I’ve watched this video probably a dozen times…

And it fires me up every time. Anytime I feel like I need to take another inch, anytime I feel like sleeping instead of doing what I need to be doing, I watch this video, and I’m right back on productivity mode…

Check it out, and let me know if it inspires you as much as it inspires me in the comments.

By the way, I’m not 100% sure but I think his name is Eric Thomas.

Peace,

-Scott

Hey guys,

I let Issamar Ginzberg from Issamar.com grill me in an interview…

It talks about how I got started, my advice on traffic, social media, copywriting, testing, conversions, profitable markets and a whole lot more.

Izzy (Issamar) is a marketing genius, and both people who are new to IM and those who have some experience can take a lot away from this interview. Enjoy!

IMPORTANT: Listen to the biggest marketing mistakes people make. I can almost guarantee at least one of them is costing you thousands of dollars. Seriously.

Also, near the end of the interview, it sounds like it’s over… It’s not. I throw in some traffic strategies at the end that should definitely help some people out.

If you’d rather download it and catch it on your Ipod, click here.
If you dig this interview, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Sign up below for FREE content that will make your online business infinitely more profitable…

Now go hustle,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. Nothing for sale here, just solid content. I promise you it’s well worth your time.

Don't Be This Guy.

This is CRITICAL to effectively selling anything…

And it’s one of the biggest mistakes I see marketers, both newbies and veteran guys alike make.

When I worked in sales jobs, a lot of the older sales guys I worked with were “old school”, they talked about all of those selling concepts like…

- “ABC, Always be closing.”

-”Be aggressive, don’t let them leave without a commitment.”

-”Dial for dollars, it’s a numbers game.”

The classic “used car” selling tricks are a waste of time and energy. I’m not saying they don’t work, they do, but ultimately you’re working much harder than you need to in order to close the deal.

And I see these same tactics being used online. People focusing on a one-off sale as opposed to building relationships.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a marketing consultant and copywriter.

I don’t go out begging for work. I don’t manipulate my clients into hiring me when I’m on the phone with them for the first time.

I have my whole business set up so that I don’t need to cold call, or chase down potential clients.

I’ve positioned myself so that clients come to me… And when they do I make sure to do everything I possibly can to make them clients for life.

I could cold call. I could spend my days hunting down potential clients. But that’s a massive time suck, and selling is A LOT more fun when you don’t need to sell at all…

When your potential customers want to buy what you’re offering, and you position yourself as the best place to purchase whatever it is they’re looking for, there’s zero resistance.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, you can apply this to your business…

Gary Vaynerchuck sells millions of dollars worth of wine, books and speaking gigs every year using nothing but his personality.

If you’re an affiliate, you can do the same thing. Go beyond direct linking. If you’re selling weight loss try setting up a blog, forum and newsletter with entertaining/informative content. Give people what they want. Keep them coming back with awesome content, and when they’re ready to buy they’ll buy from you.

Positioning yourself as “the best” in your industry does a TON of things to make your life easier and make you more money…

1. It immediately makes your business competition proof. If you’re an authority in the fitness vertical, and you have a loyal fan base who listens to everything you say, you’re 100x as likely to land the sale for that new supplement than some affiliate testing the niche for the first time.

2. It builds a lifetime business. The first sale is ALWAYS the most expensive. People who buy from you in the past are VERY likely to buy from you again in the future. If you’re going for a one-off sale instead of creating customers for life, you’re 100% leaving money on the table.

3. It forces you to provide real value. If you’re promoting garbage products, yes, you can make a lot of money very fast. But not one of those people you ripped off is ever going to spend another penny with you.

4. It allows you to charge premium prices. If you’re known as “the best”, at whatever you do or sell, you separate yourself from selling a “commodity”, people will pay a premium to work with and buy from the best.

And it’s ALL about positioning…

Think about it. Say you wanted to start a consulting business…

Would you rather be the guy doing $100 web design or the guy doing $20k/month contracts? They both exist, and what they charge is entirely their decision.

How can you be the best in your niche?

How can you position yourself so that instead of chasing customers down and hard selling them, they line up ready to pay premium prices to buy from you?

It starts with great content. It starts with giving people what they want.

It’s about building communities. Building relationships.

