Webinars Your Big Profits Guide

Introduction

Webinars are an excellent way to increase sales and conversions, especially on big-ticket items. Because webinars are interactive, they are more engaging and thus have higher conversions than other types of marketing.

A few benefits of webinars over other sales presentations include:

• The limited time nature increases participation. People can’t procrastinate if a webinar is only available at a specific time.
• Active participation in the form of chat, question-and-answer sessions, etc. makes for a richer, more engaging experience that makes people pay attention and take action.
• Social proof from other participants can increase conversions.

In this report, you’re going to learn how to set up and run successful webinars, with a focus on selling high value items that pay a higher commission than average products. You’ll learn how and why you should run automated webinars, and how to increase webinar conversions.

So let’s get started.

Selling High Ticket Items via Webinar

Webinars can certainly increase sales to smaller ticket items, however generally speaking they are much more cost-effective for selling high-ticket items.

The main reason why these big-ticket items make more sense is because of the limited nature of webinars. Most webinar programs only have a limited number of seats available, generally due to the limitations of the software itself, which might not be able to handle large numbers of users at once.

Because there are so few people who will be able to attend each webinar session, it only makes sense to promote higher ticket items. If you are only paid $10 commission on a small ticket item, and you only have 50 attendees, you’d need a 20% conversion rate to make 10 sales, which would only earn you $100 in commission.

That’s not exactly a princely sum for the trouble of planning, organizing and carrying out a webinar. And remember, a 20% conversion rate is very difficult to achieve even with a webinar.

However, if you were paid $100 commission on a large-ticket item, with the same 50 attendees, you’d only need a 10% conversion to get 5 sales, which would earn you $500 in commission.

As you can see, you’d need half the conversions to earn five times as much income. So large-ticket items really make sense when you have a limited number of people to market to, such as you do with a webinar.

Not only must you worry about the physical limitations of your webinar software and server, but the schedules of potential attendees as well. You may see fewer attendees than you expect because people are busy at the time you schedule your webinar.

It’s possible to record your webinar and distribute it to people who cannot attend, however conversions on recorded webinars aren’t likely to be nearly as high as during the live broadcast, because you can’t have viewers of the recorded webinar interact with you as they could during the initial live broadcast.

Doing the Math

Before you plan your webinar, it’s important to do a little math to be sure your webinar has the best chance to be profitable. (In other words, worth your time.)

First, figure out which product you’d like to promote. Ideally, this should be a product that you’ll make at least $100 in commission from, though higher amounts would be even better, obviously.

However, don’t choose a product solely based on its commission. It’s better to choose a product that makes a bit less commission and converts much better than to choose a product that has a very high commission and won’t convert at all.

Let’s say your product will make you $100 in commission. If you want to make at least $500 from the webinar, you know you need to get a total of five sales.

You may not know the exact conversion rate of your product, but you can estimate it. A 5% conversion rate is a good starting point as an estimate. It helps greatly if you’ve tested the product already, or if the product owner has released public information about its overall conversion rates, but 5% is generally a safe estimate for most products.

In order to get five sales at a 5% conversion rate, you need a total of 100 people in attendance. You could make more, or you could make less. But getting a minimum of 100 people to attend would be your goal.

If you have a high-converting product that gives you $500 commission, you would only need one sale to earn what you desire. This means a higher-priced product would require much fewer attendees.

Automated Webinars

Automated webinars make it easy to set up webinars at times when you cannot theoretically be in attendance. This is great for providing access to people on varying schedules and all around the world without having to be there constantly.

You may wonder why it makes sense to do an automated webinar when you could simply do a single webinar, record it, and offer access to a video

There are many reasons to use an automated webinar system instead of simply offering a video recording:

1. People are much more likely to attend when they feel they are on a time constraint because they don’t want to miss the event. If they are given a link to download a video, they are likely to put off watching the video until “later”, but “later” is likely to never come. People tend to procrastinate unless they have a set timeframe for something.

2. People tend to perceive the value of a live webinar as much higher than the value of a single video, even though the information is technically precisely the same.

3. A video recording does not allow audience participation of any kind. Some automated webinar scripts allow audience members to chat with one another and also chat with you if you are available at the moment.

