Marketing Monsters Frank Salinas and John Cornetta have just released a new software called The Click Maximizer that allows you to instantly generate more traffic to ANY of your websites.

Fellow marketers are raving about this one. This software is nothing short of spectacular. Within hours of using it I was able to generate sales, and this was by only using it only 3 of my websites.

And to be honest, even if you don’t have a website, you can still use this software to bank sales with affiliate products. I always recommend building a squeeze page and collecting opt-ins.

Anyway, you better hurry!

These guys are only selling limited copies before they raise the price…

Some time ago, I casually mentioned in my e-newsletter that I was taking a writing course.

One of my readers, JN, was absolutely shocked.

“YOU are taking a WRITING course?” she asked incredulously.

The implication was given that I have been a writer for over 3 decades, my taking a writing course is either frivolous or silly—a waste of time and money.

JN could not be more wrong.

“School is never out for the professional,” I answered concisely.

It’s my observation that folks who are really at the top of their field are constantly reading, studying, learning, and attending lectures in their specialty.

Why? To raise their mastery and skill to an even higher level.

On the other hand, those who are at the bottom seem to feel they learned everything they need to know at college, trade school, or on the job.

And they exhibit little or no desire to spend more time learning it better.

To me, this attitude seems lazy and counter-productive at best and dangerous at worst.

Can you imagine going to a doctor who didn’t keep up with the latest medical research?

Of course not.

So why is the idea of a writer taking a writing class so surprising?

JN’s reaction reminds me of an American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) weekend writing conference I attended many years ago.

The person sitting next to me and I were both studying the curriculum in our conference brochures.

“This looks good,” I said, pointing to a page, “a session on how to write book proposals.”

She sniffed haughtily.

“I wouldn’t need to go to THAT,” she said in a snobby, superior tone. “I am ALREADY an author and I have written a published book.”

At the time, I had written 30 published books. But I didn’t tell her that.

Instead, I just went to the session. And I learned a lot—enough to sell 50 more books since then (and counting).

Maybe JN thought that, seeing as I presumably know how to write, I would be better off taking a course in flower arranging or bookkeeping or PowerPoint.

But as busy adults, you and I have extremely limited time. We can take only so many courses.

And you will get a far better return on your investment in education by taking courses in things you are already good at—your strengths—rather than areas in which you are weak.

Why?

Your strengths are what make you successful.

The other stuff doesn’t much matter.

In his book “Strength Finders” (Gallup Press), Tim Rath writes: “People have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy in developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies.”

Yet, notes Rath, 77% of parents think that a student’s lowest grades deserve more time and attention than the subjects the student is best at.

Think about it this way; in a horse race, the winning horse can earn tens of thousands of dollars more than the horse that “places” or “shows” (comes in #2 or #3).

Yet often, especially in major races, the first-place horse beats the second-place horse by only a fraction of a second.

Therefore, if the horse and jockey make a massive effort to improve in speed, and beat their previous time by only a second or two, they can win instead of place or show—and make the owner and jockey a lot richer.

On the other hand, a racing horse is a lot less powerful, and can pull a lot less weight, than a Clydesdale—those humongous horses that pull the Budweiser beerwagon.

If you strength-trained the racehorse for years, it could probably get stronger.

But it would never get even close to the Clydesdale in strength…and it wouldn’t earn a dime more on the track.

Many things about success are counter-intuitive, and the notion of training is one of the most counter-intuitive of all.

Most people, when they see classes being offered, gravitate toward classes on subjects they are weak in, hoping to improve their skill level from minimal to acceptable, or learning something new.

For instance, I am not an expert in search engine marketing, which is a hot topic in Internet marketing.

So to correct the defect, I signed up for the Direct Marketing Association’s Certificate Program in Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

I took the class and learned a lot about search engine marketing—useful for me as a copywriter.

But I have also learned something else…

Namely, that no matter how much I study search engine marketing, I will never know more than a small fraction of what the top gurus—like the ones who wrote the DMA program—know about search engines.

So does that mean I gave up learning SEM…and did not optimize my website?

No. I am still learning SEM. And my website was optimized. But not by me.

Instead, I did something a lot smarter than trying to do it myself.

I went out and found a top SEO consultant, who (with my assistant’s help) optimized the site for me (although I DID write the copy).