It’s about knowing what people want, and positioning yourself/your company as the obvious choice to buy from.

That’s what separates the boys from the men in this business.

Something to think about.

Now go hustle,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. If you have a product or service you need help selling, if you want to position it as “the best” in your niche, I can help. Drop a comment or fill out the form at ResultsCopywriting.com.

I was lucky enough to sit down with Craig Garber, “The King Of Copy“, and grill him in an interview…

This is geared towards copywriters and marketers, however I HIGHLY recommend checking it out no matter what business you’re in, you’ll get some fantastic marketing and business ideas.

If you aren’t familiar with Craig, he sells well over $500,000 a year in information products. He got his start working with Gary Halbert, and he commands $60,000 to write a sales letter IF you’re lucky enough to convince him to  take you on as a client.

Check it out below, let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks!

-Scott Murduagh

P.S. I honestly can’t recommend this book enough. Hands down my favorite marketing book in the last 2 years. If you want to check it out, you can do so here (aff) Maximum Money…
P.P.S. If you know of anyone else who may enjoy this, please pass it along. You can click here to retweet it to your followers.

Thanks for reading!

I don’t believe you.

That’s your second biggest enemy beyond having your message heard… It’s convincing your customer to believe your what you’re saying is true.

People are skeptical. They need to be skeptical.

And that’s your next biggest obstacle, convincing them to believe a word you say. Because you’re just some random website on the internet, and there are thousands of sites just like yours who make the same grand promises.

So what can you do?

PROVE IT.

Proof is the key.

And I’m not just talking about testimonials. Everyone has testimonials… Testimonials can be manufactured or “encouraged” and buyers know this.

Screenshots are another “iffy” form of proof.

I’m not saying don’t use them… I’m saying they’re not enough. And in many cases this type of proof isn’t even necessary.

Let’s look at a few different ways to offer real proof.

Be An Authority.

Gary Halbert was the greatest copywriter who ever lived… It says so right on his website.

A lot of great copywriters would agree, but he would have never been known as the “best” unless he believed he was the best, acted like the best, and told people that he was the best.

You can’t do that if you can’t back it up, but if you can, no one else is going to appoint you as “the best” at anything until you take that position for yourself.

In relation to your marketing, you need to be an authority… I used to sell pianos. I could barely play a lick, but aside from playing them I knew everything about them.

I knew the bright sounding pianos from the mellow pianos. I could tell prospects about where they’re manufactured, why one soundboard is superior to another, every little detail.

I could answer anything people wanted to know about purchasing a piano. I’d rarely touch a keyboard when selling a piano, but I sold a lot of them.

Because I knew what I was talking about. And it doesn’t matter what your niche is… Anything from traffic generation to investments to gardening…

If you can speak as an authority on the subject, people will listen. And if you really know what you’re talking about, people can tell.

Just being an authority on a subject can give you a huge amount of credibility in any market.

Use Indirect Proof.

This is something that can be tricky, so you have to be careful.

For the purposes of this post, I’m making up statistics for examples… Don’t assume these are true. You obviously want to use real statistics and facts for your own products…

Say you’re selling an SEO product… Indirect proof may be…

There are over 6 billion searches on Google every month, and there are still millions of profitable search terms out there that are simple to rank for…  Just one of those long tail keywords can easily be worth thousands of dollars a month for your business…

Or an Adwords product…

95% Of Adwords users ultimately lose money and give up… However for the 5% who DO turn a profit it can be life changing income. We’ve interviewed dozens of successful Adwords advertisers, and we’ll show you exactly what it takes to drive cheap targeted traffic to your website AND how to convert that traffic into a profitable Adwords campaign…

Or an investment newsletter…

“Warren Buffet once said “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” And we believe this type of thinking has been critical to his success… At XYZ newsletter we know that past performance never guarantees future success, and because we always keep our eyes on the road ahead, our subscribers have made a consistent 24% ROI over the last 12 months, even during the recession.”

This type of proof can be applied to anything… And while it’s not a testament to the quality of your product you are backing up claims you make with real, verifiable data.

The Amazon Effect.

How many books have you bought on Amazon based solely on the reviews? If you’re anything like me, probably a lot.

