Be Happy – Have a Sound Sleep Whenever Required (Part 2)

It looks very nice when we get busy in our commercial activities; as much busy we are, our earning would go up accordingly – it is generally thought of. But in process of getting too busy, we start to loose our sound sleep we had been having before. If we consult our health care taker regarding our changed sleeping schedule, he would definitely say that we are not just sabotaging our next day's performance, but we're actually harming our health.

Sleep deprivation is a serious medical risk. To remain healthy, we need to pay as much attention to our sleep as we do to eating a nutritious diet. Inadequate sleep may cause you obesity, as well as several related conditions: heart disease, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes. If we are able to have sound sleep for adequate period, we can reverse our bad health conditions.

Why do we loose the sound sleep for adequate period? There are many reasons and we can think over them to avoid this hazard to our health. For example-

1. We Think Too Much.

We sometimes consume a lot of time just thinking over a tricky work project or an argument with our best friend when we're trying to fall asleep: We can't refocus our thinking at the edge of slumber the same way we can when we're alert. People have little control over their thoughts, because they may be going in and out of a light stage of sleep, even though they think they're awake.

When worried, you may get up and go to another part of the house. Your anxious thoughts will usually stop right away. Then, you can go back to bed and fall asleep. Alternatively, Set aside time early in the evening to solve the problem. Write down your pressing concerns, along with a possible solution for each, a few hours before retiring.

2. You Overdoze on Weekends.

Late nights followed by extra sack time the next morning throw off your internal clock, which is controlled by a cluster of nerve cells in the brain that also regulate appetite and body temperature. When Sunday rolls around, you're reprogrammed to stay up past your bedtime, and you feel like a zombie on Monday morning.

Even if you've been up late, you must not sleep in more than an hour longer than usual. To make up for lost slumber, you should take an afternoon catnap (no more than 30 minutes, though, because an extended daytime snooze can keep you awake at night).

3. Your Spouse snores.

A snorer's sawing can reach 90 decibels--as loud as a blender. Even if you can get to sleep, his snoring will likely wax and wane through the night and wake you up during REM sleep, the most restful phase.

To avoid the bad impact of the snoring, you may ask your partner to sleep on his/her side instead of his/her back. Try the FDA-approved Sona pillow, specially shaped to tilt your head and open your airways. Moreover, the pillow decreased or eliminated snoring in nearly every patient and reduced sleep interruptions from an average of 17 an hour to fewer than 5.

If that doesn't work, earplugs can help you but only if they stay in. You can try Ultimate Softness ($1) or Howard Leight MAX ($1); both are made of flexible, washable polyurethane.

4. Your Hormones Change.

Fluctuating levels of estrogen and progesterone before or during your period or throughout perimenopause can sabotage sleep. You may notice problems--mainly waking up during the night--long before you start having hot flashes.

A hot bath a couple hours before turning in and, if you're often awakened by cramps, an over-the-counter pain reliever at bedtime may be all you need to counter premenstrual insomnia. For a stubborn case, you may ask your physician whether a short-acting sleep medication, taken two or three nights a month, would make sense.

During perimenopause, stay on a consistent sleep-wake schedule, exercise at least 20 to 30 minutes a day, and avoid caffeine after lunch and alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime (a cocktail helps you nod off, but its rebound effect will wake you up.). For hot flashes and night sweats, you may try sleeping in a cool room and wearing light clothing like pajamas that wick away moisture. If you're still tossing and turning, you should consider hormone therapy. It may be safe for many women in their 50s (particularly the new low doses) when used for fewer than 5 years.

5. Your Stomach Growls.

Going to bed hungry interferes with sleep--hunger pangs simply wake you up--and some evidence suggests that people trying to lose weight may wake up frequently.
You may save some of your calories for a high-protein bedtime snack, such as a small serving of cheese or a hard-boiled egg. Protein produces greater satiety than carbohydrates and fat.

6. Your Bedroom Is a Mess.

You keep a messy pile of papers on your nightstand...and your desk...and the floor. A cluttered sleep environment makes for a cluttered mind--the kind that churns well into the night. Stress is the number one cause of short-term sleep problems such as frequent middle-of-the-night waking and insomnia, according to the American Psychological Association.

You may grab a basket, toss in any unfinished work--bills, spreadsheets, that half-done scrapbook--and promptly remove it. When you eliminate the stuff in your bedroom that isn't related to sleep, your brain starts to associate the room only with sleep and intimacy.

Also keep your computer in another room, or at least place it in a cabinet that can be closed. You'll be shutting the door on stress and late-night screen gazing, which has been proven to hinder sleep. The monitor's bright display may inhibit your production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for telling the body it's time for bed.

7. Your Room Glows in the Dark.

Believe it or not, ambient light from street lamps, alarm clocks, and DVD players could be keeping you awake. Even a small amount of brightness can be strong enough to enter your retina when your eyes are closed. At night, it sends a signal to your brain that upsets your internal clock and makes you feel awake.

If there is light in the hallway, shut the bedroom door. Also, turn your alarm clock toward the wall (or opt for the non-digital variety), and eliminate night-lights. Wearing an old-fashioned eye mask helps signal your brain that, yes, it really is night-time, as well. To block outside brightness, hang blackout shades and curtains. You can either attach them to the backs of your existing window treatments or hang them on their own.

8. You Can Hear a Pin Drop.

For some people, any sound (the television, rowdy neighbours, traffic) keeps them up at night. Other folks--namely, city dwellers--are crept out in super quiet places.

Surprisingly, it's not the sound or lack thereof that's keeping you awake, it's the inconsistency of sound or silence that's disruptive. Turn on a nearby ceiling or exhaust fan. This will act as white noise, both blocking out disruptive sounds and providing just enough noise for those who can't stand total silence. A white-noise machine will do the trick, too--the devices help patients sleep in the busy, active intensive care units of hospitals.

9. You Sleep Tight With Dust Mites.

You could be sharing your bed with anywhere from 100,000 to 10 million dust mites and the residue they leave behind can trigger mild to very severe allergies.

To reduce allergens, vacuum and dust regularly; use linens that block mites and replace mattresses that are more than 10 years old. Finally, crack the windows and doors. Increasing a room's airflow is one of the most effective ways to cut down on dust mites.

10. You Let pets In.

We know--you love your pet, but more than half of dog and cat owners admitted that their animal disrupted their sleep every night.

You may put a crate next to your bed and have your pup sleep there. Dogs like to sleep in a safe, protected space. Do you have a cat? Lock her out but keep her entertained with special night time-only toys that get put away in the morning. Deter door scratching by putting double-sided tape on the bottom edge; cats hate the stickiness.

11. Pay a sleep debt.

It takes more than a night of extra sleep to pay off a sleep debt, especially if you slept only three to five hours. But you recover faster from a week of poor sleep when it's preceded by nights with 10 hours of shuteye. So if you know you have a week of little sleep ahead, try loading up on sleep beforehand, not later.

Bedtime tales: Lack of sleep hits a woman harder and raises her risk of heart disease more than it does for a man. Women require more sleep than men, but generally their sleep is of a higher quality, and less fragmented. Women also seem to use sleep medication more than men. For men, use of alcohol is more common, which shortens their sleeping time, though. Men tend to start losing deep, slow wave sleep much younger than women, which can make sleep lighter and more easily disturbed.

12. Dreams interpreted.

To Freud, dreaming was a playground for the unconscious mind. To others, it helps the brain sort through emotional memories or current problems. Dreams tune the mind for conscious awareness. We dream when the brain warms its circuits, anticipating the sights and sounds and emotions of waking. It explains why people forget so many dreams.

Should you nap?: We've heard that grabbing an hour's sleep during the day is as beneficial as a whole night in bed. But power-naps work only if the sleep is of the right quality. And a full night's sleep is still necessary for many vital body functions, even though a short sleep may boost learning and memory.

Be Happy – Have a Sound Sleep Whenever Required.

Be Happy – Have a Sound Sleep Whenever Required.

Whenever you need an alarm clock in order to wake up on time, rely on the snooze button, have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, feel sluggish in the afternoon, get sleepy in meetings, lectures, or warm rooms, get drowsy after heavy meals or when driving, need to nap to get through the day, fall asleep while watching TV or relaxing in the evening, feel the need to sleep in on weekends, or fall asleep within five minutes of going to bed, it means that you are sleep deprived person. During the time you sleep, your body rejuvenates to enable you to work more energetically when you get up.

