My son is in Tae Kwon Do and his teacher’s name begins with Master. It got me to thinking about name titles and how it can effect you or your brand. You see, the title of “Master” before his actual name gives him credibility in other people’s eyes. Everyone calls him that. And everyone knows what it means.

It’s a brand of sorts.

Even something as simple as the title of Mr. or Mrs. gives an air of importance. People that you call Mr. and their last name is a more formal way to talk to them or present them. A brand of sorts.

You could even go a little further with it and get creative. Think about Houdini. Sure that is a household name and most people know who he is. But doesn’t the name “The Great Houdini” give it more of a ring?

In a way names have power and having a title attached to a name could add even more to that. Do you think a name title can make a difference?

~Chris

So do you think adding a title to your name could help you build a brand? Similar to a name of a blog? Would you be willing to use something a little out there?

When it comes to a lot of online content, such as ebooks, articles, blog posts, etc., the headline is the first thing people see. It is also the first step that decides whether they are even going to read your content.

A good headline is enticing, it creates curiosity. It makes you want to know what it’s all about. It makes you click, right? And that is what we want with our own content.

So how do you figure out what is a good headline and what’s not? A good way to learn what works is to follow by example. Look at what gets you to click.

Check out your email. We all get a lot of email everyday. And even though you probably spend a majority of your time skimming through it, there are some that just grab your attention and make you stop. You may even click on it. But it doesn’t matter, the headline already did it’s work.

These are the kinds of examples you want to look for. The kind that get your attention. If you read blogs on a regular basis, same thing, take a closer look at the ones that you actually slow down to read.

Take a look at these particular pieces. They probably did a couple things.

- presented a problem that you can relate to

- presented a solution that may solve said problem

- created curiosity

- it shocked you

It could have been one or a combination of these that stopped you long enough to read it. And that’s the trick right there. Look at the headline and see what it says in it that made you stop. Even if you didn’t actually click through, you still paused. And that’s what you want. That little moment right there.

People are in a hurry constantly or may have a “been there, done that” attitude or they may be lazy. Whatever the reason, the majority of people are not on the look out for your content (unless they know you of course). So you have to get their attention. To create a good headline creates a pause, no matter how small, in their busy day.

But there is also another piece to this little puzzle. What else in the headline grabbed your attention that may not be so obvious?

It seemed directed at you.

And in a way it was directed at you. When the author of that content created it, he probably had the idea of his preferred audience when did his work.

Who are you trying to attract when you are creating your content? That little bit of information can make a difference between a headline that works and one that no one notices. Think of one person that most closely relates to your ideal audience and form the headline to them. Cater to them.

Keep these things in mind when you see headlines, especially the ones that draw your attention. The point of this blog though was to point out a website that, for the most part, does some fairly effective headlines on a regular basis.

Yahoo.com

This may seem a little obvious or not, but it’s one of the pages I go to on a daily basis. For you it may be a different page. Maybe a news page that you come across often. But go ahead and click that link above and take a look at the links in the news section. See anything that catches your eye? No? Maybe try again later.

This site is one of the sites I see all the time as it’s the page I end up when I log out of my email. And there have been several times that I ended up clicking on a link (or at least wanting to) when I didn’t intend to. Then I end up reading an article that I didn’t have in my schedule.

Am I saying that they always have good headlines? Not at all. In fact there is a good portion of the time when I keep right on going without a second glance. But there are other times when I end up clicking on a story anyways. And that is an effective headline in some form or another.

So keep an eye out for something that grabs your attention and makes you pause. Take a look at this headline and figure out what makes it effective. Think about the message it is portraying and who it’s aimed for. Use that in your own headline work. Before you know it you’ll be able to make effective headlines without thinking twice.

~Chris

Do you have a website that has this effect on you? Do you catch yourself reading something you didn’t intend to and wonder why?

I learned a bit of a lesson recently that I wanted to share with you. I’m sure you have heard that planning is essential to a smooth running business. That’s very true. But it’s also importance for your planning and your goals to be flexible.