But Amazon reviews are MUCH more powerful than testimonials… Because anyone can post their opinion. If a book is great, it’ll get a ton of positive feedback. If it’s not, it’ll get bad reviews.

But that’s REAL social proof. There’s no screening. The author can’t hand pick testimonials. For some products or services, this can be applied to your marketing as well.

As a copywriter, most of my work comes from word of mouth. A satisfied client recommends me to a friend, and that’s the best social proof I can get.

When I was starting out, I’d post on forums… I still do. I remember when I posted one of my first offers. At first, it was a little slow. Then I got a taker. I did the copy, the client tested it, and posted feedback in the thread…

Then it was a snowball effect. Before long I had quite a few clients all posting in my thread, commenting on the quality of work, my work ethic, etc… And once I had that social proof built in, I started getting a lot more inquiries.

This can be applied to most products online… If you promote in forums, or run a forum, or a blog, and you provide real value to people and give them the opportunity to post feedback, they’ll do it. And that’s extremely powerful, much more than handpicked testimonials.

Get Creative…

Why was Billy Mays so successful? Because he proved the claims he made about every product through outrageous demonstrations…

Why is the Prius so popular? Because they took advantage of a trend (environmental awareness, high gas prices) and proved that they provided a solution.

This post is just a few ideas, there are hundreds of ways to get your message across and prove it in the process. So far we’ve talked about getting your sales message read and providing undeniable proof about your product… Keep an eye out for the next post within a week or so.

Are you proving every promise you make in your sales copy?

Proof is critical to your success… If you have any ideas on how to provide proof, please leave a comment.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. If you need help with your project, leave a comment or check out more atResultsCopywriting.com and I’ll let you know if I can help.

What’s most important in sales copy, above all else?

Getting your message read.

In the information age, every single one of us is exposed to thousands of advertisements per day.

And we’re all conditioned to tune them out… Even if you’re OCD about marketing like I am and actually enjoy reading copy, I still tune out 99% of advertisements that I’m exposed to.

We have to. If we listened to every pitch that came at us, we wouldn’t have time to do anything else. So your very first job as a marketer is to “break through the noise”… To make absolutely sure that you get your message read…

So here’s the trick…

Make Your Advertising Itself So Valuable That People Can’t Help But Read It.

In the offline direct response world, we have megalogs, newsletters, advertorials, 2-step lead generation and other ways to get the job done.

So what about online?

Let’s start with this blog… I hope there’s some valuable content here, I hope most people that visit do walk away with some valuable information… I do enjoy writing it and I know that 99% of people who read this aren’t potential customers, but it’s mostly a pre-sell.

Right now, it’s a pre-sell for clients who may be interested in hiring me. Eventually, it’ll be a pre-sell for additional products and services that I roll out.

So, we’ve got blogs and newsletters… Two great ways to reach out to your target market and give them plenty of valuable information.

If you watch any major product launch there are usually tons of freebies, from reports to videos…  Pre-sell emails and blog posts, and this all kicks off long before they ask for a sell.

This part of the equation is nothing new. We’ve all heard about giving away valuable content, moving the “free line”, all of that good stuff.

But the trick is to be a valuable source of information… You want to be the guy who has people drooling in anticipation waiting to see your next email, blog post or other content.

And if you think about everything you do with your potential customers interest in mind, that’s not  too hard to do.

What About The Sales Copy Itself?

If you’ve done your pre-selling the right way, your visitors will see you as a source of valuable information for whatever product or service you’re offering. If you’ve already helped them, for free, the chances of them even considering taking the time to just look at your sales copy goes up exponentially…

So they’re warmed up, and you’ve got their attention.  Perfect.

Now your job, starting with your headline and every other element of your copy, is to keep them reading…

Before you worry about making an offer or telling them about your great whatever you’re selling you want them involved in the sales copy.

So address their problems, arouse curiosity, and make your sales letter itself informational and interesting enough to read on its own.

Joe Sugarman calls it the “slippery slide”… But if you can get your prospect interested enough to read the first few paragraphs of your copy, you stand a very good chance of getting them to read until the end…

And until you capture that attention, you can’t sell them anything.

