The Michel Fortin Blog

Five Ways to Turn No into Yes

James Chartrand — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:36:00 +0000

No is a very powerful word.

It’s one too easily spoken, as any parent of a small four-year-old will tell you. It’s also detrimental to effective copywriting and sales, because it’s an absolute brick wall of resistance.

The minute a potential customer says no, you’ve either lost the sale, or you have to pull out some pretty convincing arguments to sway them back to a yes. Chances are you’re not going to make it.

It’s much harder to change a person’s mind when it’s already made up.

Here are practical tips on how to turn a potential customer’s no into yes, where you’ll learn specific resistance you’ll face and how to magically turn it into sales.

First, Address the Doubts

To believe that people are going to land on your page and immediately say, “This is exactly what I need,” is a belief best left to amateurs. (Of which you are not one, because only smart people read this blog.)

Everyone has doubts. You have them, I have them, your potential customer has them.

Now, no one enjoys having doubts, because they make us feel worried and uncertain and unsure. That’s not a good place to be, and instinctively, we know it. So we seek reassurance that erases our doubts and takes them away.

We look to be confident. When we feel confident, we feel able to make good decisions that are right for — which include, of course, saying, “Yes, this is exactly what I need.”

So address those doubts in your copywriting. Put them on the table right from the start. Show people that you know their concerns and worries, and give them the appropriate answer that provides reassurance.

This doesn’t mean raising questions that weren’t there to begin with. What it means is acknowledging potential questions and concerns and responding to them appropriately before the potential customer picks his own response.

The Best Example: Your Local Garage

Here’s an example of how you can address a potential customer’s doubts:

Let’s say your garage mechanic tells you that repairing your car will cost you $800. You can bet that you’ll have buyer resistance, and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll say, “This is exactly what I need!”

It’s far more likely you’re already trying to figure out how to get out of paying that amount.

Then your mechanic says, “I’m sure you’re wondering how necessary it is to repair these parts.” And he proceeds to tell you exactly how unsafe your car becomes if you don’t have them repaired — and if you have kids, he points out, their safety means everything.

Then your mechanic says, “Now I know you’re probably wondering whether you can wait a while. But let me explain why that’s a bad idea.” He goes on to show how much more costly repairs will be if you don’t get this fixed soon.

By now, you’re not thinking about how to get out of the repairs. You’re into thinking about where you’ll get the money to pay for it all. You’ve already started moving from no to yes.

The mechanic doesn’t really know what’s going through your mind, but what he’s doing is covering his bases. He’s presuming you might have doubts, he’s assuming which doubts you might have, and he’s addressing them before you even voice them aloud.

If he guesses wrong? No problem — call it extra bonus arguments. You know, just in case. And if he guesses right? Then you haven’t had to say a word, and you have all the answers you need.

Be that proactive in your copywriting. Assume the arguments, address them with confidence, reassure your potential customer and you’ll be turning no into yes before you know it.

How do you feel about addressing doubts in copywriting? Are you great at dismantling arguments? Do you hate forking money over to garages? And how reassured do you feel when your doubts are addressed?

The Copywriter's World is One Filled With Battle

It’s your copy against the consumer, and his defensive shields are strong — so very strong. Each time you valiantly knock down an argument he’s presented, another flies up, as if the consumer creates them right out of thin air.

Dean Rieck once wrote, “Selling is simply offering the right product to the right people at the right time in the right way. You aren’t forcing your customer to say yes; you’re taking away his reasons to say no.”

The consumer holds all the power, the final decision, the last word. But if you’ve done your job copywriting job well and taken away all his reasons to say no, the only word he’ll have left to say is, “Yes.”

How do you take away his reasons to say no? Here are five ways to do just that:

"I Don't Need This."

When people tell you they don’t need something, what they’re really saying is that they don’t want something. There’s a huge difference between need and want.

Take the lowly car, for example. We don’t need more than a basic box with wheels that gets us from A to B, but we consistently buy vehicles that offer far more luxury, bells and whistles — and we pay dearly for them too.

Turn needs into wants. Tell people why they want this. Get down and dirty in desire, play up how much their life will change for the better and let them visualize how fantastic their future will be. You’ll be changing “I don’t need this” into “I want it so bad I can taste it” in no time.

"I Can't Afford This."

Let’s face it. When people want something — really, really want something — they find a way to make it happen. They stretch their budgets or go without for a few weeks or tighten the bootstraps until they’re straining. They’ll even go into debt, all just to get what they want.

But you need to make sure they want it, and then you need to make this purchase a priority above other wants they have. Show them the benefits of buying, and convey that the value of what you’re selling is worth the price.

Make the offer too good to pass up. Make it unmistakably clear that turning away now means losing out in the long run. And make it a priority — they can’t afford not to buy.

"Mmm… Maybe Tomorrow."

If someone’s not feeling the need to check out your offer today, there’s been a misfire on the urgency front. You can guarantee they won’t be back, because out of sight is out of mind. Or, maybe they actually want to think over their decision to be sure it’s the right one for them (which is fine), but leave them thinking too long without following up, and the result is that they just plain forget.

Or something more important comes up. And there’s no money left for you.

Convey the need to consider the offer today. Set a deadline or create scarcity with limited offers. Give rewards for fast action with a special price or an extra-value bonus. And if you can’t do that, drive home what happens to people if they wait — prolonged pain, extended misery and longer unhappiness. Who wants that?!

"I Don't Really Know Who You Are."

This really means, “Why should I buy… from YOU?” And this baby is a big one these days, with all sorts of unknown people cropping up as overnight experts without the backup to prove their cocky claims. No one wants to risk wasting money on something that’s not very good or useful.

Show people you’re trustworthy by showing them the credentials, skills, background, history and testimonials they need to believe you know what you’re doing. Downplay the wing and a prayer that got you where you are today, talk up what qualifies you, even if it’s your first sale, and hush up with the expert claims.

Experts don’t need to tell people they’re experts; it shows.

The Value of No

If you don’t get the sales you hoped for and your copy converts horribly, don’t despair. There’s a positive in every negative, which means there’s a yes in every no.

There’s a learning experience in why your potential customer didn’t buy, and you can take the opportunity to climb into your prospect’s head and find out what went wrong. That lets you improve your copywriting, your offer, your business and your sales.

Which means less people say no next time.

So go ahead and find out why people didn’t buy. Send out a survey or even personal emails that say you’d like help so you can improve and offer better products or services. Their feedback is valuable to you, so ask for it. Open your mind to what people tell you, and receive the feedback with a willingness to learn from it.

Be objective, and be respectful of the person’s decision not to buy. You’re not going to change their mind; they’ve said no already, and this isn’t about pushing a sale. It’s simply about learning what didn’t work, and how to make it work better the next time.

Ask people what might have swayed their vote, too. By knowing what might have tipped the scales of sale in your favor, you’ll have a good idea of what to add to your next piece of copy — and you’ll just get better and better.

Declaring My Independence From Smoke

Michel Fortin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:12:57 +0000

After 30 years, yesterday, which was Independence Day, I declared my own independence… from cigarette smoke.

If you’re a non-smoker, this may not be a big issue. But for me, it’s huge. And it’s all because of one ingenious little tool I would have never thought I’d like. Until now.

You see, during those 30 years, I’ve tried everything. From patches to pills. From chewing gums to chewing tobacco. From cold turkey to computer gadgets. From self-hypnosis to acupuncture. Nothing worked. At least, not permanently.

But finally, I found a solution. The reason it works is because it’s not a cessation tool but an alternative to smoking tobacco. And a lot healthier, too. No carcinogens, no carbon monoxide, no tar, no additives. Why? Because it’s not smoke. It’s “green smoke.”

Green Smoke is not even smoke. It’s plain ol’ steam. Yup, vapor.

No combustion. No burning. No fire. Therefore, no smoke.

It’s been two days now, and I feel good. I don’t have any withdrawals, including twitching or sweats. I don’t even feel the urge to smoke. Plus, I can use this alternative to “light up” in non-smoking areas, such as airplanes and restaurants, without breaking any laws.

Green Smoke is an electronic cigarette. Yes, that is my affiliate link, but I wouldn’t recommend it until I tried it myself. I’m a believer now, and I recommend this product.

Now, just to be clear, nicotine is addictive. But nicotine, in itself, is not bad. According to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, nicotine is about as harmful as caffeine.

What’s harmful is the smoke. And smoking.

Smoke carries carbon monoxide, tar, and chemicals. With Green Smoke, there’s no tar buildup in your lungs… no ingesting carcinogens and chemical additives… and most importantly, no fire hazards, such as potentially dropping a lit cigarette.

I also love the fact that I can “smoke” in bars and restaurants. The vapor dissipates almost immediately, so there’s no lingering smell or unpleasant odor. After all, it’s steam. But it feels like a cigarette, and inhaling steam feels like smoking — without the smoke.

Sure, it does feel a little different. But it’s darn close! And it’s certainly not for beginning smokers or kids — just like alchohol is not for kids. This is an alternative solution to committed, long-terms smokers like me who finally want to breathe again.

Health benefits aside, I really like the idea of being able to recharge the electronic cigarettes using their USB plug. I can plug it into the wall or into my computer. Best of all, the cost is about 10–15% of what I used to spend on cigarettes.

The money savings alone is huge!

I highly recommend this product. I bought mine last month and have been using it for several weeks. But it wasn’t until a few days ago I didn’t feel the need to smoke real cigarettes. In fact, I’ve never thought this was possible… until now. And I’m impressed.

Plus, click here to get an extra 10% off your purchase.

Why People Are Addicted to Info-Products

Ryan Healy — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:23:10 +0000

Have you ever wondered why people buy dozens of info-products… and yet never seem to get around to consuming them, much less using them?

I have.

And for a long time I just blamed it on people being lazy. In my own case, I blamed it on being too busy with client work to get around to some of those extracurricular learning pursuits not necessary to my daily work.

But there is now new research that discounts “The Laziness Theory” and “The I’m-Too-Busy Theory.”

Turns out, it’s not that people are lazy or unwilling to take “massive action” — it’s simply that living an always-on wired life causes people to become addicted to new information.

Addicted to Information?

I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Check out this article — Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price — by Matt Ritchel.

As Ritchel explains, scientists have discovered that reacting to a never-ending stream of “information bursts” causes the brain to become excited and release dopamine, which in turn causes feelings of happiness.

As Wikipedia reports, “Dopamine is commonly associated with the reward system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person proactively to perform certain activities.”

So let’s connect the dots…

Whereas, responding to “information bursts” causes the brain to release dopamine;
And, whereas, dopamine reinforces the behavior that produced it;
Thus, replying to emails, tweets, Facebook updates, forum threads, and other forms of real-time interruptions can lead to compulsive behavior, possibly even addiction.

Yikes!

If you’re not careful, you could find yourself checking email dozens of times a day, replying to text messages the minute they arrive, logging onto Twitter multiple times an hour, checking for Facebook updates, seeing what’s popular on Digg…

…and on and on and on in a never-ending dopamine-reinforcement loop.

It’s a dangerous, time-sucking, attention-killing cycle.

Social Media: The Drug of Choice in the 21st Century

Once you’re hooked on social media — with your cell phone in your pocket and your laptop on the kitchen table — you’re little more than a human version of Pavlov’s dog:

Every time you hear (or see) a notification, you respond immediately…
Your brain rewards you with a little more dopamine…
And the cycle becomes a little bit stronger, a little bit harder to break.

The negative side effects of constant distraction (a.k.a. “multi-tasking”) are many.

Ritchel reports, “While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress.”

Let’s not beat around the bush here. Research has plainly shown that multitaskers get less done and are more stressed out than people who focus on a single task at a time.

So I think it’s reasonable to ask: Are email and social media keeping you from success? While you’re pondering this, let me tell you…

Why People Pay Good Money for Information...

... Information They Don't Need and Will Never Use!

Stress and decreased productivity are not the only consequences of an always-online, always-distracted lifestyle.

You may also find yourself inexplicably compelled to buy information — even information you don’t need and will never use.

This is because multitasking literally rewires your brain.

Recent tests conducted at Stanford “showed multitaskers tended to search for new information rather than accept a reward for putting older, more valuable information to work.”

Are you feeling compelled to buy yet another home study course even though you have multiple home study courses gathering dust on your shelves?

Or are you wanting to sign up for another membership site even though you already have multiple online memberships that you never use?

Well, now you know why.

The More Distracted You Are, the More Money Marketers Make

Marketers like to whine about how hard it is to sell to people who are distracted… how there’s so much competition for people’s attention that it’s hard to make a buck.

I think there’s some truth to this. But I think there’s more truth on the flip side of this argument.

Here’s my theory: The more distracted you are, the more money marketers make.

That’s because the more caught up you become in the distraction-dopamine cycle, the more likely it is you’ll continue to reinforce those positive feelings by seeking out new information.

And the more you seek out new information, the easier it will be for marketers to sell you “secrets” you think you don’t yet possess.

Which means: Not only does multitasking rob you of your productivity, it robs your bank account, too!

Now you know why all the gurus want you to follow them on email, Twitter, and Facebook.

They want you to be distracted.

Because the more distracted and confused you are, the easier it will be for them to get your credit card number — and sell you yet another overpriced course you’ll never use.

With that in mind, don’t you think it’s time to reconsider your use of social media?

Tips for Breaking Information Addiction

(And Taking Back Your Life)

In spite of the risks, I don’t necessarily recommend swearing off cell phones and social media. So here are a few suggestions for getting value out of social technology without letting it rule your life:

Limit your connections. Connect only with people you really want to connect with. Don’t follow just to be followed.
Tether social media profiles together so you can control multiple profiles from a single control panel or with a single RSS feed.
Spend no more than 30 minutes a day on social media. Set aside a specific time to update your profiles and reply to people.
Turn your cell phone off to block unplanned interruptions. Being accessible all the time should not be a badge of honor.
Use a tool like RescueTime.com to block distracting web sites during periods of focus time.
Be cautious about spending money on new information, especially if you have information you’ve paid for that you haven’t used yet.

As we sail deeper into the uncharted waters of the 21st Century, I believe one of the keys to success will increasingly become a person’s ability to block out distractions and focus on completing one task at a time.

Ultimately, self-control and constant vigilance win the day.

12 Awesome Resources For Design and Copy

Michel Fortin — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:23:46 +0000

One of the things I do is spend about 30 minutes a day reading my RSS feed reader — which is Google Reader. And I have it set so that, when I share a feed I like, FriendFeed picks it up and reshares it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and many others.

I also click “like” if I like them, or “star” if I want to keep them bookmarked for myself. I do this with articles and posts I come across that I find interesting and helpful, and that I think my readers or followers would find interesting, too.

But while doing this, I keep forgetting that my blog readers miss these.

So here are some of these articles…

1. 20 Best WordPress eCommerce Themes

If you ever wanted to setup an online store using WordPress, in a way that it doesn’t make your website look like a blog but like a full-fledged Internet retail store, this post provides some great examples. (Of these, eShop, by the way, is my favorite one.)

2. 13 Pure CSS Techniques for Creating JavaScript-like Interactions

This one is neat. Ever wanted to have javascript-like interactions on your website but without javascript? This article shares some of the best CSS-only ways to make your website dynamic and interactive, without any scripting.

3. 47 CSS Tips & Tricks To Take Your Site To The Next Level

CSS is a fantastic tool, not only for design but also to make your website appear the way you want it to, to make it cross-browser compatible, and more importantly, to make it convert like crazy. This article offers a ton of little tricks you can use.