As you can tell, I am a big believer in specialization and the hiring of specialists.

There is so much to know, no one can know it all. And trying to do so is futile.

As Thomas Edison once said, we don’t know one-millionth of 1% about anything.

Given the overwhelming amount of information in the world today, and our increasingly limited time to master it, I am convinced that we get the best ROI on learning and training by focusing on our strengths and learning to do what we do well even better.

I have found that, with rare exception, most people are only really good at one thing.

In particular, I am wary of professionals with hyphenated expertise (e.g., writer-designer, illustrator-photographer); I find that these folks are usually good at only one of the two designations—and usually mediocre at the other.

I also agree with the late direct mail consultant Dick Benson, who said: “Do what you do best in-house; buy everything else outside.”

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

Whenever there is a recession, the marketing trade publications run articles extolling to their readers the importance of continuing to advertise in a recession.

Since these articles are usually contributed by ad agency owners, magazine publishers, and marketing consultants, one could make an argument that they are self-serving.

As Warren Buffett says, “Don’t ask the barber if you need a haircut.”

Marketing professionals make money only when companies buy their marketing and advertising services.

But do they REALLY believe that spending money on marketing in a recession is smart business?

Or are the consultants and ad agencies pushing clients to keep spending so the advertising professionals won’t starve?

During a recession, when money is tight, should companies ramp up their marketing activities and spending…keep them steady…cut back…or stop altogether?

McGraw-Hill Research’s Laboratory of Advertising Performance studied recessions in the United States.

Of course, we must keep in mind that McGraw-Hill, as a large publisher of trade journals, depends on ad revenues to maintain profitability.

That being said, following the 1981-1982 recession, they analyzed the performance of some 600 industrial companies during the downturn.

Their research found that “business-to-business firms that maintained or increased their marketing expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth both during the recession and for the following 3 years than those which eliminated or decreased marketing.”

In a different study, Management Review asked American Management Association (AMA) member firms about spending during the 1990-1991 recession.

The data showed most firms that raised their marketing budgets enjoyed gains in market share: firms that increased
their ad budgets were twice as likely to pick up market share.

One of my readers, MT, owns a software company. In response to the recession, MT has cut his budget for Google AdWords campaigns in half.

How did he determine what to trim?

Before the recession hit, MT ran 10 Google PPC ad campaigns—all profitable.

“When the economy turned south, 6 of those PPC campaigns, those targeted mainly at fence-sitters who don’t buy any longer, began to lose money,” says MT.

So, very wisely, MT cut those 6 unprofitable PPC ad campaigns—and kept running the 4 that were money-makers.

But are all consumers not buying any more…or is it just MT’s customers?

According to an article in Internet Retailer, nearly 4 out of 5 households earning $100,000 a year or more said they are cutting back their spending.

When consumers cut back spending, your business can take a real hit—especially if you sell a product that’s “nice to have” vs. one that customers absolutely must have.

So what can you do to maintain healthy sales during what has already been a prolonged recession and is likely to continue for some time?

The first thing big corporations cut in tough times is marketing. That’s really stupid (and yes, I know that as a
copywriter, I sound self-serving saying this).

Marketing, when done right, makes money, brings in customers, and generates sales.

During a recession, your biggest problem is making sales and maintaining revenues—exactly what marketing is designed to accomplish.

So stopping all marketing really makes no sense.

What does make sense is MT’s approach:

1 – Precisely measure the ROI from all marketing campaigns.

2 – Cut the ones that lose money.

3 – Keep the ones that make money.

John Wanamaker, a famous retailer in his day, once said, “Half my advertising is wasted, but I don’t know which half.”

But today, with direct response measurement and Web analytics, we do know which half is wasted.

So we can fix or eliminate the wasted half, and generate a positive ROI by running the ads that do work.

I took a survey on my website on how the recession has affected my visitors.

38% of those surveyed said their sales are flat, while 25% reported increased sales and 37% have seen sales fall.

Eight out of ten people who answered the online survey expressed some degree of worry about the effect the recession will have on their business and their sales.

In response, 32% have increased their marketing budgets and 24% are spending less money on marketing.

Yet these businesses are holding firm on their pricing—more than 8 out of 10 say they have not lowered their prices to stimulate sales in a recession.