While you sleep, your brain stays busy, overseeing a wide variety of biological maintenance tasks that keep you running in top condition and prepare you for the time ahead. Without enough hours of restorative sleep, you’re like a car in need of an oil change. You won’t be able to work, learn, create, and communicate at a level even close to your true potential. You are headed for a major mental and physical breakdown. Average amount of sleep per day is required by newborn up to 18 hours, the infants ageing 1–12 months 14–18 hours, 1–3 years old children require sleep of 12–15 hours every day. When they grow up to 3–5 years, their need reduces to 11–13 hours. 5 to 12 years old children need 9–11 hours, whereas Adolescents need 9–10 hours’ sleep. Adults, including elderly need 7–8(+) hours and for Pregnant women, 8(+) hours’ sleep is essentially required.

For restoration of your spent energies, you need sound sleep but certain habits you’re unaware of could be sabotaging your sleep. And, as you may know, lack of shut-eye doesn’t just leave you foggy the next day: Chronic, long-term insufficient sleep ups your odds of diabetes, depression, cardiovascular disease, even weight gain. So what to do? You may like to try:

Halt your afternoon habit

Drinking coffee or tea right before you go to the bed, won’t do you any sleep favors. But you also need to watch your afternoon drinks. Love your 4 p.m. peach tea? It’s got caffeine, and so do some flavored waters and even orange sodas, Blake warns.

Check the labels on your favorite midday drinks—any that boast energy-boosting benefits are likely culprits. Then, if possible, stop sipping them by 2 p.m., so there’s time for their effects to wear off. Naturally, coffee drinks pack a real wallop, so stay away from them after lunch.

Choose sleep superfoods.

While it’s important to avoid a big, heavy meal right before bed (a full stomach will disturb your sleep), some foods may actually help you snooze. If you’ve had a few nights of restless sleep, make a light whole-wheat-pasta dish with fresh vegetables, a little diced chicken breast, tomato sauce, and a sprinkle of Parmesan for dinner. This meal contains a snooze-friendly combination of protein and tryptophan, an amino acid that converts to sleep-promoting serotonin in the body.

If your stomach’s growling late at night, try a small bowl of cottage cheese with banana slices, another dish that serves up tryptophan. Other combos of healthy carbs and protein, such as milk and graham crackers or yogurt sprinkled with cereal, will also do the trick.

Sip wine sooner.

Even though a nightcap may help you relax and fall asleep faster, it’ll make the second half of your sleep cycle restless and unsatisfying. Alcohol decreases deep sleep and increases arousals from sleep. If you like a glass of wine in the evening, have it with dinner—around 6 p.m. rather than 11—and drink in moderation, so it’ll wear off by the time you lie down.

Take an early soak.

Like to unwind in the tub before you snooze? Surprisingly, a hot bath might make it harder for you to drift off: Doing anything that raises your body temperature too close to bedtime may actually hinder you from falling asleep, because your body needs to cool to a certain temperature in order to reach a sound slumber. That doesn’t mean you can’t soak after a rough day—when you get home from work, not right before turning in.

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Stretch for sleep

You probably already know that exercising at night can disrupt sleep. But getting in a little gentle, restorative yoga before you hit the sack can help put your mind at ease, steady your breath, and reduce muscle tension without revving up your heart.

Try a restful Reclined Butterfly pose. Lie on your back with the soles of your feet together and your knees bent and dropping toward the floor. Place your arms, palms up, by your sides, keeping your shoulders back and your chest open. Close your eyes and inhale through your nose while slowly counting to four, then exhale while counting back down to one. Continue for 10 minutes, or as long as it takes you to feel fully relaxed.

Set the mood for slumber
Keeping your room dark while you sleep is a great start, but bringing the lights down before bed is also important. Bright light too close to bedtime can make it hard to fall asleep. That’s because dimness signals the biological clock that it’s time to wind down, while bright light says “daytime!” Swap out eyebright bedroom bulbs for low-watt ones, or install a dimmer switch and keep it low. Like to read in bed? Do it in the lowest light that’s still comfortable.

Shut down your mobile phones.

Need to send out one last e-mail before you “officially” turn in? Not so fast. Typing in bed can wind you up, so when you do unplug, it will be harder to fall asleep. It’s possible that even the vibration of your mobile, could disturb sleep if a person is cued to hear or respond to it.

For tech-free zzz’s, disconnect an hour before bed, turn your smartphone off, and put any gadgets on an out-of-reach dresser or in another room so you won’t be able to grab it if you get the late-night urge. Also, invest in a real alarm clock (using your cell will only give you another excuse to keep it close)—and get ready to wake up feeling so refreshed that you won’t even need to press snooze.

Be Happy – Have a Sound Sleep Whenever Required.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation For Early Success (Part 5)

Effective Presentation is a pre-condition for early success in your life. You can have many tools like good headlines, sufficient canvassing about your products/services and after-sales services etc. You can adopt takeaway selling tool for early sales.

Use Takeaway Selling to Increase the Urgency.

When you limit the supply of a product or service in some way (i.e. takeaway selling), basic economics dictates that the demand will rise. In other words, people will generally respond better to an offer if they believe the offer is about to become unavailable or restricted in some way.

And of course, the opposite is also true. If a prospect knows your product will be around whenever he needs it, there’s no need for him to act now. And when your presentation is put aside by the prospect, the chance of closing the sale diminishes greatly.

It’s your job, therefore, to get your prospect to buy, and buy now. Using scarcity to sell is a great way to accomplish that. There are basically three types of takeaways:

1) Limiting the quantity
2) Limiting the time
3) Limiting the offer

In the first method, limiting the quantity, you are presenting a fixed number of items available for sale. After they’re gone, that’s it. Some good ways to limit the quantity include:

1) Only so many units made or obtained
2) Selling off old stock to make room for new
3) Limited number of cosmetically-defected items, or a fire sale
4) Only a limited number being sold so as not to saturate the market etc.

In the second method, limiting the time, a deadline is added to the offer. It should be a realistic deadline, not one that changes all the time (especially on a website, where the deadline date always seems to be that very day at midnight…when you return the next day, the deadline date has mysteriously changed again to the new day). Deadlines that change decrease your credibility. This approach works well when the offer or the price will change, or the product/service will become unavailable, after the deadline.

The third method, limiting the offer, is accomplished by limiting other parts of the offer, such as the guarantee, bonuses or premiums, the price, and so on. When using takeaway selling, you must be sure to follow-through with your restrictions. If you say you only have 500 widgets to sell, then don’t sell 501. If you say your offer will expire at the end of the month, make sure it does. Otherwise your credibility will take a hit. Prospects will remember the next time another offer from you makes its way into their hands.

Another important thing you should do is explain the reason why the offer is being restricted. Don’t just say the price will be going up in three weeks, but decline to tell them why. Here are some examples of good takeaway selling:

“Unfortunately, I can only handle so many clients. Once my plate is full, I will be unable to accept any new business. So if you’re serious about strengthening your investment strategies and creating more wealth than ever before, you should contact me ASAP.” “Remember…you must act by [date] at midnight in order to get my 2 bonuses. These bonuses have been provided by [third-party company], and we have no control over their availability after that time.” “We’ve obtained only 750 of these premiums from our vendor. Once they are gone, we won’t be able to get any more until next year. And even then we can’t guarantee the price will remain the same. In fact, because of the increasing demand, it’s very likely the price could double or triple by then!” Remember when I said earlier that people buy based on emotions, then back up their decision to buy with logic? Well, by using takeaway selling, that restriction becomes part of that logic to buy and buy now.

Conclusion

• Great presentation is made, not born. It is derived from proven test results designed to do one thing and do it well: to sell.
• Effective Presentation doesn't always use "grammatically correct" English. It uses short sentences, fragments. Like this.
• Period: It convinces you to buy, and buy now.
• It talks about benefits, not features. It sells on emotion and reinforces the decision to buy with logic.
• It paints a compelling picture and irresistible offer that forces your prospect to act and act now! And if it doesn't, then you drop that presentation like a hot potato and go with one that does.
• Effective persuasion is like your top salesperson--the one who continues to break all your sales records year after year--on the job 24 x 7, multiplied by thousands or millions! Just imagine if that salesperson, the one with proven results, could be multiplied as much as you wanted.
  

