Is there a better way? And so forth.

Even if you don’t have the answer, sometimes simply asking the questions can make for a terrific post.

Learn how to break rules and boundaries to tough love.

Above, we’re questioning rules, and this goes one step further. Is your blog about weight loss? We all know there’s a rule that you be kind to everyone, regardless.

But sometimes people need tough love, and maybe your next post should be tough and pointed. How grossly obese people need to sit down and write their own obituaries.

Write their own obituaries because odds are really good that they’re not going to live all that long.

And before you send me an email telling me that I should not have said what I just did, I recently read a news story. In that story, a doctor, a DOCTOR, told his patient to write his own obituary.

It was exactly what the guy needed to lose 376 pounds, so yes, sometimes it’s more than okay to break the rules.

Do a mash-up and combine unlikely things together.

This is the peanut butter and chocolate trick, or the apple pie and cheese trick. Take two ideas, concepts, or whatever that normally do NOT go together, combine them, and see what happens.

For example, if your website is all about how to raise money for non-profits, find out what the greediest people in the world do to acquire their fortunes, and then see how that knowledge might be appropriately used to raise funds.

Just start to write something, anything to get started.

I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s so good I’ve got to say it again. Just sit down and start writing, even if you don’t have a single solitary clue what you’re going to write about.

Odds are the first few paragraphs will be throw-away nonsense, but soon something will emerge from your subconscious that’s been dying to get out. I’ve used this technique many times, and it seldom fails me.

Now look in your writings for main ideas and make an outline.

If you’ve got your topic and you have an idea of what you’re going to say, then by all means make an outline. Once you’ve got it, just fill it in.

And no, you don’t have to write it in order. Just pick a section of the outline, write that section, pick another section, and so forth.

Making the outline first is a dynamite way to then write quickly and nearly effortlessly. Plus you’ll get to see early if your idea is worth writing about or not.

Yeah, but, that is a crazy idea that just popped into my head.

Okay, so this crazy idea popped into your head, and you just KNOW that it’s silly, but what if? That is, what if it’s not so silly after all?

We tend to dismiss our crazy ideas too quickly sometimes rather than see them through. And here’s something worth remembering.

Every great achievement started out as someone’s “crazy idea.” So go ahead, follow through and see what happens.

Sit down and write for 20-30 minutes then stop.

Write non-stop for a certain length of time, such as 20 minutes or 30 minutes, and then take a 5-minute break. Knowing that you cannot stop writing for that period of time makes you focus and get to work.\

Knowing you have a break coming up soon makes it all tolerable, even on days when you especially don’t feel like writing.

There you have it… 8 ways to beat writer’s/blogger’s block. Now get to writing, will ya! 🙂

…that you can’t achieve in a year.

What happens when you give yourself a goal to do something in the next year?

A typical story of procrastination and time passing by.

You procrastinate. “A year? Heck, I think I’ll take a vacation first. I can work on that tomorrow – next week – next month.”

You put it off. And put it off. And a year later… you are still exactly where you are right now, today.

But if you only give yourself 90 days, you’ve got to take action NOW. Not tomorrow. Not later today. But right now.

A typical story of the renowned 5-year plan and it doesn’t work.

5-year plans? Work for almost no one. Things change during a year’s time – what about during 5 years? Everything can change.

The typical story about a 90-day change.

People function in 90-day chunks. You can’t plan to lose 50 pounds in a year because you’re continually eating the wrong things. Why? Because you think you can always eat right later and exercise later.

But you can lose 25 pounds in 90 days. Now you’ve got a deadline that is close, and you’ve got to get busy now.

And once you’ve lost those 25 pounds in 90 days, you can lose 25 more in the 90 days after that.

A new paradigm for your first 90-days in your online business.

Let’s talk about your online business and how you can ramp it up in a year. Probably not, because again, the deadline is too far out.

You’ll do everything BUT work on your business. (Tap the blue words to find out more)

But in 90 days, you can build a website, build a list, create your first three products, recruit a couple dozen affiliates and do a joint venture or two.

And that’s just the start.

Once you’ve laid the groundwork in the first 90 days, you can level up and leverage what you’ve already done.

Maybe you make an average of $2,000 a month during your first 90 days.

But now you have products, affiliates, a growing list, a growing reputation, a name for yourself, and people who trust you and want to do deals with you.

Do you think you can earn a whole lot more in your second 90-day period?

You bet you can and you will be so amped up at your success.

Time to ramp up your focus on your online business.

Decide what you want and then focus on just doing that thing. Don’t get distracted. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need or spend time on things that don’t take you to where you’re going.

