Perks of the Trade Volume 1 Issue 6 September, 2004 =========================================================== Contents =========================================================== Quote Of The Month Editorial Feature Article: Everything I Needed to Know About Business Article Writing I Learned from My English Teacher by Glenn Beach Humor SFI Updates New Veriuni Products Guest Article: How To Create Your Own Information Product: 3 Examples Of Profiting From The Information Superhighway by Dale Armin Miller © Another Guest Article: How To Write Your Own Articles by Kevin Nunley © Internet Marketing News Tips Q & A Advertisements General & Unsubscribe Info =========================================================== Quote of the Month =========================================================== "Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted." George Kneller "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." --Albert Einstein =========================================================== Editorial =========================================================== Last month I mentioned that one of the "upsides" of your business's midsummer downtime can be the time to do some article or book writing. The more I thought about that, the more my brain felt like a grilled cheese sandwich. Where do the ideas come from? What do I know that hasn't already been written to death? I remembered my high school English teacher, who gave us iron-clad rules for non fiction writing; and I remembered my creative writing teacher, who said "just write! every day, write something!" Taking some time off, looking at things from a different angle, reading up on what others have to say; all of that is good advice, especially in the heat of summer. Then doing some cloaking maneuvers (thanks for the smile, Albert!) and you're all set. Somehow, letting my brain wander while sipping on an ice tea with a cat on my lap brought me the inspiration for this issue. Enjoy! Glenn =========================================================== Feature Article: Everything I Need to Know About Business Article Writing I Learned from My English Teacher by Glenn Beach =========================================================== By now you probably understand how important writing for trade publications is to establishing credibility in the home business world. On to the first hurdle: how do you get past that HUGE writers' block? How do you know what to write about, and how do you make it unique, informative and interesting? Remember how you resisted writing those reports in school, insisting that you would never need to know how to do that in "real life"? Welcome to the real world of business writing. Your English teacher gave you the bare bones: pick a topic, research, take notes, make lists and an outline, write a rough draft in your own words, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Don't forget introductory paragraphs, summaries, footnotes and bibliographies. Thanks to the internet, you can use a search engine, copy and paste, cut and paste, type, cut and paste edit into infinity, include hyperlinks and add your resource box at the end. But...you're still stuck on picking a topic. You feel as imaginative as a two by four. Start with your own home business, internet marketing, or entrepreneurial problems. Better yet, start with your journal. You don't keep one? Here, you can borrow some of my own entries: (better yet, foster homes are being sought for all items in the following list...) 1. Didn't want to get out of bed this morning. 2. Turned on the computer and would rather play a computer game than work. 3. The quiet is driving me crazy...music would help...now I want to dance...now that I'm up, I could vacuum....wonder what's on tv... 4. The noise is driving me crazy, I can't concentrate. 5. Ok, I finally got started. Ten hours later, I just can't stop. I wonder why my wife is glaring at me. 6. I can't finish anything--the next new project always looks more interesting. 7. Friends call and want to chat, the cats want fed, that window needs fixing. 8. How do I know when to be persistent and when to try something else? 9. My website has lots of visitors, many don't stay for more than 30 seconds, few sign up. 10. I'd rather be __________ (fill in the blank): sleeping, golfing, fishing, watching tv, eating, reading, swimming. Turn that list into a list of how-to's. I need to learn how to: get enough sleep; stay focused; identify goals, strategies and action plans; develop credibility among friends and family; identify success (measurable results?); make my website more sticky; encourage prospects to become active affiliates; balance work and pleasure; plan my day; stay motivated... and so on. First I brainstorm: when have I been able to accomplish any of these things? (take notes) Then it's off to the search engines. (take notes; bookmarking and copy and paste makes this easy) Now organize your notes: whatever floats your boat, whether it be lists, outlines, mind mapping or freeform writing. Just keep searching, taking notes and bookmarking until something hits you over the head. "This really might work, especially if you did this first and then tried this..." Be patient, it may take a little time. Don't copy word for word what another writer has already written; but on the other hand, don't worry about inventing the lightbulb either. If you've done much surfing at all, you realize that the internet is HUGE, a veritable wasteland. The chances