Now your effective presentation would be effective (and cost-efficient) marketing! And that's the kind of proven marketing you need to employ.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation For Early Success.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation For Early Success (Part 4)

In the last posts, I had made some submissions about effective presentation of what we need to sell out – our services, our products, our ideas etc. For an effective opening, we need to bring about good headlines – they must be effective, attractive, precise and message-communicators. Now where do you find great headlines?

You may look at other successful presentations (especially direct response) that have stood the test of time. You may look for presentations that run regularly in magazines and other publications. How do you know they’re good? Because if they didn’t do their job, the advertiser wouldn’t keep running them again and again.

You may get on the mailing lists of the big direct response companies and save their direct mail packages. You read the National Enquirer. The National Enquirer has some of the best headlines in the business. If you pick up a recent issue, you’ll see what I mean. You will find some headlines compelling you to go through the contents fully.

Now, how could you adapt some of those headlines to your own product or service? Your headline should create a sense of urgency. It should be as specific as possible. Mentioning $1,007,274.23 is better than saying a million dollars.

The headline appearance is also very important. Generally, longer headlines tend to out pull shorter ones, even when targeting more “conservative” prospects.

It should go without saying that when you use other successful headlines, you adapt them to your own product or service. Never copy a headline (or any other written copyrighted piece of work for that matter) word for word. Copywriters and presentation agencies are notoriously famous for suing for plagiarism. They can do rightfully so.

More Disclosures Make More Sales.

Usually it is a newcomer to presentation-writing thinking that long presentation is boring and, well…long. “I would never read that much copy,” they say. The fact of the matter is that all things being equal, long presentation will outperform short presentation every time. And when I say long presentation, I don’t mean long and boring, or long and un-targeted.

The person who says he would never read all that presentation is making a big mistaking in presentation-writing: he is going with his gut reaction instead of relying on test results. He is thinking that he himself is the prospect. He’s not. We’re never our own prospects.

There have been many studies conducted on the long presentation versus short presentation debate. And the clear winner is always long presentation. But that’s targeted relevant long presentation as opposed to untargeted boring long presentation.
Some significant research has found that readership tends to fall off dramatically at around 300 words, but does not drop off again until around 3,000 words.

If I’m selling an expensive set of golf clubs and send my long presentation to a person who plays golf occasionally, or always wanted to try golf, I am sending my sales pitch to the wrong prospect. It is not targeted effectively. And so if a person who receives my long presentation doesn’t read past the 300th word, they weren’t qualified for my offer in the first place.

It wouldn’t have mattered whether they read up to the 100th word or 10,000th word. They still wouldn’t have made a purchase.

However, if I sent my long presentation to an avid die-hard golfer, who just recently purchased other expensive golf products through the mail, painting an irresistible offer, telling him how my clubs will knock 10 strokes off his game, he’ll likely read every word. And if I’ve targeted my message correctly, he will buy.

Remember, if your prospect is 3000 miles away, it’s not easy for him to ask you a question. You must anticipate and answer all of his questions and overcome all objections in your presentation if you are to be successful. And make sure you don’t throw everything you can think of under the sun in there. You only need to include as much information as you need to make the sale…and not one word more.

If it takes a 10-page sales letter, so be it. If it takes a 16-page magalog, fine. But if the 10-page sales letter tests better than the 16-page magalog, then by all means go with the winner.

Does that mean every prospect must read every word of your presentation before he will order your product? Of course not. Some will read every word and then go back and reread it again. Some will read the headline and lead, then skim much of the body and land on the close. Some will scan the entire body, then go back and read it. All of those prospects may end up purchasing the offer, but they also all may have different styles of reading and skimming.

Write To Be Scanned.

Your layout is very important in a sales letter, because you want your letter to look inviting, refreshing to the eyes. In short, you want your prospect to stop what he’s doing and read your letter. If he sees a letter with tiny margins, no indentations, no breaks in the text, no white space, and no subheads…if he sees a page of nothing but densely-packed words, do you think he’ll be tempted to read it? Not likely.

If you do have ample white space and generous margins, short sentences, short paragraphs, subheads, and an italicized or underlined word here and there for emphasis, it will certainly look more inviting to read.

When reading your letter, some prospects will start at the beginning and read word for word. Some will read the headline and maybe the lead, then read the “P.S.” at the end of the letter and see who the letter is from, then start from the beginning.

And some folks will scan through your letter, noticing the various subheads strategically positioned by you throughout your letter, then decide if it’s worth their time to read the entire thing. Some may never read the entire letter, but order anyways.
You must write for all of them. Interesting and compelling long presentation for the studious reader, and short paragraphs and sentences, white space, and subheads for the skimmer.

Subheads are the smaller headlines sprinkled throughout your presentation. When coming up with your headline, some of the headlines that didn’t make the cut can make great subheads. A good subhead forces your prospect to keep reading, threading him along from start to finish throughout your presentation, while also providing the glue necessary to keep skimmers skimming.

The Structure of presentation

You may develop the structure of your presentation to ensure that the target may have:

1) Attention
2) Interest
3) Desire
4) Action
5) Satisfaction

First, you need to capture your prospect’s attention. This is done with your headline and lead. If your presentation fails to capture your prospect’s attention, it fails completely. Your prospect doesn’t read your stellar presentation, and doesn’t order your product or service.

Secondly, you want to build a strong interest in your prospect. You want him to keep reading, because if he reads, he just might buy.

Thirdly, you channel a desire. Having a targeted market for this is the key, because you’re not trying to create a desire where one did not already exist. You want to capitalize on an existing desire, which your prospect may or may not know he already has. And you want your prospect to experience that desire for your product or service.

Fourthly, you present a call to action. You want him to pick up the telephone, return the reply card, attend the sales presentation, order your product, whatever. You need to ask for the sale (or response, if that’s the goal). You don’t want to beat around the bush at this point. If your letter structure is sound and persuasive, here’s where you present the terms of your offer and urge the prospect to act now.

In the end, after the sale is made, you want to satisfy your prospect, who is now a customer. You want to deliver exactly what you promised (or even more), by the date you promised, in the manner you promised. In short, you want to give him every reason in the world to trust you the next time you sell him a back-end offer. And of course you’d rather he doesn’t return the product (although if he does, you also execute your return policy as promised).

Either way, you want your customers to be satisfied. It will make you a lot more money in the long run. You need to put up an effective presentation always.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation For Early Success.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation For Early Success (Part 3)

As we understand, in the finance-oriented world of today we need money to support to our survival and money can be garnered through selling out our services, our products and/or our ideas. For selling out, we need to identify our prospective customers/clients and create their needs so that they are ready to buy what we offer. We can create their needs by our effective presentation.

An Appropriate Selling Proposition.

Whenever we think about enhancing our income, we need to create some products or services and make out the strategy to sell out the same simultaneously. If we do not think about timely disposal of our creation, we can not accumulate our products or wait for the utilization of our services beyond our own resources which need replenishment from time to time. Under An Appropriate Selling Proposition, we create the essentials of a good sales communication. Let us consider about those essentials:

1. Lowest Price –

If you’ve got the corner marketed on budget prices, flaunt it. Wal-Mart has made this USP famous lately, but it’s not new to them. In fact, selling for cheaper has been around as long as capitalism itself. Personally, I’m not crazy about price wars, because someone can always come along and sell for cheaper. Then it’s time for a new strategy.

2. Superior Quality –

If it outperforms your competitor’s product or is made with higher quality materials, it’s a good bet that you could use this fact to your advantage. For example, compare some popular Ice Cream to their competitor’s. From the packaging to the wholesome superior ingredients, you will find that the quality is evident. It may cost a little more than their competitor’s ice cream, but for their market, it sells.

3. Superior Service –

If you offer superior service over your competitor’s, people will buy from you instead. This is especially true with certain markets that are all about service: long-distance, Internet service providers, cable television, etc.

4. Exclusive Rights –

If you can legitimately claim that your product is protected by a patent or copyright, licensing agreement, etc., then you have a winner for exclusive rights. If you have a patent, even the President of the U.S. must buy it from you.