Break your 90-day goal up into 30-day increments. Where do you need to be 30 days from now to achieve your goal? Where do you need to be 60 days from now?

You’re looking at one big goal with two checkpoints along the way to make sure you’re on track.

Focus on this goal for 90 days. Will you do that for yourself? For your family? For your future?

The takeaway:

Ask yourself – where do you want to be in 90 days?

What do you have to do to get there?

And are you willing to do it?

Decide what you want.

Write it down.

Make a plan to accomplish it in 90 days.

And then just do it – in 90 days.

Yes, I can sing while taking a shower, and I can listen to music while walking and planning my day. But when it comes to the really important stuff, forget multitasking because it’s costing you time and money.

A closer look at “multi-tasking” will reveal the truth.

Let’s say that I’m answering emails while talking on the phone. This is a great example of multitasking, right?

I would be wrong.

In this case, I’m not doing two things at once but rather, I’m alternating my attention between the two tasks. I can’t listen to the person on the phone while I’m forming my email response.

And I can’t formulate my thoughts to speak back to the person on the phone while I’m reading the next email.

How these two tasks really break down is like this, I end up doing a little bit of task A. Then I do a little bit of task B, and I go back and forth and neither task is done well.

The end result is that the person on the phone can tell I’m not listening. They might even ask things like, “are you listening to me?” or “did you hear me?”.

Or I might say when I catch them saying something important like a time or a date, “could you repeat that please, I was distracted?”.

The email response I am writing during that phone conversation misses the mark too. When I hang up the phone and reread the email I see that it’s a mess and I need to fix it.

There are tasks that we do on autopilot in our daily routine.

This multitasking fiasco goes for any task that I can’t put on autopilot. I can do things like shower, walk, run, drive, make coffee, and do many other tasks without thinking about them.

Because those tasks are routine and you’ve performed them many times before, you can do them on autopilot. But when you’re doing anything that takes real thinking, it’s best to focus just on that task and nothing else.

Staying focused during a task takes practice.

Begin practicing your focus today, even reading this post. Your mind will want to wander to other things like all the things on your to-do list, meetings, phone calls, and more.

While you are having a face-to-face conversation, stay focused and present, and don’t let your eyes and thoughts distract you.

It’s also important to avoid distractions or at least be courteous when they come at you while on the phone. “Please hold that thought and I will be right back” or “something just happened that needs my immediate attention”.

Studies show it takes an average of 25 minutes to get focus back.

Whether checking your email, answering the phone, or even getting up to get a cup of coffee can take you off track. You lose momentum and you have to backtrack to see where you left off.

A recent study of office employees demonstrated that when their work was interrupted, it took them 25 minutes on average to get back into their previous focus.

Anything that requires engaged thinking like writing, reading, speaking, etc., is not something you should try to juggle. Because it will actually cost you MORE time and provides less than stellar results.

So even if you have to lock yourself in a room, disable your email and turn off your cell phone. Do what it takes to keep from getting distracted, I strongly suggest that you do it.

Give yourself the opportunity to be professional.

Here is a great tip when you are really focused and making progress on a task. An important email or phone call comes in and will distract you and disrupt your focus.

Set a time when you can first gather your thoughts and then get back to them. Then you can be focused and prepared before making that phone call and you will be more professional.

Realize that when they call you that they have all their notes and preparations ready. Your mind might be a million miles away from the subject they are calling about and focused on another project.

You can answer those emails and return those phone calls later when your work is completed.

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.

But some of those people don’t know that and they think they are unbelievably smart. They also think their products are radically awesome.

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.

They’re a little bit unsure. They want only the best for their customers, so they hold back just in case their latest recommendation isn’t good enough.

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.

Try it.

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

The biggest mistake by new marketers is they want to target everyone. They want to target everybody who has a kid. And everybody who wants a date.

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.

A market that is too wide does not work.

That’s why you’ve not only got to pick your niche like making money, health, diet, dating, etc., but you’ve also got to pick your audience.

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!

“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.

You’re going to hit roadblocks. Expect them.

Also expect to crash through those roadblocks to the other side, too.

Expect challenges and expect setbacks.

They are coming for you and will help you on your journey, so be prepared mentally.

Go in fighting, not retreating. 

Keep your eye on the goal and nothing will stop you.

If you look only at the obstacles, you will never get far. You will probably not even get started.

Think about this, your entire life you have been flying by the seat of your pants in one fashion or another.

Don’t stop now. When they tell you to seize the day, they don’t mean tomorrow – they mean TODAY.

Take the leap, because you got this!

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.

And this isn’t just for marketers working with offline businesses – this is for almost anyone offering a service or even a product.

Your “FREE” book will produce fast results.

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.