Wake Up Dummy! You’re In the Super Bowl Yourself – You Just Don’t Know It!

Without excluding myself, I think most people don’t get what it takes to become a success.  The reason why I’m not excluding myself is because I’m still on the path with the rest of you.  I haven’t

made it to where I want to be in my business, and every day that hippo is riding my back, reminding me that he’s still there. 

Before I get started, don’t start sending me email and comments telling me that you have the solution to my problem, because you don’t.   I’m sure that whatever marketing program you’ve created or are affiliated with on Click bank or whatever, has worked well for you.  As a matter of fact, it has worked so well that you have to lurk around social media sites to find easy prey to sell your stuff to.

In short, there is no quick solution to anyone’s problem.

I’m a copywriter and I network with other copywriters all the time.   If I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times from folks that write advertising copy:

“The client thinks I’m the solution to all of their business problems.”

“The person that hired me thought that their product would fly off the shelf once I gave them their copy.”

“I had to get rid of this client because they wouldn't give me any of the information on their business that I requested.”

I actually know someone that hired one of the top copywriters in the country and paid him thousands of dollars to write a direct mail piece.  I was told that out of the thousands of pieces that were sent out there were only two responses, and that didn't even lead to a sale.

Is it the copywriter’s fault?  Perhaps the sales funnel wasn't thought through well enough.  Perhaps the list that was purchased didn’t target the right market segment.  Maybe a smaller mailing list could have been used to test the copy and the target audience.

Point is, if you are having a lack of success in your life, the person to blame is usually in the mirror.

You Are The Guy Or Gal In The Super Bowl…Believe It Or Not!

I’m not a sports fan at all.  As a matter of fact, I’m rather sports illiterate.  I’m the guy that’s always amazed at how well a basketball player can get that puck into the net using only a croquette mallet.  But I do know one thing, if you see a sports legend today that has made it into the big leagues, much less the Super Bowl, I’d say you are looking at someone that has had to make massive sacrifices to get there. 

They spent long, hard years honing their craft, pursuing their goals, all the while never knowing if they would make it even close to their goals. 

Lucas, Spielberg and the Super Bowl

I’m shifting gears to movies since I seem to know more about them than sports.  However, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are two great examples of individuals that overcame adversity.  Who wouldn't want to be these guys?  They get to make the coolest movies, hang out with giants in their industry, and spend their days creating cool stuff.

However, things weren't always so rosy.

When Lucas was in his 20’s he made his first mega-hit, “Star Wars”, a movie that literally changed the entire movie industry in more ways than one.  But, what most people don’t know is, that while the younger, skinnier George Lucas was in the process of making his big hit, he had a heart attack. 

The enormous pressure he was under by vicious businessmen and investors plus the grueling filming schedule he was under almost killed him.

Spielberg didn't have it much easier.  While filming his first mega-hit, “Jaws”, one of the things he had to look forward to everyday while making the film was extremely rude people that actually bullied him on the set.  Similar to Lucas, Spielberg had to deal with ruthless movie moguls, a crew that was getting into more trouble every day, and a massive mechanical shark named Bruce, that didn't work 70% of the time. 

By the way, both of these guys spent years in the industry prior to this making cheap movies or TV shows.  They were accustomed to doing a lot of grunt work and taking massive amounts of crap from people.

And the Point is Sports Fans:

Whenever you see anyone you admire that is bathing in success, just think, “How much crap did they have to do to get there?”

Chances are they went through an awful lot, and that’s why they are on the field moving the ball towards another goal.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

How to Make Web Savvy YouTube Videos That Will Generate Traffic

In my last post, I told you about the nuts and bolts of creating YouTube videos.  The types of software and equipment that you’ll need to get the job done.  You can read it here:

What Type of Software and Hardware Should I Use to MakeYouTube Videos With?

Now we are going to tackle the subject of how to create videos.  In my opinion, it is better to make instructional videos related to your niche.  The reason for this is that you are doing several things at once.

1.  You are giving prospects something of value that they can use, thus earning their trust.

2.  You are proving to potential clients and customers that you know your stuff and can deliver it.  This will make you an authority in your niche.

3.  Your videos will become a traffic generator for your landing page.

Designing Your Web Savvy -- Traffic Generating Video

Step 1 -- Plan Your Video

Planning before you shoot your video is all important.  If you are going to create a series of videos, then you’ll need to take some time to write out an outline or something similar to a table of contents.  Carefully think through all of the steps of the video (or videos) and make an outline so that you will have a reference of what to write for your script.

Note: If you are making just one video make an outline of your script.  If you are making a series of videos first make an outline or table of contents for the entire series.  Then make a table of contents for each video.

