In this video, Ted shows you some great copywriting tips for beginners (and a nice refresher for more experienced copywriters as well).

If you’ve never seen Ted Nicholas on stage, you’ll enjoy this rare insight into his keen mind and some road-tested tips that barely scratch the surface of the successes he’s cultivated over the years.

Enjoy!

If you want to learn more about Ted Nicholas, check out his website, and check out this rare 99-minute interview Ted gave.

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Ted gave a lot of insight into many of the ads he has written over the years, and it’s easy to see why his copy has generated more than $4.9 BILLION for himself and his clients, including Nightingale-Conant, Agora, Marriott Corporation, Dearborn Financial Publishing, and Fischer Publishing, to name a few.

While Ted covered a lot of the basics important to the foundation of successful copywriting, he also touched upon a few oft-misunderstood concepts, such as the hidden benefit, which isn’t obtained by reviewing the product.

Instead, he asked us to challenge ourselves with the following question: “If I had unlimited God-like powers and could grant my prospect the biggest benefit I could imagine, what would it be?”

Ted also shared many of his offline copywriting strategies with us, and I ultimately found my mind spinning with ideas to test online (a certain type of lift letter, for one).

Ted also stayed for the duration of the seminar over the weekend as an attendee and speaker, and I was lucky to get some one-on-one time with him on a few occasions. That time was well-spent and packed with a million-dollar education. Just one idea he shared with me was worth fifty times the cost of the seminar to me.

I want to tell you about one little gem in particular that we discussed, as it may help your business as well.

I had been talking to a potential client, who wanted to expand his market reach and have sales copy written in other languages besides English. He was exploring the option of retaining a copywriter who could write copy in these foreign languages.

Well, I knew Ted had many of his sales letters translated into other languages, and I asked him about the necessity of writing copy from scratch in a foreign language. What Ted suggested (and what he has done) was to have the control letter translated, rather than writing a new one. But the translation should be done by someone who understands marketing (i.e. NOT a foreign language professor or standard translator).

You see, as long as the market remains the same, the underlying emotional hot buttons are also the same, whether you are talking to Americans, Germans, Hispanics, etc., etc.

In other words, a person from Brazil usually has the same wants and desires as someone from the Netherlands.

Are you starting to see some potential here?

Simply by having your website copy translated into multiple languages, you are extending your reach dramatically. Or, alternatively, if you are thinking about entering the Latino market, for example, it may be easier than you think, especially if you have customer support people who already speak Spanish.

And by having multiple versions of your sales letter online in different languages, it increases the likelihood that prospects from those countries will find your sales letter in a search engine. These are prospects that you wouldn’t have attracted before.

Ted also showed us a variety of envelope teaser copy split tests, successful ads, and of course I picked up his huge 700+ page swipe file.

Ted’s story of success is an inspiration to me and many other entrepreneurs out there.

In fact, when Ted first went into business he was in debt to the tune of $96,000, and the future looked bleak. He soon realized that the tiny cashflow coming into his small business was falling far short of what he really needed to survive in the long-term.

But then he came up with a novel idea. Leveraging the small reserve of cash he had left, Ted came up with a genius master plan to remake his business and attract paying customers in droves.

As a result, today Ted is without question a tremendous role model of entrepreneurial success. He’s a highly sought-after international speaker and marketing consultant, a well-read author, and one of the most highest paid and successful copywriters in the world.

I recently learned that Ted sat down for a mind-blowing 99 minutes of “marketing legend reveals all” information-packed interview.

In it, Ted revealed his mindset and some rather clever marketing strategies behind some of his most successful campaigns. I’m constantly amazed by how much he is a walking spigot of sales ideas and tactics.

You can get all the details on Ted’s interview and download it here.

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In the direct response world, we have a proven tested formula to generate profits through the use of a marketing funnel.

What is it? And more importantly, how can it help you to reap huge rewards through Twitter?

Let’s look at the marketing funnel itself first.

With the “marketing funnel” model, a person makes a small purchase (yes, supplying an email or physical mailing address is considered a payment of sorts), and over time you “funnel” your customers towards more and more high-end products and services, step by step, by selling them to the next level.

So by “funneling” your prospects into paying customers, you’re setting the stage to provide tremendous value to them. So much value, in fact, that your customers begin to look forward to receiving content from you.

