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When holiday cheer is in the air, I get in this state of mind where I hear jingle bells everywhere and the whole world is aglitter with tinsel. I have this constant stream of carols looping through my head and an urge to flavor everything with peppermint. But the holidays aren’t always a happy time for all.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jelene/ CC BY 2.0

The holidays are billed as a time of love and togetherness, which is great fun if you have someone to share it with. But when we’re reminded that others don’t have someone to share life and love with, we remember that the holidays are also about giving. As we remember all the things we have to be thankful for, we’re reminded that the world is full of people in need.

One of the simplest but most heartfelt gifts one can give, all year round, is a smile.

Now, if this was your reaction:

What do you mean, “Give a smile”? I’m an Internet marketer, not a GAP model! *

Not to worry. As it turns out, smiling has a lot in common with something with which you’re very familiar: search engine optimization!

Introduce Yourself Warmly

Before you whip out those pearly whites or that SEO strategy, think about your audience. Any introduction should be geared to the audience, whether it’s formal or casual, what the relationship might be going forward, and what’s expected of both sides. Search results are often the introduction platform between a searcher and a Web site. A site should make a great first impression by meeting the visitor’s needs, answering their questions, and leading them to the information they’re looking for with as little trouble as possible.

Which leads us to the next point…

Organize the Right Way

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotbenjamin/ CC BY-SA 2.0

A smile and an SEO campaign should both be structured correctly. Someone offering a smile has to be aware of what kind of smile they’re giving (goofy, toothy smile? purse-lipped, toothless smile? relaxed, laugh-filled smile?) so that it matches the occasion. You wouldn’t want to laugh at someone when they’re hoping for gentle optimism? Likewise, an SEO campaign should seek to organize the site in the best way for users and search engines. Siloed, or theme-based, logical site architecture will act as a strong support for the themes of the site, at the same time making it easier for users to traverse the site.

Build from There

If a smile is like SEO, then a handshake is like link building, and a hug is like social media, and a pat on the back is like affiliate marketing, and you get the idea. Take your introduction and run with it to develop a strong relationship. Develop a holistic Internet marketing strategy that builds a continuing relationship with visitors, using all tools at your disposal. But don’t forget to keep sending out the smiles.

* I was just kidding about the whole “Internet marketers don’t smile” thing. I was just looking for a clever transition. You know you all have beautiful smiles! So use them!

How SEO is Like a Smile was originally published on BruceClay.com, an SEO services company.

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How SEO is Like a Smile

I was thinking about the different types of content the other day and how you to organise your approach to it – in terms of both building content and acquiring links from that content. And now, I present to you the result of my deliberations: The Content Pyramid.

The Originators

At the top of the content pyramid are the real ideas guys – people who have resources, time and the sheer smarts to come up with things that can change your perception of an issue. Not wishing to suck up to Dave, but he’s the kind of guy I mean. In a 60 word post he can put out an idea or observation that sets lightbulbs off over people’s heads.

The Commentariat

At the second level of content are the people who follow the originators. Often they have more audience reach because they dedicate more of their time to honing their style or are attached to a big publication.

They’re still smart – because they not only understand what the originators are saying but can contextualise it for non-specialists. They can also see the implications and will often put together something that speculates on where an idea will end up.

The difference between these guys and the originators is probably like the relationship between a chef and a restaurant critic. The critic probably has more readers every week than the restaurant could sit in a year. This is where ‘word of mouth’ really starts.

Case in point: our original story about the Twitter hack got a fraction of the retweets that the rewrite on Mashable did over the first days as the story was breaking.

The Aggregators

The third tier are people with an interest in a subject but with no real insight of their own. The kind of people who retweet the aggregators or make a list of “10 Great Resources” from stuff they’ve read in the papers that week. You’re looking at the kind of content that is read just by a small circle of people.

I class my own blog in that kind of sphere – I could probably give you the names of 50% of my daily visitors and I don’t really write anything of consequence there. But! The people who come there have a laugh and remember it. There are a lot of these blogs out there, and they touch each other in unexpected ways. You might not get relevant links from a site like this, but the ripples can spread quite widely. These people are probably also susceptible to a little flattery or cash

The Thieves

The bottom feeders of the content chain are those who outright steal from any of the points above. It could be a direct content scrape or a respouting of an opinion or fact without any real addition. The people who visit these sites are probably accidental, one-time only visitors.

Where do you sit?

Arguably, being at the top of the content pyramid is the best place of all. You’re the domain expert. People can’t talk about the subject without touching on your work or ideas and it is your content that goes out through the aggregators. But, the aggregators might be where the traffic and exposure really is to push down into the volume sectors.

