Successful Blog

You are not nuts and other important stuff

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about things I don’t say enough to other people.

Someone today reminded me of a note I wrote in my newsletter not long ago.

I’ve been going through the email replies I’ve sent to people who’ve asked for help over the past 5 years. I’m not surprised to find that, although the people seem of every age, size, background, ability and economic class, the problems they bring to me seem to be the same kind — problems of connecting the space between our heads and our hearts, problems of believing in what we know about ourselves.

And I find some lines repeating. So I share them with you for when you might need them.

You are not nuts.
God is in heaven.
Angels are everywhere.
People are made of the same stuff as stars.
We’re not supposed to have the answers.
Love will draw a circle around you.

You don’t need to worry about drowning tonight.
You can sleep.
We’ll still eat tomorrow.
I love you.

Be you.
You are already irresistible.
Keep your head wired to your heart.

Liz's Signature

How I Got from Gratitude to Grace

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about gratitude.

I understand the power of the words, thank you.
I understand them so deeply that as a child I was afraid to say them.
I would watch how some people use them frivolously, I was afraid that people wouldn’t hear how much I meant them.
I was afraid they wouldn’t see in my eyes or hear in my voice that I meant them.
I feel the words, thank you, like a frog hears, deeply from his tiny ears into his lungs.

As I considered Thanksgiving, I thought it’s time I learned more about what powers those words.

I did a search for the etymology of the word, gratitude, and found myself wandering through a world of connections.
Our word gratitude may have from the 15th Century Middle French word, gratitude which means “good will.” If it came from the Latin word gratus which means “thankful, pleasing,” it’s a cousin to the word grace.

Good will.
Thankful.
Pleasing.
Grace.

In some families, grace is a prayer.
In some, it’s a ritual and a tradition.
Some have chosen it to name a child.

But when I saw that word, grace, … it was all of those and more.

Grace …
Immediately my mind heard music, my heart saw this photo, which has been a friend since 2006.

grace

So I went looking for the word, grace, in my own writing.
It appears twice in these ways …

… I wish for my friends to be around me. I wish for the courage to face where I’m going, to know what I know — that I’m unprepared for what I’ll be doing. … Then I breathe. Then I breathe. Then I breathe once more…. I ask permission without words, but through the grace and gentleness of my movement. I ask for faith from sky and angels who are everywhere. I need the wisdom of one who has conquered fear. … Inside the fear is the graceful wisdom I was seeking. —The Rhythm of the Rowing

and

Head and heart together. Head and heart – it took so long to know.
When head and heart come together life is a dance.
Head and heart together . . .
grace. — Head and Heart Together

I wandered back through my life to find a conclusion. I wrote it years ago, but only realized it now.

Thank you is best offered filled with trust — breathing in life without fear.
With grace and gentleness, head and heart come together in gratitude.
That’s how I got from gratitude to grace.

Wishing you your family and friends around you.
May you move in gratitude and grace.

Be irresistible.

Liz's Signature

Motivational Triggers: Ninja Secrets to Increasing Conversions

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By Pawel Reszka

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Uncovering Your Readers’ Hidden Motivations

No matter what anyone tells you, selling isn’t easy. There’s no magic formula that says, “Put this product in front of this group of people, say this specific thing and you’ll get sales” – despite what all of the long form sales letters floating around the internet would have you believe. Instead, it’s up to you – the blogger – to figure out the right combination of product selection, positioning and advertising copy that will lead to sales or conversions on your site.

To do this, you’ll need to uncover your readers’ hidden motivations. You need to know what makes them tick, what gets them motivated and what types of information or products can’t they get enough of. Once you have this information, you’ll find it much easier to choose the right products and target the most effective emotional triggers to maximize your blog’s profits.

So to get started, the first thing you’ll need to do is to understand more about how your audience thinks. Getting to know your audience members is crucial for a couple of reasons – not just to encourage more sales. Understanding who your audience members are will help you to choose the best content to post to your site to encourage repeat visits, as well identify the products they’re most likely to be interested in.

As Liz said in a past post on knowing your audience on the site:

The more you know and understand about your audience the better job you’ll do at giving them what they’re looking for. As well, there are other benefits; your writing will come easier, you’ll better communicate your ideas, you’ll stress less and you’ll enjoy it more.