Make Your Copy “Scannable”…

On the internet especially, people scan. If they see you’re offering something that they may be interested in, you want to use subheads and bullets to your advantage…

Tell them the story and create the irresistible offer in a way where if they were to just scan the entire letter, they’d get the idea of what you’re offering and why they need it.

You want it to be as easy to read as possible. You want it to be engaging to the reader, and only after you’ve got them reading do you worry about structuring your offer and making a sell.

Always Write To Be Read…

No one cares that you’re selling anything.

Convincing someone to fork over their hard earned cash in print isn’t easy… And if you can’t get your sales message read it’s impossible.

So everything, from your headline to your P.S.’s to making your offer needs to be interesting and engaging enough to make people want to read it…

Because the FIRST sell your making is the trickiest… You’ve got to sell people on giving you their most precious asset, their time, before you can ask them for the money.

Always keep that in mind… And there’s waaay more to this topic than I can fit in a single blog post. In the next post we’ll get into actually writing the copy.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S.  If you haven’t already you should check out the interview I did with Craig Garber, the “King Of Copy”… If you’re into marketing or copywriting, Craig really does offer some GREAT insights, and it’s free, click here to listen.

P.P.S.  I’ve put a few projects on hold for December, and I’ve got a little bit of time available this month as of right now… Whether you want an entire marketing campaign or an hour of consulting, contact me at ResultsCopywriting.com.

Don't Murder Your Marketing.

I field quite a few inquiries every week.

This week I’ve had 5 people contact me saying “this is my website, it’s not converting well. How much would you charge to fix it?”

If that’s the first question you ask me or any copywriter, then we’re probably not meant to be.

It’s bad business for both parties involved, this is why…

I’ve Been Shot… How Much Do You Charge?

A man calls up the hospital, says “I’ve been shot, how much do you charge?”… What do you think the answer is going to be?

It’s definitely NOT going to be a number. It’s going to be “We’ll rush an ambulance over” or “where were you shot?”

Now, if I’m the doctor operating on you… It’s going to depend on a lot of factors. But a small flesh wound on the arm that just needs patched up is going to cost a lot less than a chest wound…

Dozens of factors will come into play… How do I stop the pain? Will surgery be required? How much blood did you lose? Will you be in the hospital for an hour or a few months?

And in some cases, the damage will be too much for the doctor to do anything at all.

It’s The Exact Same Thing With Marketing…

Every single client a copywriter takes on has different needs.

Some clients are launching a brand new product and they need help with positioning, branding, marketing funnels, traffic and plenty of other things.

Other clients have positioned their products all wrong and need a complete overhaul.

Sometimes the problem lies more in the traffic sources than the copy…

My past clients are much more likely to get a smaller upfront fee with the majority paid in the back, or even a 100% royalty deal (more of a partnership) than some guy I’ve never talked to… In fact, if I don’t know you extremely well the latter is very unlikely.

And to be blunt again, If that’s the first question out of your mouth when you contact me I’ll probably either point you to this blog post or send you a short email saying I’ll have to pass (my old solution)…

Why? Because…

Price Shopping When It Comes To Your Marketing Is A Terrible Business Model.

If you take a bullet the first question out of your mouth isn’t going to have anything to do with price.

Now, I’m not saying that your marketing is as critical as taking a bullet, but it’s still very serious. If you take your business seriously, you need to take your marketing seriously.

Because it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, you’re not in ANY business until you’re in the marketing business.

Let’s talk copywriting and marketing…

Do you think the guy who knows what he’s doing, who delivers results… Who really understands direct response marketing and copywriting… Is he going to give you the lowest quote? Hell no.

The guy out there taking any and every job he can get… Advertising $200 sales letters before he even knows your product or market, do you think he’s a better choice? Could be, but you’ve got to be lucky.

Because if that guy has any clue about marketing and positioning, he’s not going to quote you ANYTHING, much less $200, before he knows exactly what your needs are and IF he thinks your product is even marketable.

So if you’re “price shopping” when it comes to marketing and copywriting…

You’re Shooting Your Marketing In The Chest.

So you hire a guy for $200 and save quite a bit of money on your upfront marketing… NICE.

Except that your new marketing campaign is bleeding money. And depending on how much traffic you’re getting every single lost buyer due to poor copy is bleeding cash right out of your bank account.