Why are we doing this?  For one thing, when you are writing your scripts you will notice that you are logically following a concise and well thought out order to your videos.  The other reason is, believe it or not, you will save time in writing your script, and you won’t forget to leave information and important elements of your video. 

Step 2 --- Write a script.  Most of the videos you see on the Internet are not scripted.  In other words, they are not thought out, not focused on a specific task or subject and not made very well.  It’s like going to websites and blogs where people just throw information on them without even a theme, expecting to gather a herd (AKA tribe, ravenous prospects, hive, etc.)  to their site. 

So, in order to stand out from the crowd, you need to have a focused well thought out and well written script.  You will also need to insert notes into the script so that you’ll know when to insert certain pictures and points.  I add and highlight places in my scripts where I want to add emphasis to my voice while reading the script.

Step 3 --- Edit your script and make it clean.  Once you've written your script, you’ll want to go back and read through it aloud.  You’ll be amazed at how lousy some of your phrases sound after you've read them.  Edit and take out any extraneous (not needed) words or phrases that you think you can live without. 

Step 4 --- Read and rehearse your script.  Read through the script several times to make sure you won’t have too many hiccups or pauses during your video recording.  I hate it when I’m watching a video and there’s all of these “Uhhhh…” pauses in the video.  You can obviously tell that there was very little thought put into the video and the speaker either doesn’t mind wasting your time or just doesn't know what he’s talking about.

Step 5 --- Record the video.  Don’t get intimidated by this. In yesterday’s post I went into the type of equipment used and what kind of software you should buy.  You could easily get everything you need to get decent quality equipment, software and camera for under $1000.  Yep, that’s right, I said UNDER A THOUSAND DOLLARS. Is it going to be in the same class as CNN?  Nope. But you can record and edit easily for this much.

Here's a great resource for getting the job done cheap: Inexpensive Video Production

I've seen online videos created with basic cameras and equipment that were very good.  You don’t need high end equipment or even great production, but you can get as close to it as you can by learning a few tricks.  

There are plenty of websites that show you how to make great production level videos on a limited budget  so you’ll have to look around to find a few of them.  (I’ll give you some resources you can access at the end of this post that’ll point you in the right direction.)

When you start recording your video, you need a plain background so it won’t be distracting, a place to record at where it’s quiet, and teleprompting software that scrolls your script on your laptop or screen.  Oh, yeah and a video camera. 

Place your camera right behind the laptop facing you and read the script in a clear voice at a moderate speed.  If you've rehearsed the script the recording should go well.

If you are using screen capturing software, you won’t need teleprompting software, you can read your script right off a piece of paper.  Just place it somewhere that it can be seen. 

Here is a video I made using Camtasia and a script:

Step 6 --- Editing your video. Once you have finished your video, you can now address the part of the production that requires the most work and time.  The editing process.  This is where you’ll use your software to take any and all unneeded parts and mistakes.  You can also add words and graphics to the screen as well as music to really make your video look professional.

Once you are finished with all of that, you can save your video to up load it to YouTube which I’ll cover in my next post.

A Few More Crucial Pointers…

Before I sign out of this post I want to give you a few more thoughts on video production.

• Make sure you make a video that is valuable and relevant to your business and target market.  You must define who you are trying to benefit with your video.

• Keep the video about 5 minutes long.  Long winded videos bore the tar out of most people.

• Always keep the people you are making your video in mind.  Issues such as bandwidth and video format are important to consider.  (More on this tomorrow.)

Video References:

Editing Software 

Sony Vegas

Camtasia

Teleprompter Software

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Use These Three Web Savvy Steps to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Site

I know this blog has been dedicated to the pursuit of showing you a whole variety of different methods to generate traffic to your websites and businesses.  Let’s face it, without any traffic you won’t have much of a business and there really isn't a reason to have a website at all.

Where I Initially Went Wrong In My Business

Without the key element of intimately knowing what your niche is you may be getting people to come to your site, BUT THEY WILL BE THE WRONG PEOPLE!  So, you need to establish this key idea well before you jump on the Internet and start banging out information that you think people will want to read.

Getting the Traffic That You Want

So, step #1 in your traffic generating matrix should be:

1.  Get a niche that you can focus on.  I have written a rather extensive article on this in an earlier blog post, that also has wonderful links to good resources and you can read that here: Finding Your Niche However, this is a most important step that you must consider because this is the direction that your business is going to take. Without a focused subject or core idea, your business is going to go elsewhere. 