of two people reading exactly the same articles or websites and coming to exactly the same conclusions are slim. Any bleary-eyed surfer will THANK you for your arduous research. And don't rule out your own experiences and thoughts. I once was dealing with a problem and was becoming more frustrated and angry by the minute. I finally just dropped it and went for a walk. (You can substitute any of those things, such as fishing, that you used to fill in the blank above). While walking I was thinking about another situation in my life, was looking at the part of the natural world I was walking through, and came to a brilliant conclusion. As soon as it occurred to me, I saw that the solution also applied to the problem I was trying to solve earlier. So you see, sometimes it's good to just follow your instinct and GO FISHING. I'll write that all up into an article some day soon. It's on my list. Meanwhile, I've got a few more ideas I'm writing up first. Now I can't wait to get them all written into articles. So...there's my topics, my motivation, and my action plan. If you've followed these steps, thanks to your English teacher, the internet, your own experiences, and your stumbling attempts at writing, you're now an author. But more than that, you've learned how to set yourself a goal: new affiliate signups; a strategy: making your name familiar or establishing yourself as an expert; and an action plan: write an article, submit it to dozens of websites, post it on your own website, maybe even add a few guest articles and start up a newsletter. Then start over at the beginning...and don't forget how important time out for fishing is. Glenn Beach is a poet, writer and home business entrepreneur in Nova Scotia, Canada. Free newsletter, more articles, and business start-up info at: http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com =========================================================== Humor =========================================================== A businessman dragged himself home and barely made it to his chair before he dropped exhausted. His sympathetic wife was right there with a tall cool drink and a comforting word. "My, you look tired," she said. "You must have had a hard day today. What happened to make you so exhausted?" "It was terrible," her husband said. "The computer broke down and all of us had to do our own thinking." =========================================================== SFI Updates =========================================================== Here's a quick checklist of news from SFI this month; you can read all the news in detail on the SFI dBoard: * Partner Stores, the first two being The Fuller Brush Company and HR Poppin Snacks. * A new "Re-Assign Sponsor Or Powerline" tool designed to help you build your team, reward up-and-coming leaders, and provide incentives for action made its debut in the Resources section of the SFI Affiliate Store. * New "Next Step" training. * Search Engine and new SVP report ub the Resource Center. * New PayPal option for commissions payments. =========================================================== Guest Article: How To Create Your Own Information Product: 3 Examples Of Profiting From The Information Superhighway by Dale Armin Miller © =========================================================== A number of articles tout the benefits of selling your own products. (You get all the profits!) There’s a lot written about how your product should somehow be "information." (This being the Information Superhighway, that’s why people are here, and all that. Besides, information is cheap to reproduce and can often be delivered immediately.) Yet there are few attempts to explain just how to come up with your own information product. Some of those point out how you should identify what you are already interested in; I agree with that. And there’s (the adaptation of) Thomas Edison’s formula: Find a large audience with whom you can have easy, cheap, frequent contact; find out what they are in fact buying; then sell them a better and/or less expensive version of that. That, I think, is essential. However, I have not seen any attempts to explain exactly what steps you can take to develop your own information product. I think maybe part of the reason for that is ... it’s impossible! (Stay with me, here.) Everybody’s different, with different interests, and every information product came about differently. So it’s probably not possible to explain what steps you should take to develop your own information product. But you can learn how other people developed their information products. In fact, I know exactly how I came up with mine. Maybe that’s the next best thing. Wouldn’t you find it instructive to know how someone else did it? That should serve at least to indicate what steps you can take. Maybe that’s all that’s possible. (In any case, it’s all you’re gonna get.) And for all the details, just send $19.95 before midnight tonight. (Sorry! I couldn’t resist.) Actually you don’t want all the gory details. Just a way to come up with a saleable information product. Right? Maybe a couple examples. Bookmarking For Dollars The last three products I developed are somewhat dissimilar in their format, yet their origination followed a similar path. And you’ll be glad to hear that you’re probably already following that path yourself! To make sense of it, I have to mention what I was involved in. Now, this may be different than what you’re involved in. But you are doing something