Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us

Wow. What a cool video!

Like most Internet entrepreneurs, I have not figured out a solid way to make money with web 2.0. And, like most programmers, I just think it's the coolest thing ever - sharing data and information.

Spend 5 minutes watching this video, and you will feel a little more inspired by it as well.

Copywriting Wisdom From A Legend

If there is one thing that will make you successful in Internet business, it is copywriting. There are many other skills that are helpful. But, how can you make money if you can't convince somebody to open their wallet and spend their hard earned money on your product or service?

It's a fact that average folksie folks make the best copywriters. They're not extraordinarily talented writers. They're not even extraordinarily smart! They just know people, and the fundamentals of writing a convincing letter. And they know them both inside and out.

Gary Halbert is my hero. He's my shining superman. Made of steel. Impervious to evil. He may never die. Years ago I started reading his newsletter and took one piece of advice to heart. He instructed me to read books written by the copywriting legends. He instructed me to read ads written by the copywriting legends.

Then... comes the pain.

He instructed me to reread all those advertising books and take notes.

"Write down every good idea, every important insight, and every nugget of wisdom that is contained in all that material. What this means, my friend, is that by the time you are finished, you should have hundreds of notes."

He instructed me to copy the ads in their entirerty.

"I want you to sit down and copy them out word-for-word in your own handwriting. "

"Do this. Do it. Do it."

"If you really want to know it you've really got to do it. There are no shortcuts."

"You know, I'm sick to death of people who can't be bothered with the little nitty-gritty details of "hands on" experience. Of people who believe they can know a thing without doing it. Listen: It is possible to be "conversant" with something and not really have any kind of "gut understanding" of it at all. I'm sorry, but no matter what your Mommy and Daddy told you, men can never really understand the pain of childbirth, priests cannot comprehend the joys of sex, "normies" can never understand alchoholics, and not one speck of true advertising wisdom has ever been written by a PhD."

Read the entire rant here.

He further instructed me to keep a swipe file of all the headlines I found in all of these books and letters. He asked me to further extend my headline swipe file with every great headline I could get my hands on.

So, like a humble student of greatness, I didn't argue. I did it. I have copied, by hand, several complete books. Plus, many of the best direct mail pieces. Plus, hundreds and hundreds of headlines. All onto 3x5 cards, stored in boxes next to my desk.

And, it really works.

When I'm preparing to write a sales letter, I break out my notes and rifle through them. I am instantly inspired with the wisdom of the greats.

Anytime I write a headline I rip through my headline swipe file. I modify them to fit my needs and I instantly have 10's of perfect headlines for any application. (Then it's just a matter of narrowing them down to the one I want to use.)

One thing Gary Halbert knew is that great copywriting is not genius. It's hard work. It's burning the midnight oil and being a student of the great copywriters before him.

So, don't think that you can get rich on the Internet easily either. To make money on the net, you have to be good at several things. Copywriting is at the top of the list. And copywriting is not lazy man's work.

I'm going to (at the possible expense of copyright infringement) start posting the relevant snippets that I've copied from some of these books. It is a good exercise to keep it fresh in my mind, and maybe it will help to inspire somebody out there to follow the Halbert way.

Happy writing!

Travis

Livingston Surveys Complete!

I recently purchased a DVD seminar series for the Livingston survey method called “How to Double Your Business”. If you’re not familiar with Dr. Glenn Livingston, click here to read more about his methodology.

Since I am already involved in the Incorporation/LLC market I decided to apply the lessons there first.My objective was to gather at least 300 surveys in the Incorporation/LLC/DBA market, and at least 35 for each of the channels that I wanted to move into.

Most of the data being collected was open-ended questions asking the survey taker to tell me about their most important problems. For taking a survey, I returned the favor by giving away a compilation of data that already existed for free on the Internet. (To be fair, they would have had to search long and hard to get all that data, and I provided it in one spot, so it was valuable.)

After more than a month, and a sizable $$ outlay, the surveys have been completed. Below is a screenshot of the number of surveys I completed for each channel.

As you can see, the LLC market is by far the biggest. At least, that’s the one that I was most successful driving traffic to with my Adwords campaigns.

This was not a cheap endeavor! The clicks in this market are expensive and only a small percentage of the people I paid for actually took a survey. But, the data collected was very valuable and confirmed that I am in a potentially lucrative market.

New business owners face an uphill battle of legality and complex rules. These people have all kinds of questions about their business entities. And, they are willing to form a personal relationship with me (even though we’ve never met and they’ve never heard of me). 23% of the survey takers gave me a their phone number (even though it was not required).

Now the real work begins! I’m moving on to the coding phase of the Livingston survey method. This step will require me to break down the answers of every survey received into “codes” that will tell me many things about my potential customers.

When done properly, the resulting data will tell me everything I need to know to make money in this market. It will tell me:

• What kind of products they’re desperate to buy, and at what price point.


• Exactly what the strongest selling points are that I could make (in order of highest priority to lowest).


• Which sub-groups and segments are most responsive.


• What types of terms they are likely to search on to find the data they’re looking for.


• Which markets are related (and which are not).


• Market demographics for laser-targeted offline advertising.

So, off to the Excel mines! Time to get my hands dirty and figure these folks out.

More updates coming soon.

Travis

ps. In addition to coding the survey data, I must also at this point begin my phone interview process. All of the data above will provide the “hard facts” I need about my market, but only by talking to the actual people and hearing the words they use and the emotion behind their problems can I understand the “softer side” of their needs.