Personal story: Years ago, I started an online embroidery business.  I bought my self a $20,000 single head machine, digitizing software, hoops, and a bunch of other stuff I needed, and decided that I would run most of my services on the Internet.  So, I set up a basic E-commerce site, and put myself out there to get business and to make my fortune on the World Wide Web. 

Oh, I got business, alright.  I got people that wanted gardening hats, shirts with children’s pictures on them, jackets for Veterans and a whole slew of other unassociated stuff.  I set up loads of pages of material and pretty soon, my site looked like a one man band trying to spell out the name Mississippi on a parade field.

To make my point short, it was chaos.

It wasn’t until I decided on a niche that every aspect of my business got easier.  I decided to create apparel exclusively for musicians.  Hats, shirts and jackets for trumpet players, trombonists, guitarists, etc.  Because I had picked a focused niche I didn't have to digitize or sew out loads of unrelated garments either.

Which leads me to Step #2…

2.  Promoting your site or business.  Once you have a niche in place, you must have a way to attract the people that you want there.  In my case I started a light-hearted blog about the craziness of musicians and I wrote a lot of parodies about different instruments.  I also used Photoshop to create a bunch of really funny images based on them.

Some of the pictures and content that was shared went viral on the Internet which helped bring in new customers.  As a matter of fact, I have since sold the business and I went online and my pictures are still being circulated, years after I shut down the site.  

Not only do you need to get fresh content related to your site on the Internet, but you will need to know where people in your niche hang out.  In my case, it was easy to figure out where musicians were hanging out at, and how to get my marketing message in front of them. 

What I eventually learned was that musicians that were into my musician’s apparel were mostly kids in school band programs and music hobbyists that were in specific groups and clubs.  For years there was a group of music enthusiasts in Holland that wore my stuff to their weekly musician’s meetings, no lie.  I got a lot of orders from those guys!

3. Selling your wares.  This was where I failed for years.  I did fairly well getting people to come to my music embroidery site, but once they were there I didn’t sell them.  Yeah, it’s great getting new prospects in your door, but what are you going to do once they walk in?  You need to have a method of selling them, which is the reason why I decided to learn how to write advertising copy.

For years, I was intimidated by many of the awesome copywriters that were on the Web.  I thought I’d never be able to even approach the level of copy that I saw on websites and squeeze pages or stuff I got in the mail box.  And it’s true, those guys are real, world class, millionaire advertising copy writers. 

However, in order to play a decent round of golf, you don’t have to play as good as Tiger Woods.  You don’t need to be the next Bill Gates to use a computer or create a program.  You can aspire to be like them, and put your back into your passion.  It will take you a long way.  But to do well, you don’t necessarily have to be THAT good.

So, if you are going to sell any product or service on the Internet, you are going to have to learn to sell using words.   That, or at least hire a copywriter that knows what he or she is doing.

I have briefly touched on three very important facets of grabbing traffic on the Web.  To get a more in –depth idea on how to implement these ideas, please refer to the resources below.  Most of the information you can get from these sites are free but are high quality:

Finding a Niche:

The Warrior Forum.  Just type in “niche” into the forums search function to get a TON of information from seasoned online entrepreneurs.

Here’s an excellent video to get you started on finding a niche:

Promoting Your Site or Business:

10 Ways to Promote Your Website by Forbes Magazine

Copywriting Services: Mark Ellis Copy

Web Savvy Success Principles That Can Propel Your Internet Venture

Yesterday, I wrote a rather extensive post about gaining traffic by creating EBooks.  If you haven’t noticed, I’m trying to write about all of the free ways that you can generate traffic to your website. That way, if you are new to Internet marketing (IM) you won’t waste a lot of money. 

Even though I can’t quote an exact figure, I read a recent article that stated 90% of the people that start Internet businesses fail within the first 90 days.

Personally, I believe the figure is even bigger than that, so let’s face it, many of you are tire kickers.  You’ll get on the IM bandwagon all wide eyed and enthusiastic, and then over a relatively short period of time, you’ll give it up thinking that this dog won’t hunt.

 

Just get on any good IM forum like the Warrior Forum, and you’ll see posts with headings similar to this:

“Frustrated…Don’t know what to do.”

“I quit my job to pursue IM, now I’m broke…What do I do?”

“I created a product, wrote my sales page, and nobody is buying it…”

You know, stuff like that. 

There’s probably a lot of reasons for this, but I think you have to look at IM just like most other endeavors in life; many shall come but few will be chosen.  Or, as I like to phrase it, “Many shall come but few will be committed.”   That’s probably closer to the truth.