similar! ... just on different subjects, perhaps. I know because you use the World Wide Web and, as a person, you have interests. (And it is important to realize that no matter how bizarre they may be, there are others who share those interests.) To start, I was led to believe that a million people had already bought something. Being modest, I thought, "Great, then unless the market is saturated, I ought to be able to sell a million of these myself!" (Keeping your ego out of business decisions is the subject of a separate article.) Now, it turns out that a million units had been sold ... but mostly to suckers, um "Supervisors," like myself, and hardly any had actually been sold to end users. But I didn’t know that at the time. (Any similarity to the Lifetime Reminder Service is purely coincidental.) So I was trying more and more strategies to get more and more people to my website. People would come, but they wouldn’t buy. So I’d study more about website design, then change the site. Then I ran out out visitors, so I’d have to find an new way to attact people. Round and round. "I must be doing something wrong," I thought, "after all, a million people have already bought this." So I kept at it, harder and longer than I would have without the "million people" part. I had been bookmarking helpful sites all along the way. Hundreds. Some good, some bad, some offering good-sounding advice that didn’t work, many saying the same thing, most worthless. I kept dividing them up into categories, sorting, resorting. Wouldn’t you pay me money for that list: marketing sites collected for over a year, filtered, sorted, categorized? You are doing something like that right now! Aren’t you collecting favorite places, bookmarking a lot of sites? Sure, many are unrelated: stock quotes for Amazon Books, The DAM (Mothers Against Dyslexia) Homepage, and alt.erotica.iguanas don’t match up. But you have a special interest represented by a lot of links that are related. Skateboarding, nudism, accounting, nude accountants skateboarding, ... I don’t know what. But something. Whatever it is, other people have that same interest. I promise. There are five billion of us -- that’s five thousand million to you Brits. Somebody has the same interests you do. And some of the ones online are actually willing to send you money in order to avoid going through what you went through to accumulate all those bookmarks. I have bought more than one list of webpages, myself. Indeed, I see that as a trend; in many ways, search engines just don’t cut it any more. Also, you probably learned some things about your special interest as a result of reading all those websites ... and had some knowledge even before you started. Write that up into a report. Just start writing; you can edit later. And don’t let that word "write" scare you. It seems that as soon as someone starts to consider writing something, they are overwhelmed by the ghosts of everyone from Shakespeare to this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner. True, style is very important in fiction and poetry. But you’re not writing fiction or poetry; you’re just revealing facts. And all you need be able to do is explain things in such a way that people know what you’re talking about. You don’t need to come up with "What light through yonder window breaks;" you only need "I done this and it worked gooder for me." I probably too-often get silly; perhaps you wish to retain your dignity. Just use whatever style comes naturally. But WRITE. (Then sell it!) You can also combine links and a report. That’s what I did. I took my links, added commentary and advice (like what you’re reading right now) and software, ending up with a whole website: the Internet Marketing Success Arsenal!. I sold hundreds in just the first couple months. Another example from the same time: I was unhappy with my online credit-card processor. I found another one, one which also paid commissions. I promoted it. Eventually, competitors sprang up. As I found them, I book- marked their sites. When I had half a dozen, I wondered which I should promote. Then it occurred to me, "Why not promote them all?" I came up with a few more resources and this became the free website GetPaidOnline.com. But, as at least one writer insisted, the information could have been packaged instead as a report; $19.95 was suggested. Finally (actually, this was the first of the three): I had joined a couple hundred email discussion groups that allow free ads from members. I slowly whittled them down to about 100 productive ones. Along with free updates for a year, I sold that list for about $50. Just a list. I set a limit of 40 sales; it sold out in a week or two. (And judging from the results I get from that list, I am now convinced I sold it too cheap!) My three examples relate to marketing. That’s because it’s one of my passions; it’s what I do, and have been doing most of my life. But it doesn’t matter what the subject is. It could have been herbal gardening, cooking recipes, graphics software, or any of the multitude of interests and obsessions that fascinate the human mind. As long as you explore your passion and bookmark the best sites you come across (aren’t you already doing this?), you can create your own information product. As long as you can find other people who share your passion, YOU WILL MAKE MONEY with that information. Do it! ------------------------------------------------------------ This is from the Creating Value section of the