Whether you’re just starting out as a blogger in your niche or you’ve got extensive experience in the field, the following are a few of the things you can take into consideration when getting to know your audience members:

  • Demographic information – As readers leave comments on your posts, do they appear to be primarily male or female? Young or old? Does the quality of their comments suggest anything about their education levels? By painting a picture of your audience members in your mind, you’ll be able to extrapolate some of their concerns, fears, interests and passions.
  • Primary interests – Do your readers tend to respond more frequently to one type of post over another? For example, if you get more comments on your “how to” posts than your personal development posts, you might conclude that your audience is interested in more practical, applicable advice than nebulous, indistinct recommendations.

By paying attention to these types of information, you should start to get a general idea of who your audience is. But while this is important, it’s also only half of the battle. The key is to use this information to successfully tailor a sales message for your unique visitors, based on what you’ve identified as their primary fears and motivators.

Suppose you’re blogging in the personal finance niche and find that you have a large following of single mothers. While you won’t be able to make assumptions that apply to every single one of your readers, you can make some generalizations that can guide your product selection and positioning.

For example, it’s probably safe to assume that many single mothers worry about making ends meet and about what would happen if they were suddenly unable to take care of their children (whether due to death, illness or disability). From a personal finance standpoint, products that help these mothers manage their bills or set up the legal and financial safeguards that ensure their children will be cared for in the event of an emergency could be hugely appealing.

Making assumptions about your audience in order to identify the best products and/or services to pitch to them is important, but the final step in the process is to tie everything together with emotional triggers. An article from Entrpreneur.com on common and effective emotional triggers identifies the following 10 factors to consider while building your product copy:

  • Fear
  • Guilt
  • Trust
  • Value
  • Belonging
  • Competition
  • Instant Gratification
  • Leadership
  • Trend-setting
  • Time

Here’s how to use these emotional triggers in your sales messages:

Fear – As seen in our earlier example about the concerns of single mothers, fear can play an incredibly powerful role in getting people over their objections to buying. While the fears of running out of money and of children being left on their own are major fears, even something as simple as the fear of missing out on something – as emphasized in your sales copy – can encourage conversions.

Guilt – If you’ve ever seen a charity commercial entreating you to “Donate Now” to alleviate suffering, you know how powerful a motivator guilt can be. Use this emotion in your sales copy by emphasizing something that the reader isn’t yet doing well (but that could be remedied with your product).

Trust – As a blogger, you’ve likely built a rapport with your readers over time, which may make them more likely to trust the product recommendations you make, based on the relationship you share. Just be careful not to abuse this trust by making your sales pitches carefully for products that you truly believe in.

Value – Everyone wants to feel like they’ve gotten the best deal possible, which is why you see customers buy name brand products off the grocery store shelves when they have a coupon – even if the store brand product is still cheaper overall! Emphasize the value of your product or service by comparing it to comparable options, quantifying money saved or including bonuses that increase the perceived value of your offering.

Belonging – Facebook and Twitter are two powerful examples of our need to belong to a social network. You can use this motivation to your advantage by offering the people who purchase your products or services special perks that set them apart as part of an exclusive “members club”.

Competition – The classic “Keeping up with the Jones” scenario highlights the hidden competitor that lurks within each of us. If your audience is especially conscious of status and image, simply suggesting that owning your product or buying your service will make friends and neighbors jealous will cause sales to skyrocket.

Instant Gratification – Buying lights up the pleasure centers of our brain, and this effect is enhanced when the product is immediately available for consumption. Whenever possible, make some (or all) of your product available digitally so that it can be accessed right away in order to play to this emotional trigger.

Leadership – If your niche consists of experienced industry personnel, you’ll find that the desire to differentiate ones-self and be seen as a leader is a powerful motivating factor. In this case, use your sales copy to highlight how your products will make these readers feel powerful and authoritative in their personal or business lives.

Trend-setting – Younger audiences or those who are particularly susceptible to brand messages often respond well to sales messages that position products or services as “trend-setting”. Look no further than the Apple iPod, Gucci bag or Vibram Five-Fingers to see how influential trend-setting brands can be.

Time – There’s no one out there that couldn’t use more time, but busy professionals and parents are two groups in particular that look to time savings as a key selling point. Emphasize how your product or service appeals to this trigger and you should see a corresponding increase in conversions.

Again, it may take some time to gain a good enough understanding of your audience that you’re able to identify the hidden motivations and feelings your readers are experiencing. However, with continued effort, you’ll be able to pair the correct products with the right emotional triggers and increase your site’s profitability dramatically.