The world of marketing changes at a very fast pace (especially online) and you have to have a flexible business plan to keep up with things. So it’s important to have a business plan and that it’s flexible. But as I recently found out that I, as in myself, have to be flexible as well.

When I started this blog I told myself that I was going to post at least 3 times a week, every week. I didn’t want to miss a post either. And when I started the OMV newsletter I had to have it done every Sunday no matter what. I was firm with myself that I had to have it this way. This was my blogging plan. No ifs, ands, or buts.

I was not flexible at all. And when I missed a post I beat myself up over it. I got down on myself and gave myself 50 lashes of the whip. Well, maybe not the lashes but I may as well have.

This of course affected my other efforts and just kind of brought everything crumbling down. I basically sabotaged myself. It wasn’t until recently I discovered that even if my business plan (blog plan in this case) is flexible I wasn’t.

I realize everyone makes mistakes and no one by any means is perfect. Myself included. So I just had to let it go instead of holding a grudge against myself. I had to face it that with running a writing business I’m not always going to make the post when I want to. I just might miss a few things here in there.

And that is okay.

It’s important to be flexible. Both you and your plans need to be able to adjust to changes that will definitely come your way. It’s going to happen at some point or another, things just don’t stay the same. All you can do is check your priorities and stick to that.

I want to build a good, solid writing business. That takes a lot of work and dedication. If that means I may miss a few posts or miss a newsletter update, so be it. It doesn’t mean I’m giving up on my blog, it just means I need to make the most with what time I have.

The blog is still important but so are other things and adjustments have to made. And that includes learning how to be more flexible.

~Chris

Have you been in this scenario? Have you been too hard on yourself before?

Not only do I have a passion for marketing, writing, and helping others but I’m also a big nerd when it comes to entertainment. I grew up playing games and watching the newest movies. A well done and well presented fiction is just as exciting as reading about how to build a blog or make myself a better person.

I also listen to music constantly and it has always been a huge part of my life as well. I love the fact that something that is fictional and not real can have an emotional impact on you. To say the least, the entertainment industry is a big part of my life.

Which means I’m also a prime target for special editions. Or even better, limited editions! If I have the money I’ll almost always opt for the special edition then the regular edition. If it’s something that I like. Special edition of Lord of Rings? I’m on it! Limited edition Harry Potter set? Yes! Ultimate Edition God of War III? All over it.

What makes these “enhanced” editions so much more special than the regular ones? Besides the price?

It’s the same movie, game, cd, or book. It has what I am really interested in. The main course. And, it has a bunch of bells and whistles. I has a lot of things the regular versions don’t.

It has perceived value.

There’s that phrase again. So basically what these companies do is they release the original, bare bones version. Later on, or sometimes at the same time, they release the same product in new packaging and throw in some “exclusive” extras. They take the same exact product, add some bells and whistles, and sell it at a higher price.

Your average customer isn’t going to shell out the extra money to buy something like this when all they want to do is watch the movie, or play the game, or read the book. They don’t care about all that extra fluff.

But for fans of whatever it may be, buying these special editions is a done deal from the start. And the more extras there are the more excited they get. Tack on a limited availability and you have a collector’s dream.

The special edition is just another way to offer the same thing. It may sound like it’s just an easy way to make some extra money. Frankly that’s what it is. But that’s not a bad thing right?

Would this be something you would want to do with your products? A lot of marketers add tons of bonuses to their products to raise the perceived value.

Not only do you get a great product (hopefully), but you also get these other great products for free!

It’s a timeless tactic. Here is where the special edition idea comes in. When companies release special or limited versions of their product, there are groups of people that will buy it because of the extras. Then there are other people that will just buy the regular version because that’s all they want.

If you take your product and add a bunch of bonuses to go along with you’ll probably get a good response. But do you think it would be worth it to offer a cheaper version that just has the product itself without all the other stuff to go along with it? Would that widen your reach on possible customers?

It seems to work for the entertainment industry. I don’t see why having different versions of your products at different prices wouldn’t have the same effect.