http://www.successarsenal.com/index.htm?boc -- "Internet Marketing Success Arsenal! - What works online." Pick up free marketing tools and strategies at http://www.MarketingFreebies.com/index.htm?boc =========================================================== Another Guest Article: How To Write Your Own Articles by Kevin Nunley © =========================================================== Everyone likes to buy from an expert. Shopping for a computer? A sales person who knows computers inside and out makes us feel confident about her recommendations. Planning to buy stocks? You likely look for a broker who has Wall Street down pat. Here is an effective way to make yourself one of the leading experts in your industry. Write your own how-to articles. Prospects and clients will read your articles, appreciate the good information you have to share, and look to you as an expert who can help them. You don't have to be the next great novelist. Simply write a page of instructions that tells someone else how to do something. It can be information you learned on the job or advice you picked up in books and conversations. Customers buy because they have a problem they need solved. When you appear as a helpful expert with lots of answers, you're half-way to a sale. Newspapers, magazines, e-zines, and industry newsletters all need a steady stream of good informative articles. It is easier to get your articles into smaller publications that closely target your best customers. Often these smaller e-zines and newsletters draw better response than some of the big glossy national magazines. START WITH THIS FORMULA Articles are easy to write when you use this simple pattern. I have given this formula to classes of college freshmen. Everyone in the class is able to use it to write professional quality articles. 1. Point out a problem Start by pointing out a problem your reader has. I could have started this article: "Spending lots of money on advertising and still not getting the results you want?" 2. Point out how the problem impacts them Then make your reader's problem seem worse. Point out the ways this problem can impact their business, life, and happiness. "Your ads bring in only temporary response. Without an effective and affordable way to get the word out on your business, you may be closing your doors before the year is over." 3. Offer solutions Next suggest one to five ways the reader can solve the problem or make the situation better. "One simple way to get lots of new prospects and customers is to write articles for trade publications in your industry." I could go on to explain how to write an article (as I'm doing now). 4. Summarize End your article with a paragraph or two that reviews your most important points. Wrap up with a positive spin that paints a bright picture for your reader: "Many entrepreneurs and professionals use their articles to launch successful national careers earning healthy six figure incomes. By following these easy steps, you can become a widely-respected expert in your field and give your business a big boost." 5. Include your contact info Finally, include your contact info in a final paragraph at the end. Now that readers are impressed by your good ideas, they will want to contact you to pay for more information, services, or products. Many publications will allow you to include four to six lines that provide your contact information and even a plug your latest product or service. Check the end of this article for my "resource box." Most e-zines like articles a page or two long (200 to 400 words). Magazines increasingly want articles that fill just one of their pages (900 words). Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Avoid sentences that require lots of commas. The idea is to write in a style that is clear and easy-to-understand for a reader that is in a hurry. I think writing simply is also easier. How-to articles don't have to be fancy. "BUT I DON'T LIKE TO WRITE" A friend often reminds me that I like to write, but most people, including herself, hate to write. "Everything you type looks wrong and an hour later you haven't gotten anywhere," she says. Many of us don't have time to write or don't feel it is one of our strengths. No problem. You can get a writer to do the work for you or hire an editor to polish the words you have written. A fellow writer who ghostwrites books for other people confided many well-known business writers don't do their own writing. Bill Gates has several good books, but all were written for him by professional writers. He probably doesn't have time to sit down to write 200 pages. Check with your local library for a list of writing clubs in your area. A quick look around my town turned up groups of non-fiction writers, technical writers, even a group of successful romance novelists. These are fertile sources of expert writers and editors, many who work for low prices. Also approach English teachers, journalists, do a search for writers on the Internet, and ask people who write articles you like. Give the writer the general idea for your article and some information to draw from. Then let them use their creativity and taste to write the article. SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE TO EDITORS E-zines are in constant need of fresh articles. Submission procedures are informal. Many welcome unsolicited articles. Simply e-mail the editor an article with a short personal note. You may find it best to first write the editor for permission to send