4. A recorded video cannot be set to play at a specific time so that late attendees believe they are attending a live webinar. However, with some automated webinar software, the video will begin at a specified time, and if people are late or leave and come back, the video will not resume from the same place they left off, giving the impression of a live broadcast.

There are many different automated webinar systems available. Here are a few of the most popular.

>> http://www.EvergreenBusinessSystem.com – The Evergreen Business System is one of the most popular automated webinar systems. At $497. This system delivers a tremendous number of features, most of which cannot be found elsewhere. For an additional $97 monthly fee, you can also run an unlimited number of live webinars using their servers.

>> http://www.StealthSeminar.com – The Stealth Seminar system charges as $97 registration fee (after coupon), and then an additional $69.95 per month. While this is cheaper upfront than the Evergreen Business System, you will find that it lacks some of the features people want in a webinar host. However, it does integrate with almost all major autoresponder systems.

>> http://www.EasyWebinar.com – Easy Webinar is only $297 for a 10-domain license. It is less costly than other systems, but again it doesn’t have quiet as many features as the two listed above.

Planning a Webinar (Structure, Pitching an offer)

Planning the full webinar before it begins is absolutely essential. Without proper planning, you’re likely to end up with long periods of dead air or being unable to answer questions posed by attendees, which can throw off your webinar and cost you conversions/sales.

Webinar Formats

There are several different formats you can choose from for a webinar. Different formats have different benefits, so you may want to use different formats at different times based on your needs.

Let’s take a look at some of the various formats and their benefits and weaknesses:

Single Speaker

In the single speaker format, one person does the complete presentation and may ask the attendees questions or answer theirs.

One major benefit of this particular webinar type is that you won’t have to train multiple people how to use the webinar software. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about timing and coordinating multiple speakers, or having presenters talking over each other answering questions.

The biggest potential drawback of the single speaker format is that sometimes people are reluctant to interact with a single speaker, because they feel it can be a bit intimidating, because the single speaker becomes somewhat of an authority figure. However, this is also potentially beneficial, because if you are seen as an authority figure, people will be more likely to take actions you recommend or request, such as buying a product.

Interview Style

The interview style webinar involves two or more people working together. One person is usually the interviewer, and that person interviews one or more other people.

Some people find that hearing several people at once helps make a webinar more interesting. Also, since the interviewer is asking the other person questions, many times this encourages attendees to ask questions, increasing interactivity.

This means you’ll have to ensure everyone is able to use the webinar software, including the interviewer and all interviewees. You may also run into scheduling conflicts, because you will have to coordinate multiple people to run the webinar.

Moderated Panel

A moderated panel has several people online at the same time with one moderator who ensures only one person can speak at a time. This is done either through the software itself, allowing the moderator to mute everyone who isn’t currently speaking, or in the same way a moderator facilitates a live discussion, by giving individuals permission to speak.

Like the interview style, this type of webinar allows users to hear different perspectives and different voices, which makes the webinar more interesting than a single speaker style.

However, as with an interview style, you’ll have to ensure all parties know how to use the webinar software and be careful of any scheduling conflicts. But perhaps the biggest challenge with this format is keeping the conversation flowing well without people talking over each other. The moderator must take great care to keep things organized.

Interactive

The interactive format requires a single individual to lead the attendees in various activities such as question-and-answer sessions, lessons or other interactive content.

Because this format is extremely interactive, people generally get more out of the webinar. Attendees can ask questions, and even answer questions for other attendees. This can be very helpful if someone asks a question that you don’t know the answer to.

The main problem with this format is that it can really only reasonably accommodate a small number of individuals, because large groups can cause a lot of confusion if everyone is trying to speak at once. You need to be reasonably skilled at running this type of webinar for it to work effectively.

Planning the Presentation

You will need to plan your presentation carefully from start to finish, and you won’t want to deviate from that format too much during your webinar. The reason for this is that once a webinar has been derailed, it can take a long time for it to recover and get back on track, thus making your webinar run over time.