As a general rule, very few of us sit at the top of the pyramid (that’s why it’s a pyramid, doofus). We should all aim for it when writing content – because from there your influence can spread through and define a whole market. Realistically, most markets are saturated and you’re swimming in an ocean of Same – who really needs another article on link building, ferchrissakes?

If that’s you, then you need to look for a longer term strategy. You need to have opinions and develop a writing style that engages an audience. You need to spread the word so far and wide that people will learn about ideas from you, even if it all proves is that you subscribe to the blog of someone much smarter. From that comes traffic… and links from lower down the chain… and ultimately authority: the holy grail.

Finally, if you’re looking at getting links from people, think about where they sit in the pyramid. If it’s a splog, move on. If it’s an aggregator you need to get in front of them. If it’s an originator, you probably need to sidle up to them at a bar the next time they’re speaking at a conference and ply them with booze.

Original post:
The Content Pyramid

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is bringing in new rules that will have a drastic effect on Internet marketers and bloggers. According to the new rules, if you blog for money or received any free stuff that is associated with a blog post, you have to disclosed it. Failure to do so could mean fines of up to $11,000 per violation.

The easiest way to comply with the new FTC rules is to have disclosure policy page that clearly outlines your relationship with readers and advertisers. The FTP only has power in the US. However, I have a feeling that these rules will eventually spread to the Canadian version of the FTC (whatever that is). To prepare myself, I’ve created the following disclosure policy and added it under my About page. If you’re reading my blog, you should assume the following:

• I make money from every post I put on this blog. If I’m not making money from every blog post, then it was an oversight on my part and it will be corrected soon.
• Every link on this blog is a paid link. If it is not a paid link, then it was an oversight on my part and it will become a paid link soon.
• Every product I write about on this blog, I get for free. If I didn’t get it for free, then there was a miss-communication with the company that sent it and I will be billing them for the cost so the product becomes free.
• I make money from every tweet I send out on Twitter. If I didn’t make money on the tweet, then it was an oversight on my part and it will be corrected soon.
• If you email me, all of the information in your email is mine to do with as I please, such as exploit for financial profit, use as blackmail, or quote on my blog.
• The T-shirts you see me wear at trade shows. I get paid to wear them. If I didn’t get paid to wear them, then it means I ran out of paid shirts and had to wear a free one. In which case, I will go to the company that gave me the free shirt and ask them to sponsor it.
• If something on the Net is making a lot of money, you can bet I will be in on it. If I’m not in on it, then it was an oversight on my part and it will be corrected soon.
• Just because I get paid to blog, tweet, wear T-shirts, etc. does NOT mean I will give you or your company a positive review, blog post or endorsement. As a matter of fact, chances are pretty high that I might slam you.

Hopefully, the above statement clears up any misunderstanding you may have about my blog posts or Twitter tweets. If you have any questions, you can contact me at my contact page. Just remember what I said about emails.

This disclosure policy was sponsored by Market Leverage and Clickbooth. Yes, I make money on my disclosure statement as well!

Feel free to use this as a template for creating your own disclosure policy.

Discover the SECRETS I’ve Learned to go from zero a month to over $40,000 a month from blogging. Download Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com for FREE!

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My Blog Disclosure Policy

I’m flying to New York City today for the Audience Conference, so I thought I’d share a quotation about the relationship between writers (or any content creator) and the people they hope to connect with.

When talented people write badly it’s generally for one of two reasons:

Either they’re blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove or they’re driven by an emotion they must express.

When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason:

They’re moved by a desire to touch the audience.

~Robert McKee

Let’s discuss. What do McKee’s words mean to you?

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of DIY Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

Here is the original post:
Here’s Something to Think (and Talk) About

This is part three of my email marketing guide for bloggers. If you missed part one or two, you can read it here and here. In part three, I’m going to discuss the most important part of email marketing – the auto responder.

As the name implies, the auto responder sends out automatic replies to people who subscribe to your email list. Most bloggers make the mistake of not using any auto responders at all in their email marketing. Instead, they use their list to send out blog updates or additional “subscriber only” content. If that’s what you’re doing, then you’re missing out big time. The auto responder is how all the big email marketers make their money.

Setting Up The Auto Responder

When readers subscribe to my email list, they are sent a series of seven (soon to be nine) emails over the course of seven weeks. These emails are design to do three things.

1. Build a relationship with the subscriber
2. Promote my blog and brand
3. Recommend products and services that help solve the reader’s problem

Setting up the auto responder is extremely easy (the hard part is writing the contents for it) and is no different than sending out a normal newsletter. If you’re using Aweber, all you have to do is click “Follow Up” in the Message tab. This will allow you to create a follow up message to be sent to your new subscriber at a later date. Aweber allows you to set up an unlimited number of auto responders.