4. 30 Fresh Icon Sets For Developers and Designers

Icons galore! If you need icons for your website, digital product, or software, this post offers a ton of them — most if not all of them are free to download and use.

5. 15 Uniform Payment Options Icon Sets for Ecommerce Design

Speaking of icons and online retail stores, this article provides a variety of payment option icons — from credit card logos to alternative payment methods.

6. 45 Fresh WordPress Tutorials, Techniques, and Hacks

As I’m sure you already know by now, my favorite CMS is WordPress. There’s so much you can do, and it isn’t just for blogging anymore. We’re using it with all our sites. Well, this article provides some fantastic WordPress tutorials and tricks.

7. 55+ Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks

This is another WordPress tips and hacks post. However, it does offer quite a few different ones — some I really like and plan to use myself.

8. 40+ Effective Call-to-Action Buttons

Your call to action is one of the most important elements of your sales or marketing website. But designing an effective call-to-action button is just as important, especially if you test a lot and want to know which button creates the best conversion.

9. 35+ Essential Submit Button Enhancements

In addition to call-to-action buttons, the most prolific button online is without a doubt the submit button. Whether it’s for submitting content, making your site interactive, or getting a response, this article shares some neat submit button tips.

10. 50 jQuery Tools for Awesome Websites

Three years ago, I talked about how websites and particularly salesletters need to be interactive, dynamic, and personalized. Some scripts help you do exactly that. This one offers jQuery scripts you can add to any website for this purpose.

11. 30 Fresh AJAX Tutorials And Techniques

Same as the one above, but with AJAX. What I particularly liked about this article is that many of the AJAX tools it offers are helpful in commercial and sales situations.

12. 50 Fundamental jQuery Controls, Components and Plugins

Finally, this one offers a ton of jQuery plugins and tools that make a website more usable, friendly, and responsive. From sticky slideup footers — great for unobtrusive ads and opt-in forms at the bottom of the page — to collapsible panels and menus.

Nevertheless, I share quite a bunch of these articles on social media websites. If you want to stay on top of what I do share everyday, follow me on Twitter or on Facebook.

The Need For Long Copy and Other Stupid Myths

Michel Fortin — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:04:47 +0000

Recently, Terry Dean wrote an awesome article, entitled “Copy is King and Other Common Lies.” The article boils down to the fact that the market and the offer come first.

Copy is still important. Design plays an important role, too.

But copy is not king. The market is. And I wholeheartedly agree. In fact, after reading the article it made me think of something I’ve been meaning to share with you for a while.

And I’m warning you, this might ruffle a few feathers.

Three years ago, I wrote a white paper called “The Death of The Salesletter.” It was controversial because a lot of it was contrary to popular belief, particularly since it was coming from someone whose career revolved around writing salesletters.

Long-scrolling salesletters, that is.

Long-form web salesletters are dead. Or better said, they are evolving. But the changes we are seeing are more than what you think. And I’m not talking about video…

Ostensibly, the impetus for this change is largely influenced by the introduction and adoption of multimedia. That’s because the Internet is different. Some say the Internet is just another medium. It is, but it is still different. It’s visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Better said, the way people consume information on the Internet is different.

But there are a couple of things I wanted to share with you that I didn’t cover in the report. The reason is, since then we’ve seen a lot of other changes, too.

After three years, we’ve gone through a recession, a series of societal pressures forcing us to change, and new or updated governmental regulations to comply with.

We’ve had the FTC’s new disclosure, affiliate marketing, and blogging rules. We’ve had the Google slap, Facebook slap, Visa slap, MasterCard slap, AdWords slap, and more.

(Reminds me of old Catholic school days where teachers, who were mostly nuns, walked around with wooden paddles ready to swat you if you were ever out of line.)

After all this, I have become a firmer believer that long salesletter copy is often not needed. And when it is used, it is largely misused. Sure, long copy has its place. It will always have a place. We need long copy when there’s a level of education needed.

For instance, in a previous blog post I wrote about my OATH formula. This formula is based on knowing the level of buyer awareness of your market.

In my marketing management class in college, I taught the stages of awareness new products go through, often called the “product adoption curve” or “diffusion process.”

(Famous copywriter Gene Schwartz discusses something similar in his book, Breakthrough Advertising, and how copy is different for each stage.)

My formula is simple. OATH is an acronym to define each awareness stage.

“O” stands for “Oblivious.” Your market doesn’t know about the problem. They aren’t aware they have it. Next is “A,” which means “Apathetic.” They know they have a problem but they don’t care. Solving it is not important to them for whatever reason.

Then, there’s “T,” which is “Thinking.” They know they have a problem and can solve it, but they’re thinking about it. Maybe they’re not convinced or they’re shopping around. And finally, “H” is for “Hurting.” They want to solve it now. They’re desperate.

When you look at the OATH formula and how copy fits in each stage, it stands to reason that the more oblivious they are, the more you need to educate them. And conversely, the more desperate they are, the less copy is required.

Makes sense?

(This doesn’t include the product type. The four product types are “convenience,” “shopping,” “specialty,” and “unsought” products. The more commoditized the product, the less copy it needs. The more specialized it is, the greater the need for copy.)

Now, here’s the thing.

Internet marketing is not just about Internet marketing. There are tons of markets, products, and solutions being marketed on the Internet. But the most conspicuous is the Internet marketing industry. In other words, the “how to market on the Internet” market.

Which boils down to the making-money market. The bizop crowd.

(Not entirely, of course, but in large part.)

Let me ask you, where do people in the make-money market stand in the OATH formula? If you guessed “hurting,” if not at least “thinking,” then I would say you’re right.

(In terms of product type, most how-to-make-money products are commoditized. Or they are not as specialized as they used to be — unless it’s software, of course. But much of what you find in $5,000 infoproducts can be easily found in $30 books.)

So let me ask you, if that’s the case, then why are most Internet marketing products still being sold online with long-copy salesletters? Particularly hard-hitting ones?

And that includes long video sales pitches, too. Remember, multimedia salesletters are still using long copy — they’re just delivering it differently.

And I’m also not referring to actual training followed by an offer of some kind. (In other words, educational content unrelated or indirectly related to the pitch at the end.)

I’m talking about overzealous, aggressive, superlative-laced, hypnosis-inducing, carnival-barking, smooth-talking, slick-sliding-from-headline-to-P.S. sales pitches.

Whether it’s on video or in text.

Today, I still see long sales copy, with hard-hitting sales pitches, pushing Internet marketing products onto the marketplace. Why is that? Why would you need long copy to push something that’s seemingly targeted to a hurting market?

The reason is simple. There are actually 10 of them.

Here they are, in reverse order (David Letterman style)…

10. The market is skeptical and cynical (probably because of the rest of this list).
9. The product is overpriced.
8. The value or benefits are small, insignificant, or non-existent.
7. The product is unneeded or irrelevant.
6. The solution is temporary in nature.
5. The product is just snake oil.
4. The product is scammy.
3. The order process is scammy (e.g., forced continuity, upsell hell, fake scarcity, etc).
2. The market is naive (i.e., being hurt opens you up to abuse and manipulation).

… And finally, number one is (drum roll, please)…

1. The product is crap.

There.

I said it.

This is nothing new. I remember copywriter Nick Usborne saying this many years ago in my copywriters forum. It caused quite a stir. And since my clients were mostly Internet marketers at the time, I was apologetic whilst defending my clients. And my livelihood.

But today, I have come to the conclusion that most (not all, but most) Internet marketers who still use long copy, especially long copy that screams like a Monster Truck Rally announcer, is for a product that sucks. Period.

Now, not all of them are that obvious. Some of them are slick. Very slick. Copy injected with great storytelling, believability, personality, and testimonials that make you salivate.

When someone says about an Internet marketer that “he’s so good at selling, he can sell ice to an Eskimo” — being Canadian, I would have preferred to call them Inuit, but I digress — the question is, why would you? Think about that, for a moment.

Really. I’m serious.

Would you feel good about yourself if you sold something utterly useless to someone who doesn’t need it? Plus, I bet you that when you tried to sell your “ice,” you had to use a pretty long sales pitch, too. Either that or manipulate your client somehow.

Obviously, that’s nonsense. It’s downright abusive, too.

Ultimately, the lesson I want to deliver here is this…

Great products sell themselves. Just as educated markets, particularly hurting markets, buy themselves. They prefer to buy than to be sold. They don’t need much help. They just need direction. And that, my friends, is what direct marketing should be.

It should direct the market as well as be direct.

(As my friend Armand Morin always says, “Just sell the darn thing!”)

No need for long, drawn-out, credibility-pumping, testimonial-oozing, adjective-laden, trance-inducing, endlessly-scrolling copy. Especially audience-manipulating copy.

Some people might respond with, “But Michael, you’re full of crap! Long copy works, I tell you. My sales numbers prove it!” Of course, it does. No argument there. Heck, that’s why it still exists and is being used all the time. Spam still exists, too. Right?

But because something works doesn’t make it right. It’s no different than saying, “Hey, if you need to make money, go rob a bank. Why? Because it works!”

So unless your market is oblivious, and uneducated about your problem and its solution, you don’t need long copy. Unless, of course, your product is crap, your business is shady, your reputation is shot, or your market has been abused in the past.

So I’ll end by repeating something I said earlier, because it’s important. Great products sell themselves, just as great markets buy themselves. Your job is simple…

… You just need to find them and match them up.

Earn While You Learn... With Us!

Michel Fortin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:15:45 +0000

Wow! After several weeks of delivering high-impact webinars, we just finished our first live business build.

It was amazing! Our first business is now live and making money for our students. The interaction was phenomenal, and our students are raving about this new training model.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me explain.

Earlier this year, we have changed our training model from teaching to building real businesses with our students.

Best of all, we do it live in real time!

Our students can watch as we do it live, and they can even participate and share in the simple tasks. (Participating students share in any resulting profits, too.)

The reason for this blog post? We are about to start our second business, and we’re opening our doors to allow new members to take part in the upcoming second series.

With this new training model, we offer an interactive learning environment where, rather than learning passively and doing it alone, you get to watch and even participate as we build real online businesses, via weekly webinars, every Wednesday night.

We’re building businesses right in front of your very eyes!

For more, visit Success Chef University, or watch the detailed introduction video.

Our first group of Success Chef members have been extraordinary. We’re so proud of them! We had 54 members who helped us build our fist online business together, and they can’t wait until we begin the second one.

(You don’t have to participate. You can simply watch and follow along, if you wish)

So if you’ve missed out on the first business build, now’s your chance. The next series of live business builds starts May 5th. You need to be an active Success Chef member to watch or participate. To join (it’s only $97 a month), visit SuccessChef.com today.

(Again, if you want the full details, watch the original “launch” video to get the whole story. It’s on the front page of Success Chef and will start automatically when you visit.)

Come join us, won’t you? We’d love to have you as a member.

See you on the next class!

Michel Fortin and Sylvie Fortin
Success Chef University

P.S.: If you’re already a member or an affiliate of Success Chef, now’s the time to promote! Simply login to fetch your affiliate link (members are automatically enrolled). If you’re not an affiliate or a member, signup today. (Look for the link at the bottom.)

The more members join us, the less work and the smaller the initial investment is needed. (For instance, members in our first group invested only $25.)

Are Product Launches Peddling For Profits?

Michel Fortin — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:36:46 +0000

After participating in a recent product launch (something I very rarely do), our Platinum Group was discussing the issue and I wanted to share those insights with you.

Considering the recent hysteria behind the massive Apple iPad launch, it got me thinking about how most Internet marketers conduct their product launches.

Most of them work because they’re based on basic human psychology. But I believe people who do use it do it poorly.

In fact, I think they do so because the strategy, particularly as it applies to Internet marketing and digital products specifically, is inherently flawed. What I mean is, in order for it to work — and work well — it must rely on three major factors:

Anticipation
Social proof
Scarcity/urgency

Granted, you can manufacture these. And when you sell Internet, digital, or information products, you have to. Why? Because these products are, or are seen as, limitless.

And therein lies the rub…

The best and most profitable launches in history didn’t rely on any of these. At least, not in a direct way. Sure, these factors do play a huge role in most successful launches. But they occur almost as natural byproducts. They are not manufactured.

And that’s exactly what iPad did for their launch day. They used #1 (anticipation) and #2 (social proof). But they didn’t use #3. In other words, they launched without the need to create or promote any kind of manufactured scarcity.

Why? Because they didn’t need to.

Obviously, iPad is a physical product, which is naturally limited. That scarcity was made even greater on launch day because of #1 and #2. In other words, they didn’t have to “close their doors” and reopen them at some later date to create scarcity.

Granted, Apple may have limited their in-store stocks on launch day to create more demand. I don’t know. And they did a lot more. Seth Godin shares a few others. But I’m referring to the product launch strategy’s three major factors specifically.

My point here is, natural scarcity or creating a genuine sense of urgency — better said, possessing or projecting one — will trump a manufactured one. Every time.

Manufactured scarcity appears self-centered, questionable, and suspicious. When you look at how the FTC, Visa/MasterCard, Google, and now Facebook — with its recent slap — frown upon generated scarcity, you know people are lashing out against the practice.

When Jobs introduced the upcoming iPad, it created a ton of anticipation. With the iPhone being as popular as it was, news generated inherent social proof since people already had experiences with the iPhone.

But there’s more to it than that.

Apple created genuine scarcity because they have strong brand recognition, are well positioned, and have a history of delivering solid products with great value. They didn’t have to poach other people’s lists, create sales contests, or use high-pressure tactics.

Now, I’m not saying joint ventures, sales contests, and manufactured scarcity are wrong. But if you keep using them, product launch after product launch, then chances are you will be be seen as nothing more than a salesman. A slick, smarmy, snake-oil peddler.

(That’s not just my opinion, either.)

Apple didn’t create demand, which is why they didn’t need to manufacture scarcity. Whether the product was a physical one didn’t matter. To paraphrase Gene Schwartz in Breakthrough Advertising, “They didn’t create demand, they merely channeled it.”

Speaking of channeling demand, let’s look at some of the differences.

When I used to teach marketing management in college, there are two schools of thought in marketing. One is called the pull strategy, and the other the push strategy.

What do they mean? With the push marketing strategy, you are pushing the product through distribution channels. A “channel” can be, for instance:

ManufacturerDistributorStoreConsumer

In Internet Marketing and with downloadable products, the channel looks more like this:

Seller/VendorWebsite (eStore/Delivery)Consumer

The push strategy is the one most often used by salespeople, infomercials, direct response advertisers, and direct marketers. And, obviously, Internet marketers, too.

The pull strategy, on the other hand, is where reputation and recognition generate awareness and demand. And that demand pulls the product through the distribution channel — thus requiring a lot less legwork, and a lot less need to sell. For example:

ConsumerStoreDistributorManufacturer

Now, let me put this in a better perspective for you.

Ostensibly, a push strategy can make a lot of money. There’s no denying that. That’s how many marketers make their “millions,” particularly via these massive product launch parades. Problem is, you have to constantly push products to stay afloat.

Sadly, this constant need to push products creates that unflattering “salesman” stigma, where most Internet marketers are largely seen as peddlers and not businesses.

In order to stay alive — or to maintain their standard of living — most Internet marketers need to constantly create new products, make new offers, and seek new “addicts” to push their products onto. (Sounds dangerously close to drug dealers, doesn’t it?)

That’s why most of them churn and burn their lists.

If they stop pushing more products, there is no business.

That’s why Sylvie and I call them “serial drive-by marketers.”