~Chris

Have you done anything like this with your products? If not, would you want to? And have you seen another marketer take this kind of approach before?

pic by 5deadlydaisies

One thing that I have learned since I started learning about marketing is that being able to brag is a good thing. To a degree anyways. There are plenty of places to “toot your own horn”, such as your bio, in an advertisement, or in the resource box for your article, to name a few. To say the least it seems like it should be a good idea to learn how to brag… a bit.

Somewhere in my childhood I got the idea in my head that bragging is rude. Even now, when I see someone boasting about how great they are I think they are full of themselves and need to get over it. But as I said before a little bragging is actually a good thing. But it’s a fine line between talking about yourself and your achievements and coming off like an egotistical jerk.

So I’m on a search to learn how to brag without sounding like a jerk. It’s going to involve some unlearning on my part and it’s going to be a challenge. I feel weird when I talk about my abilities and what I can do. It’s just odd for me since I spent most of my life avoiding it. That’s not to say that I have never bragged.

When I wrote a poem I was particularly proud of I tried to show it to everyone. Or if I wrote a great short story I made everyone read it. I think that right there is the key though. I wasn’t trying to shove these things in my the face of my family just so I could rub my ego. I was showing off something I created. Something I accomplished. I was looking for feedback and support.

I was showing off too. I was bragging about my “greatest creation ever”. I wasn’t being arrogant though. There is that fine line I’m trying to find. It’s this line that I need to find again and use to show off my services and abilities. To prove that I capable of helping others out.

We all have something to offer. You have abilities that you use in your business and life. You have skills that other people need. But they won’t know you have them unless you say something about it. There are ways to brag without coming across as arrogant. It’s a fine line but one that is necessary to business and marketing in general. And I’ll let you know where my studies take me.

Can you brag without sounding arrogant?

~Chris

How do you find that balance of bragging about yourself without being arrogant? Are you more modest or are you the other way around?

Yesterday I started a post of 4 ways to re-evaluate your business. This is part 2 of that and if you haven’t read part one yet, click here.

Yesterday we went over checking both your expenses and your tasks and narrowing them down to what you really need to run your business and getting rid of the rest. Today we are going to look at making a schedule and one other very important aspect of your business; checking your goals.

Make a Schedule

Running a business takes a lot of dedication and hard work. Especially for someone that is coming from a typical 9–5 job where they tell you what to do, when and how. You don’t have to think of any of that at a typical job. But when your run your own business you have to run the show as well as do the work.

This is a pretty big adjustment for a lot of people and can cause all kinds of problems with motivation and procrastination. But there is a simple solution that will help. You’ll still need that dedication but making yourself a schedule will set things up for you to follow and make it much easier

Just like a regular job your basically giving yourself a list of things to do and a certain time frame to do it in. You are your own boss. So it may help to give yourself some direction. So set up a schedule, just like a typical boss would do for you.

The first thing you will want to do is give yourself a time frame to work in. It can be 2 hours or it can be 8, but try to make your “work” time at the same time every day. This will create a routine which benefits both you and those around you.

You will mentally be prepared to work within that time frame and it will help in dealing with distractions. And if you have family they will also learn that this is the time you work and that you shouldn’t be bothered. In other words punch in to your own time clock.

Remember all those tasks you have to do? Your going to take those and break it down even more. Set up a schedule for yourself within your allotted “work” time. Using the idea behind the Pomodora technique your going to chunk up your time between each task. Usually these “chunks” are about 40–50 minutes and then a break afterward.

Take each task and give them a certain amount of time that reasonable for each. Give a little more time to important things and set up smaller times for the little things. You’ll want to schedule your breaks as well. Use a timer or just keep and eye on the clock, but the idea here is to do one thing at a time and put your full concentration on that one thing and then move on to the next right afterward. Here is a simple example:

9:00 to 9:10 — Check email — :10
9:10 to 9:30 — Check RSS — :20
9:30 to 9:40 — Take a break — :10
9:40 to 10:30 — Write up post — :50
10:30 to 10:45 — Take a break — :15
etc, etc.