What if your product or service is no different than your competitor’s? I would disagree, because there are always differences. The trick is to turn them into a positive advantage for you. You want to put your “best foot forward.” So what can we do in this scenario?

One way is to present something that your company has devised internally that no other company does. Look, there’s a reason why computer store “A” offers to beat their competitor’s price for the same product by X%. If you look closely, the two packages are never exactly the same. Company “B” offers a free scanner, while company “A” offers a free printer. Or some other difference. They are comparing apples to oranges. So unless you find a company with the exact same package (you won’t…they’ve seen to that), you won’t be able to cash in.

But what if you truly have the same matter for sale as the guy up the road? Unless your prospect knows the inner workings of both your and your competitor’s product, including the manufacturing process, customer service, and everything in-between, then you have a little potential creative licensing here. But you must be truthful. Your truth will win the market one day, believe me! Truth means you are not going to exaggerate the properties of your products or hide the defects in any terms. We should highlight our truths without caring whether our competitors are doing or not the same. The customer will start to believe upon your statements in due course of time.

For example:

1. If I tell my readers that my product is bathed in steam to ensure purity and cleanliness (like the cans and bottles in most beer manufacturing processes), it doesn’t matter that Joe’s Beer up the road does the same thing. That fact that Joe doesn’t advertise this fact makes it an essential of his strategy in your prospect’s eyes.
2. We are the only car repair shop that will buy your car if you are not 100 percent satisfied with our work.
3. We will deliver the edibles at the destination in 30 minutes or it’s on us!
4. No other furniture company will pay for your shipping.
5. Our recipe is so secret, only three people in the world know it!
   

As with most ways to boost response, research is the key with your selling strategy. Sometimes your strategy is obvious, for example if you have a patent. Other times you must do a little legwork to discover it (or shape it to your target market).

Here’s where a little persistence and in-person selling really pays off. Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean:

Suppose your company sells beanbag chairs for kids. So you, being the wise marketer that you are, decide to sell these beanbags in person to prospects before writing your copy. After completing twenty different pitches for your product, you discover that 75 percent of those you visited asked if the chair would eventually leak. Since the chairs are for kids, it’s only logical that parents would be concerned about their youngster jumping on it, rolling on it, and doing all things possible to break the seam and “spill the beans.”

So when you write your copy, you make sure you address that issue: “You can rest assure that our super-strong beanbag chairs are triple-stitched for guaranteed leak-proof performance. No other company will make this guarantee about their beanbag chairs!”

The Headline

If you’re going to make a single change to boost your response rate the most, focus on your headline (you do have one, don’t you?).

Why? Because five times as many people read your headline than your copy. Quite simply, a headline is…a presentation for your presentation. People won’t stop their busy lives to read your copy unless you give them a good reason to do so. So a good headline promises some news and a benefit.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “What’s this about news, you say?”

Think about the last time you browsed through your local newspaper. You checked out the articles, one by one, and occasionally a presentation may have caught your eye. Which ads were the ones most likely to catch your eye?

• The ones that looked like an article, of course,
• The ones with the headline that promised news,
• The ones with fonts and type that closely resembled the fonts and type used in articles,
• The ones that were placed where articles were placed (as opposed to being placed on a full page of presentations, for example), or
• The ones with the most compelling headlines that convinced you it’s worth a few minutes to read the copy.
  

The headline is that powerful and that important.

I’ve seen many presentations over the years that didn’t even have a headline. And that’s just silly. It’s the equivalent of flushing good money spent on Presentation right down the toilet.

Why? Because your response can increase dramatically by not only adding a headline, but by making that headline almost impossible to resist for your target market.

And those last three words are important. Your target market. For example, take a look at the following headline:

Announcing…New High-Tech Gloves Protect Wearer Against Hazardous Waste

News, and a benefit!

Will that headline appeal to everyone? No, and you don’t care about everyone. But for someone who handles hazardous waste, they would sure appreciate knowing about this little gem. That’s your target market, and it’s your job to get them to read your presentation. Your headline is the way you do that.

Since headlines of your presentation are important, I would like to make some more submissions in my next post. You may please make effective presentation of your products as much as possible.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation For Early Success.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation For Early Success (Part 2)

If we press emotional button of the prospective customer, client or the audience, we can get the things done. We can sell the people. But generally, people don’t like to be sold; They do like to buy. And they buy based on emotion first and foremost. Then, they justify their decision with logic, even after they are already sold emotionally.

So be sure to back up your emotional pitch with logic to nurture that justification at the end. And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk a moment about perceived “hype” in a sales letter. A lot of more “conservative” advertisers have decided that they don’t like hype, because they consider hype to be old news, been-there-and-done-that, my customers won’t fall for hype, it’s not believable anymore.

What they should realize is that hype itself does not sell well. Some less experienced copywriters often try to compensate for their lack of research or not fully understanding their target market or the product itself by adding tons of adjectives and adverbs and exclamation points and big bold type. If you do your job right, it’s just not needed.

That’s not to say some adverbs or adjectives don’t have their place…only if they’re used sparingly, and only if they advance the sale. But I think you’d agree that backing up your copy with proof and believability will go a lot farther in convincing your prospects than “power words” alone. I say power words, because there are certain adverbs and adjectives that have been proven to make a difference when they’re included. This by itself is not hype. But repeated too often, they become less effective, and they take away (at least in your prospect’s mind) from the proof.

Incorporating Proof and Believability.

When your prospect reads your presentation, you want to make sure he should believe any claims you make about your product or service. Because if there’s any doubt in his mind, he won’t bite, no matter how sweet the deal. In fact, the “too good to be true” mentality will virtually guarantee a lost sale…even if it is all true.

So what can you do to increase the perception of believability? Because after all, it’s the perception you need to address up front. But of course you also must make sure your copy is accurate and truthful.

Here are some tried and tested methods that will help:

• If you’re dealing with existing customers who already know you deliver as promised, emphasize that trust. Don’t leave it up to them to figure it out. Make them stop, cock their heads, and say, “Oh, yeah. The ABC Company has never done me wrong before. I can trust them.”
• Include testimonials of satisfied customers. Be sure to put full names and locations, where possible. Remember, “A.S.” is a lot less believable than “Andy Sherman, Voorhees, NJ.” If you can also include a picture of the customer and/or a professional title, that’s even better. It doesn’t matter that your testimonials aren’t from somebody famous or that your prospect does not know these people personally. If you have enough compelling testimonials, and they’re believable, you’re much better off than not including them at all.
• Pepper your copy with facts and research findings to support your claims. Be sure to credit all sources, even if the fact is common knowledge, because a neutral source goes a long way towards credibility.
• For a direct mail letter or certain space presentations where the copy is in the form of a letter from a specific individual, including a picture of that person helps. But unlike “traditional” real estate letters and other similar presentations, I’d put the picture at the end near your signature, or midway through the copy, rather than at the top where it will detract from your headline. And…if your sales letter is from a specific individual, be sure to include his credentials to establish him as an expert in his field (relating to your product or service, of course).
• If applicable, cite any awards or third-party reviews the product or service has received.
• If you’ve sold a lot of widgets, tell them. It’s the old “10 million people can’t be wrong” adage (they can be, but your prospect will likely take your side on the matter).
• Include a GREAT return policy and stand by it! This is just good business policy. Many times, offering a double refund guarantee for certain products will result in higher profits. Yes, you’ll dish out more refunds, but if you sell three times as many widgets as before, and only have to refund twice as much as before, it may be worth it, depending on your offer and return on investment. Crunch the numbers and see what makes sense. More importantly, test! Make them think, “Gee, they wouldn’t be so generous with returns if they didn’t stand behind their product!”
• If you can swing it, adding a celebrity endorsement will always help to establish credibility. Heck, if ‘ol honest Abe Lincoln recommended your product and backs up your claims, it must be true! Ok, you get the idea, though. When it makes sense, use 3rd party testimonials. What are 3rd party testimonials? Here’s some examples from some Web site copy I wrote when there weren’t many customer testimonials available yet:
  

“Spyware, without question, is on an exponential rise over the last six months.” -Alfred Huger, Senior Director of Engineering, Symantec Security Response (maker of Norton security software)
“Simply clicking on a banner presentation can install spyware.” -Dave Methvin, Chief Technology Officer, PC Pitstop.