If you use a pull strategy, or complement your existing push strategy with a strong pull strategy, you will work a lot less. The rest will almost take care of itself. The business will keep going, no matter what. And above all, there will be less of that peddler stigma.

What constitutes a strong pull strategy?

Aside from offering in-demand products and solid value, there’s positioning, brand recognition, business identity, good customer service, a loyal fan base, authority in your field, and strong relationships with your customers and prospects. Just to name a few.

(Sure, there are more than that. But how many Internet marketers use any of them? Very little. For example, how many online salesletters have you seen with a logo? ‘Nuff said.)

Think of it this way: there’s a difference between the pawn-shop mentality and the retail store mentality. The former constantly needs products on its shelves to sell to stay alive. But the latter doesn’t need new products to sell. (And by “new” I mean “more.”)

Rather, retail stores need traffic. Consumers. Markets. People with needs. You simply create products to fill needs, not create needs (such as using fake scarcity) so you can shove your products down people’s throats during some big, limited product launch.

In other words, we need to think more like a retail store than like a pawn shop.

Now, I’m not saying we need to become like Wal-Mart or some other big box store. And we don’t need to focus on branding alone, or to advertise via some upscale, big budget, Madison Avenue advertising firm like many big brand stores do. No, not at all.

But we need to think like Wal-Mart.

We need to think like an Internet marketing business instead of like a peddler.

How would you feel if, upon entering your local Wal-Mart, they only had one product available at any given time? Or they had limited quantities of a product you know well and good wasn’t limited? Or they used high-pressure, time-sensitive tactics to sell you?

Sadly, most Internet marketers conduct their business like pawn shops. I’m not saying we should stop using direct response. Direct marketing, particularly for small businesses, is essential. But it should complement a good business strategy. Not replace it.

How great would it be if you sold products like crazy simply because people asked? How great would it be if you never had to sell or use any kind of manufactured scarcity to sell? And how much more money would you make, especially over the long term?

Bottom line, start focusing on creating long-term, solid businesses rather making serialized promotions for subpar products with time-limited, over-the-top product launches that at best merely provide short-term cash injections.

Something to think about.

By the way, if you’re interested in how to become a recognized authority, and position yourself and your business in a way that generates authentic demand and scarcity, then I encourage you to come to next week’s Authority Event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Get in Touch With The Future

Michel Fortin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:02:14 +0000

An interesting thing is happening lately, and it’s giving me a lot of fodder. I wanted to share a few opinions with you.

First off, as you know I love predictions and making some of my own. For example, I wrote a controversial white paper several years ago, called “The Death of The Salesletter.”

In it, I predicted that more and more salesletters will become shorter, more dynamic, more targeted, and more engaging. The explosion in video salesletters being one of them.

And that was over three years ago!

Recently, I wrote about another big upcoming trend, and that’s the explosion in cloud computing and how it will change the future of online business. I even blogged about it here in a post entitled “The Future of The Internet is Cloudy.”

For example, I downloaded Xmarks, a nifty online-based bookmark synchronizer that also synchronizes my native bookmarks on IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari using the cloud. It even synchronizes passwords and form fills, although I use LastPass for that.

But recently, a new product hit the market that reminded me of something…

We’re seeing a huge change in the way we work with computers. In my white paper, I talked about “multisensorial salesletters” where salesletters will increasingly engage all three modalities of communication (i.e., visual, auditory, and kinesthetic).

For instance, print media is a tactile medium. It’s mostly kinesthetic. The radio is auditory, while the TV, which may be both auditory and visual, is predominantly visual.

The computer, on the other hand, with the help of your keyboard and mouse, are all three. They help engage more senses. They’re visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense that sales messages online should be multisensorial. Significant statistics prove that, the more senses you engage, the more sales you will make. Which is why I predicted that video salesletters would explode — as it has.

But one thing struck me.

While we use a mouse and a keyboard, the kinesthetic component is somewhat indirect. These tools enable some tactile interaction, but they are more or less guides. (The Wii video console is a better example of having a bit more direct tactile engagement.)

Now, enter the new iPad.

iPhone and iPad are definitely more direct forms of kinesthetic communication. Sure, touchscreens have been around for years. But Apple helped touchscreens to penetrate the mass-market by making them easy, practical, and of course cool.

When I first heard of the iPad, I thought to myself, “This is the future!” I thought that more and more computers will become like that — direct contact with the message.

(Marshall McLuhan was dead-on, if not pretty darn close.)

iPad is not just a larger iPhone. It’s much, much more than that. Better said, its introduction means a lot more than what most people care to give it credit for. Some people don’t like it. A lot of people say it’s just a bunch of hype. But I say it’s the future.

And now, I see this article in Mashable, which underlines exactly what I thought — in that research shows that all computers will be eventually touchscreen-based.

By the way, as I’m sure you have guessed, I love visionaries, futurists, and predictions. John Naisbitt’s “Megatrends” is one of my favorite books. I often mention “high-tech, high-touch” in my work. Faith Popcorn is another visionary I admire a lot.

Speaking of Marshall McLuhan, other than his most famous quote (i.e., “The medium is the message”) he is mostly known for, here are a few more of his fascinating quotes. Read them, and you’ll see how ahead of his time this guy was.

Anyway, ’tis all food for thought.

The important thing in all of this, is this: how do we mold our businesses, products, and services to fit these upcoming trends? More important, how can we monetize them?

Bottom line, keep your eyes peeled. Just sayin’.

How to Become a Recognized Authority

Michel Fortin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:39:36 +0000

Next month (in mid-April), I’ll be speaking at Armand Morin’s Authority Event in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is part of the Brave The Wave series of specialized events.

(And yes, that website was designed and the copy written by yours truly. And yes, those are my affiliate links.)

Of course, Armand will be speaking mostly, covering topics like branding, positioning, public speaking, and a lot more. Watch this video to see what he’ll be revealing at the event.

I’m accompanying three other guest speakers, including Brendon Burchard who will speak on how to become a highly paid expert, Jim Howard on how to become a successful author, and Rick Frishman on how to attract massive publicity.

So what will my topic be?

Not copywriting. Not web design. And not positioning. In fact, this will be the first time I will be speaking on this topic. I’ll share things I’ve never revealed before. And that’s…

… Blogging and social media.

Now, hold your horses. Before you go off telling the world I’m claiming to be a social media expert, I’m doing no such thing. I’m far from being a social media expert.

(So many claim to be “experts” when they know less than my teenager daughter!)

However, having a blog with close to 80,000 subscribers without any paid advertising, and social media sites with maxed out friend limits without any kind of autofollowing or friend-scraping software, I guess you can say that I know a thing or two.

I don’t know what the other speakers have planned (although I have a pretty good idea), but here’s what I’ll be revealing at the event. It’s one of my most requested topics, too.

First, I’ll share how I attract close to 80,000 subscribers to my blog, and how my blog makes a decent four-figure monthly passive income without any heavy lifting, and without regular, frequent, or (what most would consider) “pro” blogging.

In fact, I’ll dive deeper into my content repurposing process that drives close to 70,000 visitors to my blog each month without any external marketing. Plus, I’ll be going through my plugins and personal, hand-coded tweaks I use to accomplish this and more.

In other words, I will be pulling back the curtains and reveal the backend administration on my blog. But more important, I will explain how I use my blog for expanding my reach — such as reprinting and distributing articles, and writing and posting blog posts.

Also, I’ll share my social media strategy on how I interconnect several platforms so they all work seamlessly, in tandem, which only takes me a few minutes a day.

Social media can be a huge distraction. It’s the web’s water cooler, so it’s easy to deviate from doing more productive activities. I’ll share with you how to avoid getting distracted or pulled into the social media madness, and how to use it less but more effectively.

I’ll reveal which platforms have provided the best results, and how I build, connect with, and engage my friends, followers, and fans on these networks.

(It’s more than just sharing affiliate links or tweeting what I had for lunch.)

Now, I’m going to do something a little unorthodox.

I do plan on delivering over an hour of solid content you can walk away with and start using after the seminar. At the end of my talk, I will be inviting you to join one of my programs if you’re interested, which you can purchase at the back of the room.

Regardless if you buy anything I offer or not, I promise to deliver great, usable content.

But here’s what I mean by doing something unconventional. I say “unconventional” because I’ve never done this before, and I haven’t seen other speakers do this. In the interest of being a bit more transparent, let me share with you what I will be offering.

(I may change my mind, although if I do it will be to make this program even better.)

It’s going to be a series of in-depth webinars on blogging and social media. I envision about 4–6 webinars (or as many as it takes to deliver the content I have planned). Each webinar will last a couple of hours, delivered weekly, and will consist of three major parts.

The first part will be training. I will go into greater depth on the topic of blogging and social media, reveal a few tips and tricks, and even dissect some of my other blogs.

The second part is the best. For each and every person who joins my program at the back of the room at the event, I will spend time on the webinar series to critique their blog, blogging strategy, or social media strategy. Whichever they feel is most pressing.

Want me to go over your plugins? Your design? Your list-building process? Your copy? No problem! Everyone who joins my program will get a critique. Plus, this will be done on the webinar so that other students get to watch, learn, and even pick my brains.

Speaking of which, this leads me to the third part…

I will be offering a question-and-answer session during the webinar series. I will answer any questions, or cover anything about blogging or social media you want.

Incidentally, I will be including a few cool bonuses. I don’t want to reveal those here, not because it’s some “secret” but because I’m still figuring out what I will be throwing in.

Finally, a couple of things to keep in mind. I don’t personally offer these critique consultations to the public anymore. I only offer them to established clients. And when I do, I still charge a hefty minimum fee per critique consultation.

I will only offer this program at Brave The Wave: Authority. This is the first time I will be offering this program. Unless I speak at future events, it will likely be the only time, too.

So if you want to learn how to become famous as a recognized authority and do in less time; if you want to learn my blogging and social media strategies; and if you’re at all interested in the program I am offering at the event; then I invite you to come join us.

This seminar is a full, three-day intensive training event unlike anything Armand Morin has ever given before. I’m really excited about it, and I hope to see you there.

Admission is only $497, and you can bring a guest (i.e., it comes out to less than $250 per person). This is pretty reasonable when you consider other high-priced seminars.

(To be clear, this does not include my program, which I will offer at the end of my talk. And my presentation is not some disguised, hour-long “pitch,” either. You will walk away with a lot of great, usable information, whether you decide to join my program or not.)

Click here to get more information about the event.

The Facebook Fake Friend Fallout

Michel Fortin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:42:32 +0000

The other day, I removed a friend from my Facebook profile for reasons that will soon become clear to you.

He was so incensed, he wrote me a personal message accusing me of being rude and insulting. He even remarked that I’m arrogant, and snarkily added that some of his “friends” seem to feel the same way.

Now, before I give you the reason, I’d like to share with you my philosophy on Facebook friendships in general.

To me, and I think it’s simply common sense, a friend is a friend. It’s someone you know, someone you have a relationship with, someone you want to stay connected with, and someone you consider a real friend — not a fan, follower, or worse yet, a spammer.

And the latter of the three is the one I can’t stand.

You see, I have hit my 5,000 friend limit several times on Facebook. After removing a few undesirables from time to time, new ones keep filling it up. So we’ve created a fan page, which has no limit. That way, anyone can join, become a fan, and connect with us.

But there’s a difference between a “profile” and “page.” Between a “friend” and a “fan.” Those differences are not mine. They are Facebook’s. Their policies are pretty clear.

Personal profiles are not to be used for commercial purposes.

I know. It’s not only listed in their terms, but Facebook have also told me personally.

Befriending someone on Facebook can be just as problematic as following someone on Twitter. Just like Twitter said when they dumped auto-follow from their native application:

“It is unlikely that anyone can actually read tweets from thousands of accounts which makes this activity disingenuous.”

Even Seth Godin calls mass-friending as “fake networking.” This applies to Facebook as much as it does to Twitter — or to any other social media application, for that matter.

I wanted to keep my friends list clean. I could have, like some marketers out there, dumped my profile entirely, or deleted my entire friends list, and started from scratch.

But I didn’t want to do that. Starting from scratch can seem just as disingenuous.

So in order to whittle my list down to the people I really do want to stay friends with, including family members, old school friends, and several marketers I have an actual relationship with, I’ve decided to remove friends based on the following five criteria.

If the people are not known to me (i.e., people I don’t really know, have never met, or haven’t some kind of personal relationship with), I remove the following:

People who spam me. Specifically, people who constantly send me fan requests, group join requests, event invites, or friend suggestions, or people who post blatantly promotional or self-interested messages on my wall — and that is only if I don’t know the person making the suggestion in the first place. I not only ignore their requests but also remove these people as friends the moment I get them.
People who push me with their applications. I block those outright. I click on the application name, then “block application” on the left-hand side of the page. I also block the people who send them because they have a tendency to be app junkies. (No more “Mafia Wars,” “Farmville,” or “Chinese Astrology” notifications.)
People with fake names or business names. I see a lot of friends whose profile names are businesses, websites, or brands. Remember, Facebook profiles are not to be used for commercial purposes. Needless to say, I don’t believe “ABC Marketing, Inc.” can be single or married, male or female, a republican or a democrat, or 32 years old and a graduate of a high school in Wichita.
People with fake profile pictures. My opinion is, if you can’t put a real picture of a real person on your personal profile, then what are you hiding? If you have to hide behind some logo, cartoon character, or a shot of some product you sell, to me it means you’re not willing to connect with the people you befriend.
People whose friends are people I wish to distance myself from. In other words, in their friends lists are people I prefer not to be associated with. If any of the above criteria are not met, I then check out who their friends are. If there’s anyone in that list I don’t like, and if I don’t know them personally, they’re gone.

Above all, I’m not on Facebook to provide customer support or free advice, or to do any networking. (Sure, I do network. But it’s not my primary focus.) So I also remove friends who send me a direct message in some obvious attempt to extract free advice from me.

Yes, I’m very selective with who I hang around with. But I don’t spend endless hours scouring my friend list searching for anyone who meets any of the above criteria. I only apply it to friends who happen to spam me and to those who try to add me as a friend.

Incidentally, when adding friends I prefer and particularly approve those who add a small message with their friend request. They’re making an effort in introducing themselves to me, and in sharing some commonality or reason why we should be friends.

Bottom line, I’m very protective of my time, my reputation, and my integrity.

Back to the “friend” who rebuked me for unfriending him. He added me as a friend, and spammed me with a request of some kind literally the next day. Now, spamming me is one thing. But spamming me within hours of adding me as a friend is another.

When people do this, it makes their friend request suspect.

Not only do I de-friend people who spam me, but I hesitate even less when the request comes in shortly after adding me as a friend. Facebook is filled with people who add “friends” for the sole purpose of pushing their offers, businesses, or opportunities.

(Sorry, but I’m not interested in your “opportunity.”)

I replied to this fellow and expressed that he should have given me a chance to explain before jumping the gun. His reply was just as perplexing when he counter-accused me of jumping to conclusions by unfriending him so quickly. (Uh, merry-go-round, anyone?)

With this situation, Seth Godin’s “permission marketing” comes to mind. Specifically, don’t ask me to marry you when we’re still on the first date. Get to know me first.

Nevertheless, I don’t have time to vet each friend request, much less every friend on my list. So following this “whittling” process seems to work for me.

It’s the lesser of two evils — removing undesirables one by one is a lot less daunting than deleting my entire friends list and starting over from scratch. Plus, in the end by cleaning out my friends list allows me to stay in touch with only the people I want.