If you check the screen shot above, you’ll see that my first auto responder email goes out the instant someone signs up to my list. The second follow up email out goes out four days after the first and the rest goes out in one week intervals until there are no more follow ups. If you want to see it in action, you can subscribe to my blog by entering your name and email.

Creating An Auto Responder Sales Funnel

For lack of a better description, an auto responder sales funnel is where you take subscribers on one end, split them out the other end and have them part with their money. I like to run my Auto Responder Sales Funnel as a series of progress steps designed to solve the reader’s problem. The first email is designed to build trust and authority and doesn’t try to sell anything. Here’s a copy of the first email subscribers receive when they sign up to my blog.

Hello {!name}

I want to thank you for downloading my free eBook, Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com. I hope it helps you achieve your blogging goals. I started my blog back in December, 2005 and it was amazing watching the blog grow from making zero to making over $40,000 per month in just two short years.

How I achieved this is detailed in my eBook. However, if you have any questions, feel free to email me and I’ll try to help you in any way I can. You can also connect with me on the following social media sites.

Twitter: http://www.johnchow.com/twitter
Facebook: http://www.johnchow.com/facebook
FriendFeed: http://www.johnchow.com/friendfeed
Linkedin: http://www.johnchow.com/linkedin
YouTube: http://www.johnchow.com/youtube
Flickr: http://www.johnchow.com/flickr

I hope to connect with you soon! Please visit http://www.JohnChow.com for latest information on making money from blogging.

John Chow

PS – In case you haven’t download my free eBook yet, you can get it here:
http://www.johnchow.com/you need to subscribe to get it

Future emails carry the same type of tone are are designed to push the subscribes through the funnel so when they come out the other end, they have a solution their problem and I’ve been rewarded for helping them solved it. The auto responder sales funnel is the foundation of the blog’s backend sales system and responsible for the majority of the blog’s income. The great thing about this is it’s fully automated and offers true passive income.

You should set up a series of five to ten emails to send to all new subscribers. Keep the three goals of building the relationship, promote your brand and recommend products that solve your reader’s problem in mind when writing the emails. Ideally, the recommended products and service should offer you an affiliate commission but that doesn’t always have to be the case. Recommending a product that you don’t make any money off can build more trust.

In order to maximum the income from your auto responder sales funnel, you have to test and keep testing. Little changes to the email copy can make a big difference. I review all my auto responder emails once a month to see if there’s anything I should add or subtract. The nice thing is, many subscribers reply to my auto responders and they provide valuable information on what I need to do to improve conversions.

If you have your email list set up with Aweber but haven’t created the auto responders yet, then you have your project for the next few days. If you don’t have a mailing list yet, then I recommend you head on over to Aweber and create one right now. Remember, the money is in the list!

Discover the SECRETS I’ve Learned to go from zero a month to over $40,000 a month from blogging. Download Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com for FREE!

Originally posted here: 
Email Marketing Guide for Bloggers – The Auto Responder Sales Funnel

When I wrote a few weeks ago about making your email so good it can’t be stopped, a few readers wrote to ask for more specifics.

It’s an understandable request, given the percentage of permission-based messages that are being thrown away by email service providers.

So beyond providing killer content, what can we do to give our messages the best shot of getting through?

Build trust before you pitch.

Remember, the success of any email marketing program depends on genuinely compelling content. You want your readers to dig through spam filters, complain to their email providers, and do anything they can to make sure they’re getting your content.

Most email newsletters are pitchfests, which makes them no fun to read. Make sure yours is nicely loaded with cookie content, so readers begin to be trained to open everything you send.

If you don’t build this trust and credibility with great content, the rest of the techniques won’t work very well. But there are a few practical things you can do to give your messages the best possible fighting chance.

1. Start every newsletter with a great autoresponder

The autoresponder feature of your email provider lets you create defined sequences to send to your readers. The millionth subscriber has the same experience that the first did.

This means that no matter how busy you get or what disasters you might be coping with this week, your new email subscribers are always well taken care of.

A great autoresponder builds a strong foundation for your relationship with your new subscriber. The old cliché is true: you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The warm, friendly feelings you’ll establish with your first 10 or 15 messages will carry over throughout your relationship.

2. Use a single warm, personal message early on

This is a trick I learned from Product Launch Formula founder Jeff Walker, and it creates a really nice rapport with your list.