And with that value comes the opportunity to take your customer to the next level, where you can sell higher-end goods to them.

And this isn’t a one-sided benefit. Both you and your customer benefit by this relationship. Your customer benefits when he gets even more value…something he really wants. You’re helping him in that regard.

And of course you benefit as well by slowly graduating your customer to your “A” list, where you can provide even more value.

Take a look at a typical online marketing funnel:

Let’s walk through each step of the funnel to gain a clearer understanding of how the funnel works.

1. Your prospect enters the funnel by responding to your incentive or “ethical bribe” to raise their hand and give you their contact information. He is now a lead on your mailing list.
2. You continue to provide value to him, but you want him to make the transition from a non-paying lead to a paying customer. As a result, you give him a front-end, or entry-level, offer on a product or service directly related to the value he received when opting to join your list. You may make the offer at a breakeven or even an initial loss, because you know you will more than make up for it on back-end sales.
3. If he doesn’t purchase your front-end product, you continue to sell him on the same offer or different front-end offers—ideally both, because he just may not be in the market for your initial offer at this time, but may be later.
4. When he purchases your front-end product, he is now a customer. You are now “warming him up” to doing further business with your company. Once he sees that you over deliver on your promise of value, he’ll feel more comfortable buying from you again.
5. You want to graduate him to the next price level, so you make him an offer on a higher-end product or service related to the entry-level one he already bought. If he doesn’t buy, you follow a similar approach as step 3 above. That is, you continue to make him offers, but this time on the mid-level product.
6. Once he purchases your mid-level product, you move onto the high-end product. He is now conditioned to buy from you with confidence and without worry, because he knows what an outstanding value you’ve been giving him. He’s seen the results of your products first hand, so his buyer’s resistance is reduced. He is now on his way to becoming one of your “A” clients, the 20 percent responsible for 80 percent of your profits.
7. You continue to sell him higher ticket items and provide even greater value to him.

The steps I have listed are a very simplified approach. You’ll soon see that there is much more to it if you truly want to be successful in the long run, but it’s not rocket science by a long shot.

For instance, each time he purchases from you, you’ll want to do up-sells and cross-sells. Up-sells are more expensive finishes, grades, styles, or a bigger version of the product (“Do you want to super-size that?”).

Cross-sells are other items that go along with the product. Something complementary. A carrying case, extra paper, ink, blank media, whatever (“Do you want fries with that?”)

After he buys, you’ll want to ask him for referrals, a testimonial, and do everything in your power to make sure he is satisfied. You want him to be satisfied so he’ll buy again of course, but you want also want to reduce your refund rate and gain his endorsement.

You want him to tell all of his friends and colleagues about his positive experience with your company.

You probably know when someone has a bad experience with a company they’re more likely to tell others about it than when they have a pleasant experience. You want to encourage them to tell all about their pleasant experience.

And then you’ll want to develop some kind of residual income, where they pay you so much a month or year forever until they cancel. Not everyone will do that, of course, but your “A” customers probably will.

And you can create different residual levels, just like you have different product levels, all at different price points.

Notice how the width of the funnel gets smaller towards the bottom? The width represents the number of customers at that height, or stage, of the funnel. However, the smaller the width, the more money they are spending with you.

In fact, the amount of money they spend with you can be thought of as being inversely proportionate to the width of the funnel (more or less). So the 20 percent responsible for 80 percent of your profits are at the bottom of the funnel.

The other 80 percent that give you 20 percent of your profits are towards the top. This distribution is a general observation and not a mathematical absolute. It might be 70/30 or 90/10 or somewhere in between.

This is no accident. Your “A” customers, your biggest advocates, are in the smallest segment of your customer base…the bottom of the funnel (but the top in terms of the value you deliver to them).

When thinking in terms of this approach, which is a proven tested model, you might begin to wonder how the same logic could apply in terms of a social media site like Twitter, where the ultimate goal is to gain targeted traffic and ultimately more sales.

Here’s a simplified view of what such a “Twitter Funnel” might look like:

So what does this all mean, and how do you use it for maximum success?

Let me show you some ways I initiate the funnel with respect to Twitter, in a short video I’ve prepared for you. the video is actually the second in a series of my Twitter Traffic Swarm system.