Since people have to plan to be present at a particular time for a webinar event, they generally don’t allot time over that. They may make plans after your webinar, and if it runs over, they may have to leave. Or they may just get bored if the webinar runs too long.

Here are some things you might want to include in your presentation:

1. A slide that introduces your webinar, including its purpose, what time it begins, how to use the various webinar functions, and how long the webinar is estimated to last.

2. A slide that gives information about the webinar host/presenter and any other presenters, interviewers or interviewees. Include their name, their professional credentials, and a picture if you have one.

3. A short presentation of the webinar’s agenda, including the topics to be covered and any other material to be presented.

4. Screenshots or videos that demonstrate primary elements of your presentation. You may be able to keep these on your computer and present them as needed, as some webinar software allows you to share your desktop so everyone can see what you’re doing live as you do it. This will let you show videos, slides, screenshots or whatever else you need to display.

Plan Attendees

Keep in mind that a lot of webinar software has hard limits on the number of attendees. This is due to a number of different factors, such as bandwidth, software limitations, etc.

If you know you have a limited number of spots available, be sure to let potential attendees know this in advance. This will help increase the number of people who sign up for your webinar, because it will lend an element of scarcity.

Record the Presentation

It’s a very good idea to record the webinar to allow those who could not be in attendance to view it at a later date. This will increase your conversions, because you will be able to reach more people than could be present due to their own scheduling conflicts or due to the space limitations for the live presentation.

If you’re going to record the webinar, you’ll want to plan this in advance so you can be certain your webinar software allows recording, and to learn how to use the function properly.

Create the Agenda

It is very important to create an agenda with approximate times so that the webinar flows smoothly and doesn’t go too much over time. Remember, if you run over time, you won’t make it to your final sales pitch with some participants, which will severely cut down on conversions.

Your agenda should contain a list of topics that you plan to discuss during the webinar so that you don’t forget any important points.

The agenda should also contain a rough guide for each segment of the presentation, including the order in which speakers will make their presentations, a list of interview questions, etc.

Here’s a sample agenda for a webinar beginning at 6:00 PM:

6:00 – Introduction to the webinar and its presenters.
6:05 – First topic of discussion.
6:15 – Second topic of discussion.
6:25 – Third topic of discussion.
6:35 – Questions from the audience.
6:50 – Product is introduced, letting people know their unanswered questions can be answered by it. This is the sales pitch.
7:00 – Webinar is concluded, attendees are thanked for their presence, and the final sales pitch is made.

Schedule Presenters

If you intend on having any special guests, additional presenters, experts, or interviewees, you need to schedule them well in advance so they are certain they can be present and on time for the webinar.

Don’t forget to schedule all presenters for a trial run, too. This should be done at least once before the day of the webinar in order to ensure everyone knows how to use the software properly and that everyone knows their role and can stick within the time constraints.

Plan a Dry Run

A trial run is absolutely vital for ensuring your webinar goes smoothly. There isn’t much that will kill a webinar’s effectiveness faster than a bunch of people saying “um” and “uh” every couple of minutes because they don’t know what they’re doing or what should happen next.

It’s a good idea to do two or three dry runs, but you must do at least one. The dry run will help ensure everyone knows how to use the webinar software correctly, the order of events, what they plan to say, and how to stay within time constraints.

You won’t be able to plan for things such as user questions as well, but you can anticipate some of the things attendees might ask and be prepared to answer those questions.

The dry run should include, at minimum:

1. Practice the webinar introduction, including introducing individual presenters.

2. Making sure presenters know how to use the webinar software.

3. Check all software and equipment. Make sure the web server is running optimally. Be sure everyone has working headsets and knows how to use them and mute them when necessary.

4. Go over the complete agenda with all participants. Do a run-through of all presenters’ presentations, including visuals such as screenshots and videos.

Fine-Tuning Your Pitch

The most important part of your webinar is obviously your pitch. This pitch must be as finely tuned as possible before the webinar begins, and it must contain the perfect blend of selling versus informing.

If the product is yours, you can be a little more aggressive with your sales pitch. People will expect this if you’re selling your own product, so they won’t really be upset.