The idea here is to set up your working time schedule, breaks included. Just make sure to keep it flexible, it’s going to change at some point or another.

If you already have a working schedule that you use, this is the perfect time to review it and see if there are any changes you need to make. What tasks can you use a little less time on? What tasks can you use a little more time on? Shift things around but keep it within allotted “work” time. There is only so much time in the day and the only way to make more time is adjust from one task to the other.

Just remember that even though you are marking every hour with work it still has to be flexible and this is why. It will need adjusted as your business grows. You may take on new tasks or become faster at others. In which case now would be a good time to adjust.

This will help you take a look at where your business is going and how it’s getting there. This will give you scope of how well your business is functioning and working.

Checking Goals

Think of goals as your location. It’s where you want to be at some point or another. Goals are where you going, your final destination. Goals create focus and direction and help drive your business forward. It gives you something to look toward and strive for. You do make goals don’t you?

Now is the perfect time to go over these goals of yours. And if you don’t have goals now is the time to make them. Write them down on paper and set them up somewhere you can see them. It’s important to write them down.

Take a look at your goals and see what you have accomplished and if you are any closer to any of them. It doesn’t matter how big or small your goals are, a goal is a goal and they all serve their purpose.

You may have accomplished a few of your smaller goals since you last went over this. If that’s the case, pat yourself on the back, spoil yourself with something, you accomplished something and are moving forward. Now check out your other goals and see how much closer you are to them.

On the other side, just like everything else so far, it’s a good time to clean out some of your goals as well. As your business grows your goals are bound to change, both large and small. If you have goals that no longer pertain to your vision, throw them out.

Make some new ones and adjust where needed. Just like before flexibility is important. You have to be able to change your goals as needed. This is not to say you want to bounce all over the place but if some of your smaller goals no longer pertain to the bigger picture then there is no point is keeping it right?

Make yourself a new list and hang it up. You’ll want to be able to see your goals. Especially the bigger, long term goals. Those are what you aiming for. Use your smaller goals as stepping stones to achieve you larger ones.

That’s Not All

These are only 4 ways to re-evaluate your business and there are more aspects of your business that you can look at. But I think these are 4 of the big ones. They all directly affect you and your business and help it to move forward. A successful business take dedication, perseverance, and believe it or not, a little bit of hard work. But it’s oh so worth it.

~Chris

What other ways can you think of that would be important when you want re-evaluate your business? What other things can you go over to keep your business healthy and moving forward?

There comes a time in every business when things tend to become muddled. This is especially true if your a one man/woman team that is still taking care of all aspects of your business. Things will get left out or left behind or you may end up taking on more than was intended. The point is your business is muddled up and it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate how things are going.

It’s time to take a look at your business and see what all this hard work has done for you so far. You may want to set aside some time for this kind of work and although you won’t be able to get much else done it’s still worth it to help your business, and you, run much smoother.

Trimming down your business will help your business become more streamlined and always moving forward. There are several ways to do this. Here are 4 ways to re-evaluate your business:
(note: I’m no financial expert or productivity guru but these are tips that I have found to help make my business move forward and wanted pass it on to you.)

Expenses and Income

There are a few things to look at here. The first and most obvious is to take a look at what money you have going out that relates to your business. If you keep track of everything, this part will be easy. If not just make a simple list of all your expenses. These are the things you spend money on to help run your business. It could be a membership, course, plug ins, books, tools, desks, computer, everything and anything.

Kind of like taxes you want to list everything that you buy or spend money on pertaining to your business. The idea is to look at where your money is going. Then take a look through your list and see what you don’t really need.

Now if you have the extra money to be spending on certain things that are not really necessary but are convenient, then keep it. But only if you think it’s worth it. That’s what you want to look at here. Is what your spending money on worth it for your current situation and income?