your article. Gary Christensen has compiled a big list of editors looking for articles at: www.site-city.com/members/e-zine-master. Kate Schultz's EzineArticles.com will distribute your article to a big list of editors. Most magazines have specific submission rules they want you to follow. Some want you to pitch your article idea in advance via a query letter. Others invite writers to submit articles on certain topics that will be included in future issues. Check magazine web sites for submission guidelines. Once an editor discovers you can supply them with good articles month after month, you can parlay your articles into a regular column. Now here comes the enthusiastic wrap-up: In a complicated world where every problem seems to require an expert, lots of new customers will respond to the useful information you provide. Write your own articles to make yourself an expert in your field. Don't miss your chance to tap into this powerful no-cost form of marketing. ----------------------------------------------------------- About the author: Kevin Nunley provides marketing advice and copywriting fast and at low cost. See all his promotion tips at http://DrNunley.com. Publicize your business with his affordable press release package. =========================================================== Internet Marketing News =========================================================== Of course, the biggest news is Google's IPO (Initial Public Offerring); $85 a share. Seldom has a financial event been so eagerly awaited by the investing world... The largest technology IPO in history was the culmination of years of anticipation by stock market participants...the culmination of a unique and bumpy initial stock offering for the 6-year- old dot-com dreamed up in a college dorm room. http://www.google-ipo.com/ =========================================================== Tips =========================================================== If you want to know what really works to improve your Internet marketing success, you have to do one of two things: 1) Take the time to experiment yourself and keep track of the results. 2) Listen to someone who has tried it and knows what to expect. Your internet visitors have come to your site with a problem. Your job is to show them how your product will solve their problem. If you can do that, you're very close to getting a sale. =========================================================== Q & A =========================================================== Q: How do you test your keyword rankings on all of the search engines? A: Marketleap’s free Keyword Verification tool reviews your keyword rankings in algorithm-based search engines such as AltaVista, Google and Inktomi. WebPosition Gold software and Bruce Clay’s SEOToolSet also contain a ranking report feature. Q: Isn't closing the sale the most important goal of a business website? A: Actually, no, selling is quite a ways down the list. First come establishing a presence,networking, sharing information, customer service, raising public interest and releasing time-sensitive materials. In other words, communication with the customer needs to precede sales. =========================================================== Classified Ads =========================================================== ******************************************************* Over 1,000+ PAGES of the Hottest, Proven Profitable Internet Business Secrets Broken Down Into An EASY-TO-DUPLICATE System. Corey Rudl is the owner of four highly successful online businesses that attract more than 6 million visitors and generate over $5.2 million each year. He is also the author of the #1 best-selling Internet Marketing course online. To check out his site that's jam-packed with THE EXACT INFORMATION YOU NEED to start, build, and grow your very own, profitable Internet business, I highly recommend visiting: http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity- canada.com/endorsements.html This guy really knows what he's talking about! ******************************************************* =========================================================== General & Unsubscribe Info =========================================================== Perks of the Trade © Copyright 2004 Glenn Beach, except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint only with permission from copyright holder(s). All trademarks are property of their respective owners. All contents provided as is. No express or implied income claims made herein. Your business success is dependent on many factors, including your own abilities. Advertisers are solely responsible for ad content. To contact us with feedback, questions or praise, email mailto:begle@work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com To subscribe, please email with "subscribe" in the subject mailto:begle@work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com To unsubscribe, please email with "unsubscribe" in the subject mailto:begle@work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com Please feel free to share this newsletter in its entirety including the link to our website: http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com Back issues available upon request. I bet you can guess the email address... =========================================================== Sincerely, Glenn Beach SFI Sponsor Perks of the Trade is an opt-in ezine available by subscription only. We neither use nor endorse the use of spam. Thank you!