If not adding everyone who asks as a friend, if being selective when choosing my friends, and if unfriending undesirables make me arrogant, then I guess I am.

Come to think of it, this argument is very reminiscent of the whole “auto-follow fiasco” on Twitter I wrote about before. As I said on Twitter, I’d rather be seen as a snobby bastard who doesn’t care than as a fake friend who pretends that he does.

Not following you back (or in this case, not befriending you) doesn’t make me rude, arrogant, or discourteous. This is a blatant myth propagated by some social media gurus who are using peer pressure to justify their attempt to grow their own lists.

Ditto with people befriending others in an attempt to usurp free advice or support. I do offer support. I have staff and a helpdesk for that purpose. And I do try to help whenever I can. But there’s a difference between customer service and customer support.

So if you want to become my friend, I only ask three simple things.

Respect. Respect for my time, my business, my customers, and my current friends. Just as much as I respect yours. It’s not just a mutual courtesy. It’s simple common sense. To add me as a friend, you need to be, well, a friend. Or at least friendly.
Authenticity. Be real, genuine, and sincere. Don’t use a fake name or a fake picture. Sure, I understand if you want to use a picture of a leprechaun on St. Paddy’s Day or a picture of your favorite NFL mascot during the Super Bowl. But not all year round. (Remember, in your profile, under “photos,” there’s a folder called “profile pictures.” I can instantly see if there are any “real pictures” in there.)
And finally, friendship. Be a friend or show a willingness to befriend me — not as a sales lead, a subscriber, or a babysitter, but as a friend. Talk to me. Add a message to your friend request. Or post on my wall something I’m interested in. Or comment on some of my postings. Let’s converse. Engage me, not enrage me.

Ultimately, ask yourself, and be honest: would you treat a Facebook friend the same way you’d treat a real friend in the real world? If so, and if you want friends only to promote yourself, then your Facebook profile is not the place. There are better places for that.

They’re called tradeshows.

How to Capture and Captivate Attention

Michel Fortin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:28:16 +0000

One morning, you go into your mailbox and discover there’s an envelope waiting for you from an unknown source. You bring the package into your living room, tear open the envelope, pull out what’s inside, put on your reading glasses, unfold the letter, and begin to read the contents.

After completing all of these steps, you then quickly glance at the letter to decide if the letter is worth reading.

If not, you throw it in the garbage.

But if the envelope looks like junk mail, there’s copy on the envelope and it screams “hype,” or the printed address label just says “dear occupant” as the addressee, chances are you won’t even think about opening it and you’ll just throw it away.

However, let’s say the envelope works, curiosity takes over, and the letter does get opened at this point. Once unfolded, though, if it looks like some kind of sales pitch at first glance, not even a single word will likely be read. So into the round file it goes!

Your website is the envelope. What does it say about you?

In offline direct mail marketing, the message is not the first element to be read. There are several extra steps one must go through in order to finally reach, react to, and ultimately read the sales message. However, all of these occur in a matter of seconds.

Actually, studies show that it’s less than one.

There are many aspects, beyond copy, that will cause a letter to be opened and read. Does it look “cartoonish,” with garish-looking typestyles and colors? Does it look like a typical salesletter? Does it seem to come from a trustworthy source?

In other words, is there a logo? A real address? Maybe even a picture of the author? Is there any eye gravity, such as attention-capturing photos or graphics? How does it make you feel? Does the letter make you feel good? Or does it make you feel uneasy?

All those things are important in a direct mail salesletter.

But once you’ve passed that hurdle, then in order to capture and keep people’s attention, one of the important elements of direct mail copy is the headline.

Albeit a crucial component of sales copy, the headline is the last in a series of attempts to get the reader’s attention and “pull them in.” Scientific tests have proven that people make a decision (often called the “halo effect”) within a quarter of a second.

It means that, within literally a fraction of a second, people will make a decision whether to open, read, believe, and buy from your sales message. And that’s true, regardless if the letter is targeted, the copy is topnotch, and the offer is fantastic or not.

That’s why the envelope, the label, the picture, the fonts, the quality of the letter, and any “grabbers” (such as any inserts, liftnotes, gifts, etc), even the overall appearance of the package, are all elements that often precede that all-important headline.

Online, those things are still there.

It’s more than just the look of your website. It’s also the “feel” of it. When people say “the look and feel,” people don’t quite appreciate the latter. Looks are important, true. But how does it make people feel the moment they hit your website? You can’t ignore this.

People make an unconscious decision about you, your website, and your products based on many things — from the logo, the photos, the layout, the color scheme, the typography, even the loading time, to the ease of navigation. And everything in between.

I’m not saying copy is not important. Of course, it is. What I am saying is that the headline, which is the first element to be read and the most important element in copy, is really the last in a series of things they see in this brief attention-getting process.

But when people click on a link or visit a website, and after they’ve gone through this extremely rapid appreciation process, then they immediately see the headline. If you’ve managed to keep them there to this point, then and only then is the headline important.

Online, it happens even faster. There are no mailboxes to go through, no envelopes to tear open, and no unfolding to do before reading it. These steps are nonexistent. The sales message and especially the headline are right there, in their faces.

Those same tests I mentioned earlier discovered that the “halo effect” occurs not within 1/4 of a second, as originally thought, but on the Internet it happens within 1/20 of one.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Look at websites as newspapers instead of unsolicited direct mail pieces. Most often, you actually seek the newspaper out. You see it on the newsstand, glance at the headlines, and make the effort to pick it up. The web is the same to a large extent.

Whether you’re visiting a website by intentionally clicking on a link or entering the address into your browser, you are directly visiting the message with the full anticipation of reading it once you’re there. You’re eager if not at least curious to digest it.

You’re in a different state of mind when reading the newspaper than when reading a direct mail piece. (Even when the piece is solicited, the steps one must go through, from mailbox to sales pitch, is the same. In other words, there are more of them.)

A newspaper, on the other hand, is already open, with the front page, above-the-fold message right in front of you. It’s filled with photos and bold news headlines, ready to grab your attention, build your interest, and persuade you into buying it.

Like the newspaper, if the first-screen, uppermost section of a website’s home page doesn’t pull you into the copy (or cause you to scroll further), you will click away.

And you would do so faster than you would throw a direct mail piece into the garbage!

And like newspapers, you don’t read websites. Instead, you scan. If you’re like most people, you skim through the newspaper to look for stories that interest you. And you do so by quickly checking the headlines, pictures, and any headers the newspaper contains.

Plus, you can manipulate a print publication in order to fit your reading style. You can spread it out on a tabletop, where stories that interest you are easily and quickly accessible. That way, you can scan an entire piece or newspaper at a single glance.

Online, to read further you can only do one thing: scroll. So the desire to skim and scroll a website is greater than a printed piece. Therefore, once you’ve passed that important “envelope” hurdle, the need to capture the reader’s attention is exceedingly faster.

Crafting a great headline that immediately captures the prospect’s attention is critical to your message’s success. It may be the last in a series of attention-grabbing steps, but since there are less of them it is therefore important your headline works harder online.

In other words, online the headline’s role is ostensibly greater.

If the prospect hits your front page and does not immediately “feel” a need to read any further, she’ll leave at the single click of a mouse. No second thoughts. No wasting time. No hesitation. The rest of the AIDA formula goes straight down the tubes.

Writing headlines is the most important — and oftentimes the hardest — part of salescopy to write. There are as many ways to write great headlines as there are salesletters. So for the sake of brevity, let’s stick to the top three most important ones.

They are three sets of human qualities to which you can cater in order to increase the attention factor in your copy. Use them, and your readership will increase. They are…

The Three Greatest Human Goals

Everybody wants more time, money, and energy. From the headline to the opening copy of the letter, one effective way to capture attention is to focus on three core goals almost all humans have, which are to either save or make 1) time, 2) money, or 3) effort.

If your headline instantly communicates something that can help your reader to make money, save time, work less, make things easier, get things done faster, spend less energy, and so on, your chances of having your copy read will be greater.

The Three Greatest Human Desires

This should be the most important one of the three, but it’s second since it may not appeal to everyone. However, this particular set of “three’s” is very potent. And that’s not an understatement at all. Reason is, it appeals to dominant emotions, desires, and fears.

For example, take supermarket magazines. You’ll notice headlines on the cover or front page almost always cater to any of these three. Take a moment to read the cover of Cosmo, Men’s Health, Vanity Fair, National Enquirer, etc to see what I mean.

Headlines and even ads in these types of newspapers, which are often long copy advertorials, more often than not cater to the three human desires. They are 1) greed, 2) lust and 3) comfort. If you incorporate any of the three, you will boost your attention-factor.

Here are some examples:

“How to make $1,678 with my system!“
“How to save thousands usually wasted on utilities.”
“How to melt away those ugly, unwanted pounds fast!”
“How to make him/her fall in love with you all over again!”
“How to build a web business in only 14 days.”
“How to write breathtaking copy in minutes!”

By the way, you may ask, “Mike, isn’t ‘comfort’ similar to ‘less effort’ you mentioned earlier under ‘goals’?” In terms of desires or feelings, look at comfort as the opposite of fear. Avoidance of fear is a powerful desire. Think of it as a need for security and safety.

Your aim is to instill fear in the minds of your readers, or to bring it to the top of their minds, in order to offer them a solution that will comfort them and allay those fears, such as the fear of loss, the fear of death, the fear of failure, and so on.

Granted, there are other core desires. These are simply the top three. Plus, these three may seem somewhat general and categorical, but there are also many variations, too. Don’t limit yourself the direct definition of these three. Think about what they imply.

For example, “greed” may not necessarily involve money. It may include prestige, ownership, pride, options, etc. “Lust” may be to feel good about oneself, such as a lust for life and not just sex — like health, well-being, advancement, sociability, esteem, etc.

Nevertheless, if your headline contains a hint or a slant of any of these three, you’re a step ahead. You can cater to any of these three in a number of different ways. If you want some help, simply think about Maslow pyramid of human motives to get you started.

Finally, the last three are…

The Three Greatest Human Teasers

Of all the attention-capturing devices out there, these three are often the most effective. Why? Because the first three cater to human needs, and the next three to human motives. But these three cater to human nature. Good ol’ human psychology.

I call them the three provokers or arousers, if you will. These three elements stir. They pique, push, and prod. They mesmerize and hypnotize. They fire up hormones and tug heartstrings. Why? Because they cater to three fundamental human characteristics.

They are: 1) curiosity, 2) controversy, and 3) scarcity. Try to add an element of any of these three and you will boost your chances that the reader will be sucked into your copy will increase substantially. Even better, mix them with any of the above six.

In terms of curiosity, don’t mention everything to your readers at the beginning — give them ample information to pique their curiosity but not too much so that it pulls them in. People are intrinsically curious. So use this to your advantage.

Leave some interesting tidbit out or keep them on the edge of their seats, hanging onto every word, eager to read further. Be intriguing, fascinating, puzzling, etc.

For instance, say, “Discover these nine most closely guarded secrets for tripling website sales in less than 26 days!” People will then wonder, “What are these nine secrets? I want to know what they are!” And they’ll read your sales letter, intently, to find them.

Second, controversy is something that works extremely well. If your copy addresses something that stirs people’s emotions or causes certain “lights to go off” in their heads, you can pull them into the copy just as effectively as any of the other elements, above.

Howard Stern, a well-known radio “shock jock,” was one of the first to break many of the rules while on the air. In his semi-autobiography, “Private Parts,” the story goes that people who loved him had a tendency to listen to his show for about an hour.

But people who hated him listened up to two or three hours, or more.

Maybe it’s because they wanted to see what he’ll say next. Maybe it’s because they wanted more ammunition to bring the guy down. But whatever the reason is, Stern’s highly controversial approach undoubtedly made him extraordinarily rich and famous.

While you may want to stay away from the more sensitive topics (politics and religion come to mind), you can use milder forms of controversy — such as piggy-backing on current events, hot issues, popular trends, newsworthy topics, etc.

Using a bit of controversy in your approach will help build your case and create an almost instant desire to read your copy. You can add a shocking news item, make an outrageous claim, offer an unique twist, or make an unbelievable statement.

There are many ways to be controversial without being rude, condescending, or unethical. The key is not to make people hate you or love you, but to get people to read your copy. The body copy is where you can substantiate, explain, clarify, etc.

Often, brilliant copywriters will tie their copy to a recent event or some controversial subject. Sometimes, the angle they choose has nothing to do with the overall topic discussed in the letter. Not directly, anyway. But it’s quite effective to pull them in.

Now, I’m not talking about those infamous ads that start with the headline that says “SEX!” And the first line goes on with, “Now that I have your attention, keep reading…”

No. I’m talking about a headline that’s relevant but not necessarily the focal point.

Not long after 9/11, many ads, commercials, and websites have surfaced that capitalized on that recent, tragic event to sell security equipment, self-defense products, public transportation other than air travel, home alarms, and the like.

Another caveat: I’m not talking about profiting off the misery of others. I’m talking about using copy ethically to take advantage of your market’s current level of awareness about a certain hot topic. As the blacksmith says, you hit the iron while it’s hot.

Controversy can also be something significant or slight, or simply funny or different, such as with the use of a personal story, a unique angle, or an original twist.

Think of the times you’ve seen a story about someone starting an online business. While that may sound a little trivial (and usually, it is), it isn’t if that person suffers from some kind of disability or is raising 10 children at home. The odds seem to be against them.

Years ago, a client of mine, an inventor, was trying to promote a backpack with special straps he created. These straps made carrying backpacks a little more comfortable, distributed the weight more evenly, and were less strenuous on the shoulders and back.

After some research, I realized that his invention was born from a personal need. He was an amputee and lost one leg in a car accident. But he didn’t want that seeming disadvantage to hinder his love of hiking. So he created his special backpack straps.

I told him to use his lack of one leg as being the inspiration behind his creation. So, the copy’s headline opened with: “One-legged man lightens people’s loads!”

Finally, adding an element of scarcity to your copy is to somehow limit the offer by making it time-sensitive, quantity-bound, urgent, or scarce in some way. Naturally, the easiest way to do this is to add a deadline or put a cap on the number of sales.

But don’t just limit yourself to quantities or time. You can even make the offer something that’s secretive, exclusive, unheard of, inherently scarce, or otherwise unavailable to the general public, which can arouse stronger motives in the psyche of your readers.

It’s about adding a realistic sense of urgency, and not making it urgent in itself.

But in order to give your added sense of urgency some credibility and believability, never just leave it as a plain limit. Always back up your deadline, limitation, or scarcity with some kind of logical, commonsensical justification, lest it make your claim suspect.

Ultimately, remember that your headline is the most important element in your copy. Try infusing it with any of the three elements above, and you will improve the attraction factor, instill credibility, and increase your copy’s readership and response.

The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction

Michel Fortin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:03:46 +0000

Last night while watching TV, my wife and I had an interesting debate on the whole “The Secret” phenomena. And we came to the very same conclusions.

I believe in the law of attraction. I also like the premise behind the book, which is largely influenced by Wally Wattles’ 1910 book, The Science of Getting Rich.

But with all the “new-wage” gurus out there giving it a bad rap, the law of attraction is getting an undeserved reputation. Some people even call it the “flaw of attraction.” However, the real flaw isn’t with the secret in itself, as some suggested.

It’s with how some people have bastardized it for their own selfish greed.

Here’s the problem…

Your chances of getting what you want is higher when you’re focused on it. Absolutely. And it’s not just some metaphysical, woo-woo thing. Quantum physics aside, which is something else I also believe in, let’s take a more practical look at the law.