Could you spend 5 figures on a copywriter and have a flopped product? It’s possible. There’s nothing certain in this business.

But it does pay to put the law of statistics in your corner… And chances are that if you hire someone with a track record of results, someone who won’t beg to let you write for any product, even if there’s no market for it, someone who has experience and can predict what will work and what won’t work with reasonable certainty… You can stack the odds in your favor.

I’m not saying I’m the go to guy for any and every product. I’m not.

With very few exceptions, I’ll generally choose to avoid working with anyone who asks “how much” before they ask “what can you do for me?”

Because if that’s the first question out of your mouth it sets off a big red flag.

One, you think of what I do as a commodity rather than a potentially valuable business partner and that tells me immediately that you’re either inexperienced or just not the kind of person I want to do business with.

My favorite clients in the past have also been my most successful clients… And they’re the guys that want to know “why should I work with you” before price is an issue. They have products that they want to be extremely successful…

They have gung ho can’t fail attitudes… And they realize that “cheap” and “results” rarely cross paths.

Cheap traffic rarely converts, cheap hosting generally sucks, and cheap service providers usually  (not always) have crappy work or customer service…  And cheap copywriting and marketing rarely produces any results.

You generally get what you pay for…

So Here’s My New Answer.

It’s impossible for me to quote you a price without taking a long hard look at exactly what I can do to help you…

And I’ve been out of the “chasing down” clients game for quite a while,  I’m at a point now where I get to pick and choose my jobs and spend more time working on my own stuff.

The index page of ResultsCopywriting.com is about to be completely revamped (it’s passed due anyways) and sometime this week it’ll be completely different.

Since I need to spend about an hour with potential clients anyway, I’ll be charging a flat fee for a 1 hour consultation.

It’ll be 100% risk free, it will be a consultation, not a sales pitch, and if you do decide to hire me after the fact I’ll apply the total to the final fee.

My time is valuable, I don’t have time to field every inquiry I get now, so this way I can filter out who’s serious from who’s not, and help you with some of the “big idea” stuff without you needing to pay my full copywriting fees.

This will save me time, allow me to work on my own stuff, and only work with people who’ve shown that they’re serious about making their product and marketing campaign a success.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. I didn’t write this post to offend anyone… “How much do you charge” IS a valid question. It’s just not the best question to ask upfront, for either party involved.

This is a case study of a project I worked on with Andy Fletcher a few months ago…

Andy and I had never met prior to this project; we were introduced through a mutual friend. Andy had an awesome SEO course that he wanted to bring to market, and he needed some help selling it.

The guy is an SEO genius, the product and software was solid, and it was a perfect fit for me…

There were a few problems… Andy had very little marketing experience and a very tiny list. I asked him how he planned to market it and he said “probably just a WSO (warrior special offer), I don’t expect it to be anything too big.”

I almost dropped Andy right there. A $27 WSO, even if it sold well, would take well over 100 sales to even cover my fee, let alone make any money for Andy… And I don’t take on a project unless it’s going to make me and my clients some serious money.

But Andy Had A Secret Weapon

In certain circles, Andy Fletcher is considered a genius at SEO… He’s always on the cutting edge of tools and techniques that send websites flying up to the top of the search engines…

He’s also got some very influential contacts in the business. Not to mention he’s a genuinely great guy and has a very magnetic personality.

So we devised a plan… We were going to make this thing a hit, and we were going to do it using the power of relationship marketing.

Andy had some major contacts in the industry… So after we decided that this product was going to be HUGE and not just a “little WSO” Andy paid my fee and I went to work.

Little Ideas Go A Long Ways

Andy has a very cool product. You can see it at Backlinkflood.com.

It’s an SEO product about getting your websites ranked higher in the search engines in the shortest amount of time possible.

I coined some terms like “Rapid Link Indexing”, “SEO 2.0”, “Underground Link Ninja”… But more importantly I covered all of the important aspects of the copy. I consulted with Andy about some minor changes to the product that I thought could help sales.

I created several different USP’s to use throughout the copy, from faster indexing of links to how to build “authority wheels” and answered many of the questions that people in this niche would like to know.

To be completely honest, this letter wasn’t perfect  (sorry Andy). It could have used some more punch in the bullets.