For more on the Twitter Traffic Swarm system, check out the other videos and resources in the series.

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In the meantime, if you haven’t followed me on Twitter yet, you might catch a glimpse—a small piece of it—by watching what happens after you follow.

Here’s another clue:

Check out this post I made on Tony Blake’s forum (and take a second to register while you’re there—I highly recommend it!)

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There’s no opt-in and nothing to buy. I will offer you the option to get the Master Resale Rights version for a song, but only if you wish.

You can find all the details, plus a demo of the software here.

Why am I doing this? What’s the catch?

No catch, other than my asking you to “Retweet” and let folks know about this freebie.

And my motive is transparent and rather simple.

I want to meet and network with new folks on Twitter, and I figure the best way to do it is by giving away something of value with no strings attached.

Perhaps later, when you’re interested in copywriting services or any of the marketing products of mine, you’ll remember me and decide to do business with me.

Plus—I’m doing a case study here (you’ll see what I’m doing with Twitter) that I’ll talk about in the next few days, so you’ll want to keep an eye out.

But that’s it in a nutshell.

Enjoy!

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It could significantly boost your sales and conversions.

I explain it all in the video, so have a quick watch and let me know what you think. (By the way, you can find and watch all of these videos in one place at FoolproofProfits.tv)

Enjoy!

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It’s called CommentLuv, and it’s available for a variety of blog platforms, including the one I use, Wordpress.

What does it do? Every time someone posts a comment on your blog, it looks up the URL of the web address they provide, and if it’s a blog, it then checks the feeds of that blog to look for their latest blog post. Finally, it provides a link to their last blog post from their own blog right under their comment on your blog.

Sound confusing? It’s really one of those things that’s better shown by example.

I’ve installed it for this blog, so feel free to leave a comment and see it in action.

Not only does it reward people who leave comments by promoting their own blog, it’s a nice value-added social tool that’s a win/win for everyone.

And if you register your blog at CommentLuv’s site, you get additional features that include tracking, rankings, and more.

Note that there’s a checkbox that allows visitors leaving a comment the option of using CommentLuv or not. So it’s not forced on anyone. Pretty slick!

So what do you think? Try it out and let me know.

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Joel had a link you could click that would send you to Twitter with a tweet already filled in for you. He obviously did that so his visitors could tweet and spread the word about his book promotion, but up until then, I had never seen that strategy used before.

It’s something that’s certainly worth testing. Given Twitter’s non-pitch atmosphere, I’d recommend only trying it to encourage tweets about pure content or freebie giveaways, though.

What do you think? Feel free to test it out by tweeting about this blog post, which should definitely have mass Twitter appeal and does fit the pure content criteria.

(To see what I did, just right-click the link above, select “Copy Link Location” if using Firefox or “Copy Shortcut” if using Internet Explorer, then paste it in notepad or any text editor.

By the way, lots of useful information and resources in Joel’s book. You can see some of the changes I already made to my Twitter profile as a result (you can also connect with me on Twitter there).

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And I have a new site now, FoolproofProfits.tv, where I’ll be posting free videos on various marketing topics having to do with your market, your offers, and your sales copy.

The videos will be pure content. And no opt-in will be required to watch them.

In fact, I’ve just posted the first one that I made last night. It’s called How To Get More Sales Than You’re Getting Now, and in it, I discuss how the “Moving Parade” concept can be used to make more sales with the same mailing list or market, the same offer, and the same sales copy that you have right now.

It’s long been known that upsells, cross-sells, and downsells can accomplish that too, but they only come into play after they purchase your front-end product. Here I’m talking about getting more sales of your front-end product, so you can get them into your marketing funnel.

Enjoy!

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There’s no catch. I’m giving away 3+ hours of video, audio, and more from some recent content that was up until now only available to my coaching class (they paid hundred of dollars to get access to this).

You’ll discover the best ways to…

• Outsource software design and development (and how to ensure you get what you want)
• Hire quality ghostwriters who know the subject matter
• Let your prospects and customers create the product for you!
• Get paid up front to actually create the product
• Leveraging your assets – use what you already have in your arsenal
• And much more!

Why am I doing this? And how can you find out more (and grab yours right now)?

I explain it in this video right here:

Fool Proof Profits – When You Absolutely Positively Have to Make the Sale

Enjoy!

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