However, if you’re selling an affiliate product, people are likely to be rather skeptical about the product if you’re selling too hard. Instead, try to focus on talking about why you personally like the product rather than just saying, “Buy! Buy! Buy!”

Here are some things you might want to include in your sales pitch:

• A few of the most important features of the product
• The best benefits of the product (Remember, benefits are different from features. Features would be things like a server’s bandwidth or hard drive size. Benefits would be no loss of sales due to bandwidth limitations or never running out of server space for critical backups.)
• What the product has done for you personally
• Why you believe everyone would want the product

Be careful not to oversell the product or people will smell the sales pitch a mile away and won’t feel it is genuine. The more personal it seems, and the more you relate to them what it has done for you, the more people will want to buy it.

Pre-Qualifying Participants

Something you may want to do if your webinar is very limited is to pre-screen potential attendees to be sure they understand the product you are presenting, its basic features and its price. You don’t want valuable webinar spots being taken by people who would have absolutely no interest in the product you’re selling or wouldn’t be able to afford it even if they were.

Thus, before your signup form, you might want to include a short survey asking people questions that pre-qualify them for your webinar.

Some example questions for a weigh loss webinar might include:

• Are you interested in losing 50, 75, even 100 pounds or more in the next six months?
• Have you tried other weight loss products and failed?
• Are you sick of weight loss systems that try to charge you a monthly fee on and on, yet they never work?
• If you could pay a one-time fee of just $497 to lose all the weight you want, and be guaranteed success, would you be interested?

This will ensure participants are both interested and willing to pay the cost of the product.

Conclusion

Webinars can be extremely profitable if care is taken with the setup, presentation, and pitch. Remember that they are best used for pitching high-value products that pay a larger commission in order to take advantage of the limited nature of most webinar software.

Remember, you can continue making money long after your webinar has ended by allowing others to view the recording of it. But don’t forget that your webinar’s effectiveness will diminish significantly if you only offer a standard video stream or download of your broadcast.

Instead, consider using one of the automated webinar systems that make your broadcast seem like a live event. This will increase urgency and ensure that more people will view your recorded webinar and take action, too.

I wish you the best of luck with your webinars, and I hope you find wild success with all your future webinars!

Good luck!

source https://anthonyaires.com/4750/webinars-your-big-profits-guide-2/

How To Avoid Content-Block; Never Run Out Of Ideas

Have you run out of ideas of what to say on your Facebook Page? Has Twitter got you in knots because you’re (frankly) bored – have you hit a content brick wall?

Fear not my friends. There is a simple solution.

My best guess is that you have forgotten who you are talking to (or want to talk to for that matter). In fact, I would lay my bets that you haven’t even thought about WHO you are writing for. Your main driver to date has more than likely been, “What can I share about me? What’s interesting enough about me to share?”

Can I let you in on a secret (that’s not so secret)? It is NOT about you.
Identify Your prospect
The reason you are stopped in your tracks with producing content for your blog, social media channels and indeed, more than likely for your email marketing – is because you have either forgotten – or never formulated your prospect.

Identify Your prospect
And no, I do not mean the blue people from the big James Cameron blockbuster. (But how cool would that be!)

An prospect – or Persona – or Ideal Target Audience – is the one person you are writing a specific piece of content for. Once you nail that, and I mean properly nail that, the content just flows and flows.

Follow my 5 prospect Tips below and I promise your content will be overflowing.
TIP #1: Get to know your prospect like he/she is your best friend
Write out exactly who your ideal target audience is – you may have a few different audiences who you target (to perhaps align with different services or products) – choose one to start with.

Answer these few questions about your prospect:

How old is your prospect?
What is their home life like?
What car do they drive and where do they live?
How much do they earn?
What traits do they have – that are interesting to note?
What hobbies do they have?
What does their typical day look like?
Who do they hang out with?
Where do they hang out? (Virtual and physical places)
Color this picture in as much as you can – so you can tell the story of your prospect like they are a person standing in front of you.