After listening to motivational speakers, reading books on success, and trial and error over the last 25 years, I’ve come to my own personal conclusions.  These may help you or work for you, or perhaps not.  The main factor in the scheme of things is that the ball is in YOUR court, and it doesn’t matter how many success principles I throw at you or anyone else, it’s what YOU do that counts.

Dieting and Success, What’s the Diff?

Which brings me to another point.  I’m writing this post in January, right after the start of the new year.  Being fascinated with marketing of all kinds, I notice things like what kind of magazine articles and books that are published.  Now unless you’re living under a rock, you've no doubt noticed all of the diet and success books that come out this time of the year.

I’m always amazed at the seemingly all of the seemingly new angles that diet plan hawkers come out with.  Just take a look at this “short” list of diets. (I’m saying “short” in jest, because it is rather long, but in the scheme of dieting it merely scratches the surface of the names and types there are.)

DIET TIP:  I can save you a whole ton of money on diet books right now.  Years ago, I got a book from Men’s Health that was about all the great foods you should be eating. It had wonderful full color pictures of all sorts of hamburgers, steaks, huge salads, etc., and the recipes for them.   This book had all the stuff I love to eat, and the pictures were so enticing, I wanted to lick the page. 

I remember thinking, “Now, THIS is ME! This is the type of diet I want to be on. Where men with six pack abs are telling me to eat juicy hamburgers, spaghetti and all the crap I love! Yeah, I can do this!”

Inside the first chapter, Men’s Health went over the top 10 or so fad diets that people dive into.  Their conclusion:  These diets don’t work because they are not sustainable over a long period of time.  They are ineffective, and sometimes dangerous.

Then, Men’s Health gave you THEIR diet plan:

(Drum roll please…ahem…)

Burn more calories than you consume.

That’s it.  That was the whole plan.  And guess what?  I tried it, and it works perfectly! 

So, there ya go.  I already saved you a crap-load of moola on diet books.  You should never have to buy one again. Actually, the Men’s Health book advocated eating the right way, to preserve and optimize your health, so that book is a great buy, and you can get it used on Amazon cheap here:

Men’s Health Diet That Has Guys With Incredible Abs Of SteelTelling You To Eat Spaghetti And Hamburgers

Success Formulas Are Like Diet Plans

Success books and ideas are the same way.  Just another endless parade of books that promise if you follow the plans they have for you, the world will be your oyster.  Many, many people have made loads of money from that scheme, and just like diet plans, theirs will work for you. 

So here’s what works for me, and bear in mind, I’m telling you all this for free. 

#1 You need a passion, business, vocation or direction to pursue like a laser guided missile.  Without any direction, you are just like a ship without a destination.  You won’t go anywhere.  It’s the same thing with Internet marketing, if you don’t have a specific niche in mind, you won’t get very far. 

(Personally, I think it’s crazy to start a full 4 year degree without having a clue as to what you’re going to be doing after college.  If you are going to be a master chef, don’t you think it would be better to work in the restaurant business for a while BEFORE committing massive amounts of time and money in college?)

So, figuring out what you want to do at the onset, is very important.

#2 You need to be committed.  You need to stick with it. You need to be like Rudy Ruettiger.  You don’t want to bounce all over the place, planning and re-planning your destination.  You want to be committed to your passion through thick and thin.  Once again, I’ll bring up a few case studies to remind you of the importance of this:

Colonel Sanders went to 1000 restaurants with his chicken recipe before one of them tried it.

Edison tried over 10,000 experiments to get his light bulb to work.

Commitment is paramount.

#3 You need to take ACTION.  Yeah, you can decide on where you want to go and how much you want to get there, but without taking a ton of action, you’ll never even get close.  The best way to do this is to plan out what you’re going to do and execute it.  Many of the world’s most successful people plan out where they want to be years in advance and how they’re going to get there.  Then they take action based on those plans. 

#4 Your attitude needs to be conducive to the goals you are trying to achieve.  As Zig Zigglar once said, “It doesn’t matter how great of an attitude I have, I can’t run as fast as Roger Bannister or box as good as Joe Louis, but I could do those things a lot better than someone with a BAD attitude!”

Translation:  Having a good attitude may not get you all of the way to your destination (especially if you have an unrealistic one) but you’ll get much closer to achieving your dreams if you have a good attitude.

The Place You Wind Up In May Not Be Kansas

One thing I want to add to this.  If you are pursuing a dream…a really big dream, like becoming an NBA superstar, or a top-drawer studio musician, you more than likely set yourself up for failure.  I’m not telling you to give up on your dream, but I’m saying that you may wind up close to or in a great position that you didn’t imagine.  I’m NOT saying that is bad, as a matter of fact, you may be better off. 