You become what you think about. It’s true. But the twist is, you already are what you thought about all your life. So how can some book magically switch your state when your mindset is still on that which made you who you are in the first place?

A mindset that took years to acquire?

Simply, if you think you’re a loser, then chances are you’re a loser. If you truly believe you deserve wealth, then you’ll get wealth if you’re not already wealthy. But it isn’t as automatic as so many of the new-wage gurus want you to believe.

And there lies the rub. And it ain’t some genie lamp, either.

When you focus on something hard enough and long enough, you will eventually change your belief system. And once your belief system has changed, then your consciousness will open itself to notice all the possibilities and opportunities related to it.

Doors that previously seemed closed will open for you. Were they really closed before? No. You were simply oblivious to them. Now, they just jump out at you. As if by miracle.

But it’s no miracle.

Has this ever happened to you? You buy a brand-new car, and you think to yourself that not a lot of people have that same car, much less in that same paint color.

So you buy it, and wouldn’t you know it? As you drive it home, you start to notice that exact same car all over the place. Everybody seems to own one, now. In the same color, too! As if it was some conspiracy to follow you around and copy you.

Funny, isn’t?

That’s the real secret behind the law of attraction.

Here’s the problem with the way this law has been abused of late. People who are vulnerable, gullible, and desperate are seeking a magic pill. A quick-fix solution.

So their mindset is now focused on getting help. They are thinking about getting rid of their financial pains. Once they see a course, program, training, or seminar that purports to teach them on how to cure their money ills, they jump on it like bees to honey.

(Or better said, like flies to excrement.)

Greedy new-wage gurus know this all too well. So they package their rehashed, embellished version of the secret, overprice it, and sell it to the unsuspecting masses.

And guess what? Most of the people who will buy it are those very people who don’t need it. These naive hopefuls will spend the remaining cash in their bank accounts just for some magic pill — and the gurus walk away with their money.

Sure, sell a book or course on how to use the secret. It’s your take on the law. Like an opinion piece of commentary. In it, you perhaps even share some of your observations on how well it’s worked in your own life and those of others around you. No problem.

But when people buy it, they are — better said, they should be — buying it for the educational or entertainment value, just like someone’s book of theories on TV’s Lost.

But don’t promise that this book is the panacea they were looking for, especially when they’re in a vulnerable state. That’s misleading, unethical, nonsensical bullshit.

The best line I’ve heard on the secret came from another movie called “What the Bleep?” I liked the movie because it explained the secret in less philosophical but more scientific terms — such as neuroscience, quantum physics, quantum mechanics, etc.

(Although, some of the people on the show were a little too “out there” for my taste.)

The line came from an interview with a University professor, who said that you can’t overcome years upon years of negativity with just a thin veneer of positive thinking shoved on top of it. You still have this huge underbelly of negativity that’s still there.

It’s the same as weight loss. You can’t lose overnight what often took years to gain. In the same way, you can’t change your thinking overnight, because it took years to build and condition, be it through experience, education, expectations, etc. Even genetics.

Focus on the positive, yes. But you must take action. And that’s the point. People expect the secret to be a magic pill. And they take no action believing the secret will magically save them. They look at the law of attraction as a cure rather than as a tool.

Those types of people are scary, if you ask me. Because the moment something good happens to them, which might have happened anyway either by pure happenstance or as the result of their hard work, they will have a tendency to blame it on the secret.

When the secret had nothing to do with it.

There’s nothing much you can do about these folk, unfortunately. But there’s a second, more sinister category of people who are “attracted” to the law of attraction.

To take action, you need to want to do it. You need motivation. Or desperation, in some cases. Sure, the secret can help you find the motivation you need to take action. It can inspire you. But it’s not and should never be a substitute for action.

Motivation can take time, too. Sometimes, years or even decades.

But the problem is that it’s not sold as a motivational tool. It’s sold as a solution.

And the people who sell the secret as such are the worse of the bunch, in my opinion. Those greedy vultures are masters in the art of repackaging material in a way that caters to a specific market in need of the package — and not the thing being packaged.

Why do you think credit repair products, particularly credit repair scams, are so rampant, especially during tough economic times? Because there’s a market for it!

The secret is just the same. The reason so many people are buying it is because there’s a market for what it promises — not for its educational or motivational value.

First, you shouldn’t be in a position where you would need credit repair if you had the right mindset to begin with and took action on it earlier. It’s about planning, taking responsibility, and most of all, taking action. Before it’s too late.

Of course, accidents happen. Stuff happens over which you have no control. So I’m not talking about people who have no control over their financial dilemmas. I’m talking about those who didn’t take control over their finances before their finances went out of it.

In short, the secret would have been best used before you decided on doing the things that had negative consequences. Consequences that would have put you in a situation where you would need any solution, much less a secret one.

The secret is not remedial. It may be palliative, at best.

Sure, it may be used as a remedial tool. It can motivate you into taking action to remedy your situation, just as you took action that put you in the bad spot you’re in now.

But it is best used as a preventative tool, particularly when you took actions with negative consequences. Or better said, when you had the wrong mindset that led you to making the wrong decisions and taking the wrong actions in the first place.

Or at the very least, the secret can help change your mindset to avoid the negative things that, if unchanged, may keep you in constant need to seek out quick-fix solutions.

Self-help is exactly what it means. The law of attraction can help you to help yourself. But too many people buy into it thinking it’s going to save them. So they fail to take action.

For example, why is it that books on how to make money are more popular than those on how to save it? Because saving money is a sacrifice. It’s work! You need to take action.

But trying to sell a preventative to vulnerable people who are desperately hurting — such as people who are suffering from terminal illnesses or facing bankruptcies — is like trying to sell them a course on how to save money when there is none to save.

Using the weightloss example, you can learn how to change the way you think about food to stop gaining weight, instead of buying a book on how to lose it when it’s too late.

The law of attraction can help steer you in the right direction, and motivate you to make the right decisions and take the right actions, that will prevent you from going to a place where you would need to lose the weight you shouldn’t have gained, anyhow.

(By the way, my apologies to those who are battling weight problems. My intent is not to denigrate people in tough situations but to focus on those who take advantage of them.)

My wife said it best on her breast cancer blog. She said that she wouldn’t focus on battling her breast cancer because it would be very difficult to “fight darkness.”

I mean, how do you conquer darkness?

Do you stab it? Do you pull out your gun and try to shoot it? Do you meditate, pray, and positively think that it will simply go away through some miracle? Of course not.

Really, the only way to fight the darkness is to turn on the light.

You must take action. Do you need a self-help book for that? Maybe, if the self-help book shows you where the lightswitch is, or how to build a lightsource, or how to make money to buy a flashlight, or cheers you up as you patiently wait for the sun to come up.

So is there really a “flaw of attraction?” Not with the law itself. The real flaw is in the way it’s unscrupulously pushed onto innocent souls who don’t know any better.

It’s like pushing drugs onto addicts.

Some of these new-wage gurus are no different than drug dealers, in my opinion.

The issue I have is with those who prey on vulnerable people by selling a preventative as a cure — and worse yet, to mislead them into thinking a preventative is the cure — and to give them false hope only to line their own pockets. Drug pushers, indeed.

Self-help is self-help. You actually need to help yourself to make any “self-help” work.

But to help yourself, you need to act. Because if you buy a book on self-help thinking it will save you miraculously, you might as well leave the book on the shelf-help.

Two Shining Stars in an Age of Darkness

Michel Fortin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:40:21 +0000

One of my favorite shows on TV of late is Shark Tank.

The show centers on aspiring, brave, and sometimes downright idiotic inventors and entrepreneurs who pitch their ideas in front of a group of merciless, seemingly heartless multimillionaires, begging for investment capital.

Some of the advice that come from these “sharks” are pretty obvious and commonsensical, especially to people who’s been in business for as long as I have.

But a lot of it is brilliant. Brilliant, but also brazen, unabashed, and brutally honest. It’s not for the faint of heart. If you don’t like seeing people, along with their hopes, dreams, and business ideas being shred to pieces on TV, then this show is certainly not for you.

The more I watch that show, the more I learn. It’s not just a fascinating program, it’s a million-dollar education in just one hour a week. And for free to boot. If you ever get a chance to watch that show, do it. You’re going to learn so much. It’s an amazing show.

If an idea or business is dumb, dead, or downright dreadful, they will say it. Often, in no uncertain terms. They have to. After all, their money is on the line.

But then again, so should it be with you.

One line from the show, from shark Barbara Corcoran, was absolutely dead-on in one case. She said to one fledgling, near-bankrupt businessman with a poorly researched idea in which he invested almost all of his family’s savings (and I’m paraphrasing, here):

“It takes a lot of courage to be as passionate and persistent about a business idea, but it takes a lot more courage to know when to quit, and to let it go and move on.”

And this got me thinking about how some people online are like that. I’m not just talking about businesspeople who needlessly cling to a losing idea or business, which are many. Too many to count, I’m afraid. The Internet is filled with them.

But I’m talking about sharks. Experts who really know their stuff, and who may say the most unflattering things that might kill your pride but may very well save your butt. That is, if you let go of your ego for a moment and truly listen to what they have to say.

Many a guru come and go, and the people I’ve followed over the years have changed. Change is a part of reality. I’ve changed. We all do. But some people I’ve stopped following because their philosophy no longer fits with mine or into what I find acceptable.

(And with all that’s happening in our industry these days, with all the crackdowns, letdowns, and putdowns, I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way.)

But that’s OK. That’s how the world turns.

I guess that, as I’ve grown older, wiser, and more battle-worn, with a dash of cynicism and mistrust added to the mix, I’ve also become pickier and more prudent in who I follow and listen to. That’s why there are just a handful of select people I follow today.

There are two fellows in particular from this group of people who I’ve followed for a long time, ever since they were members of my now defunct copywriters discussion forum. The thing is, they are not as well-known as what you normally call your typical “guru.”

I followed them on their blogs and newsletters. For years, I’ve digested their tips, insights, and sometimes incisive commentary like they were part of a endless buffet served as a starving death-row inmate’s last meal. Licking the plates along with it.

So who are these guys?

These two men are none other than Jason Leister and Ricky Breslin.

Their brilliance shines. Their philosophy is flexible enough to adapt to changes, but solid enough to remain unwavering and unaffected — no matter how the economy swings, and no matter how many new marketing methods come and go.

Their occasional insights and sometimes slap-in-the-face advice on business, the Internet, and even life have always struck me as amazing. To some, they appear as oddball contrarians, and that’s probably why they are not as well known as the usual suspects.

There are not a lot of people who are that real. I mean, really real. I mean, “I don’t care if this hurts your ego but it’s going to save your business (or make you money)” real. They are down to earth and personable, but seriously sharp and dangerously savvy.

These are two guys to watch out for.

Now, there are not the only ones, mind you. A few others I’ve known for a while personify these qualities already. Such as Paul Myers, Jim Edwards, Terry Dean, Lynn Terry, Larry Winget, just to name a few. (Including my brilliant wife, Sylvie Fortin.)

But Jason and Ricky are in that group I would categorize as real experts.

For example, Jason just blogged about the future of information marketing.

And he said something I’ve been saying for a long time.

And that’s the idea that marketing, particularly Internet marketing, is no longer about communications but about conversations. It’s no longer about content but about context. It’s no longer about copy that sells but about the connection with the people who buy.

In short, the gold is not “in the list” but in the relationships.

Nevertheless, they are marketers who are not afraid to tell it like it is. But also, they are guys who understand relationships. People. Trust. Ethics. And above all, sales and business. They are sharks. And I think that’s what the Internet needs right now.

I’m not talking about “those” sharks. The Internet has been filled with the wrong kind of predators for too long. No, I’m talking about the kind of sharks who are willing to take a bite out of bad ideas, bad businesses, and bad marketing practices.

Be a shark with your business. Your money. Your clients. And especially your integrity and your reputation. More important, be a shark with yourself, and the people you follow and whose advice you listen to. If not, any of these will be the ones eating you alive.

Changes, Relaunches, and Extreme Makeovers

Michel Fortin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:11:55 +0000

A couple of new things to tell you about today.

First off, I’m trying a new experiment. I’ve decided to close and remove comments on this blog. Just to see what happens. Why? Here’s the thing…

When I post a new blog post, it will be crossposted to a few social networks. Some, by design with the help of a few tools and plugins. Others, by subscribers and readers who retweet, reblog, or trackback to my posts.

What I’ve noticed is, on these social networks — Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Digg, and now with the new Google Buzz — my posts seem to incite discussions on these locations. Discussions I love to participate in, too, when I have a chance.

I want to harness that social media power and divest myself of the constant moderation of this blog. I feel that, since there are so many discussions taking place elsewhere, why not take advantage of social media and bring the discussions to the public instead?

I understand that I might lose somewhat, such as less comments mean less keyword-rich user-generated content, as well as less control over what is being said about my blog posts. But I think the benefits far outweigh these.

Plus, half of the comments I get, especially on older blog posts, are spam or pseudo-spam. (You know, those friendly, one-liner spam comments like that are so general or complimentary in nature, you know they are just fake.)

Also, some posts get so many comments (i.e., hundreds, in some cases) that they tend to slow down the loading of pages. Load-time is a huge factor in SEO these days, too.

So I’ve removed all the comments and trackbacks, and eventually I’ll be adding re-Buzz, retweet, and Facebook-share buttons at the bottom of my posts. (I’ll be adding and testing them in the next few days. Although I’m not sure, yet.)

I’ll also be removing the list of the 10 most recent comments at the bottom of this website. Not sure what I’ll replace them with, though. (Do you have an idea? If so, tweet me, Facebook me, or Buzz me with some ideas.)

Next piece of news...

After over a month of working behind the scenes, we’ve finally gave my wife’s flagship site, Workaholics4Hire.com, an extreme makeover and a complete relaunch.

And I do mean “extreme,” because it’s more than just the new design, which I did with the help of a base template. The copy and content have all been completely rewritten from scratch — personally by my wife. All of it.

(I’ve never seen her type as feverishly as she did since she wrote her controversial report, Internet Marketing Sins.)

More important, the business model and service offerings have also changed to reflect new demands, markets, trends, and economy. The biggest of which is the removal of rate markups and her company as an intermediary.

As the small Internet businesses’ leading purveyor of freelance services and work-at-home jobs, my wife wanted to simplify how services were offered, managed, and delivered. She wrote about it in this candid blog post.

We’ll see how things go. If you do have any comments, you know where to find me.

Superior Value Equals Superior Sales

Michel Fortin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:36:24 +0000

If your car needed repair work, would you go to a garage that offers free estimates? You likely would. Today, most garages offer them.

Not only has it become a customary practice, but also everyone expects a free estimate from mechanics.

However, here’s an interesting scenario. Let’s say your car broke down at the worst possible time, and you are in a terrible hurry. (If you’re like most people these days, you are.) Plus, you specifically wanted a free estimate.

If you had to choose a garage quickly, which garage would you choose? Would you go to the one you only think that offers free estimates? Or would you go to the one you know for sure that does? Especially if you don’t have much time?

As simple as it may sound, by communicating something that’s usually taken for granted by your target market, you will be chosen more often. Rather than claiming superiority, like “we’re #1,” you’re implying it by demonstrating what makes you superior.

A mentor once told me, “Implication is more powerful than specification.” In marketing, it means that you should imply your superiority rather than claim it outright.

If you claim superiority, your claim appears self-serving and whatever you do say is suspect at best. But if you imply superiority, your claim, although not directly stated, is accepted as more credible, genuine, and, paradoxically, concrete.