For example if your just starting out it may not be a good idea to jump into a course that costs 50 bucks a month when that’s all your making. If you making 50 bucks, that could be better spent on something that will move your business forward. While you may like the course a lot and granted it will help in the long run, at this moment in time it may not be the best idea.

Just set that off to the side and come back to it later when you have more income. The idea here is to see if the money your spending is helping your business move along. If it’s not absolutely necessary, such as your monthly hosting bill for your blog, then put it off for now. You can always come back to it later when your income allows for that extra expense.

Do this and you’ll end up with just the necessities and should be making a profit off the rest that you can invest back into your business and bank it.

Tasks and Productivity

Similar to my post It’s Time to Trim the Fat, this will help your business run a little smoother and make it easier on you. Just like before you want to make a list of all your tasks. List everything from checking email, checking Twitter, writing posts, setting up affiliate links, interacting on forums, making phone calls. Make a list of all the activities that pertain to your business.

Once again take a step back and look at each one and find out what is moving your business forward and what isn’t. You have to remember that you only have so much time in the day. Every one of us only has 24 to a day, no more, no less. So if your trying to squeeze in too much then it may be time to trim away some excess tasks. Or at least trim down the time.

There are some tasks that you may have just got hooked on and there are some that you may just plain enjoy doing. But you have evaluate each of these tasks and figure out if they are really moving your business forward. What is pushing your business closer towards success?

Another way to help minimize this list is to combine tasks. I’m not talking about multi-tasking here as that can ruin the quality of some tasks, but more of how can you find a way to do something that accomplishes more than one task. For example instead of constantly checking blogs to see if there are anymore responses, sign up to receive responses in your email. Then when you check your email, you can check responses as well.

Or a more simple example; when your driving, instead of putting in a music cd, pick up a couple audio books that pertain to your business and listen to that instead. Or burn some interviews you have onto a cd or put them on you mp3 player and take them with you when your driving or walking. It’s good to use your imagination here.

Another way to shorten your todo list is to outsource. If you have the extra expenses then outsource the mundane tasks that take up time but are still necessary. This gives you precious time to work on the other tasks. And believe it or not can save you money as well just by giving you that extra time to make it.

(Read part 2 here)
~Chris

The other two ways to re-evaluate your business will be here soon, but as always your feedback and questions are always appreciated. Have you used any of these ideas to take a look at and maintain your own business?

Yup, that’s right, I’m breaking into the world of videos. At least I’m trying to anyways. I think the benefits of having videos are pretty obvious in the marketing sense. It’s one of the most popular forms of content. And it works well.

So I’m going to start off today and show you a video on how to create a Facebook page. I know that seems fairly simple to some of you but if you or someone you know doesn’t have one yet, this is a good way to get started. I always made it a point to not leave out even the simplest of things. We all had to start somewhere right?

Without further ado, How To Create a Facebook Page:

The quality isn’t top notch but until I figure out how to record better quality that will have to do I suppose. Any action is better than no action right? Even if it is grainy… sigh*.

If you have any other questions about facebook pages or anything else for that matter feel free to contact me or respond in the comments. I plan on creating more videos including some tips with Facebook pages as well as other marketing and personal development information. Having content in several different forms should benefit you as well as the blog here. Thanks for your time and let me know what you think.

~Chris

Do you have a facebook page? How has it worked for you? And what kind of questions do you have about it?

There is one thing that isn’t brought up very often when you set out to make a living online. Starting up a business is hard work and in order to succeed and run your business smoothly you need to find a balance between your business and the rest of your life.

Most of the time you only hear about how much money you can make, or the grand lifestyle you can achieve. Those are all achievable things but it takes some balance in most aspects of life to run a business. To become a successful person in general.

This idea is made even more difficult for someone that has a family and a 9–5 job. Then you don’t have much time and freedom to work on your business. And chances are your using all your free time just for that. It’s a harsh lesson that I’m sure a lot of people have had to learn. When you constantly work it throws the rest of your life off balance. So what is a person to do?