Do you notice what I did? I took quotes from experts in their respective fields and turned them to my side. But…be sure to get their consent or permission from the copyright holder if there’s ever any question about copyrighted materials as your source. Note that I also pushed an emotional hot button: fear. It’s been proven that people will generally do more to avoid pain than to obtain pleasure. So why not use that tidbit of info to your advantage?

• Reveal a flaw about your product. This helps alleviate the “too good to be true” syndrome. You reveal a flaw that isn’t really a flaw. Or reveal a flaw that is minor, just to show that you’re being “up front” about your product’s shortcomings.

Example:
“You’re probably thinking right now that this tennis racket is a miracle worker—and it is. But I must tell you that it has one little…shortcoming. My racket takes about 2 weeks to get used to. In fact, when you first start using it, your game will actually get worse. But if you can just ride it out, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your volleys, net play, serves, …” And so on.

There’s a tendency to think, with all of the presentations that we are bombarded with today that every advertiser is always putting his best foot forward, so to speak. And I think that line of reasoning is accurate, to a point.

But isn’t it refreshing when someone stands out from the crowd and is honest? In other words, your reader will start to subconsciously believe that you are revealing all of the flaws, even though your best foot still stands forward.

Use “lift notes.” These are a brief note or letter from a person of authority. Not necessary a celebrity, although that can add credibility, too. A person of authority is someone well recognized in their field (which is related to your product) that they are qualified to talk about. Lift notes may be distributed as inserts, a separate page altogether, or even as part of the copy itself. As always, test!

• If you are limiting the offer with a deadline “order by” date, be sure the deadline is real and does not change. Deadline dates that change every day are sure to reduce credibility. The prospect will suspect, “if his deadline date keeps changing, he’s not telling the truth about it…I wonder what else he’s not telling the truth about.” The deadline date must be maintained.

I hope that you will take the above some seriously and attempt over them after due consideration to your individual circumstances.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation for Early success.

Be Happy – Do Effective Presentation For Early Success (Part 1)

What is Presentation?

Is it something to be regarded as a work of beauty or art? Does it contain clever slogans or amusing prose when you put forth some thing new? Is it workmanship to be judged for an award or recognition?

It’s none of the above.

Presentation of something is what you do salesmanship multiplied to bring home your idea, to get your products/concepts sold out. It is Nothing more. And documenting presentation copy, or copy-writing is salesmanship in print. The purpose of a copywriter’s job is to sell. The selling is accomplished by persuasion with the written word, much like a television commercial sells (if done properly) by persuading with visuals and audio.

To properly understand Presentation or to learn even its rudiments one must start with the right conception. Presentation is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every Presentation question should be answered by the salesman's standards. Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of Presentation is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.

It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong.

The difference is only in degree. Presentation is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on an average presentation. Therefore every presentation should be planned in such a way that it may work as a super-salesman for you. It must be made effective.

A salesman's mistake may cost little. A mistake made in presentation may cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre Presentation affects all of your trade.

How Can We Make Our Presentation As Effective As Possible.

We may have to test. Test again. And then test some more. If our method of presentation named as “A” receives a two percent response rate, and other method named as “B” receives three percent, then we can deduce that “B” will continue to outperform “A” on a larger scale. Testing takes time, however, and can be expensive if not kept in check. Therefore, it’s ideal to start with some proven tested known ideas and work from there.

If testing has shown for decades or more that targeted Presentation significantly outperforms untargeted Presentation (and it does), then we can start with that assumption and go from there. If we know based on test results that crafting a presentation that speaks directly to an individual performs better than addressing the masses (again, it does), then it makes little sense to start testing with the assumption that it does not. This is common sense.

So it stands to reason that knowing some basic rules or techniques about planning an effective presentation is in order. Test results will always trump everything, but it’s better to have a starting point before you test.

When we plan an effective presentation of something being brought out anew or in a continued process of keeping the memory alive in the minds of the target people, we need to:

Focus On Products/Services Only, Not Ourselves Much.

When a prospect reads our presentation, letter, brochure, etc., the one thing he will be wondering from the start is: “what’s in it for me?” And if your copy doesn’t tell him, it’ll land in the trash faster than he can read the headline or lead.

This mistake is very frequently repeated by those who plan presentations. They focus on them as a company. How long they’ve been in business, who their biggest customers are, how they’ve spent ten years of research and millions of dollars on developing this product, etc. Actually, those points are important. But they should be expressed in a way that matters to your potential customer. Remember, once our presentation is ignored, the sale is lost!

When writing our presentation document, it helps to think of it as writing a letter to an old friend. In fact, I often picture a friend of mine who most closely fits my prospect’s profile. What would I say to convince this friend to try my product? How would I target my friend’s objections and beliefs to help my cause?

When you’re writing to a friend, you’ll use the pronouns “I” and “you.” When trying to convince your friend, you might say: “Look, I know you think you’ve tried every widget out there. But you should know that…”

And it goes beyond just writing in the second person. That is, addressing your prospect as “you” within the document. The fact of the matter is there are many successful presentations that weren’t written in the second person. Some are written in the first person perspective, where the writer uses “I.” Other times the third person is used, with “she,” “he,” and “them.” And even if we do write in the second person, it doesn’t necessarily mean our presentation is about them.

For example: “As a real estate agent, you can take comfort in the fact that I’ve sold over 10,000 homes and mastered the tricks of the trade”. Although you’re writing in the second person, you’re really still focusing on yourself. So how can you focus on them? Glad you asked. One way is to…

Emphasize Benefits, Not Features

What are features? They are descriptions of what qualities a product possesses.

• The XYZ car delivers 55 miles per gallon in the city.
• Our ladder’s frame is made from a lightweight durable steel alloy.
• Our glue is protected by a patent.
• This database has a built-in data-mining system.

And what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your prospects.

1. You’ll save money on gas and cut down on environmental pollutants when you use our energy saving high-performance hybrid car. Plus, you’ll feel the extra oomph when you’re passing cars, courtesy of the efficient electric motor, which they don’t have!
2. Lightweight durable steel-alloy frame means you’ll be able to take it with you with ease, and use it in places most other ladders can’t go, while still supporting up to 800 pounds. No more backaches lugging around that heavy ladder. And it’ll last for 150 years, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!
3. Patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, glass, and tile…without messy cleanup and without ever having to re-glue it again—guaranteed!
4. You can instantly see the “big picture” hidden in your data, and pull the most arcane statistics on demand. Watch your business do a “180” in no time flat, when you instantly know why it’s failing in the first place! It’s all done with our built-in data-mining system that’s so easy to use, my twelve year-old son used it successfully right out of the box.
   

These examples have been crafted to convey the point.

By the way, did you notice in the list of features where I wrote “steel alloy?” But in the benefits I wrote “steel-alloy” (with a hyphen). Not sure off-hand which one is correct, but I know which one I’d use. Why: We are not making our presentation to impress our English teacher or win any awards. The only award we’re after is your copy beating the control (control being the best-selling copy so far), so take some liberty in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. We want it to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!

Benefits… If you were selling an expensive watch, you wouldn’t tell your reader that the face is 2 inches in diameter and the band is made of leather. You show him how the extra-large face will tell him the time at a glance. No sir! He won’t have to squint and look foolish to everyone around him trying to read this magnificent timepiece. And how about the way he’ll project success and charisma when he wears the beautiful gold watch with its handcrafted custom leather band? How his lover will find him irresistible when he’s all dressed up to go out, wearing the watch. Or how the watch’s status and beauty will attract the ladies.

Incidentally, did you notice how I brought up not squinting as a benefit? Does that sound like a silly benefit? Not if you are selling to affluent baby boomers suffering from degrading vision. They probably hate it when someone they’re trying to impress sees them squint in order to read something. It’s all part of their inner desire, which you need to discover. And which even they may not know about. That is, until you show them a better way.

The point is to address the benefits of the product, not its features. And when you do that, you’re focusing on your reader and his interests, his desires. The trick is to highlight those specific benefits (and word them correctly) that push your reader’s emotional hot buttons.

Push Their Emotional Hot Buttons

This is where research really pays off. Because in order to push those buttons, you need to first know what they are.