I had planned for videos to accompany his software so users could get a quick overview. That never happened…

And even though I tried to convince Andy otherwise, and encouraged him to test, I wasn’t a fan of the price point.

But it does go to show you that there’s no such thing as a “perfect” sales letter… But a “good” sales letter can still make you a nice chunk of money.

The Secret Recipe For Success

Here’s why Andy’s  product was a success…

Andy knew what his market wanted. He knew how to solve their problems.

Andy hired a professional copywriter (ahem) who is familiar with his market to handle his copy… He outsourced one of the most critical components in his marketing funnel, the sales copy itself.

I also wrote some emails for affiliates to use in promotion… Andy did an AMAZING job at making the site as enticing to affiliates as possible…

From the professional design, the professional copy, the tools…

He even offered a 15% second tier affiliate structure so that affiliates would be encouraged for other affiliates.

He worked with MiniSiteFrog.com for the design, they do pretty awesome work.

The REAL Secret To  Success

The real secret to Andy’s success was his ability to go out, create some amazing JV’s and drive some traffic to the offer.

The 10% conversion rate I mentioned? To be fair, it was only a few hundred visitors, and they came off of a previous SEO products buyers list.

You can’t get much more targeted traffic than that, these are people who have shown an interest in spending money to learn more about SEO.

The site did convert around 3.5% on “freebie” lists and 1.5%+ on cold traffic, so overall the sales page did its job well.

He also had other very good JV partners… In fact the product was featured at the top of the Warrior Forum for about 2 weeks.

Andy gave me permission to tell his story, but it’s not my place to tell you how much money this little project has made him… Although I DO know he was extremely satisfied and more than covered my fee.

Moral Of The Story

You don’t need to be a “guru” or have a huge list to make a lot of money.

Andy found a market and created a product that solved a problem for that market.

He spared no expense when it came to outsourcing the essentials, like copywriters (I like to call them conversion multipliers) and design.

He worked like crazy to create an awesome product and to go out and make things happen… He didn’t create the product, have a sales page designed and then sit around waiting for something to happen. He made it happen.

It was a simple product… But because he had specialized knowledge, because he didn’t half ass anything, he worked hard and spared no expense when hiring people who he knew he could count on for a great job, he was rewarded in the end.

Whether he made $1,000 profit or $100,000 profit is irrelevant…  He created something with his own 2 hands, went out and MADE it happen.

And you can do the same. This whole internet marketing stuff isn’t as complicated as it seems.

As a former client and good friend of mine would say “Just F’n Do It”.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. Stay tuned for an AWESOME interview with one of the world’s greatest living copywriters (who I’ll reveal shortly)… It should be out early next week but you need to be subscribed to my newsletter to be able to hear it.

P.P.S. Do you want your next product to be a success story? Head over to ResultsCopywriting.com and we’ll figure out a way to make it happen.

I’m the first to admit that this is my biggest problem…

A few months into my freelance copywriting career, I became jaded. I had clients falling into my lap with hardly any marketing on my part, and I was earning enough money to be “comfortable”…

Don’t get me wrong, ALL of my clients get 100% effort out of me, but I’d lost some of my drive…

It used to be I’d get a new project and that same night I’d sit down, do some market research, and try to bang out a rough draft… I was EXCITED to be working on any new project that came my way.

Lately, it’s been more like “It’s not due for about a month… I’ve got plenty of time to get around to it.”

I’m not lazy. I’m human.

I’m also 27. I still run around with a lot of the same people I did in High school, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, BUT it can kill my productivity… Why?

My best friend is a foreman on a roofing company… He makes good money for where we live, and he worked his ass of to get there…  And aside from grabbing a cold beer after work from time to time he’s one of the most responsible guys I know.

However my best friend is the exception… (And no offense to anyone who may be reading this).

Most of my friends are always wanting to go out and have some fun, even if it means staying out until 3am on a Tuesday night…

I love having fun, but my days of treating life like a full time party are over. So I’m going to slowly be cutting ties with a lot of these people, because they’re not helping me to become the person I want to become.

I’ve been doing some serious thinking about where I want to be a year from now, and I’m FAR from it at this point.

Here’s a few steps I’m taking to help me get there…

Identify Your Time Leeches… Here Are Mine..