Once you are done – name your prospect.
Let’s call him John for the sake of this exercise.
(Mmm…I should have found a male blue person image.)
If you need more help on this score – I highly recommend listening to Amy Porterfield’s Podcast on this subject: “Are you Repelling or Attracting Your Potential Customers?” Amy interviews Jasmine Starr who introduces us to her prospect called Elle. You really feel like Jasmine is talking about a close friend of hers. This drives her every move when shaping anything for Elle.
TIP #2: Map out what your prospect likes, wants, desires and needs
This is a fun exercise – so literally draw it out. (Get out those colored markers and highlighters). Start with your prospect’s name in a circle in the middle of your paper and then move branches outwards from the centre (like a mind map or huge spider).

Things to consider:

Does John have any daily / weekly / annual challenges?
Weaknesses – what knowledge is John lacking to get a certain task or job done?
Strengths – what are the tasks or skills that John is really good at?
How does John make decisions about selecting who he works with?
What or who influences him in the workplace?
What or who influences him outside of the workplace (that you know of)?
What is the one thing he really desires?
What is his burning need (might be linked to his challenges)?
What gets him up in the morning?
What keeps him up at night?
What kind of language does John use? (What words or phrases does he use frequently? Are there specific terms he uses because of his industry / what does he call his staff, customers and products?)
And anything else that springs to mind…

Note it down – don’t stop until everything you know about John is on the paper.

Map Out Your prospect with a mind map or spider diagram
TIP #3: Identify themes
From your very detailed understanding of John’s lifestyle and his needs and wants – you should be able to stand back from your map of him and clearly identify themes.

These themes will give you a content plan for next 12 months to work from. Your themes could look something like this:

John’s challenges are: 1,2,3,4
What John is really good at, but could do with the resource to do even better is: 1,2,3,4
John is lacking these things to move his business to the next level: 1,2,3,4
How you can help John is in the following ways: 1,2,3,4 (use his words to describe his needs)
These are the measures that John uses to select suppliers/providers: 1,2,3,4 (and you position your solution-based blog post on the ‘measure’ – turn the subject around on how you fulfil or deliver on that measure)
Map Out Your prospect Fully Until You Know Him or Her Like Your Best Friend
CLICK TO TWEET
TIP #4: Flesh it out
Take one of the items within each theme and flesh it out completely. So, for example, in the Challenge Theme above, let’s choose Item 1 from the first point that you listed.

Let’s say that John’s biggest challenge is recruiting the right team members to help him deliver a quality service to his clients. You are a specialist recruitment consultant. Your piece of content (preferably a blog post) is going to talk about or be positioned as follows:

Providing a ‘lay-of-the-land’ of what it feels like to have the wrong team in place (all the extra pressures, extra management time, losing other great staff members because of a bad team member; having a long standing client say they will need to go elsewhere; etc.)
Provide practical guidance on how to take control of such a situation – bold, but sensitive advice on how to take the reigns back and how to put good, solid performance management processes in place. Research the correct HR advice (if you don’t know it) and give a general framework to follow.
Include a sentence now and then about how you have helped a client in a similar situation resolve this specific issue. Very subtly – do not bolster yourself at all…just relate a story within your story.
Close the piece with some compassionate advice and an offer to converse with you, if the reader is experiencing this issue in their business. Give them a private way to communicate with you (email) as well.
Now you can do this for every one of the items you have in TIP #3.

Can you see that you will have at least 20 bulky blog posts out of that?
TIP #5: Vary the format, method and delivery
Now take the meaty blog post you have written above – and slice and dice. Take parts of that blog post and do things like:

Run a Facebook Live Q&A session on that subject and invite participants to ask questions about that issue
Co-host a Blab session with an HR professional who specialises in assisting clients in dealing with difficult staff members. Promote this to your existing clients, as well as across your other social media channels to get an audience to watch, listen and have their questions answered
Create about 4 different graphics and images around statistics on this specific issue and perhaps some quotes from successful business people who have been quoted on this specific subject. Create the images yourself (but obviously give credence to the quote author) – add your logo and flair to them.
Write 4 to 6 individual tweets – pulling nuggets from the post – and add the link at the end (you now have up to 6 unique tweets that you can use to recycle going forward)
Create two attractive Facebook posts with images (optimised for Ads) and share on Facebook – test them through the ads platform and target them at the audience you want to reach
And I could go on – but you get where I’m coming from.