Once upon a time a young man walked into a Chevrolet dealer’s showroom to check out a Chevy Camaro. He had the money, and he was ready to make a buying decision. But he couldn’t decide if he wanted to buy the Camaro or the Ford Mustang up the road at the Ford dealer.

A salesman approached him and soon discovered the man’s dilemma.
“Tell me what you like best about the Camaro,” said the salesman.
“It’s a fast car. I like it for its speed.”
After some more discussion, the salesman learned the man had just started dating a cute college cheerleader. So what did the salesman do?
Simple. He changed his pitch accordingly, to push the hot buttons he knew would help advance the sale. He told the man about how impressed his new girlfriend would be when he came home with this car! He placed the mental image in the man’s mind of his girlfriend with himself cruising to the beach in the Camaro. How all of his friends will be envious when they see him riding around with a beautiful girl in a beautiful car. And suddenly the man saw it. He got it. And the salesman recognized this and piled it on even more. Before you know it, the man wrote a nice fat check to the Chevy dealership, because he was sold!

The salesman found those hot buttons and pushed them like never before until the man realized he wanted the Camaro more than he wanted his money.

I know what you’re thinking…the man said he liked the car because it was fast, didn’t he?
Yes, he did. But subconsciously, what he really desired was a car that would impress his girlfriend, his friends, and in his mind make them love him more! In his mind he equated speed with thrill. Not because he wanted an endless supply of speeding tickets, but because he thought that thrill would make him more attractive, more likeable.

Perhaps the man didn’t even realize this fact himself. But the salesman sure did. And he knew which emotional hot buttons to press to get the sale.

Now, where does the research pay off? Well, a good salesman knows how to ask the kinds of questions that will tell him which buttons to press on the fly. When you’re writing copy, you don’t have that luxury. It’s therefore very important to know upfront the wants, needs, and desires of your prospects for that very reason. If you haven’t done your homework, your prospect is going to decide that he’d rather keep his money than buy your product. Remember, presentation document is salesmanship in print!

We may plan for our presentation carefully. Since it seems to be an interesting subject, I may continue it to next post.

Be Happy – Do effective Presentation For Early Success.

Be Happy – Generate Your Profits.

Whenever you start your own business as a businessman or as a manufacturer, or you may start your practice independently as a self employed professional, you need to generate surplus of the money coming in to meet your actual expenses, cost of your time and some amount for meeting your own expenses on bread and butter of yourself and your dependents. You need to generate your profits to ensure your survival.

How to generate your profits means how to increase your sales and decrease the costs of the sales. You may have to pay your utmost attention towards initiating your sales, increasing them and simultaneously reducing the costs of the products/services involved therein. In these activities, the inflow of customers or clients towards you is the most important one. You can appoint sales representatives; you can have marketing staff, sales offices, affiliates, reference providers etc. You can design a good web site. You can give advertisements in the media and so on. With the expansion of internet facility, designing a proper website and maintenance by keeping that web site updated constantly makes a lot of efforts itself. In addition, you may:

1. Keep people at your web site for as long as possible. Allow them to download free e-books, sign up for contests, use free online services, etc. This will help increase your sales. You could use pop-up pages, pop-under pages and exit pages too. But be warned, this can annoy some visitors.
2. Anticipate any objections your visitors may have about your product’s offer. You must research your target audience's needs and wants. For example, your target audience may not like businesses that use free web site domains. Another example, they may not like to buy from web sites that don't accept offline checks.
3. Remember not to use outrageous or unbelievable claims in your ad copy. People are too savvy online and won't believe you. For example, don't say, "You can make 1 million dollars in 2 days!" Another example, "You can fold paper at home and make up to $2000 a day!"
4. Pick a good name for your business and product.
5. Your names should be memorable and describe the kind of product you're offering. Names that rhyme are easy to remember. If you're selling information products you may want the word "publisher" in your business name. You also don't want your name to have any offensive words or phrases in it.
6. Solve your customers’ complaints by being quick and friendly. The faster you respond, the more your customers feel you care about them. You could set up a handy FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list. You could also add more ways they contact you faster, like by e-mail, phone, web message system, fax, instant message, cell phone, etc.
7. Never think your customers are satisfied with their purchase. You should be constantly finding new ways to better your product and service. You could give the free surprise gifts, survey your customers, take all their opinions and questions seriously, set up focus groups to improve your product, etc.
8. Market yourself, as well as your product. You could write articles, e-books, do free consulting, do speaking engagements, etc. You could tell your prospects a little bit about your personal history too. You could tell them when you were born, where you grew up, tell them about your parents and other family members, etc.
9. Find new target audiences for your products or services. For example, if you're selling coffee to stores, try to sell it to coffee shops too. You should always be opening new profit streams for your business. Try to brainstorm new profit ideas at least once a week.
10. Use the phrase "invest in our product" instead of the words “buy” or “purchase”. This makes prospects feel they're investing in their future if they buy. You could also tell people how much others have got back from your product by publishing testimonials of people who have made money or reaped the benefits.
11. Create offline affiliates to market your product. Have people sign up at your web site to sell your products through "house parties". You could have people taking their laptops to parties and selling through their affiliate links. They will get paid just like they would online.
12. Use logos and slogans for your business. They make it easier for people to remember and identify your business. For example, how many times have you had a problem and the first thing that popped into your mind is some business’ logo or slogan. It's almost like an automatic reaction.
13. Use the word "fast" in your ad. People want fast results, fast delivery, fast ordering, etc. Nowadays, we usually value our time more than our money. For example, you could say, "Our product works fast!" Another example, "Our product comes with fast shipping options."
14. Use the word "guaranteed" in your ad. People want to be assured they are not risking their hard- earned money buying your product. For example, you could say, "Our product comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee!" Another example would be, "Don't forget our product comes with a lifetime guarantee!"
15. Use the word "limited" in your ad. People want to own or receive things that are exclusive or rare because they are considered to be more valuable. For example, you could say, "This special edition will be limited to the first 500 who order!" Another example would be, "Order before (date) to get this limited version of our e-book!"
16. Use the word "easy/simple" in your ad. People want easy ordering, easy instructions, easy to use, easy payments, etc. For example, you could say, "It's the easiest way to lose weight!" Another example would be, "It's easy to order - just click here and fill out your information!"
17. Use the word "testimonial" in your ad. People want to see believable proof before they buy your product. It should be reputable and specific proof. For example, you could say, "Check the hundreds of testimonials we have received!" Another example would be, "All these testimonials below were given voluntarily without payment!"
18. Use the words "discount/sale" in your ad. People want to find bargains. They could be rebates, one time sales, percentage offers, get-one-free offers, etc. For example, you could say, "Get a 50% rebate if you order before (date)!" Another example would be, "Order before our buy-one-get-one- free sale ends!"
19. Use the word "free" in your ad. People want free incentives before they do business with you. They could be free books, accessories, services, etc. For example, you could say. " Free shipping with every order over $50!" Another example would be, "Order within the next 5 minutes to get 3 extra bonuses free!"
20. Use the words "you/your" in your ad. People want to know that you are talking to them. This'll make them feel important and attract them to read the whole ad. For example, you could say, "You could be the winner in our next contest!" Another example would be, "You are experiencing the benefits already, aren't you?"
21. Use the word "important" in your ad. People do not want to miss important information that could affect their lives. People will stop and take notice. For example, your headline could read, "Important Warning!...” Another example could be, "Important! Stop And Take Notice!..."
22. Use the word "new" in your ad. People want new products or services that will improve their lives like new information, tastes, technology, results, etc. For example, you could say, "Learn a new revolutionary way to lose weight!” Another example would be, “New! Just Released!..."
23. Show your prospects how much enthusiasm you have for your product and business. If you're convincing enough, they will be enthusiastic too. For example, you could say, "I'm so EXCITED about our new product!” Another example would be, "I can't wait for you to experience these benefits!"
24. End your sales letter or ad copy with a strong closing. It could be a free bonus, a discount price,a benefit reminder, an ordering deadline, etc. For example, you could say, "P.S. Remember, you'll get 5 bonuses valued at $245!" Another example would be, "P.S. Like mentioned earlier, if you order today you'll get 45% off!"
25. Please your complaining customers. You can refund their money, give them a discount, give them a free gift, solve the problem quickly, etc. For example, you could say, "I understand how you must feel, so I'm giving you a complete refund." Another example would be, "I’ve been in your shoes before. I'm going to give you a 50% discount on your next purchase."
26. Make your customers get excited about your business and they will tell their friends. Give them a free vacation certificate, a coupon, etc. For example, you could say, "Get a FREE vacation to (the location)! Another example would be, "You will also get a $200 coupon to our next event!"
27. Give your prospects extra confidence so they will order. Use endorsements, testimonials, a strong guarantee or warranty, etc. For example, you could say, "I'm going to allow you to try out our product for a full 60 days without billing your card!"
28. Build your opt-in list by allowing your visitors to sign up for a free e-zine, e-books, software, contests, sweepstakes, etc. For example, you could say, "Subscribe to our free e-zine and get entry into our weekly contest!” Another example would be, "Sign up to our free newsletter and get 10 surprise bonuses!”
29. Give your prospects or customers a breath of fresh air. Don't be afraid to design your web site and ad copies to be different from everyone else’s. For example, you could apply a circus theme to your web site. Another example would be to design your web site like an e-book with a table of contents, title page, glossary, etc.
30. Allow your customers to get part of your total offer right after they order. If you have to ship the item, make one of your bonuses available online. For example, if you are selling a printed book, you could have an online version available for them to read right after they order.
31. Write and submit articles to e-zine publishers or webmasters. If you want it to be published, it should read like an article and not like an ad. You could also offer the publisher extra incentives like giving them a freebie, affiliate commissions, compliments, original content, etc.
    