Television: This is a big one for me. I’m not saying to give up your favorite shows, I have my fair share… I also record them on DVR so I can watch them on MY schedule, not the other way around. So if you’re not game for throwing out the “idiot box” completely, consider using DVR or even Hulu to watch your favorite shows on your time.

Video Games: I used to be an addict. Not as bad as some, but probably an hour or so a day. As much as it hurt to do, I sold all of my video game systems. I miss them, but when I’m at the point in life where I truly want to be, I’ll be able to afford them again… Until then I can’t afford the wasted time.

People: I’ve already talked briefly about cutting ties with those who aren’t helping my life. But I’m taking it a step further… Even for my clients I’m no longer going to be accessible 24/7… I’m not going to jump when my phone rings for anyone (I have voicemail for a reason) or return an email the second I get it… I will still communicate, but it’s on my terms.

Time Wasting Websites: Forums, Facebook, Twitter and others can be VERY helpful for your business… But only if you’re using them the RIGHT way… Browsing forums all day long can be addictive, but it doesn’t put much money in your pocket… For me personally websites like Digg.com and other fun but time sucking sites are on the “block list” on my computer. (To block sites, use Leechblock for Firefox (free).

How To Be Passionate About What You Do.

I mentioned earlier that when I’d get a new project, I’d lose sleep over how excited I was to get started… I think I’ve figured out how to spark that passion again.

Here are a few tips to help “light that fire”…

• Only take on projects, whether they’re your own or a clients, that get you EXCITED… The “I can’t wait to finish this, we’re going to make a TON of money” type of projects.

• Don’t take on more work than you can handle… I’ve been guilty of this in the past and nothing burns you out and kills your motivation like biting off more than you can chew.

• Only work with people you like…  I can’t stand negative attitudes, I want my clients and partners to be EXCITED about their projects… That energy and excitement is contagious.

• Set yourself an ultimatum…  “If I don’t earn $x in the next 2 weeks, I’m getting a part time job as a waiter for a month”… I don’t know about you but going back to a minimum wage job were no  one values your time and people treat you like crap is a pretty strong motivator for me.

• Set realistic goals that get you excited… New car, family vacation to Disney World, Backpacking trip across Europe… Ask yourself what you’d rather be doing more than anything else right now and use that as fuel for your fire.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading, most recently Kennedy’s “No B.S. Time Management” and Craig Garber’s new book “Make Maximum Money With Minimum Customers”… (non-aff)

They’ve both already inspired me…

Mainly, because I have a “magic number” that I believe an hour of my time should be worth… And if I’m not doing an activity that directly contributes to that “magic number”,  I need to STOP immediately and either get off of the computer or get back to work that directly puts money in my pocket.

I find that I work best when I write down specific daily goals on a checklist… I also estimate the time the goal will take, set a timer, and do nothing but work on that goal during the duration of that time.

I personally use The Action Machine (non-aff) but to be honest, aside from the reports and a few bells and whistles  pen,  paper and an egg timer works just as well.

Another VERY cool (and free) tool is Rescue Time… It tracks EVERYTHING you do on your computer, from the apps you have open to the websites you visit, and shows you some neat charts and graphs so you can see where you spend the majority of your time on the computer.

I HIGHLY recommend you grab this… It’s free and the information it provides about your work habits are extremely insightful.

If you can add one more PRODUCTIVE hour per day to you schedule, that’s 5 hours a week, or 20 hours a month…

If you value your time at $100 per hour that’s an extra $2,000 a month, and it’s not THAT hard to squeeze an extra hour of productivity out each day.

Your Time Is Your Most Valuable Asset…

Time is one thing money can’t buy, and you’re constantly running out of it… So you NEED  to use it as wisely as possible…

And if you set daily goals and schedules you’ll be A LOT more productive during your working time… So you can either make more money or spend your time doing something that you enjoy doing…

THAT’S freedom… I don’t know about you but that’s EXACTLY why I went into my business for myself. It’s the ultimate freedom.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

Follow These Simple Guidelines To Avoid This.

Everyone’s freaking out…

The alphabet agencies are coming down with new regulations, and people are scared.

On the one hand, I’m not a huge fan of government regulation and policing small businesses… On the other hand sometimes we need to be policed, and I think that these new guidelines are going to separate the boys from the men.