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Author Bio:

Pawel Reszka is the founder of Affhelper.com, a blog where he shares tips and strategies on how to make money online. He talks about blogging, affiliate marketing, and content marketing. Check out his short guide to making money with blogs where he shares some great tips for beginners.

Outstanding information, Pawel! Thank you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

FIRST, GIVE UP CONTROL

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A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

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It’s so easy to get caught up in trying to control every detail of your business. But if you’re trying to be real, be human, then control is all an illusion.

Part of being human is being messy, unpredictable, and wrong sometimes. Part of being a human-centered business is accepting messiness, being OK with unpredictability, and admitting when you are wrong.

There’s a scene in the Steve Martin movie Parenthood where the grandma compares life to a rollercoaster—you can either be terrified or thrilled by the ups and downs. And it’s the same way in business. When a deal doesn’t go your way, or a key employee decides to leave, or the power goes out at your data center (yeah that happens), you get to choose how to react. Choose grace and humor, and everybody wins.

Here are three ways to enjoy the rollercoaster:

1. Surround yourself with others who are thrilled.

2. Fasten your seatbelt (be sure you are as prepared as you can be, with options).

3. Remind yourself every day that the only thing you can control is your own attitude.

1.2.3. Go!

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work on the Internet. Check out their blog. You can find her on Twitter as @rhogroupee

How to Be Bigger than Fear and Get on with Success

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FDR Was Right

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When I told the story of my mom yesterday, friends and colleagues commented on my courage — courage in telling my mother’s story, courage in putting down my cigarettes, courage in sharing out loud what might be choices that other folks don’t see as I do. I wasn’t afraid to tell the story. I had already lived it. It was true.

The thought kept occurring to me that every time people have accused me of courage has been a time when in my mind I saw no other option, a time when my answer to act was the only right answer I could see.

I don’t know that I know much about courage. Rare has been the moment that I had to muster up the nervous energy to take on a cause that I didn’t believe or to face a giant who would crush me to smithereens.

What I know about in these years of taking on the responsibilities of a family, a mortgage, a business, and decisions that would affect other people’s incomes is more what I’ve learned about fear.

And what I’ve learned about fear is that FDR was right.
And that understanding fear is the key to success in business and in life.

Be Irresistible and Fear-Less

We’re facing times not unlike those that followed the Great American Depression. If history repeats itself, it’s worth paying attention to what happened then, when my dad started his business, when FDR gave his First Inaugural Address and said …

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

FDR’s words resonate for me. In times of learning to build a business, in past worries of whether I’d be able to pay the rent, fear was the enemy that tried to undo me.
Fear of failure.
Fear of losing.
Fear of doing nothing and doing the wrong thing.
Fear that I might spend a life telling the truth to everyone, but lying to myself.

Fear of finding my best efforts not enough paralyzed me. Fear of commitment enticed me into procrastination. Fear that the world I believed in and the person I was might not exist confused all of my decisions.

Carrying that fear wherever I went was a burden bigger than any one person could manage.
Slowly that fear broke down the integrity of the person carrying it.
Fear made me give away what I valued as if it were worthless.
Fear made me think that givers never get and getters forget.

Survival instinct says if the situation isn’t paying off, it’s a good time to move.
Fear wasn’t getting me anywhere.
I didn’t like where I was or what I saw around me.
I didn’t like the kind of people my fear attracted.
I didn’t much like myself.

I sat down and did the math.
I figured out that fear and trust don’t exist in the same space.
I looked my fear in the face and waited for it to devour me, crush me, embarrass me, or shun me.
It didn’t.

I studied my successes. I saw that I’d never carried fear into my success. I’d always gone in knowing I would be, do, and achieve what was needed to finish ahead. It wasn’t that I was stronger, better, or particularly more clever. It was that it crossed my mind that another option existed, except to come out ahead.

I calmly decided I was better than any fear I could dream up.
I knew that I could out breathe any fear and build something better instead.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
— the Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert’s Book Dune:

I don’t know much about courage.
I know enough about fear to watch it, learn from it, and let it pass.
Like the litany says I let it pass over me and through me until only I remain.
Fear can’t stop me from telling the hard truth gently, pursuing a quest I believe in, or trusting in myself.
And I’ve learned to recognize my friends by how fearlessly they won’t allow me to fail.

If “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes” has become a problem in your business or your life, breathe deep. Speak the truth. Trust your instincts. Believe in who you are. And surround yourself with people who will fight you for the right to not let you fail.

Be irresistible. Be fear-less.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!