I’ve personally known people that were trying to become NFL players and wound up being athletic coaches at prominent universities.  Did they make it to achieve their lofty dreams?  No, but they wound up doing something they liked in a great job that they love.

So, my advice for anyone with a goal or ambition is to put your back into your vocation or passion, you may be surprised at where you wind up.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

"Use This Well Known Google Tool To Create A Money Making Machine And Pull Ahead of the Pack"

How to Fill Out Your Calendar

In case any of you missed my last 2 posts, we are exploring a technique that a millionaire revealed in a conversation I was privy to.  It was not a short and sweet sonnet, so I've had to try to explain this whole strategy over the course of about a month. 

If you didn't get a chance to read my recollection of what I was told, you can read Part I - How to Set Up A Blog and Part II - How to do Research for Your Niche or Subject. 

How to Lock and Load Your Money Calendar

If you have gone through all of the steps I've written about in the last 2 steps, you should have already:

• ·         Researched and chosen your niche
• ·         Signed up for a blog (either WordPress or Blogger) account and formatted it
• ·         Researched topics you will be writing about using For Dummies, Amazon or eBay

By the way, if you don’t know how to set up a blog, I have an online video series you can watch here: Bloggingwith Google’s Blogger

Once you have set up your blog, it’s time to set up your calendar.  The reason why you’d want to use a calendar is so that you can have a series of articles related to your niche that are somehow logically connected to one and other.  Not only will a calendar connect your articles to each other, but you’ll be able to establish goals, set deadlines and be able to have a list of subjects that will make it so much easier to write about. 

Google’s Calendar – My Calendar of Choice

If you haven’t seen Google’s calendar it looks like this:

Google's calendar will allow you to color code different sections of your calendar, so it easy to view 

The reason why I like this calendar so much is because I can access it anywhere there is a computer with an internet connection.  Not only that, it updates the current date and time that you are on automatically.  Another thing that is pretty cool, is that you can color code different parts of the calendar so that it is visually easier to use.  So my marketing weapon of choice is Google's Calendar.

Now, if you don't want to do that, you don't have to.  Any kind of calendar will do, whether it resides on a computer or not.  

Creating Your Subject Schedule

Once you have your calendar picked out you will now return to Amazon (or eBay, or For Dummies.com) and look at the material you accessed using the technique in my last blog post and drilled down into your subject matter to find a niche, or even a niche of a niche.  (Once again, please read my last Blog post on: Finding a Niche to Make Money On.)

Once you start looking at the resource material or books you can start to use your calendar to fill out a schedule.  Actually, this isn't any different than making an outline.  Take a look below:

Subject: Social Bookmarking

Introduction to Social Bookmarking in Marketing
I.  Social Bookmarking 
A.  Why is it important to use it
   1.  How people use it
   2.  Why it is important to learn how to use it
   3.  Successful businesses that use social bookmarking
        a. Star Bucks
        b. Apple


So forth...

You want to fill in at least two months worth of subject material.   if you are having a problem using Google's calendar here's a Video on how to use it: 





The Reason for Doing This 

There are a couple of reasons why you will want to schedule like this.  First of all, there are a large numbers of entrepreneurs that put up a website and then drive traffic to it.  

Whatever means they use to drive traffic to their sites, the results are usually not spectacular.  One of the reasons this is so, is because webpages and sites that are static, usually don't get traffic.  What I mean by static is, they sit on the net, and usually the content stays exactly the same.  It doesn't change.  

Internet search engines have become very sophisticated in the last few years, and they demand that a site have at least 2 basic criteria:

1.  New, well written and focused content, and...
2.  relevant links coming in

At the end of the day Google loves fresh, original content and so do readers. Google also loves relevant, quality links to your site. So, if you are writing good content that people love, then they will link to your website from theirs.  

But, get real, if you have a crappy, static, site, chances are nobody will link to them, even if you ask.

If you would like to read more about this subject, then read this link by Michael Bluejay: Why I Won't Link to Your Site  This is one of the most brilliant pieces I have ever read on this subject.

Also, SEOBOOK has a great article on Blogging and SEO as well.

The main point is...

If you write well planned material that actually offers some high - octane content, you should have no problem eventually getting readers to your blog.  

in my next post, I'm going to show you how to get social media on your side, with an actual blueprint that you can use to get as many readers and possible prospects as possible.  

Until next time, God Bless!

Mark "Elmo" Ellis

Mark Ellis

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

"When it comes to high response copy, I've got your back!"

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

Portfolio Site: http://markelliscopyportfolio.blogspot.com/