When it comes to economic recovery, they are slightly pessimistic.

Just over 57% believe the recession will end this year.

Almost 43% say the country won’t recover from the recession until 2012 or later.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

The fastest path to YOUR first million dollars (or your next)…

…is making it look like “no big deal”, instead of the massive obstacle MOST people view it as.

Anyone can create tremendous wealth in the shortest time possible if they know how to apply the “universal laws” that govern the way the world works.

And there’s simply nobody who can help you better than these 4 Master Manifestors of personal change, wealth, and all the good things in life: Bob Proctor, Peggy McColl, Mary Morrissey, and Gay Hendricks!

This is your exclusive invitation to join these 4 “heavy hitters” as they reveal the very same strategies they’ve used—and continue using every day—to create the amazing life of abundance each enjoys.

In the spirit of “giving back”, they’re conducting a FREE webinar (an online web-based presentation), titled “Making A Million Look Small“.

And they’re presenting it on several different days, at different times, to fit your busy holiday season schedule.

No matter what you may want to manifest or attract into your life, you can do it more quickly, simply, and easily after you’ve adjusted your perspective, made a million look small…

…and then begun implementing the strategies this “Fantastic Four” has to share with you.

Anyhow, I want to keep this short. So here’s the link to get more info and register for the seminar.

What products and services sell best in a recession?

Hint: It’s not a trick question.

And yes, the answer is the one that immediately popped into your head when I asked you – and before you started over-analyzing the question…

The products and services that sell best in a recession are the cheaper ones.

That’s right: the ones that cost less and are more affordable.

I recently read in a biography of Milton Hershey that he believed his business was recession and depression-proof because he sold an affordable product.

He reasoned that, even if a person couldn’t afford new shoes or a new car or a vacation, they could always afford a nickel for a Hershey’s chocolate bar (which was the price in those days).

It turns out Milton Hershey was right.

According to an article in Ad News, when the economy turned sour in the fourth quarter of 2008, Hershey increased its advertising budget by 23%.

And as consumers switched from expensive premium chocolates they no longer felt they could afford to Hershey’s, the company’s net income for 4Q 2008 rose 51% to $82 million.

Similarly, while the restaurant business is in its worst slump since 1991, McDonald’s worldwide sales rose 7.1% in January 2009. Diners may not be able to afford caviar any more, but they can still afford a Big Mac.

I have found the same principle—consumer preference for lower-priced goods and services during an economic downturn—to hold true in the 2 little businesses I run: information marketing and freelance copywriting.

In my online publishing business, our low-priced products are e-books selling in the $19 to $49 range.

Our mid-range products are DVD and audio CD albums selling in the $100 to $150 range.

And our high-end products are multimedia programs selling in the $300 to $1,000 range.

In recent months, our customers are clearly telling us that (a) they are worried about money, (b) they really appreciate our reasonable prices, and (c) for now they prefer offers of low-priced products.

They want us to focus on offering products that sell for under $100, which seems to be the magic recession-proof price point for our market.

When we advertise midrange or high-priced products to our list, I get at least one e-mail from a reader telling me she wants to buy the product, but she can’t because she has lost her job—and a few others asking if they can break up the purchase into multiple small payments.

If you are an information marketer, I suggest that, rather than fight this trend, you accommodate your customers by:

1) Expanding your product line, especially in the lower-priced products like e-books.

2) Offering your readers more free content such as special reports and webinars.

3) Bundling products into packages that enable customers to get related materials at handsome discounts; e.g., buy 2 e-books, get the third free.

I am also finding that offering low-priced service options has kept my freelance copywriting business active and profitable.

To make $10,000 as a freelancer, you can either do one $10,000 project or five $2,000 projects.

These days, I am doing many more $2,000 projects for clients who want to continue their marketing but are focused on controlling costs.

For instance, we are saving my clients money by doing more marketing online and a bit less offline.

We are also using marketing methods that can be tested at minimal cost before rolling out the campaigns (e.g., small test mailings of 1,000 instead of 10,000).

One thing that has worked especially well is a new service bundle I call the “Starter Package“.

I added a button to the main menu of my copywriting website describing a new service I call the Starter Package.

Normally, I charge $500 an hour for consulting. With a 10-hour minimum, payable in full in advance, that works out to $5,000—affordable in normal times, not so affordable in an economic crisis.