People will unconsciously assume that you are superior. You are communicating your superiority, not in some marketing piece you wrote or paid for, but in that most elusive yet vital of places in all of marketing…

… Your target market’s mind.

So, rather than outright stating that you are superior (e.g., that you’re the “best,” that you have a product of superior or high quality, that you offer greater service, that you provide better rates, etc), explain specifically why you are superior.

In fact, the most critical word in marketing contains only three letters. It’s the word “why.” It is much better to communicate why you are original, special, or unique, or why you are better, different, or superior than your competitors, and not the fact that you are.

In other words, the point is that you should imply your superiority by specifying, as much as possible, what exactly makes you better than anyone else and not that you are superior. This approach is far more powerful, and the effect lasts longer.

By implying your value proposition, it pierces through your market’s natural psychological barriers, as people hate to be sold to. They hate making a bad decision. They hate being patronized. And more importantly, they hate being taken advantage of.

Realize that what makes you special, unique, or superior doesn’t have to be your product in itself, although it certainly can be. But the easiest way to make your product unique is by what you add to it — specifically, to its value — as to appear superior.

Simply stated, you may offer something that everyone else does. But you could also offer something more, above and along with your product, than no one else does.

Let me explain. Your product is composed of three distinct levels:

There’s the core product (the product’s main benefit),
The actual product (the product itself and its features),
And the augmented product (the product’s value, such as the added value — additional features and benefits — you specifically bring to the table).

The latter of the three is probably the area most marketers fail to adequately communicate. It’s also the easiest area you can use to develop or enhance your USP (or “unique selling proposition”). And it makes your product or service stand out among the crowd.

Here’s an example. People may or may not know that you provide a certain value-add. A value-add is an extra product benefit or service added to your core offer. And, more often than not, they only assume that you do, especially if it’s the norm in your industry.

Claude Hopkins, author of Scientific Advertising, revealed how he dramatically boosted Schlitz’ brewery sales by making their beer appear unique using this method.

In the early 1900s, a beer’s purity was important to consumers. Knowing this, most breweries claimed — but never really proved — that their beers were the purest available.

But instead of merely claiming purity, Hopkins would trumpet the reasons why Schlitz was purer than the rest. After a tour of the brewery, he began writing his sales copy describing in meticulous detail Schlitz’ vigorous purification process.

According to Clayton Makepeace, Claude Hopkins described:

“The 4,000-foot-deep artesian wells from which Schlitz drew its water… the wood pulp filters that ensured the water was 100% pure… the spotless plant and “clean rooms” with their filtered air… how Schlitz’s bottles were sanitized with germ-scalding steam… and more. But Hopkins did leave out one little fact: Pretty much every brewery made its beer just like Schlitz did!

By being the first to tell the public about Schlitz’ generally assumed (or in this case, ignored) purification process, everyone was convinced Schlitz really was the purest beer anywhere. It’s the main reason why it became the top-selling beer at the time.

Plus, the copy did double duty. Competing breweries’ purity claims simply made them appear as copycats — or at the very least, it would remind the public of Schlitz.

By turning the assumed into the assured in the consumer’s mind, even with a name in which people are assured that you do offer that particular service or benefit, your market will choose you over your competition many times over. Almost unconsciously.

And this is true, even when the value-add is the norm.

If I were Hopkins, I would have put a name on this purification process. That name would make the process appear unique. Even proprietary. It would help to instantly communicate this value-add, or at least cause people to want to learn more about it.

Using the earlier free estimates example, you might choose a garage offering “Hassle-Free Formulas” “Free Fix Finders,” or “No Greater than Guesstimate Estimates.” You might even choose one whose tagline is: “Where Smiles and Estimates are Free!”

In short, what you are doing — in this case, with a name, tagline, or marketing message — is turning the “assumed” into the “assured” in your market’s mind.

In this day and age where people no longer have the time to shop around and are bombarded with commercial messages, then when they’ll need the kind of service or product you provide, your name will pop into their minds — and will do so almost instantly.

On the Internet, time is a even scarcer commodity for most people. Click-happy online shoppers no longer have time to sit through countless, irrelevant search engine results, and pages upon pages of websites, to find exactly what they want.

Therefore, since people usually search the web by topics, interests, or benefits, and if the term “free estimates” was specified in your marketing efforts and especially on your website, then when people search for free estimates they will likely find your site.

In fact, many new Internet business models have emerged and became wildly successful — and profitable — based on that simple premise.

For instance, while one website may offer the same product with the same features at the same price as other websites, what makes that one site any different is in the way it adds value to its clients’ purchase decision. Its value proposition, in other words.

And it does so in the way it brands, packages, presents, or sells its product, even the way it delivers it to its customers. But above all, it does so in the way it communicates it.

You can certainly apply the same principle in your business.

If there’s something that’s a part of what you offer (such as free support, free delivery, free installation, etc), even if you must manufacture your USP by adding an extra feature or service to your product to make it unique, then put a name on it, too.

Once you do, you then need to communicate it clearly — with every promotional breath you take! You must make your value proposition your core marketing message.

This is the one area on which most businesses fail to capitalize. Why is that? In my experience, it’s because too many people think that a standard, conventional, or customary part of their business or product is too simple, unimportant, or unnecessary to market.

(You would be amazed to know how much such simple value-adds have become the pivotal elements upon which a large number of businesses have prospered and profited!)

Additional or complementary bonuses, features, or services are part of what is called the “augmented product,” simply because they augment the product’s value. More important is the fact they should be communicated and have benefit-based names just as well.

Remember that a product is more than a bunch of tangible features — it has three levels. In fact, the third level (i.e., the value) is where most competition occurs!

Here’s a greater description of each level:

Your core product is the benefit — your product’s relative purpose. It’s what people are really buying, in other words. If the name, packaging, or any of the features change, the core product remains the same. It comprises of the benefit (if it’s a product) or the solution (if it’s a service) that people seek.
The actual product consists of attributes, qualities, and characteristics — such as features, design, model, form, function, style, dimensions, name, package, label, ingredients, product mix (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line), etc. In essence, the actual product consists of what makes the product or service.
But the augmented product includes complementary services or features – like warranties, guarantees, terms, financing, delivery, installation, discounts, toll-free customer service, reports, shipping and handling, after-sale service, consumption education materials or training, quickstart guides, etc. On the web, they also include things such as reminder services, search capabilities, email newsletters, online technical support, personalization, customization, information, and so on.

By adding a benefit-based name on your augmented product, it could actually become — or become part of — what is called your “positioning statement.”

A positioning statement is one that communicates your value proposition and specific position (i.e., what places you or your product above your competition in the mind).

Even if your product is similar to the competition’s, then your augmented product can isolate and differentiate your actual product from those of others. Your message should indicate so, although names and taglines can do this quite efficiently.

For example, remember that Domino’s Pizza, with its once popular tagline that said “delivered fresh in 30 minutes or less or it’s free,” is known more for its augmented product (i.e., home delivery) than its actual product (i.e., pizza).

In your case, do you offer an augmented product that’s not offered elsewhere?

Here’s an example. Say your website sells software.

Do you offer free delivery of the CD?
Do you offer a free upgrade reminder service?
Do you include a quickstart guide on how to use it fast?
Do you provide a special toll-free support line?
Do you have a unique money-back guarantee?
Do you provide any kind of payment plan?
Do you offer extended warranties or download times?
Do you have a special trade-up program?
Do you publish a best practices newsletter?
Do you give access to a private community of users?

The possibilities are endless! Regardless of what you do offer, these should be named and/or communicated as well. Sure, they might seem like standard practice. But don’t let people assume that you offer a certain additional benefit or service. Assure them!

If a competitor steps in and assures your market before you do, it might be too late. Thus, turning the “assumed” into the “assured” heightens perceived value and implies superiority over competitors who may offer the same, nameless services.

More important however is the fact that doing so also turns ordinary products into memorable ones. They become effective mnemonics. Or simply stated, one value-add can easily become your “hook.” Just like Domino’s delivery guarantee, for instance.

Finally, if you don’t offer anything that’s unique or special, then you might want to look at manufacturing your USP. Stated differently, you might want to define your position by simply adding something to your actual product in order to augment its value.

For example, while your product or service may be similar to the competition, you can be the first to cater to a specific market, the first to cater to a market in a unique way, or the first to customize a general product or service for a specific market.

Sure, you can have a superior product or service, and have either its core or parts of its actual product level different than your competition. If you do, then great. But keep in mind that, if your product is totally new and untested, it’s a huge risk.

But more often than not, the augmented product is the level at which many products create astonishing, memorable, and highly profitable USPs. The goal, therefore, is to communicate it in order to imply your superiority rather than directly competing with others.

Don’t claim it. Frame it in the consumer’s mind, in other words.

On Not Playing The Blame Game

Michel Fortin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:28:13 +0000

Is the Internet marketing industry imploding? I think it is. But if not, it sure seems like it. In fact, it seems to be a sign of the times.

For example, we see it with the FTC cracking down on misleading advertisers, Visa and MasterCard closing down merchant accounts for forced continuity billings, and Google permanently banning advertisers for reasons still unclear but somehow related to the latest crackdown.

Harsh? Perhaps. But we can’t say we didn’t see it coming.

Remember, it was about three years ago — wow, has it been three years already? — when my wife, Sylvie Fortin, put out her scathing report, called “Internet Marketing Sins.”

It was highly controversial at the time because people didn’t expect it. However, since then many marketers, bloggers, journalists, disgruntled clients, unpaid affiliates, even social media experts have joined in the chorus. Some, quietly. Others, not so quietly.

For instance, copywriter Ryan Healy ruffled a few feathers recently by posting a scathing report, entitled “Internet Marketing on Life Support,” in which he singled out a few marketers for their questionable, unethical, or allegedly illegal practices.

One commenter praised Ryan for his willingness to name names, and by the same token criticized my wife for not doing so in her Sins report. In fact, since it was published, we received a lot of flak for not naming names. I certainly understand their cynicism.

So I’m taking this opportunity to elaborate on why we chose not to name names.

The aim of this blog post is not to persecute those who do. Just because we didn’t name names doesn’t mean we’re against those who do. Not at all. But I do want to clarify in the hope that you, dear reader, understand why we didn’t expose actual marketers.

First of all, we wanted to focus on the sin, not the sinner.

I agree that naming names works well. It can be potentially productive in stopping that one person — and maybe a few others who fear the same humiliating fate — from continuing their harmful practices. But it doesn’t work all the time. It might even backfire.

Why? Because the cult-like status these snake-oil pitchmen enjoy, which in some cases are so deeply entrenched, might even boost their position among their loyal fan base.

(I’ll come back to this later, as understanding this is of significant importance.)

Plus, I also agree that shaming people publicly has always been a productive technique to quench people’s thirst for blood. As the news industry saying goes, “If it bleeds, it reads.” But in my opinion, doing so doesn’t help the actual underlying problem.

We applaud those who are willing to take the risk. But if and when they do name names, they must do so with eyes wide open, ready to bear the burden of responsibility that comes along with pointing fingers — and the negative blowback such a risk entails.

For us, we didn’t want to throw stones for a variety of reasons. The most important of which is the idea that we didn’t want people to perceive our report as exhaustive. We simply can’t return to the report to rewrite, edit, add more names, and so on.

Eventually, it would make us feel compelled to revisit the report, which is something we were not prepared to do. After all, we are too busy running our own businesses.

Simply, it wasn’t our goal. Furthermore, naming names is risky because it can also be misleading. Others perpetrating the same or similar “sins,” if omitted from the report, may be seen as exonerated or exempted by their own set of followers.

They might say, “Hey, Sylvie talked about Guru ‘A’ doing such and such. Since I follow Guru ‘B’, then I’m fine (or he is fine, or the practice is fine and it’s OK to do it, too).”

Second, we didn’t want to become known as the “Jerry Springer of Internet marketing.” We wanted our report to be food for thought. We wanted people to start questioning. To start thinking critically. And not just to sit idly by, watching as the drama unfolds.

Years ago, I closed down my once very popular copywriting forum for this very reason.

(And believe me, I received a lot of flak for doing that, too.)

As the owner, I was the main moderator. But I never realized until the board became more and more popular just how much work I needed to put into moderating and managing it, thus taking my focus away from building my other, more profitable businesses.

Before you think that I should have outsourced the moderation, remember that I did have close to 10 moderators at one point. But the problem was exacerbated when I was even forced into moderating the moderators. (Yes, many a fight broke out among them, too.)

So I decided to shut it down. It was a hard decision to make.

Nevertheless, pointing fingers wasn’t our goal. We weren’t looking for fans. Instead, we were looking to help. We didn’t want to be judges but advocates. Our goal was to focus on the consumer and would-be marketers contemplating such practices.

We wanted to alert the marketplace on what’s going on, and educate people on how to discern, pinpoint, and avoid potential pitfalls — some of which are so sneaky and inconspicuous, they prey on unsuspecting victims who don’t know any better.

Moreover, we wanted to avoid the “any publicity is good publicity” some of these cult leaders enjoy but most certainly don’t deserve. So we preferred highlighting what to look out for and even go so far as to suggest actionable solutions, than who to look out for.

Now, here’s what I mean when I said naming names can be counterproductive.

First, I’m not a psychologist by any stretch. But as a copywriter, I have studied human psychology and researched it deeply — both in college and in my career. It’s part of my job. I don’t know enough to be an expert, but I do know enough to know the difference.

That said, because of the cult-like following some of these marketers enjoy (it’s no wonder we call them “gurus”), naming them can lead to some unintended consequences.

When you are attacking a cult leader, you are also, by the same token, attacking all of their sheeple in one fell swoop. Some will be dismissive and shrug your attempts. Others will react hostilely, perhaps even violently, to your accusations.

Naming names strengthens the position of these cult leaders as their followers will likely feel threatened, too. In fact, the more you challenge someone’s opinion, the more convinced they become that their opinion is correct, and the greater their resolve will be.

As Brian Tracy once noted, in his program The Psychology of Selling:

“A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.”

When questioning, challenging, or opposing their deeply rooted beliefs — beliefs into which people have invested much ego, time, and of course, money — they will have a tendency to rigorously defend those beliefs by defending their cult leader.

Again, think of the brainwashing process behind cults. It’s something I have personally studied for many years. And what I’ve learned is, when people react to a challenge, it’s not about defending their chosen guru. It’s about defending one’s belief system.

Most do it unconsciously and quietly. Many do it publicly and vociferously. And as we all know from events throughout history, some will do it aggressively. Even violently.

If you want some science behind it, here’s an interesting fact.

Even if you think you’re not at all sexist, racist, or homophobic, most of us are to some degree. We can proclaim that we’re not, and protest ferociously when we’re called to task. But subconsciously, like it or not our brain’s circuitry tells another tale.

For example, take this online Implicit Test from Harvard, made famous by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Blink.” It might enlightened you. Perhaps even shock you.

The point is, even if you think you’re not sexist, racist, or biased against any other kind of stereotype, your brain is wired in such a way that you will have a tendency to be biased, no matter what. You will tend to favor one over the other, even if only slightly.

Granted, some of it is genetic and innate. But a lot of it is the result of environmental factors, such as our upbringing, societal mores, education, and personal experience.

People have preconceived biases, which are strengthened over time. Even when they say they don’t or that they are open-minded, when presented with hard evidence to the contrary only solidifies their established mindsets, beliefs, and in some cases, delusions.