Liars Have An Unfair Advantage…

If I were allowed to say that “I make $476,038 a month using this system, working only 1 hour per day, and everyone who buys my $97 course does too!”…

And then I was allowed to either write fake testimonials, or pay people to write testimonials saying what I wanted them to say, I’d be rich…

I also couldn’t sleep at night. That’s not sales. That’s fraud.

The FTC is targeting flogs with fake stories, fake testimonials, and products specifically designed to dupe customers into crazy rebills…

They also want full disclosure from bloggers and affiliates that they are being compensated to endorse certain products.

Guess what?

Honesty Increases Credibility…

Let’s say I was creating a copywriting product (not that I would ever think of doing such a thing)…

I could say something like…

I made $x during my first 6 months as a freelance copywriter… And a lot of guys I know made a lot more than that…

But that doesn’t mean that you will too… You don’t just slap up a website, call yourself a copywriter  and expect the checks to start rolling in…

It takes a lot of hard work. You have to be talented… And if you can’t deliver results for your clients you’ve either got to improve your skills or find a new career…

Finding that first set of clients when you’re brand new and have no track record can be VERY difficult…

I’ll show you some shortcuts to get started… And I’ll teach you some things about closing deals and commanding the fees that you want that I had to learn the hard way…

But I don’t want you to think for a second that this is an easy way to get rich… Because it’s not.

In my mind copywriting is one of the most powerful and profitable skills that you can learn… But if you’re not willing to put in the work…

…If you’re not willing to hone your chops and get out there and market yourself, you’re only wasting your time and setting yourself up for disappointment.

IF you think you’ve got what it takes to blow controls out of the water… If you think you’re capable of writing a million dollar advertisement and you just need the right clients to prove yourself, then I CAN help…

But it’s not a magic pill and ultimately, it’s YOU who is responsible for your income…

No one is going to walk away from an ad like that thinking that I’m saying “typical results” are that everyone who buys the course will automatically become a six figure copywriter…

As for testimonials, I could say…

Here are some testimonials… Some are from fellow copywriters, others are unsolicited from satisfied customers… But not everyone who’s taken this course follows up with me to tell me about their progress…

Some people probably file it away for future use when they “get around to it”… Most people probably don’t even put all of the advice into practice.

So these testimonials aren’t speaking for everyone who’s purchased this product, it’s only people who have found the course good enough to go out of their way and send me a comment about it…

Easy.

What About Affiliates?

Use common sense…

Don’t make claims about products that you can’t back up.

Don’t make up testimonials… If you’re a blogger do what Michel Fortin did and post a full disclosure on your blog…

If you have advertisements in the side bar say “Sponsored Links”…

In you emails, it’ll vary by niche… But you can put a disclaimer at the bottom of the emails, or you can come right out and say “Yes, I’m being compensated for telling you about this… BUT I wouldn’t waste your time or put my reputation on the line by recommending this if it wasn’t going to dramatically help you (insert benefit here)…”

In The Long Run, This Is A Good Thing.

Fake testimonials, hyped up lies… Broken products that don’t deliver as promised. They’re all a giant black eye in this industry…

Honest marketers have to compete with these guys, and they give us ALL a bad name.

One of the BIGGEST obstacles when selling online is being believed… And by being open and honest in your marketing, if you do it the RIGHT way, it will help build trust and credibility and ultimately help conversion rates, not the other way around.

So what’s the easy answer?

Only sell products that actually help people, and that have enough positive benefits WITHOUT hype or lies that will still make people want to buy them.

If you have to use fake testimonials, if you have to make outlandish claims in your sales copy… If you can’t figure out how to overcome these new regulations you either need new products to sell or you need to find another line of work.

That’s my take on the information I have so far… There’s still a lot of ambiguity in the new regulations, but I’ve got a pretty good feeling that when everything is cleared up that the advice I laid out in this post will still be exactly what you need to be doing.

Peace,

-Scott Murdaugh

P.S. I’m not a lawyer and there are still a lot of unknown factors at play here, so take this advice with a grain of salt.

P.P.S. If you want a copywriter who can sell your product without having to lie to your customers and sell your soul in the process, check out ResultsCopywriting.com.