With the Starter Package, I offer new clients 90 minutes of my time for a flat fee of $600—a discount of $150 off the regular rate.

I picked 90 minutes deliberately. Not only is it enough time to give prospects a taste of how my advice can benefit them. But it comes in at a price point under $1,000, which is within the comfort zone of a new client who doesn’t really know me all that well.

More important, the Starter Package shows prospects I empathize with their desire to cut back on spending and have designed a service to accommodate their smaller budgets.

Interestingly, what usually happens is that, after reviewing the Starter Package offer, prospects call me to get a quote for whatever it is they really want—and more often than not, buy it from me.

So while I don’t actually do a lot of consulting under the Starter Package arrangement, it makes prospects more comfortable with me as a vendor who respects their budget concerns and limitations.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

Howie Schwartz has done it again.

He just put together an 85-page report detailing 25 hot niches for 2012.

What’s more, for a few days only you can have it for absolutely no cost…

You have to act fast as 2012 is fast approaching and he is taking this OFFLINE in just a few days…

Yes, it’s true.

They’ve trained over 20,000 students on the Internet.

And they’ve earned over $6.5 million dollars on the Internet.

The big SHOCK?

They haven’t been online for very long.

And their secret?

Watch this SHORT 4-minute video and discover the ONE THING that made the difference.

We’re winding down the year 2011…

I hope you and your business had a very productive, great 2011 this year.

Hopefully, you reached all the goals that you set out to reach.

If you didn’t reach all of your goals it’s probably because you spread yourself too thin, or didn’t pick ONE promising project and only focus on that until completion.

Too many entrepreneurs wait until things are “perfect” before they launch a product or new web site or service.

Did you know this is the OPPOSITE of how most of the super successful entrepreneurs operate?

There’s an old joke about Microsoft that their mantra is “ship first, fix second”.

This is referring to them releasing software products (like versions of Windows) still with a lot of bugs yet they released them anyway so they could collect sales.

That same concept, to varying degrees, is what most big-money entrepreneurs do.

Do you know any super successful Internet marketers?

What do they all have in common?

I’ll tell you…

They are FEARLESS. They aren’t afraid for their projects to fail. Because they know they have a ton of other ideas that they can execute next.

They know when they release something for sale or try a new marketing campaign that it’s never going to be perfect right out of the gate and they will work to improve it once they get it out there and it starts getting results.

They understand that they can’t do it all themselves.

In fact, the really successful ones get others to do most of the work for them and they just come up with the ideas (the ultimate dream of any entrepreneur.)

They understand that CASH IS KING. Cash flow is everything. You must focus on “what will bring in the most cash next?” Without cash you and your business cannot survive. If you’re not MAKING OFFERS and asking people to buy stuff, you’re going to be in deep trouble.

They are HYPER-PRODUCTIVE. Even if they only work 3 hours a day, they are very productive. They have systems they use for brainstorming & creating mind maps, managing projects, and communicating with outsourcers that are doing all the ‘heavy lifting’ such as setting up websites, design, Tech stuff, and even handling their customer support.

So if you analyze all of that, here’s what you come up with…

Productive Idea Creation & Management -> Fast Implementation Via Outsourcing -> Make Offers Without Fear Of Perfection -> Quickest Path To New Cash Flow. REPEAT.

If you want to make 2012 your best year yet you MUST execute with some or all of these factors.

The one that will make the BIGGEST CHANGE in your life (I swear) is your ability to build an Outsourcing TEAM that will take your ideas and turn them into reality and even grow them for you.

I believe you will NEVER earn your maximum potential if you’re handling so many things on your own — like customer support, setting up sites, doing your own design, managing your own SEO and ad campaigns, and even creating your own products or doing product research.

ALL of that can easily be outsourced.

How would you like to have someone that LOVES working for you full-time, 40 hours a week? You fire over an email to tell them to do something…DONE. You think of something else… DONE. There’s a bunch of stuff that takes up a lot of your time and so you ask them to do it…DONE.

Suddenly you’re left to use most of your time just coming up with new ideas. Which is probably all you want to do anyway.

Well, what if you only had to pay that person $350-$400 US per month to do that work FULL-TIME for you? Yep, just $400/month. Total.

For the price of an electric bill & cellphone bill you can have someone busting their butt for you even while you sleep.