You can consider other steps also for generating your profits as soon as you start your own venture or review the present one.

Be Happy – Generate Your Profits.

Be Happy – Increase Your Income Further.

There are many ways to increase the income – you can switch over to some other line of business, you can add up to your products list or the best, you can make efforts to increase your sales further through your concentrated efforts. If your sales go up, your income will go up. You can take many steps for increasing your income further.

For this purpose, you may:

1. Advertise your web site with banner ads that are animated and include a call to action. You must grab people's attention and get them to click. For example, you could have flashing lights like they use in Las Vegas. Another example, you could use "Click Here Now" or "Click Here To Visit".
2. Use pop-up windows or advertisements on your web site. They grab your visitor's attention because they jump right out at them. For example, you could use one to get people to subscribe to your free e-zine. Another example, you could offer them a surprise bonus for buying in the next few minutes with a timer counting down.
3. Buy Internet business books, e-books, private site memberships, etc. Study and learn all the new web site promotional ideas you can. For example, take notes either while you’re reading the e-book, or afterwards. Write down a list of tips you could apply or use for your own business.
4. Analyze all your promotional efforts. Concentrate on the ones that work and drop the ones that don't. Don't waste your valuable time. For example, if you have an affiliate program that hasn't made a sale for two months, drop it or test a different ad. You want all of the ‘real estate’ space on your web site making some kind of profit for your business.
5. Get the most from each one of your visitors. Ask them to subscribe to your e-zine, participate on our message board, bookmark your site, etc. One of the most effective ways to persuade people to do anything is to give them a freebie or strong benefit for taking the action you want them to. For example, "Get 4 Free Profitable E-books For Subscribing To My E-zine!"
6. Use text links if your banner ads are not pulling traffic. People don't ignore text links as much as they do banner ads. You should treat your text link like a sales letter headline. For example, "How To ...”, “FREE...”, “Breaking News!....” “Warning!....”,“....Exposed!” etc.
7. Trade content with other e-zine publishers or web sites. This is a powerful and effective way to place your links on other targeted web sites. For example, trade articles with other e-zine publishers. Another example, you could trade free e-books and give them away to each other.
8. Keep your product available for your customers at all times. If you have to back-order it, they may end up canceling their order. For example, you could say on your web site "Always In Stock", "Products On Hand", " No Shipping Delays", "Always Available", etc.
9. Use content on your web site which people can skim through easily. Most people don’t have much time so try using lists, short tips, short articles, etc. For example, *How To.... 5 Ways To.... *Discover...
10. Add a message board or chat room to your web site. If people enjoy it, they will revisit your web site to participate regularly. For example, if someone visits your message board and asks a questions, then later on someone answers it, that person will come back and visit if they ever have another problem.
11. Allow people to reprint your articles on their web site, in their e-zine, newsletter, magazine or e-books. Include your resource box and the option for article reprints at the bottom of each article.
12. Allow people to use any of your freebies as free bonuses for products or services they sell. Include your ad on all your freebies. Some people only give away freebies in order to allow other people the right to give them away. You could also give them the right to include a freebie with their own product as a bonus. For example, "Feel free to use this free e-book as a bonus product!"
13. Allow people to use your online discussion board for their own web site. Some people don't have one. Just include your banner ad at the top of the board. For example, you could say, “Don't have your own discussion board? Link to ours and invite your visitors to use it.”
14. Allow people to sign up for a free web site on your server. Since you are giving away the space, require them to include your banner ad at the top of the site. For example, you could say, "Get 20 MB Of FREE Web Space In Exchange For Placing Our Small Banner At The Top Of Your Web Site!".
15. Allow people to add their link to your free web site directory. Just require that they return a link back to your web site, advertising your directory. For example, you could say, "Add Your Own Listing In Exchange For Linking Back To Our Web Site!" Another example, "Add Your Own Listing! All We Ask Is That You Link Back To Our Web Site."
16. Allow people to include your free online service on their web site, visitors, or e-zine subscribers. They could be free e-mail, e-mail consulting, search engine submissions, etc. For example, you could say, "Offer This Free Service To Your Visitors By Just Linking To Our Web Site!"
17. Allow people to give away your free software. Just include your business advertisement inside the software program. For example, you could say, "This Free Software Is Brought To You By (your business information)" Another example, "This Free Software Is Made Available By (your business information)."
18. Allow people to give away your free web design graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Just include your ad on them or require people to link directly to your web site. For example, require people to place a small note under the graphic or at the bottom of their web page like "These graphics are from (your business information)." or "This template is copy- righted by (your business information)."
19. Allow people to place an advertisement in your free e-book if, in exchange, they give away the e-book to their web visitors or e-zine subscribers. Wouldn't you choose to give away something that gave you benefits? For example, you could say, "Give Away This Free E-book And Customize It With Your Own Links!"
20. Allow people to give away your free e-book to their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it away. This will just continue to spread your ad all over the Internet. For example, 5 people give it away to 5 people each, and those 25 people give it away to 5 people each, and those 125 people give it away to 5 people each. It just keeps going! That's 755 people viewing your ad for free and without you doing much work.
21. Turn your ad copy into a story or article. Your visitors won't be as hesitant to read your ad and will become more interested in your product. For example, you could start your ad by saying, "Once upon a time…" Another example would be to start your ad out with "FREE Report!" Or "How To..."
22. Give visitors a freebie for filling out your online survey otherwise they usually won't. Surveys will give your business valuable intelligence for your business. For example, you could say, "Everyone who completes this survey will get a FREE watch!" Another example, "The first 200 people who complete this survey get a free calculator!"
23. Enhance the power of your ad copy benefits by using attention-getting words, highlighting keywords, using color, using quotes, bolding key phrases, underlining, etc. For example, "Instant Profits", “Super Fast Results”, “Lose Weight”, “Save Money”, “Increase Sales”, etc.
24. Give your visitors lots of choices so they don't get the feeling of being controlled. Offer them a variety of ways to order, contact you, navigate, etc. For example, “Choose the Basic or Deluxe.” Another example, “Order by web site, phone or fax.”
25. Put yourself in your visitors’ shoes. Design your site for them, not for yourself. Create your product around your visitors, not because you would buy it. For example, if you were selling to people who were thinking of going bankrupt, think about how they feel. They would likely want to avoid bankruptcy, they would feel tired of not be able to afford anything, they would be fed up with creditors calling, etc.
26. Get free advice from successful online business owners. Participate in business chat rooms and use message boards to start a conversation. For example, you could read their helpful information or post questions and get them answered. You could also answer other people’s questions and start a conversation.
27. Use your free bonuses to create urgency for your visitors to buy. Only offer them for a limited time with your main product. For example, you could say, “Order before midnight tonight and get 4 FREE bonuses!” Another example, “Order by June 25, 2002 and get a Free Advertising E- book!”
28. Offer your customers extra add-on products at the point of purchase. For example, if they are buying an electronic toy, try to sell batteries with it. For example, “Check Here To Add 4 Batteries For Only $2.95 More!” Another example, “Click Here To Upgrade To The Deluxe Version For only $10 Extra!”
29. Make your visitors feel good about themselves by giving them compliments. If they feel good, they will also feel good about buying from your web site. For example, “You are in the 1% of people who are serious about changing their life.” Another example, “You are brave for going the extra mile to eliminate your financial problems.”
30. Add multiple profits to your web site. If you're selling business books try to sell business services, courses and supplies too. For example, you could say, “Thanks for purchasing our business e-book. If you like it, don't forget we offer a monthly update service for the e-book for only $4.95 a month.”
    