Early in your autoresponder sequence (I usually put it at message two), include a cheerful, warm, individual-sounding message. Something informal, like, “Hey, really good to see you here, hope you enjoy the content.”

You’re not trying to fool anyone that this was an individually typed message for that recipient, but you are trying to create the same feeling of personal relationship. Invite questions, comments, and feedback at this point, and let them know that you’d love to hear from them.

I typically create this message as text only, rather than HTML. This is also a good spot to use technique #3.

3. Ask them to white list you

No matter how good your email provider is, some messages end up in spam filters. The best defense against that is to convince your readers to add you to their list of “safe senders” or their “white list.” And the best way to do that is simply to ask them.

I send a text message in one of my sequences right before a message with a few red flags in the content. (The message has the audacity to talk about making money. Shocking, I know.)

The message explains that the next email in the sequence is a little more likely to get trapped in a spam filter, so this would be a great time to add me to their safe senders list.

Some readers immediately white list me, which is great. Others don’t, then the message is caught in a filter the next day and they see that adding me to their approved senders list would be a good idea.

Obviously, it’s smart to get yourself onto the white list as soon as you can, so you’ll want to bring the subject up early on.

But if you do have a message you can’t reasonably lower the spam score on, this technique can give you a good reason to ask a second time.

4. Conversations have two sides

Make sure you’ve got a real human being monitoring any replies to your email marketing, and that that person is giving thoughtful, personal replies to each message they get.

It’s also smart to use an individual person’s name in the “From” field, rather than the name of a company. Anything you can do to capitalize on the intimate nature of email just makes sense.

When I started adding the words, “Just click reply to ask me a question, your message will come directly to my personal in-box,” I noticed that more people felt comfortable doing just that. And not only do questions and feedback build nice rapport, they’re also a fantastic window into what your customers want and need.

5. Pay attention to spam triggers, but don’t obsess

Most good email providers will let you know if your content has certain hot buttons that are likely to be flagged as spam. Some of them are obvious, like pharmaceutical brand names.

Others are annoying, because they tend to be the words and phrases that have the most selling power. For example, links that say click here can make your content look a little spammier to the filters, precisely because savvy marketers know that explicit calls to click here get better results.

This is one good reason to put a long sales message onto a landing page, rather than an individual email message. The last thing you want to do is to use less persuasive language just to keep a spam filter happy.

Always remember that you’re writing for people, not filters. When you make your readers happy and deliver the content they need and want, no spam filter can stop you.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.

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Five Ways to Make Your Email Marketing Work Better

This week we’ve been focusing on the business of freelance copywriting. There are two good reasons for that.

First of all, the demand for quality online content and copy that converts has exploded in the last several years. And that demand will only grow.

That means a lot of opportunity for freelance copywriters.

It also means copywriters have an unfair advantage when it comes to marketing themselves. Why?

Because it’s content marketing in all its creative expressions that works online. Marry that with a persuasive landing page to close the deal, and it’s clear that it’s the copywriters who are in the driver’s seat.

Because you have talent that’s in demand. And every business seeking to effectively market online needs that talent.

Only problem is, you’re all competing against each other.

Which is a fairly common marketing problem for freelancers, small business, and big business alike. Every business has to differentiate itself and communicate the benefits of being the choice over the other guy.

But copywriters are skilled in solving that problem, right? It’s your function.

Have you solved that problem for yourself?

Dare to Be Different

One thing every copywriter needs to understand is how to develop and communicate a unique selling proposition. Whether positioning or purple cow, differentiating the client’s offer in a unique and valuable way is critical to winning copy.

Shouldn’t you do the same for your business?

Look, Michel Fortin can position himself simply as “copywriter” because he’s a well-established badass. He commands premium fees, and likely turns away more business than he accepts.

If you’re not at that point yet, a little unique positioning is just what the doctor ordered. Your business may not be sick yet, but you’re hardly in a defensible market position. And if you’re just starting out, here’s your opportunity to start out right.

Ever since I chose to become unemployable in 1998, I’ve been an initial nobody in a succession of industries filled with well-established badasses. Law, real estate, software, even this very blog… each time I was starting from scratch competing against those already at it.

I succeeded in each instance because I focused intensely on serving a different need in a different way, and then effectively communicating that difference.

Dare to be different, and you’ll be a badass in a league of your own.

Writing is a Feature, Not a Benefit

Another thing every copywriter knows is that brains crave benefits. And yet, when it comes to marketing themselves, many freelance copywriters seem to focus only on their writing, which like it or not, is a feature of your service, not the desired benefit.

It’s no secret that writing tends to be undervalued by many of the people who seek to hire you. Maybe it’s because any literate person can write to some degree, so perhaps they think it’s simply an hour or two of putting some words down on paper. What’s so hard about that?

