I find it fascinating that we humans tend to begin to believe anything repeated by many others.
Some well-known persons, some not so well-known.
Repeating something does not make it true.
It’s a well-understood thing that humans will tend towards belief when they hear, read or see the same ‘facts’ presented to them repeatedly.
One example is the continuing statements around the ‘value’ of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has no intrinsic value.
You cannot hold a Bitcoin because they don’t exist except as a number in your wallet.
It’s only backed by belief.
The current ‘value’ is based on the ‘greater fool’ theory.
The theory is that you’ll be able to find a ‘greater fool’ to pay you more than you paid for your digits.
The biggest issue I see with Bitcoin is that it hasn’t gone through a Bear market.
It has only existed since the GFC.
All that time, the markets have been in a low-interest, low-inflation Bull market.
When the market crashes, which is inevitable, people with margin loans to buy more Bitcoin and shares will sell anything they can to pay the margin calls.
I’m sitting in cash at the moment, waiting for the carnage.
There will be bargains to be had, but Bitcoin is unlikely to be one of them.
Companies that actually make and sell things will be my targets.
In the meantime, I’m boosting my Internet cash flow to boost my war chest.
Many people think that when you pitch to a potential customer, you should only give them two options.
For example, “you can take this product as a monthly subscription or slightly cheaper annual subscription.”
While that can work, my sales trainer said having a single option is a yes or no choice.
Having two options is still a yes or no choice.
Customer choice comes in when you give them three options.
He also said that you should ensure that the middle one is the one you want them to take.
In the example above, you might say, “you can take this product as a monthly subscription, a slightly cheaper annual subscription, or you can get lifetime access for $x.”
Now the decision is more about what they can afford rather than whether they should buy at all.
The exciting behaviour here is that most people will take the annual subscription, with some taking the lifetime option.
Hardly anyone will take the monthly option.
See how that works out exceptionally well for a membership site?
I just downloaded a webinar about SEO for 2022 and beyond.
The overview of the three steps was interesting and did seem to be an excellent way to get high rankings with minimal effort.
The minimal effort required that you buy their software bundle at the 66% reduced price of just under a grand plus a monthly commitment.
This is one of the few product offerings that I think might work as promoted, but I’m still not forking out that kind of money.
It’s not that I couldn’t afford that.
It’s that I don’t want to pay that much money for any software.
I have in the past and hardly use that tool because it didn’t live up to the hype.
In any case, I can do the same stuff with tools I already have.
We all need to buy tools to improve our money-making, but you can start without additional expenses.
You do that by selling services.
These are things you know how to do or can learn on YouTube that other people will pay you for.
These people might be able to do those things themselves but prefer to pay someone else rather than take the time those jobs require.
Other people are technical Luddites and need some paid help.
Whatever the reason, you get paid to do stuff you already know how to do, and you can do it much faster than they can, so they see it as a valuable thing.
This book was and is so influential because it lays out in simple ideas and stories how and why following some simple rules will make all the difference.
But the ideas are not new.
You can get the same information from multiple sources, including YouTube.
Not only that but the same ideas have been used for centuries.
The only thing original about the book is the presentation.
On YouTube, you’ll probably find videos reviewing the book.
There will be blog posts also reviewing the book.
Nothing original there either, just a review in different formats.
That’s something that anyone can do.
This reminds me of a saying:-
Everyone knew that anyone could do it, but no one did it, so it didn’t get done.
From my First Aid training, I know that in an emergency, when there are other people around, you do not say, “Will someone call 911/000/999/112 (depending on the country)?”.
No, that never works.
You have to point one person out and say, “Call 911/000/999/112 (depending on the country).”
Similarly, anyone can refresh any content by changing the platform, the media, wrapping it in stories, creating memes, etc.
The way is wide open because even though anyone could do it, 99% will not.
This has proved to be much more complex than I expected.
It’s to do with writing the code for my latest project.
It’s an enhanced to-do list tool.
The idea is that all of us, including myself, have difficulty staying on track to reach our goals.
It’s not that we don’t know what to do.
It’s that life gets in the way.
We get distracted too easily and sometimes give up too quickly on a project that might be a simple tweak away from success.
It reminds me of a poster at a friend’s house.
“I’m never drinking again.”
.
“Oooh, look! There’s wine.”
Anyway, the issue I was having was getting the recurring date functions to work correctly.
Everything else with the tool seems to be working fine, but this bit was unreliable.
After five days and lots of false starts, blind alleys, and dumb ideas, I think I’ve cracked it.
It turns out that I have been going at the problem backwards.
The rethinking has turned my approach around by 180 degrees and simplified the calculations and code, which will also have the effect of making it more bullet-proof.
I need more testing and integration, but I feel like I’m on the home stretch now.
Perhaps next week.
Regards, Brent.
P.S. When this is released, it will be through a funnel in W+ for the general public, but the tool will be available at a special discount only for you, gentle reader.
For the beta testers, the discount will be 100% in recognition of your invaluable service.
When you understand how people make their decisions, it becomes easier to ensure that you attract the people who will be interested in buying your product and repelling the ones who are not.
Yes, that’s right.
You need to repel the people for whom your product is not the right fit as much as you need to attract the ones who are.
The goal of all your marketing is to have happy customers.
It is not to make as much money as you can.
I know that seems like a contradiction, but making happy customers will bring you more customers, and your income will be ever-increasing.
There are three phases in the journey to becoming a happy customer.
The first is their research.
This is the phase they are in when you get yourself in front of them across media and multiple ways.
The old saying that a customer needs to see your message an average of seven times before they buy comes from their behaviour during this phase.
You are not necessarily putting them in front of a sales pitch every time.
You’ll get better results when you pump out more general information with a link to the sales page.
Talk about a single benefit in each publication, and rotate the benefits over time, but only one in each post, video, podcast, etc.
As they do their research, you keep popping up in their feed and their search results.
Now they explore your material and discover their reason for buying your product.
That reason is essential.
That will be the driver to a successful purchase.
The reason will help keep them on track to getting a successful result with your product which is what you want.
The third phase is the purchase and consumption or use of your product.
When you’ve done your job properly, they will email you to thank you.
Well, some of them will.
Others will tell their friends and share their success.
Now you know why I keep telling you to pump out content.
It gives you links to your main pages for SEO purposes.
It brings visitors to your sites.
And it assists your prospects in becoming customers.
Regards, Brent.
P.S. Coming to a sales page near you soon is my new traffic funnel.
In the meantime, you’ll need to get started on your email account and your landing pages and begin driving traffic to build the list.