And if this person can produce more than $400 in revenue for your business in a month, then it’s like getting a full-time worker for free.

Well, how many of these workers do you want? How much money do you think you’d make in 2012 if you eventually had 10 or more workers like this working for you and helping you bring in more money?

You’d most likely make A LOT.

Then why aren’t you doing it? Maybe you’ve outsourced before, but probably like 99% of other online entrepreneurs you think “outsourcing” is about posting a job on eLance or Odesk.

True ‘Power Outsourcing’ is getting someone to work for you FULL-TIME. The irony is, I can hire people to work for me full-time for ONE MONTH for the same price most people pay for one small task on eLance.

I’ll teach you EXACTLY how to do this AND how to structure your business to manage the process so you can just focus on new ideas and hopefully watch your business have ACCELERATED GROWTH faster than you ever imagined.

So make 2012 your best year ever, MASTER Outsourcing and you’ll be well on your way. I’m a bit biased, but I believe my “Outsource Force” step-by-step training course is the best course on the planet for teaching anyone how to effectively outsource and grow their business in record time.

It’s the secret to my own success, so I know it works.

Check out the “success story” videos on my site and consider getting this course for yourself. This ‘insider’ knowledge would be great for you to use in 2012!

It’s here! Fan Page Pro 2.0 has arrived and it’s jam-packed with new and improved features, better editor and much much more!

Get this stand-alone script that you can add to your own site or host from our servers to create and manage your fan pages!

Watch the demo video to see how it works and grab your copy NOW because the price is a STEAL!

Have you ever heard that once your mind has been expanded by a big idea it will never go back to its original state? I like that thought, and truly believe it.

For some strange reason, most individuals mentally fool around with a small idea when they begin to think of increasing their business. It is 5 to 10 or 15% if they even give consideration to an increase. I want to suggest that you begin to think of doubling your business. That’s right. Doubling it.

If you are the chairman of Exxon or some other multi-national corporation the idea is probably ridiculous. However, odds are, you are not in that position. Even if you are, you can double your effectiveness.

Think with me for a moment. We both know that it takes no more energy to work on a big idea than it does to work on a small one, so you can proceed assured that this type of mental activity will not give you a brain hernia. I want you to take a sheet of paper and put a figure at the top that will represent twice the business you are presently doing. If you are in a position where your effectiveness is not measured in dollars, write down what you would be doing when you are twice as effective.

Then write the words “How can I?”

When you begin to think about this, ideas will probably begin flying into your mind explaining why you can’t and why it isn’t possible. They will, in all probability, be valid, but counter-productive. Forget them. Tell yourself you have nowhere to write them.

Keep thinking.

After a while positive ideas will begin to flow. Write all of them on your paper, even the ridiculous ones.

These positive ideas will prime your pump for better ideas. Al Spizzirri, a friend of mine in Toronto took his income from $18,000 a year to $500,000 in two short years with this very concept, and I have NO doubt that you can do even better than that—if you choose to.

My company expanded across Canada into all of the U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand and around the world with this simple exercise.

Double your business—it’s an exciting idea.

Aah…January will begin clean…empty…with so much promise. Like everything at school upon returning from summer break.

I used to love that feeling of a new school year.

On that day we all have hope; Hope that this year will be different.

The sprucing up of the school sets us up for a “shot at success”.

I’d like to give you a similar shot at a successful business year by helping you spruce up your websites for 2012. A little bit of change can be enough to increase your traffic because it spruces up your website and people are drawn to that change.

So what kind of changes can you do that are major enough to cause your potential customers to notice but minor enough to not redo the whole site?

Add Some Pictures

If you don’t have any graphics or photos to help your page “sell”, then look to the royalty-free websites. There are a ton of these sites that will sell you professional photos and graphics for what amounts to a dollar or two per piece.

The little known secret is that some of these sites have thousands of graphics you can not only use royalty free, but ones you can download and use “free” free!

That means your site can take a giant leap towards looking more attractive and professional for less than 10 bucks…or in some cases nothing!

Try Some Strategic Highlighting

A yellow highlighter can be your friend when trying to optimize your page for selling. The highlighter is great for “pulling” must see parts of your sales message out so even copy skimmers can’t miss them.