I remember reading an article once, where they likened “deprogramming cult followers” to breaking in a wild horse. The first few attempts seem futile. But the more they try to break in the horse, the angrier and more aggressive the horse becomes.

(Until, that is, the horse finally gives up and calms down.)

Similarly, the risk you run by calling out some marketer can, in many cases, strengthen that person’s position in the minds of their followers because you are in essence challenging belief systems. You are bashing not just the guru but their followers, too.

Thus, they will believe in their guru even more, and even vocally and publicly defend them. But in reality, what they are doing is defending their own belief systems, for fear they’d realize and must acknowledge they were wrong all along. And people hate that.

As the saying goes in the selling and marketing worlds, people fear making a bad decision. It’s human nature. And it’s the basis behind cognitive dissonance (i.e., buyer’s remorse). That’s why we’re told to sell on emotion first and then back it up with logic.

When people make an emotional decision, they will search for logical reasons to justify their decisions to avoid the risk of feeling wronged, hurt, or duped, or being perceived as foolish among their peers. And among their own followers, if they have any.

A good example? Look at political debates.

Seldom will you see debates swaying any votes from either side. They only serve to strengthen the already preset opinions of each political candidate’s fan base. Statistically, debates are seen as useful only to attract undecided voters to their camp.

(Many come out of such debates more confused and undecided than before, too.)

If people bought from questionable marketers in the past, if their purchase happened to turn out to be relatively good, and if they’re in the process of buying more products from them, then they, too, don’t want to feel like their original purchase was a bad decision.

This is particularly true if they were supportive and even raved about it publicly. Nobody likes being wrong. But more important, nobody wants to be seen as being wrong. Everyone wants to save face. So naturally, they try to avoid buyer’s remorse.

So they turn a blind eye to anything that might cause them such remorse.

That’s why, in many cases, they stubbornly reinforce their decisions and staunchly defend their beliefs, out of their need for self-preservation, and to assuage their innate fears and insecurities. (Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of human motives comes to mind.)

Finally, a final comment on naming names.

Fingerpointing does offer relief to some, and creates cheering fans for others. But in large part, they run the great risk of degenerating into endless pissing matches that lead to nowhere, except to more hurting, more name-calling, and even more fingerpointing.

If my experience as a forum owner is any indication, it can be perceived as no more than a playground, push-and-shove fight, where onlookers cheer on their preferred playmate.

When caught, both point the finger at each other, shouting, “He started it!” Which inevitably lands the two in the principal’s office, regardless of who’s at fault.

Lynn Terry made a superb point on her blog when she was defending herself in the face of similar accusations that resulted from Ryan’s blog post. She wrote a post in which she said, “People who put titles on me do so only to define themselves.” Wonderfully said.

While she may be talking about being labeled as a “second-rate guru,” I think it fits nicely those among the guru crowd who have the brazen audacity to label their affiliates, clients, or non-clients as “losers.” Unfortunately, many have. Even publicly.

So to conclude, I often think of the saying that says, when you point one finger at someone, four more are pointing right back at you. And for that reason, we wrote the report as a way to extend a helping hand rather than point any fingers much less wag them.

The Future of The Internet is Cloudy

Michel Fortin — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:01:27 +0000

One of the things I love about new year’s is reading about year-end predictions. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s my curious nature.

But I’m fascinated when I see where some people think we’re headed. There are some bloggers whose predictions fascinate me. Two have captured my attention: ReadWriteWeb and the Manhattan Marketing Maven.

And yes, even yours truly loves making them, too.

As with all predictions, it’s no different than flipping a coin. The law of averages kicks in. But it’s not a 50–50 ratio. A third will come true, usually dead on the money. Another third won’t at all. And the final third may come true, but not exactly as predicted.

I’m subjected to that same law, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Nevertheless, in keeping with that sacred tradition of new-year projections, prognostications, and picayune pontifications, here are two major areas I believe we will see happening in the new year, if not the near future. Are you ready? Here goes…

1. Internet Marketing Will Grow Up

Web 2.0 is essentially a sign that the Internet is growing up. It’s not fully an adult, yet. But I guess you can say it’s now a “teenager” rather than an “infant.”

As it went through puberty, it was an authority-challenging, angst-filled, hormone-raging, know-it-all, rebellious, moody, maturing, coming of age of sorts. It wants all the benefits of adulthood but without all of its responsibilities. It prefers to remain a child.

Internet marketing is an example. It’s growing, and will continue to grow, but not without its growing pains. It will explode, but the old way we used, and used to look at, Internet marketing is going to radically change. We’re seeing a lot of evidence of this already.

Yes, the industry is going through a major shakeup.

(As an example, our recent major announcement explaining the drastic change in the way we teach Internet marketing is a reflection, and the result, of this evolution.)

This shakeup will involve many different things. It’s partly due to new regulations, partly due to the recession, and partly due to people’s growing level of sophistication with the web. That’s why I believe Internet marketing will no longer be considered a “niche.”

In fact, Internet marketing will be less and less about…

Internet marketing;
Making money;
And gaming systems.

The industry has grown to the point where mass markets are crossing what Geoffrey Moore calls “the chasm.” In other words, it’s no longer a hot new niche exploited merely by geeky innovators and early adopters who wish to use the web to make a few bucks.

We’re going to see Internet marketing entering the mainstream. We’re going to see more and more people trying it for the first time — newbies to Internet marketing who want to find work or start a real business online. One that’s not about Internet marketing itself.

Stated simply, the landscape of Internet marketing — and the people in it, both the market and the marketers — is radically changing and will continue to change in 2010.

Take a look at all the major Internet marketing players online these days. One can instantly see how the roster has dramatically changed, even in just a few years. Many new faces have emerged, and many old ones have disappeared or gone underground.

By the way, I know some pundits claim otherwise — often to counter the many rumors that the Internet marketing industry is saturated, overpopulated, or dying altogether. They do so, particularly if they have a vested interest in it or a product related to it.

These pundits claim that the Internet marketing market is still a perfect niche to get into. I agree it’s alive and well, but I don’t agree it will be the perfect niche. At least, not the usual “Internet marketer selling Internet marketing to Internet marketers” niche.

(I often quote Paul Myers, who once said that the Internet marketing industry is made up of a bunch of incestuous cannibals. I think that quote is quite befitting, here.)

We’re going to see more and more diversification. More and more actual marketing principles, strategies, and tactics applied to the Internet. More and more strategies outside of Internet marketing, particularly outside the bizoppy, make-money arenas.

I’m talking about real businesses selling real stuff using real marketing strategies. And by “real” I don’t mean just physical products and hard goods. I include digital products, too.

I’m talking about businesses that sell non-Internet-marketing stuff. To me, too many products appear like ponzi schemes, where someone teaches how to make money online, and the way they make their money is by selling… their make-money product.

No. I mean real stuff. Not snake-oil. Not “secrets.” Not “how to game [technology, system, or website] to get a gazillion visitors or make a gazillion dollars overnight.” And certainly not circular, “Make money by becoming an affiliate of my make-money product!”

(OK, I know this sounds more like a rant than a prediction. But hear me out.)

True, when something new enters the scene, eventually we see its misuse, overuse, and abuse. It’s sad but inevitable. There’s the abuse of systems as well as the abuse of the people using them. Internet marketing is by no means any different.

But novelty usually wears off and the newness becomes lackluster over time. Any new tactic and market, as well as their abuse, have a shelf life. They die or they change.

You can only trick search engines, social networks, CPA networks, or whatever for so long, until these get wise to such tactics, change their algorithms, or become so saturated they kill off a large number of abusers in one vast, merciless cleanup attempt.

(Like the many “Google slaps,” for instance. Or the recent FTC changes.)

James Allen, author of “As a Man Thinketh,” wrote: “Circumstance does not make the man: it reveals him to himself.” It’s a beautiful quote, but to me it has a lot more meaning.

I think it’s a lot like another famous saying by Dr. Wayne Dyer, who once said, “If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice.” In other words, when someone is under pressure, what comes out is really what’s inside. It’s who they are at their core.

The recession is one such pressure. Probably the biggest one.

When times are great, questionable tactics and borderline businesses tend to easily slip under the radar. People are not paying that much attention. And it makes perfect sense, since we have more disposable income to take risks trying new things.

But when times are tough, a marketer’s true colors start to shine through. Good, decent, honest, and ethical marketers stand out. Equally yet conversely, scammers, spammers, and smarmy snake oil peddlers seem to come out of the woodwork, too.

More importantly, when hit with financial stress, people are either extremely desperate and vulnerable, or extremely cautious and cynical. People’s bullshit detectors are on high alert. And it makes either side conspicuous, self-evident, and easier to spot…

… Be they good or bad, be they white hat or black hat, and be they market-focused or money-focused (i.e., selling at the service of others versus at the expense of others).

We’re going to see that dividing line getting thicker, and gray areas becoming less and less gray. And we’re going to see solid, long-term, real businesses selling real stuff becoming more distinct from the drive-by, one-hit-at-a-time, serial marketers.

Bottom line, don’t expect apple juice when squeezing an orange. If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice. You get what’s truly inside, at their core.

Marmalade, anyone?

2. There's a Cloud Hanging Over Us

One of the most recent developments going on with the Internet is the idea of cloud computing. I submit that cloud computing will become more and more popular, if not the norm. Whether you know it or not, you’re probably using it already.

Are you using an online backup service? Are you transferring files from one computer to another using a filesharing service, or perhaps a webhost? Or simply, are you using an autoresponder service rather than sending emails directly from your computer?

What cloud computing means is, rather than having all your files, software, multimedia, links, even peripherals, all centrally located on your computer, you can access, and work from, applications, files, and peripherals on, or distributed through, the Internet.

There are three levels of cloud computing:

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
Platform as a service (PaaS).
Software as a service (SaaS).

Infracstructure is where computers and hardware connect with each other via networks or, more significantly, the Internet — secure channels on the Internet, to be specific.

You may have heard of things like “Intranet.” Today, we are seeing an increase in VPNs (i.e., virtual private networks) and RDPs (i.e., remote desktops), where we can access other computers through the Internet, and do so remotely, privately, and securely.

Even in the home, we are seeing less of a need to buy multiple peripherals like printers, hard drives, and multimedia players, and using “servers” instead, within the home using Wi-Fi, to share those resources among multiple computers.

Secondly, cloud computing as for platform is the realm of the operating system and OS core services, like Windows for example. More and more operating systems and services are available on, and distributed through, the Internet as well.

For example, when you had no choice but to buy, download, or install Microsoft Office or some other compatible software to print a simple Word Document, now you can simply use Google Documents or ZoHo online. I even use it to convert documents in a snap.

Of course, Microsoft is not taking this sitting down. They are converting much of their software to a web-based format as well, such as the upcoming “Office Live.” Google is coming out with its own operating system, which will be almost completely web-based.

As for software, it’s self-explanatory. Just like Google Documents mentioned earlier, many programs, which used to be available in standalone executables, are now available online — either as pay-for-access, ad-supported, or password-protected services.

Even email clients are slowly becoming dinosaurs in a world where POP accounts are being converted into IMAP (where email is read, sent, stored, and manipulated directly on the server, without the need to download them, and no matter where you are).

If you’re a marketer, then you’ve likely encountered some form of cloud computing…

… From using Gmail for your email and using an online autoresponder service for building your lists, to communicating with staff, clients, or freelancers using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, BaseCampHQ, or other similar collaborative tools.

For example, ever since Sylvie and I have started using Amazon S3 for storing our multimedia files, we have saved a ton of money, bandwith, and resources by serving the files from a larger-capacity and much more robust service such as Amazon.

The key benefits, of course, is the intra-operability and cross-platform compatibility of working in a cloud environment. It doesn’t matter what kind of computer you have. All you need is a browser and an Internet connection, and you’re off to the races.

Sure, there are risks, such as exposing ourselves to hacker attempts — both while in transit through the Internet and once it’s saved in the cloud.

Granted, powerful encryption protects the information in transit. The safety of where the information resides is a bigger risk, in my estimation. So it’s doubly important to ensure the information is protected on high-quality, highly secure servers.

Above all, the biggest risk, of course, is your connection to the Internet itself. If you lose it or work on a poor connection, your ability to work via the cloud will be hampered. But as broadband becomes ubiquitous, this is becoming less of a concern.

Another big benefit are cloud-managed updates and upgrades.

Rather than forcing you to download the latest updates, the software or application can be centrally updated, behind the scenes in one fell swoop, for all its users. Just one flip of the proverbial switch, and bam! Everyone has the latest version. Instantly.

No need to wait for an update to propagate to all the users, or for users to uncover bugs as their systems and software configurations vary so significantly from one and other.

But the one area I want to focus our attention on is SAAS, that is, software as a service.

This area, I believe, will explode in the coming months if not weeks.

We are seeing more and more of this already: membership websites, online training courses, streaming multimedia programs, dynamic content, and web-based software — with ad-supported access, password-protected access, or full access at a recurring fee.

Take online photo editing services, like Picnik or Photoshop Express, for example. Rather than forcing you to buy a $800 gorilla like Photoshop, or its cheaper alternatives, you can easily upload, manipulate, and store photos online, either for free or a small fee.

Bottom line, if there’s something that needs to be done on your computer, chances are there’s an online application for it somewhere. Somewhere on the Internet, that is.

So my tip to you is, keep a watchful eye on what people are looking for.

If there’s a need somewhere or a problem that can be solved, don’t immediately jump to the idea of building a standalone software, infoproduct, or multimedia piece.

Instead, think of building a centrally located, password-protected, one-time signup or recurring-fee service model. Because there just might be a silver lining beyond that cloud — one you own that could potentially make you a lot of money.

Carve Your Niche By Dominating One

Michel Fortin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:03:06 +0000

I was recently interviewed by a print magazine about how I started my business. In it, I offered several tips and ideas on how to carve a niche in the marketplace that I personally applied.

I realized some of these tips were particularly powerful. So I wanted to reprint some of my answers here for you.

If you know my personal story, you know how niche marketing played an important role in my career.

Long story short, as the child of an alcoholic I feared rejection immensely, which led to a reclusive childhood. We all fear rejection to some degree. But for me, it was debilitating.

I wanted to overcome my fears and decided to dive into the world of sales in order to fight them head-on. Years passed and many failures ensued until I finally became the top producing salesperson in Canada for a major Fortune 500 company.

How did I accomplish that?

Since I hated prospecting, I found more effective marketing strategies that caused high quality prospects to come to me instead of the other way around. I no longer had to prospect. I no longer had to be rejected. I no longer had doors slammed in my face.

In short, I went from prospecting to positioning.

In other words, I decided to specialize in a specific niche and deal with only a small percentage of the market — even though my employer did not require it of me. I positioned myself as an expert for a specific target market within that company’s larger market.

Even though I could sell everything to everyone from this employer, I decided to specialize in only one product line for one particular category of prospect.

The result? I appeared as a specialist. (I’ll come back to this later.)

Realize that doing so helped me to attract pre-qualified prospects to my door. I didn’t have to do cold prospecting anymore. I didn’t have to “bother people” to listen to my pitch. I attracted higher quality prospects who wanted me to help them.

People today are bombarded with so much information, commercials, and competition. Especially online. Prospecting, especially cold prospecting, is not only difficult but also next to impossible. (Unless you have a million-dollar advertising budget to risk.)

Thus, you have to market in such a way that causes those kinds of people to come to your business or website, and not the other way around. Like a magnet, if you will.