Reward Diagram
Conclusion
Can you see how…if you start at the beginning and really understand who you are communicating with on your channels (and it may be that you have John for one platform and Sally for another) – it gets easier?

You should have a good idea of how to plan out your content now – based on who you want to speak to. Remember that over and above the work you have done above, you will have some very targeted campaigns planned to promote a specific product or service or solution – but you will always need to know who that campaign is directed at.

Get your prospect(s) in place before you do anything else – and you will always be able to go back to it when planning a fresh year of content.

Good luck! And let me know how you get on. Any questions – just pop them below and I’d be happy to answer them for you.

Anthony Aires
Chief Executive Officer

Real Deal Productions, LLC
Prosperity Publishers, LLC

P.S. Keep coming back to AnthonyAires.com to take advantage of the free goodies I share.

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If you’d like to learn how I make 6 Figures A Year Working Only 90 Minutes A Day?

Then jump on my next FREE webcast workshop that’s going to show you how I does it…

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Thanks for being a part of the Aires Crew

source https://anthonyaires.com/5254/how-to-avoid-content-block-never-run-out-of-ideas/

5 Signs You’re Meant To Be An Entrepreneur

1. You don’t complain – you change.

You know the type: they’re always complaining about a different problem in their life every single day of the week, but never offer an alternative solution.

Those are the type of people who won’t succeed as entrepreneurs.

But you aren’t one of them. When you come across a huge problem in your life, you figure out ways to bypass those problems, or fix them entirely. You know pure complaints don’t lead to gold, but only waste your time and take your mental attitude down a few levels.

That’s a sure sign you’re a purebred entrepreneur.

Take Elon Musk for example: he wanted to create a simpler, easier way to transfer money – so he made PayPal. He wanted to turn the world toward cleaner energy solutions and drive an electric car that didn’t suck – so he created Tesla. He wanted to find a cheaper, more efficient way of getting humans into space – so he created SpaceX.

Instead of complaining about the issues of the world, Elon actively seeks solutions.

2. Pure, unkindled passion.

Passion is a staple in every entrepreneur; you just can’t survive the long work weeks, lack of funding, and heavy stress that comes associated with starting your own business without it.

But, you can’t just be passionate about something. There are tons of people in the world who are passionate about things. Even worse, there are people who become enraged with passion so intense that they burn out in a matter of days.

This can’t be you.

If you want to not only succeed, but thrive doing it, you have to be consistently passionate about whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. Motivation is fleeting. Passion – for you as an entrepreneur – must be undying.

Take Sara Blakely as an example: she began her billion dollar business, Spanx, while she was working a full time sales job selling fax machines door-to-door. So, after a grueling, hot day of rejection and meager commissions, Sara would continue selling people on her prototypes at night.

Not only that, but she couldn’t afford to pay a patent lawyer, so she taught herself how to write her own from a textbook she bought at Barnes & Nobles. She would drive from Georgia to North Carolina at night, with no sleep, and pitch to factory mills where she would meet nothing but rejection. Until, finally, she found an investor.

There’s only one thing that keeps someone striving for their goal like that: passion.

3. You aren’t happy without competition.

As an entrepreneur, you’re going to go through some of the toughest, strenuous times of your life when you first start.

But, you’re going to love it.

You’ll love it because you know things in life don’t come easy. That’s especially true in a capitalist economy, where trade flourishes from pure competition. You’ll always be looking out for the next player on the block, and you’ll always find a way to beat them – because a competitive nature is what’s going to get you to the top and keep you there.

4. You’re an independent soul.

There are people who need to be guided on how to start a project, and then there are people like you.

Entrepreneurs don’t wait on data and testing and long guides on how to create the next greatest product. Mostly because, well, nobody has created some of the products that you’ll create.

That’s why you have to be a self-starter.

Even if you aren’t creating a new revolutionary product, you have to be an individual who doesn’t put things off but rather jumps neck deep into the market and starts hashing out their business. That’s the key, here: you have to be someone who isn’t afraid to start.