But…when highlighting, remember this phrase: “When you draw attention to everything, you end up drawing attention to nothing.” Put simply…use your highlighter sparingly!

Add (Or Change) Color

There are styles and trends in advertising colors that change from time to time. Not as often as fashion changes, but still something you should put some time into. That’s why I keep The Big Book of Color in Design on my desk at all times.

It explores how color can be a feeling or feelings. While you may not think of black, yellow and cream as feminine they can be. In fact you probably have seen that combination in the store if not at your home on a bottle labeled Olay.

But if you are trying to portray, like soothing, technological, rich, etc, you can flip to a section with that “feeling.” Then you will get numerous examples with exact colors in the exact combinations…with the hex numbers you can punch right into Photoshop!

Freshen Up Your Fonts

As with color, fonts sometimes fall in and out of fashion. We all know by now that the vast majority of time you want to use a sans serif font. Serif—if you don’t know are those curly bits on the ends of fonts like Times New Roman or Courier. Sans serif simply means “without serif”.

So…your website should probably use a sans serif font, but which one?

That’s when Google can be your best friend. Just search for “new fonts”, “font trends” or things like that and you’ll find page after page of people who know better than either of us. One place I find myself going to find the newest trends in fontage (is that a word?) is FontShop.

Consider Switching Over To WordPress

It’s getting to the point now where almost no one puts up static HTML websites anymore. Whether your site is a catalog site, services site or a standard salesletter, it can all be done inside the confines of a WordPress blog.

These days there is a theme or template for anything you want to do with your blog. Just search around for 10 minutes and before you know it, your page is not only better looking, but more easily updated.

In summary, website changes that create sticky traffic:

• Add pictures
• Highlight special text
• Add or change colors
• Change your fonts
• Switch to WordPress

Extracted from StomperNet SEO Intelligence Report, December 17, 2011.

I wanted to let you in on a free plugin that I’ve been using that allows you to easily create Facebook Fan Pages without having to know any coding. Way back in March when the plugin was first released it was quite apparent that it would be an instant success with bloggers and marketers hungry for a way to easily create Facebook Fan Pages.

The Fanpage Connect team let me in that since they launched they’ve had an outpouring of e-mails from users wanting more features to help them supercharge their Facebook marketing.

They’re offering a free version of the plugin, available here.

Fanpage Connect Pro has every Facebook social plugin and button available: ‘like’ buttons, share, send and even the classic Multi-Friend Inviter. Oh, how about over 222 Google Web Fonts?

It has 3 ways to create high converting Reveal Tabs or Fan Gates, including the sexy “lightbox” overlay effect (and she’s a beauty).

You’ll be able to create unlimited fan pages with unlimited tabs, on unlimited domains.

And I guarantee no other plugin or app has these features: you can show and hide content based on date or hide it after a user’s first visit—perfect for coupons, one time offers and contests!

The list of features is huge, but this one is the marketer’s dream. We call it “FB Karma”. You can get your fans to gladly post your link on their wall in exchange for that cool video, coupon, or free report. Imagine, they’ll be plastering your link all over their wall for all their friends to see and click on.

Fanpage Connect Pro has been a long time coming, and you’ve been patiently waiting for it. Right now the team is offering you FCP at a ridiculously low, one-time fee, PLUS you’ll also get lifetime membership access to the site, lifetime updates, and a growing library of video training and resources to help you build even better Fan Pages.

Head over to the site to get your copy now!

There’s a lot of money being made in marketing information products online today.

But there’s also a lot of competition as I’m sure you’ve noticed.

You can’t just sit there and pray that your customers never find out about your competitors.

Thanks to Google, they can find these competitive offers in seconds.

Your best strategy is to identify who and what you’re competing against and fill a gap in the market they’re missing.

Here are the 4 types of competitors you face as an info-marketer and one good strategy for combating each.

The first category of competitors is organizations giving away content on your topic absolutely free.

There are countless companies out there giving away free information on their sites.

These folks are not in the business of selling information products.

They typically sell a physical product or a service and give away free content to build their reputation as a recognized expert in their industry or to expand their e-list.

It can be challenging to compete in a niche where a lot of good free content is published by companies that treat content as a marketing strategy instead of a product.

After all, why would your customers pay you for your content when they can get it—or something close to it—for free elsewhere?