So, you hear that you need to find balance. Split up your time and give a little to everything. Take some time to spend with your family. Take some time to work on your projects. Take some time to work on your business. Go to your 9–5 job. Go ahead and fill up your day to the brim and see how long it takes you to burn out.

There is a misconception that when you try to balance things in your life, everything has to be even. That is the trick. You don’t have to spend the same amount time with your family as you did working on your business. You can spend an hour more on one or the other.

It doesn’t have to be even.

Find the amount of time that works for you and change things around so that they work. Become more productive in your work so that you can get it done more efficiently. That gives you more time for other things. Find things that you don’t really need to do but you do anyways. Find those and get rid of them. Shift things around. Adjust things so that you get quality time with what you need to get quality time with. Then you will have balance.

You don’t have to balance everything evenly, you just need to find the right balance for you.

~Chris

Have you had the experience of trying to balance things and becoming unbalanced? What happened? And what did you do to solve it?

One way to help with getting attention and selling products is to tell a story. These are great ways to get your target audience interested in what you have to offer. But sometimes a story takes on a life of it’s own and can become the reason people buy something. Let’s look a few examples of this very thing. You’ll notice that sometimes it’s on purpose and other times it’s completely unintentional.

Young Entrepreneurs

Earlier this year I came across an article on Betternetworker from one 17 year old Matt Adamo. The article was a story about when he was younger and always had the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s cool to see someone that young to be that interested in creating something great. There is also 16 year old Alex who runs blogussion.com (a great blog btw).

It’s neat to see people this young already reaching towards success. They are doing better than most adults as far as that goes. The story of people like these two is inspirational and motivating. It gets you engaged in the idea that anyone can do it if they put their mind to it.

It gives me the motivation to keep trying and that anyone can succeed. So the story of these two should give you a good shove in where you want to go and it also gets people interested in whatever they may have to offer. On a side note, your never to old to start either .

Who Died?

The Girls With the Dragon Tattoo is book that has been getting some hype lately (at least here in the U.S.). I just read it myself and it really is a great book. But I think part of what gets people to read these books is the story of the author himself. These books were written in Sweden by Sieg Larson who, unfortunately, died before any of his books were even published. It’s kind of sad to see someone create great work and then never get to see it reach it’s publication.

But I think this idea kind of draws people to look more into what they had to offer. Did it give people that extra push to go check out the books?

Take any popular musician that dies; their record sales will go up quite a bit, either from curious people or people that just want to pay homage to a lost artist. This Is It really capitalized on this idea shortly after Michael Jackson passed away by telling a story about his career.

Or take a look at the death of Heath Ledger shortly before the release of The Dark Knight. It was a tragic story and even a bit controversial. His role as the Joker in the movie was riveting enough as is, but you have to wonder if he hadn’t died when he did, would it be as popular as it is? Would it have been as big of a movie sensation?

Word of Mouth

This right here is something that will obviously be of great benefit to anyone trying to sell anything but it’s not something you can make happen. To put it simply; people are more apt to trust someone they know telling them about something then some stranger.

You can read reviews about products all day long but until someone that you know and trust says something good about it you aren’t as likely show as much interest.

This is a powerful thing and is just a different form of storytelling. When I buy and read a new book I like I get pretty excited. I want to tell all my friends and family about how cool or helpful it was. They are more likely to believe me then from some random review they read online right?

Another way this works is if everyone is talking about it. For example let’s take a look at The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo again. I kept seeing this book pop up everywhere. Including places I didn’t expect, such as business blogs. It was odd and to tell you the truth I wanted to see what all the excitement was about.

Basically if everyone else is talking about this thing, it must be good right? Not always, but you get the idea. Word of Mouth can create great hype and if your lucky will skyrocket the sales of a product.

As you can see there are different variations of a “story”, but they all do the same things:

- They create interest
– They are engaging in some way or another
– Create curiosity
– People can relate to it

A good story, whether intentional or not, can create hype for a product. It doesn’t matter what it is but a good story that people can relate to will gather a lot of interest.

~Chris

What other examples can you think of? And how do you think this kind of thing pertains to your own business?