When J.K. Rowling was living off welfare and struggling to take care of her child as a single mother, she didn’t piddle around waiting for a bestseller to fall in her lap.

No, she sat herself down at her keyboard, and started.

5. You don’t think inside boxes.

There are always linear solutions to problems, and sometimes those are the solutions that haven’t been thought out, yet. But most of the time a revolutionary invention, or form of marketing, isn’t thought of by following linear paths.

As an entrepreneur, you have to be proficient at looking at the world through an objective, outside lense.

Look to Google as evidence for this: there were already tons of search engines on the internet before Google was born. Sergey Brin looked at the internet, and their poor search engines, and thought of a new way to index search results via backlinks. This was revolutionary, and completely rocked the digital world with an idea that was formed by looking at a problem with an outside view.

Whatever it is that you’re planning on creating – even if it’s already been done – you have to find a way to approach it from outside of the box.

That’s how entrepreneurs turn millionaires.

 

These are only some of the dominant traits found in entrepreneurs, and is by no means a defining list.

The thing about entrepreneurs is, even if you found a way to categorize all of their traits in simple lists, they’ll still find some way to break expectations and shatter your perceived image of them.

That’s what entrepreneurs do; they change the status quo.

Anthony Aires
Chief Executive Officer

Real Deal Productions, LLC
Prosperity Publishers, LLC

P.S. Keep coming back to AnthonyAires.com to take advantage of the free goodies I share.

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If you’d like to learn how I make 6 Figures A Year Working Only 90 Minutes A Day?

Then jump on my next FREE webcast workshop that’s going to show you how I does it…

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Thanks for being a part of the Aires Crew

source https://anthonyaires.com/5250/5-signs-youre-meant-to-be-an-entrepreneur/

Creating A Successful Blog For Your Design Services: A Beginners Guide

If you’re a designer, you probably already have a website set up. If not, don’t sweat it – I have a few webinars to walk you through the process of setting up your first website. For the sake of this article, though, I’m going to assume you’ve already got your website ready to go.

I’m going to be real honest with you here so that you aren’t shitting your pants later on down the road when you see the sheer size of the market you’re about to enter; There are a ton of design blogs out there.

Don’t let that discourage you, though. I wouldn’t spend the time creating a piece about how to run a successful design blog if I didn’t think it was very possible.

Why do you need to blog as a designer?

There a lot of reasons you need to start blogging as a designer, but I can narrow it down to two primary ones:

1. Blogging helps designers market their services.

That may come off as odd since design is a highly visual practice, but blogging doesn’t deal only with words. Many designers post pictures of some of the work they’ve done – aside from the things already featured on their portfolio – and talk about the process that it took them to get there.

This is hugely effective from a self-marketing standpoint. You get to visually broadcast your work so your clients not only get a taste of the final product, but also the meticulous hours and thought that goes into it. The more clients know about your quality of work, the better.

2. Blogs are a great way to interact with other designers.

Designers are a creative breed, and it’s not a secret that creatives have a high tendency to be introverts. Blogging is a great way to not only break that shell a little bit, but it also helps you reach other designers across the world who you wouldn’t be able to talk to otherwise.

Online, the designer community is wildly active, so take advantage of the feedback, inspiration, and teaching moments that’ll arise from your design blog.

My 6 steps to creating a successful design blog:

1. Read, read, read, read.

Spend a ton of time reading other design blogs. By reading other designers’ blogs, you’ll get a firm grasp on what designers are already doing, how they’re approaching the medium, and the functions of it all. This’ll also help you start to work out where you can fit in the online designing world.

2. Find your niche.

Like I said, there are thousands of design blogs out there already, and new ones are just being created daily.

Your design blog can’t just be another design blog – you have to have a carefully thought-out niche in mind. This is a key marketing strategy in most forms of digital marketing: find a unique angle surrounding design and repurpose that angle for your blog.

For example, don’t create a blog that focuses on design as a whole – you won’t get far. Instead, create a blog about architectural design for major cities. That will generate some seriously targeted traffic, and put your name on the block as the go-to authority for that niche.

3. Market your blog as a valuable resource.

This isn’t going to be a blog about your random thoughts, experiences, and rants that go on in your head. In order for this blog to turn into a revenue/client-generating medium, you’ve got to market the hell out of it as the go-to resource for valuable content.