One competitive strategy against free information is to establish yourself as a guru in your niche.

Consumers want authoritative information from experts, and are willing to pay a premium to get it.

For instance, anyone can compile and sell or give away information on conservative issues and politics—and many have.

But only Rush Limbaugh can publish The Limbaugh Letter.

Bookstores are a second category of competitors in the info-marketing business.

I’ve lost track of the number of times I have reviewed some Internet marketer’s expensive info-product, only to find that it contains less information than a 250-page paperback I can buy at Barnes & Noble for fifteen bucks.

One competitive strategy is micro-niching: publishing in a highly specialized niche trade book publishers won’t touch.

Example: I can go to Barnes & Noble today and find several highly useful—and quite inexpensive—books on social
networking.

If your market is dentists, you can publish “Building Your Dental Practice with Facebook”.

That title is too niched—and narrow—for bookstore sales.

Low-priced info-products are a third category of competition.

Their bargain rates can make it difficult to sell your more expensive info-products.

In the 1990s recession, a major newspaper ran an article about two entrepreneurs selling reports on marketing in a recession.

One was me and another was a much more famous marketer.

The paper told readers how to buy my report but not the famous marketer’s.

Reason: mine cost $7 and his cost $1,000.

From one press release, I sold over 3,000 of those booklets.

A great way to win against low-priced to competitors is to offer more in-depth content.

In information products, there is a content hierarchy that from weakest to strongest goes like this:

A – Telling readers what to do (e.g. in a booklet on making money as a landlord, telling the reader that they must make every tenant sign a written lease).

B – Telling readers how to do it (e.g., giving a checklist of the 9 points every lease should cover).

C – Doing it for them (e.g., actually including sample leases).

Low-priced info-products mostly cover level A and to a lesser degree level B.

The more your high-priced info-products give the readers of B and C, the greater the price you can command.

Finally, there are competitors in your field that charge as much or more than you do for seemingly equivalent info-products.

If your pricing is similar, the two strategies mentioned earlier—micro-niching and establishing yourself as an industry guru—can work to differentiate you from the crowd.

If your price is lower than most of your competitors, play the price card.

In your copy, talk about how the other guys charge an outrageous fortune for big, elaborate packages that the reader won’t have time to absorb, and will probably never look at.

Then show how your product saves time because it is tightly written (no fluff) and inexpensive by comparison.

One other idea for handling competition: befriend them instead of going to war with them.

This strategy is called “coopetition”. It recognizes that two companies can be competitors and joint venture partners simultaneously.

Reach out to your competitors via phone or e-mail. Offer to do joint venture deals and affiliate promotions with them.

Maybe they have a high-priced product that is the perfect back-end to one of your front-end products.

Instead of spending a lot of time and money to duplicate what they have done, sell their product to your customers on the back end for a nice affiliate commission on every sale you make.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

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My readers often complain to me that the gurus they follow are aloof and inaccessible.

You often can’t reach them by phone, and either you get a ‘no’ reply to your e-mail or an automated reply from an
auto-responder.

My readers say this is rude and it angers them.

After all, they bought the guru’s book or course…or might someday soon.

Doesn’t this entitle the customer to some personal time and customized advice from the guru himself?

Well, yes and no.

I personally answer my own phone and reply to my own e-mail messages.

But I don’t think other authors and info-marketers are obliged to do so (though I think they should).

When you buy a Stephen King novel, you understand that he is not obligated to discuss the plot with you – and most likely will not do so.

In the same way, when you buy a business book for $20, you are purchasing the contents—and nothing beyond that.

The author may also consult and speak, but he charges thousands of dollars for those services and just buying his book doesn’t entitle you to them, right?

One famous copywriting guru complained to me that some of his readers have the unmitigated gall to call him up, ask for free advice, and then grumble when they don’t get it.

“Do they not realize my paying clients get first dibs on my time?” he asked me.

I do. It makes sense to me. And I hope to you too. But still, I desire to help my readers as much as I can while still having time for a life.

So how do I respond to queries and complaints, both phone and e-mail, without becoming overwhelmed—and unable to get my work done?

For e-mail queries and complaints, about 90% are routine (e.g. did not receive a product they ordered on my website, can’t open the PDF of an e-book, need help becoming an affiliate, etc.).

These I pass on to my assistant, because she can handle them better than I can.