I hope that the suggestions made above may help you to frame up your own strategy. I know that apart from the above, there are many other steps which you can take to increase your income as per your individual circumstances. My submission is just for awakening that you can do anything to succeed.

Be Happy – Increase Your Income Further.

Be Happy – Make Your Turnover Higher

You have got creative mind and keep always yourself busy in creative jobs, you take initiatives and have skills to organize resources for your dream projects but merely ensuring production or creation of the products or services does not serve the purpose fully as you may not be having unlimited capital to invest. You need circulation of the investment at some date – investment means anything like your money, your time, your caliber, your resources etc.

How would you enhance your turnover – your sales, incoming of your buyers/clients at their own repeatedly? You need to keep special care for such factors for your own survival – without outgo of your products/services; you can not go on endlessly for further creation. If you take up internet as one of your marketing tools, you may

1. Multiply your marketing and advertising efforts on the Internet. You can accomplish this by starting an affiliate program, using viral marketing or both. For example, you could start an affiliate program and give your affiliates customized e-books with their own affiliate links to give away.
2. Increase your ratio of visitors who purchase your product(s). You could change your headline, offer a stronger guarantee, add testimonials, etc. For example, one week you could have your headline say, "How To Lose 5 Pounds In Two Days!" and the next week use, "Lose 5 Pounds In Only 48 Hours!" Just see which one pulls more orders per visitors.
3. Find out who are your strongest leads for buying your product by offering a free e-zine. The visitors who are very interested will subscribe to it. Once they have subscribed, you can sell them related products again and again. Just make sure your e-zine has enough original content to keep them interested.
4. Team up with your competition by starting an association for your specific industry. It could lead to a profitable partnership with them. You could give all the members graphic links to place on their home pages. This would increase your membership and business exposure.
5. Publish an e-zine for your employees. This could motivate them to do a better job or keep them advised on where your business is headed. For example, you could include articles about friendly customer service, being more productive, getting along with other employees, employee profiles, etc.
6. Search for your business' name in newsgroups and discussion boards. Some of the comments you find could help you improve your business. For example, you could find someone complaining about your customer service, an employee, your web site design, product, etc. Then you'll know what to improve.
7. Attract people to link to your web site. You could offer them a discount on the products you sell or give them free items for linking. For example, you could say, "Get A Huge 30% Discount On Our E-book If You Agree To Link To Our Web Site For At Least One Month!”
8. Develop your own opt-in email list by giving your visitors a reason to give you their e-mail address. Allow them to sign up to free items and contests. Just get their permission to e-mail them again in the future for other things. For example, you could say, "Sign Up For Your Chance To Win A Color TV!"
9. Create a "PR" web page for your business. List information that could be considered newsworthy for e-zines, newspapers, magazines, etc. There are many ways to get into the media, like launching a unusual product, donating a large amount to charity, holding big events, etc.
10. Give your business and products credibility by linking to web sites that have written positive stories about your business. You could link to them right in your product ad. For example, you could say, "Just See What (name) Magazine Is Saying About Our Newest E-book!".
11. Give people a free subscription to your e-zine. Almost everyone is publishing an e-zine nowadays so it's important to give something extra with the free subscription. You could offer a weekly contest for new subscribers. For example, you could say, "Subscribe And Have A Chance To Win Our Latest Home Study Course!"
12. Provide your visitors with free content. Your content will be more attractive to your visitors if it's up-to-date or original. You could also offer people the option to reprint the content in their e-zine or web site. If your content is super original, you could use something like "Never Seen Before" in your titles.
13. Offer a free online directory. The directory could be full of interesting e-books, e-zines, web sites, etc. If people find your directory to be a valuable resource, they will visit it over and over again. You could also put your whole directory into e-book format and allow people to give it away.
14. Give your visitors a free e-book. You could also include your own ad in the e-book and allow other people to give it away. If you don't want to take the time to write one, you could ask other writers’ permission to use their articles. They will just want you to publish their resource box too.
15. Hold free online classes or seminars. They could be held in your web site's chat room. The idea of "live" information will definitely entice people to visit your web site. You will become known as an expert on the topic. You could hold them weekly or monthly to get people to revisit your web site again and again.
16. Give visitors a free entry into your contest or sweepstake. The prizes should be something of interest or value to your visitors. Most people who enter will continually revisit your web site to get the results. For example, if your target audience is business owners, your prizes could be computers, business e-books, business services, etc.
17. Let visitors download free software. It could be freeware, shareware, demos, etc. You could even turn part of your site into a free software directory. If you created the software, include your ad inside and let other people give it away. You could also allow people to link to your free software directory so they could offer it to their own visitors.
18. Offer free online services or utilities from your web site. They could be search engine submitting, copywriting, proofreading, etc. The service or utility should be helpful to your target audience. For example, if your target audience is e-book publishers, offer them a free e-book creation service.
19. Give free consulting to people who visit your web site. You could offer your knowledge via e-mail or by telephone. People will consider this to be of huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive. You could also create a product by recording or saving the information you gave them and selling it to them as a handy reference.
20. Give your visitors a free membership to your online club. People want to belong to something, why not your online club? You could also give away a free e-zine for club members only. You could make money by offering a deluxe membership for a monthly fee.
21. Persuade visitors to link to your web site. Give them a freebie in exchange for them linking to your web site. It could be content, software, etc. You could make the freebie even more valuable to them if you allow them to give it away with their own customized links in it.
22. Link to web sites that provide useful information or services for your visitors. If you have many useful links on your site, they may make it their start page. For example, wouldn't you like to go to one web page and have on it all the links you like to visit or research?
23. Spice up your web site's wording by using plenty of adjectives. It gives your visitors a clearer vision of what you're explaining or describing to them. For example, if you were describing a software program you could say, "This easy-to-use software gently guides you through the whole set up process."
24. Don't make your banner ads look like ads. Most people ignore banner ads. Design them to look like content and have people click to read the rest. For example, you could say, "How To Increase Your Sales By 200% by Larry Dotson. To Read Click Here!"
25. Join affiliate programs that go with the theme of your web site. You'll just be wasting valuable space and time if your visitors aren't interested in them. For example, if your target audience is softball players, you would want to join affiliate programs that sell softball bats, balls, uniforms, magazines, etc.
26. Market your web site as a free club instead of a web site. This'll increase your repeat visitors and sales because people enjoy belonging to groups. You could have a members’ message board, give visitors' membership IDs, give them membership graphics to place on their web sites, etc.
27. Interact with your online customers on a regular basis. This'll show them you care about them. You could use a chat room, forum or an online message system. Always be interested in what people have to say, answer their questions, give them compliments, and take the time to talk about things other than just business, etc.
28. Check your web site links regularly. If people click on a link and it doesn't work, they usually won't risk wasting their time clicking on another one. For example, would you revisit a web site after two of the links you really wanted to click on didn’t work? You probably wouldn't even bookmark the site.
29. Give visitors a positive experience when they're at your web site. Provide them with original content and free things. They'll tell all of their friends about it. You could also persuade them to tell their friends about it by starting an affiliate program. It could pay per sale, per click or per lead.
30. Share customers with other businesses that have the same target audience. Offer their product to your customers if, in exchange, they do the same for you. For example, if your business is selling toys, you could cross-promote a business that sells kids’ games. You both have a similar target audience.
    

As I stressed earlier too, more sales mean more profit as they may reduce the impact of fixed expenses. The above steps may help you to achieve the target of more sales. You may consider them to take action but according to your own circumstances, your resources and nature of your products/services.

Be Happy – Make Your Turnover Higher.