We writers know that’s not true.

Good writing is hard. Great writing is even tougher.

The answer, however, is not to change how the client thinks, because that rarely works. At least not at the initial stage of the relationship.

The key is to start emphasizing the benefits clients are really after, not the feature that brings about the benefits. Because if a client could achieve his desired benefit without your writing, he would.

What are you really selling?

Think about that for a bit. Tomorrow, we’ll reveal the second reason we’ve been focusing on freelance writing this week.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of DIY Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

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The Freelance Copywriter’s Unfair Marketing Advantage

You’ll see one theme come up again and again on Copyblogger. If you want to create real revenue with your blog, you need to have something worthwhile to sell.

Most sites are disappointed by the nickels and dimes that come in from advertising. If your site gets massive amounts of traffic, it can work, but if not, you’ll want to find a much more profitable source of revenue.

But most of us find that it’s not all that easy to translate high-quality content from your blog into a high-quality product for sale.

Four or five years ago, you could have slammed together an ebook over the weekend and created a decent income with it. But in the current environment, buyers are more careful with their money, and you’ve got an awful lot of competition.

The good news is, most of your competitors still think it’s 2003, and most of their products are astoundingly lame. And there are still lots of buyers who need to solve their most pressing problems.

So there are still plenty of opportunities to monetize with an ebook. But it has to be terrific.

So what makes a terrific ebook?

For an ebook to work in this climate, it needs to:

• Solidly address the problems, concerns, or desires of a well-defined target market. Vague, fluffy or irrelevant junk isn’t going to cut it.
• Be a meaningful extension of the relationship you’ve already created with your audience.
• Stake out a compelling position in the marketplace.
• Reflect the confidence of top-notch content.
• Provide an exceptional return on investment for buyers.
• Be supported by an intelligent marketing system that fuels your customers’ need to buy.

The enemy of the successful ebook

So to create an ebook that works today, you’ve got a few more steps to take.

First you’ve got to research your market. Then you need to build a list and drive buying readers to your blog. (There can be a big difference between fans and customers.) Then research, outline, and actually write the book. And then you’ve got to figure out the whole launch thing: creating buzz, recruiting and managing affiliates, writing a sales page.

We bloggers are pretty good at taking action. We can do any of these things individually. And to tell you the truth, none of them is all that hard.

But take them all together and we find ourselves overwhelmed.

Before we know it, it’s been six months or a year, and we’re still trying to make it happen. Not because it’s beyond our abilities, but because without a detailed map, it’s easy to get lost in the process.

How to get it done

When I first picked up How to Launch the **** Out of Your Ebook, I didn’t read it right away. I figured I knew everything that would be in there, and I had so much on my plate.

When I finally got around to taking a close look at it, I was surprised. This wasn’t a simple connect-the-dots guide for newbies. There was real meat here. A lot of which was, in fact, incredibly useful to me.

I know the course creators and I’ve been consistently impressed with them, so it’s not like I thought it was going to be garbage. But I was still surprised at how extensive the course turned out to be.

How to Launch the **** Out of Your Ebook was created by launch expert Dave Navarro and small business marketing rockstar Naomi Dunford.

(Don’t worry, it isn’t full of curse words despite Naomi’s involvement. In fact, I think the missing word is Heck, don’t you?)

In five concise modules, How to Launch covers the entire process of writing an ebook that sells.

• How to research your market in 30 minutes or less. (If you don’t get this part right, you’re dead before you begin.)
• The simple strategy to drive targeted buyers to your blog.
• What to do when you don’t have enough time to write, and dozens of techniques that will keep your momentum going.
• How to convince big names to review your ebook.
• How to create a sales process that works.
• How to pick the right affiliate program, and how to find affiliates once you’ve made your choice.

The course is quite comprehensive, so I won’t bog this post down with the entire table of contents. But the thing that impressed me most was that wherever you might happen to get stuck, they’ve got the information to get you moving again.

True confessions

• Naomi and Dave are both friends of mine, and Naomi and I do business together. I’ve been following their stuff for a couple of years now, and I think they do exceptional work.
• The links in this review are affiliate links. So Copyblogger will make something on the sale, although not nearly as much as you will if you implement the advice you get in the program.

The worst confession is how long I’ve been sitting on this, because I’ve been meaning to review it for ages. But in light of the conversations Brian and I have been having about what kind of material we’ll be recommending from this point forward, I thought this was just about the perfect time.

Click here to get more details about How to Launch the **** Out of Your Ebook.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.

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How to Write an Ebook that Sells in 2009