About 10% require a more thoughtful answer. These I answer myself—either via e-mail or sometimes a brief phone call.

Tip: when a customer has a problem or complaint they register via e-mail, calling them on the phone and helping them one-on-one converts them from complainers into rabid fans.

They are shocked that you actually took the time to call—and care enough to resolve their problem personally.

Of course, I can’t talk to everyone all the time: I have copy to write for my clients.

So I use caller ID to screen my inbound phone calls.

After the call, I listen to the voice mail.

If it’s routine, I pass the request or complaint on to my assistant for handling.

If it’s a situation where my personal attention would add value or create satisfaction, I will call back and help them.

However, as an information marketer, you want to avoid the trap of allowing people you don’t know to pump you endlessly for free consulting over the phone.

Speaker Patricia Fripp has a great technique for handling these brain-pickers which I use.

When someone who is not a client wants to ask me questions, I say: “My time normally sells for $500 an hour. I will give you 5 minutes—starting now.”

This script makes the caller understand that your time is limited…and that by talking with them without charge, you are doing them a favor and giving them something of value.

5 minutes may not seem like much. But at $500 an hour, 5 minutes of my time is worth almost $42. That’s a generous gift to give a total stranger.

The time limit also forces callers to get to the point, not waste your time with long explanations, and listen to what you tell them without debate or argument.

Here’s another way you, as an expert, can save time answering questions from readers…

Produce content—an FAQ page on your website, a blog, a newsletter, a special report, an information product—on the topics you are asked about most often.

Then, when people ask you for advice on Topic X, give them the URL of the website where they can either read your content for free…or purchase your information product on Topic X.

Am I clear on how to handle inquiries from clients, customers, prospects, readers, and fans?

If not, I expect you’ll call or e-mail me for clarification—and I welcome hearing from you.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

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30 years ago I had the good fortune of listening to a recorded message by the late Earl Nightingale. He taught me many valuable lessons. Earl’s philosophy changed the course of my life.

I recall one in particular which stands out in my mind: “If you travel in the opposite direction to the masses, you will probably never make another mistake.”

That was good advice. It seems incredible that people in such large numbers can be wrong, but they are. Historically, they always have been.

Here is an excellent example. Generally speaking, first-time home buyers are young. Young people are frequently influenced by older relatives, friends and neighbours.

In Toronto real estate sales are down—way down. There are not many people purchasing real estate. If a young person or couple is thinking of buying their first home, the odds are pretty good the advice they would get from their seniors would be, “Don’t buy now—this is not a good market, not many people are buying.”

That is precisely why you should buy. Sales are down, that’s correct…but, so are prices. If you’re listening to advice from the masses you will always be in the same financial shape they are in.

Don’t wait for another boom in the market when everyone is buying…that is when the prices are up. Now is an excellent time to buy a home, the market is low. Then, sell when it’s high.

The masses have that equation reversed. That’s why they are not winning. This applies to almost everything people do. Try going to lunch at an off hour, the restaurant will be empty and the service great.

Exclusive! Renowned SEO hotshot Andy Fletcher has just launched a brand new report called Backlink Leverage. With a bit of fast-talking I managed to get myself a pre-release copy, and I’m about to give you a bit of it.

Backlink Leverage is one of Andy’s top backlink building techniques, all written up and presented as an A-B-C simple step-by-step guide.

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It doesn’t just tell you how to build more backlinks…he lays out a method for making those backlinks work harder.

So you’ve not only got more backlinks working for you, they’re also driving LOADS more traffic.

For instance, one thing he talks about is the 4 rules of creating controversy, which is a good way of getting traffic to your blog…

(He’s probably going to be a bit annoyed I spilled this for free, but hey…)

- Have an opinion (reading neutral stuff is boring…but people like to read stuff they agree with and feel compelled to if they don’t!)

- Don’t go overboard (admittedly, this ones fairly obvious—be too offensive, people don’t come back. Andy’s got one neat example of someone who went a *bit* too far…)

- Be outrageous (the trick is to be provocative without crossing the line)

- Inspire passion (there’s a cool case study about a guy Andy works with, and how you could get him so riled up he would be forced to go look at your blog)

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- How the world’s top copywriters compel their prospects to take action, and how you can do the same thing in your blog posts

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