Therefore, rather than prospect for clients you must position your business as unique in a particular category or industry, or for a specific audience or market. By being unique and focused on a core market, you will naturally become the leader in that market.

With all the competition out there vying for your market’s attention, it is no longer possible to be better than the competition. The goal is to be different, not better.

In other words, don’t duplicate. Instead, differentiate! It’s better to be the leader in a small niche than an alsoran in a general one. You will naturally dominate that market as a byproduct rather than spinning your wheels trying to corner a market by brute force.

Being a general copywriter when I first started out would have pitted me against all the copywriters in the world, particularly all the top copywriters who were far better than me.

However, being a copywriter specializing in cosmetic surgery, which was my niche at the time, I naturally dominated that niche. I called myself “Success Doctor” because I helped doctors become successful. Through better copywriting and marketing, that is.

Today’s world has become overcommunicated, overadvertised, and hypercompetitive, it all appears as just one huge blur of sameness. If you attempt to be too general or too wide in your marketing approach, you will only dissipate among the blur.

People won’t see any greater value in buying from you than in buying from others.

One of the greatest errors committed by most new businesses is that they fall into a trap: they try to be “all things to all people.” And they do so because they are mislead by the notion that, by offering more (or by serving more people), they will generate more sales.

That’s understandable for the survival of any new business depends on the number of sales it makes. However, the more general you are or appear to be, the more indifferent you will appear to your audience. Indifferent to their specific needs, goals, and problems.

Based on the law of averages, you will have to advertise and market yourself quite heavily to be in front of as many eyeballs as possible, with the hope of attracting an adequate amount of prospects that will in turn translate into a certain number of sales.

Undeniably, this requires a gigantic advertising budget. Or a heck of a lot of time. For most new and especially smaller businesses, this is obviously quite a challenge.

It’s true that, the greater your reach is, the greater the potential quantity of responses will be. But what about quality? Would it matter if your business or website generates a large quantity of uninterested, tire-kicking visitors that will simply never buy from you?

Let’s look at the web. If your online business targets everyone, then your marketing message must be painted with broad brushstrokes as to appeal to everyone. The challenge with such an approach is the fact that you will lose a large percentage of visitors.

Some may fall into your target market, but most visitors will leave your website because they likely feel left out or have no interest. Others simply choose competitors that might provide them with greater perceived value. Even if they offer the same thing.

In other words, the broader you are in your appeal, the less relevant you will be to any and every individual visiting your site. Guess what becomes the deciding factor?

If you’re like (or perceived to be like) everybody else, then the least common denominator they have to work with is price. Price becomes the only metric of comparison. If there are no other points of differentiation, naturally the cheapest alternative wins.

Why? Because generalists have too many things in common. Therefore, pricing seems like the only difference. It will be the only metric used in comparing your value to others.

Sales will increase dramatically if your site is centered on a specific theme, product, industry, people, or outcome. A niche, in other words. (A niche can still be, or be a part of, the mass market. A large yet underserved mass market is still a niche, by the way.)

It’s about focus. For the more focused you are, the less you will need to produce a sufficient quantity of visitors to produce similar results by appealing to everyone.

A good niche is one that has three major qualities:

It exists already;
It’s easily identifiable;
And it’s easily targetable.

Let me explain why this is important.

The most common question I receive from aspiring entrepreneurs is: “What product should I sell?” (Or “what sells well on the Internet?”) Quite frankly, everything sells and can sell well — from pet food to travel packages — in some way, especially online.

In fact, everything is being or can be sold, somehow, in some form or another, on the Internet. But that’s not the problem. It’s not what you sell that matters. It’s to whom.

In other words, don’t look first for a product to sell. Look for an easily targetable market with an easily identifiable need or problem, and fill their need or solve their problem.

In order to achieve this, you need to be observant and listen to the needs of the marketplace. Conduct some market research. If people seem to be asking for a specific solution to a problem, obviously it is because a niche exists that has yet to be filled.

Look at some of the questions people ask or the complaints they have. These are very good indicators that a need exists. Otherwise, the marketplace would be silent.

Once you find a viable niche, learn as much as you can from it. Everything will flow from that point. Follow this tactic and you will constantly find products to sell.

Simply put, don’t carve a niche. Rather, find one and fill it. Consequently, your marketing will naturally help to solidify your position and thus dominate that niche, rather than trying to “get more clients” by trying to appeal to and go after everyone.

Sure, there are ultra-targeted niches that are very small and limited. In such cases, the only way to remain profitable is to dominate several of them. Some people will go after a multitude of small niches. Others will go after smaller ones within a larger market.

This is called “market segmentation,” where you segment your marketing to cater to a wide variety of small niches. But for the scope of this article, let’s just say that narrowing your focus will attract not only more prospects but far more qualified prospects, too.

How do you dominate a niche?

It doesn’t need a lot of work, really. When you position yourself as the expert in a niche, you naturally dominate it through the power of leadership. Leadership is not the result of an action or an event. It’s a position, one based on the power of perception.

If you offer a customary product or service, or if your competition offers the same thing you do, catering to a niche helps to project an aura of uniqueness and superiority instantaneously by virtue of the fact that it doesn’t appear as customary.

Rather than copying your competition, you isolate yourself from them.

For instance, if you required brain surgery, would you choose a dentist? Of course not. More importantly, would you choose a general, medical practitioner, even a general surgeon? No. You would probably choose a neurosurgeon. A brain surgeon, in other words.

It’s the same thing for direct marketing. If you owned an imported car that needed new brakes, would you choose any general mechanic? Or, if one existed, would you choose one that not only specializes in brakes but also specializes in imported cars?

Expertise is in the eyes of the niche.

You become the leader not because you are superior but because you are different. You’re going from being indifferent to your market to being different to them.

Specialization is in itself a powerful marketing process that, as a byproduct, generates the perception of expertise. It’s amazingly effective in creating top-of-mind awareness.

Contrary to popular opinion, focusing on a seemingly smaller niche doesn’t lessen your chances of making sales. Quite the opposite. For example, an accountant specializing in car dealerships will acquire more clients than a general accountant will.

An advertising salesperson specializing in home furnishing stores will sell more ads than a typical salesperson will. A photographer specializing in weddings will get more photography bookings than a regular photographer will. And the list goes on and on.

As more businesses get started, and the more inundated with marketing messages our society becomes, then the less time, energy, and money people will have to spend in choosing the companies or websites with which they will do business.

Thus, specialization helps to solve that problem by projecting an aura of expertise.

Take a mechanic. Rarely would you call a general mechanic an “expert,” unless she has invested a considerable amount of resources in branding herself that way, or in educating herself deeply in the world of mechanics backed by many years of experience.

On the other hand, it would be easy to dub a mechanic — even a new one, with no experience — that specializes in imported car brakes as an “expert mechanic.”

Similarly, by finding, filling, and dominating a niche, you can become an expert by default — not by design. You become an expert as a natural byproduct. In other words, a generalist is just a marketer. But a specialist is an expert. That’s the difference.

Can Copy And Content Commingle?

Michel Fortin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:44:51 +0000

Last year, a bunch of copywriters who also blog — like yours truly — shot the breeze on the Nuts and Blogbolts talk radio show.

It was an interesting and at times spirited discussion.

After some talk about content and copy (or should I say, writing content versus writing copy), the show’s host, Mike Sansone, asked each panelist if we would individually respond on our blogs to this question:

“Writing for the visitor is more important than writing for the search engines. Can both be met without sacrificing quality?”

Ryan Healy posted his answer on the subject. Good answer. I agree with him, because he makes some great points. But I also disagree as I think there are ways around it.

So I guess my answer is both “yes” and “no.” Here’s why.

First off, I’m not a search engine optimization (SEO) expert by any stretch. However, I do know enough about SEO to know that it’s primarily based on three major factors:

Code, links, and content.

Let’s take a look at each one…

1. Code has to do with ensuring the content is presented in a way that makes it more appealing to the search engines. Said in a different way, the code is optimized so that the search engines can find your content and read it more easily.

Why is this important? Because, in reality, your code not only helps search engines to find, crawl, and properly index your content, but also helps them present that content, when searched for, in a way that appeals to their users. Human beings.

2. Links are links within your content, as well as links to your content — the latter being more important, of course. When people link to you, they are indirectly telling the search engines your content is of value, and therefore of interest to their users.

Undeniably, this requires some writing skills, such as knowing how to write content that creates interest (i.e., what you write), and write it in a way that makes it interesting, too (i.e., how you write it). Which, by the way, is still copywriting. Isn’t it?

3. Content, which is third in this list but by no means the least, is the one on which the question behind this post really hinges. I think a better question to ask is, “Can you write content and copy at the same time?” Yes. But there are three ways of doing this.

Ways of doing it that doesn’t force one to sacrifice the quality of the other.

First, understand the difference between content and copy. To me, content informs. Copy invites. Content educates readers. Copy elicits a response from them.

But can you be both informative and response-driven, too? Absolutely.

I do believe that you can write content that’s appealing to both the search engines and its users. At the same time. (And really, it’s all about the audience, isn’t it?) To ensure it’s capturing readers’ attention and informing them, while also generating a response.

Personally, I don’t spend time on keyword optimization, keyword density, or things of that nature. I simply try to create good content. I look at it this way: I try to give what my users want, and by the same token I will naturally give what the search engines want.

So the objective is to focus on your audience. Find out what they want and bring value to them. Because that is why your website exists in the first place, whether it’s to educate or to sell. (It’s also what makes copy truly compelling in the first place, too.)

In terms of what kind of content to write, you can post a lot of it so that you naturally multiply your keyword density. You can focus on a particular niche so that you can zoom in your target audience. And you can also write content that’s buzzworthy, too.

Do either one of these, and you will naturally attract a lot of organic traffic as a natural byproduct, without much extra effort. That’s been my sole, core strategy for as long time.

But what about blending copy? Well, if you want to maximize your content and make it response-driven at the same time, I believe there are three ways to accomplish this:

Guiding
Funneling
“Newsifying”

1. Guiding

The content guides people into taking action, whether it’s directly or indirectly.

You can certainly turn your content into copy to a degree. You use the content itself to elicit a certain response from your audience, or add copy to existing content to accomplish this. (The converse is what I call “newsifying,” and I will come back to it later on.)

Press releases, product reviews, and even articles can be both educational and promotional. But guiding can also be as simple as adding links or forms within the content, and even adding words or phrases that lead people to take a certain action.

Therefore, the copy may or may not be part of the content proper. If it is, you can massage your content so it leads the reader. Even if it’s just a few key phrases or pieces of transition copy, like “keep reading for…” “later on I will…” “next you should…” and so on.

But it can be separate and distinct from the content, and can either blend within the content, or be placed in sidenotes, in pullquotes, in Johnson boxes, or in sidebars.

However, in the case of a strictly long-copy salesletter, I agree your aim is to elicit a response and not satiate the engines. If you were to optimize your copy for the search engines, its quality may suffer at some point. So the trick is to find the proper balance.

As the saying goes, you can’t be all things to all people.

But this is where the next two options come into play.

2. Funneling

This is the process of using content to generate organic traffic, such as on landing pages, and siphoning that traffic to a copy-focused, response-driven page, site, or salesletter. It can be part of the same website, or it can be on another site altogether.

These content-only pages are beacons or baits that attract people who are interested in the content first and foremost, and are then led to take action elsewhere. Unlike “guiding,” this step involves two separate processes that are distinct from one and other.

Now, these may be concurrent or not. For example, you can funnel traffic to another page, or through a multi-step process where one only occurs after the first has been completed. Such as with optin pages, or what is often referred to as “reversed optin.”

For example, we see this in part with product launches that deliver content beforehand to increase exposure, create interest, and build lists of eager subscribers who are later notified when the product is launched and the sales copy published.

But whether it’s concurrent or consecutive, when you really think about it you are still directing your visitors, are you not? So the content acts like copy, to some degree. It’s still calling for some kind of action, even if it’s to get people to read more.

3. Newsifying

This third step is where the two blend.

The term “newsifying” means turning copy into some kind of newsworthy piece — such as copy that tells a good story, reads more like an article or editorial, or educates the reader whether they take action or not. It’s a salesletter in disguise, in other words.

Rather than adding copy to your content (as in “guiding,” above), in here you are doing the opposite. That is, you are adding content to your copy, or converting your copy into an informative, valuable, newsworthy piece in and of itself.

Even though the purpose is to elicit a response (a sale, in most cases), by making your copy read like an educational piece you also make it more palatable to both users and search engines — and perhaps even more so, since you’re not overtly promotional.

In other words, it appears as a softer sell, where the content doesn’t appear as an outright promotional or sales piece. But it’s not necessarily a “soft-sell” in all cases, too. You can newsify your copy and still be strong, hard-hitting, and benefit-rich.

For example, in my white paper, The Death of The Salesletter, I talk about the increasing popularity in copy that’s newsworthy, intriguing, and informative, rather than copy that’s overtly hypey, aggressive, and mimicking every other salesletter out there.

Tests show that salesletters providing valuable content in themselves are getting better results than salesletters that appear salesy, over the top, and patronizing. These look less like salesletters and more like articles or editorials (think “advertorials”).

Here’s a forinstance: you sell an information product on how to reduce stress. Rather than a salespiece that extols the virtues of stress reduction and the benefits of owning your product, you can write a free report on 16 tips for relieving migraines without drugs.

While the report talks about how to relieve headaches naturally, it connects with the effects of stress and how reducing it can help. Later, you introduce your product.

People will not only understand the real problem behind most headaches and become better educated on all the other effects caused by stress, but also understand the benefits of reducing it, and therefore the benefits of owning your product and ultimately buy it.

(Of course, I’ve just pulled this example out of thin air for illustration purposes only. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. But hopefully, you get the picture.)

Anyway, this is just one example. There are so many different ways of doing this. In the above scenario, you write content that logically fits with your product or market.

But you can also pull one topic from the many covered in your product, offer content that teases your audience to want to know more, or provide content that’s separate from your product but proves it, supports it, or emphasizes any of its key benefits.

(These articles are mini-salesletters in disguise, in other words.)

Nevertheless, the answer to the initial question is to use one of the above three steps. But in the end, keep in mind that we don’t — and shouldn’t — write for the search engines. Not really. Even when we do or think we do, we are still writing for the visitor.

Search engines exist primarily to help people find information. So the sacrifice, in many cases, is caused not by writing more for one or the other, but when we stray from either one by failing to focus on our audience and instead focus too much on ourselves.

Because I believe the more you focus on what people want and give it to them, the easier it will be to get both the search engines and your visitors to do what you want.

After all, it’s all copy.

Drastic Changes Are Coming

Michel Fortin — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:44:43 +0000

The new year is around the corner. It’s a time for resolutions. A time for change. And sometimes, those changes need to be drastic.

On December 16, 2009, while we conduct our regular weekly webinar for our Success Chef students, we will be making a major announcement about radical changes we’re making to our current business model…

… Changes that not only affect our students but also might affect the Internet marketing training industry as a whole.

So we’re opening up this live class to the public for the first time. For this one time, we’re inviting everyone who wants to join us on this webinar, and not just our paying students.

These changes might surprise you. Or shock you. They even might make some people mad. But they must be made. And together with Sylvie Fortin, author of the controversial Internet Marketing Sins, we will be announcing those changes on that special webinar.

The reason is simple — but it’s not what you think. We’re not selling anything new. This is not a typical promotional or sales pitch webinar. It’s a special announcement, one we’ve been itching to make for a very long time. All I can say is, “It’s about time!”

We recorded this very brief video and wrote this open letter to explain.

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