You need to be writing articles that inspire, persuade, and teach your audience about your craft, then hit social media hard with self-promotion. Don’t just shamelessly promote, though – promote your help. That’s what your blog is going to provide, and that’s what will draw people to it.

4. Use social media to connect with your audience.

Every successful blog has social platforms that they use to directly connect with their audience. It’s free, it’s immediate, and it’s personal. You can promote your content, lead discussions, handle issues – all with immediate, branded touches.

Your blog can be the greatest thing on earth, but it doesn’t mean a thing if nobody can find you. Make sure you’re following like-minded people and tastefully promoting your content with the value of it in mind.

5. Create golden content.

You don’t have to be a modern-day Hemingway or anything, but you do have to create interesting, valuable content. You’re a designer, so your strengths lie in the aesthetics of things – that’s fine. But, we aren’t talking about pure pictures, here. You have to create content that people are going to take time out of their day to click through and read.

At the end of it all, just ask yourself: is this something I’d personally click on and read all the way through?

If not – don’t post it.

6. Make sure your site’s design reflects your own professionalism aesthetics.

Yes, the blog is about your content – but what kind of audience is going to respect what you have to say as a designer if the very design of your blog is sub par? We judge books by their covers, let’s be honest. Make sure yours is clean, fresh, and visually appealing to even the most meticulous designer’s scrutiny.

 

It’s going to take some time to start generating real, definable results from your blog – that’s why so many people give up after a short period of time.

But, you aren’t like most people.

Stick to your chops, create original content frequently, and blast social media channels with your value; your designing service website will become a massive powerhouse within your niche in no time.

Make sure you stay updated on my content – I’ll have more design-oriented articles to come – just sign up for my newsletter! And, as always, I’m ready to help you if you need anything.

source https://anthonyaires.com/5246/creating-a-successful-blog-for-your-design-services-a-beginners-guide/

Affiliate Marketing Lingo: A Crash Course

This is a quick primer to review before I post my in-depth articles on creating successful affiliate blogs.

First things first – you’ve got to know what the hell I’m talking about before we get down to the nitty-gritty of affiliate blogging. There’s a ton of lingo that may seem way too confusing if you aren’t familiar with it all.

So, here’s your guide to refer back to as you read on.

ACRONYMS

CPC

This stands for Cost Per Click – it usually refers to the budget of a digital ad campaign where there is a clickable link involved. The CPC is how much it actually cost you (or your client) to get that single click.

CPL

This stands for Cost Per Lead – this is a payment model used by merchants just seeking to get any kind of lead, whether that be email addresses, site registrations, or even completed surveys.

CTR

This is your Click Through Rate – use this to determine how many clicks you’re getting on a particular ad, email, or even your website’s landing page.

PPC

This is another payment model used by merchants where a bid is set (usually estimated by the desired CPC) and payment is only required when a link is actually clicked.

ROAS

Return On Ad Spend – this is a stone-cold metric used to determine exactly how much revenue is generated per dollar spent on advertising. This does not take into account leads, social shares, or anything else besides dollar amounts.

ROI

Return On Investment – here’s where you can include the value gained from social shares, email open rates, and brand awareness; basically, the entire return of investment in advertising including all things physical and metaphysical.

BASIC TERMS

Affiliate Agreement

When you get your first ‘OK’ from a merchant to be apart of their affiliate program, you’ll get a copy of one of these. It’s basically just an outline of what’s expected by both parties from the agreement, and the legalities of both parties involved.

Affiliate Links

This is your money maker. It’s a special URL given to you by the merchant that you’ll drop in your blogs for your audience to click. That specific URL is trackable, which means the merchant is able to see where the customer came from – which is how you get your money.

Affiliate Networks

Usually, you’ll interact with these guys – not the actual merchants of the products you’re selling. These are third party companies that handle all of the affiliate linking, tracking, and paying to bloggers like you. They just take the load off of the actual merchants, and help get more exposure of their products by recruiting bloggers.

Some good examples are companies like ClickBank, Amazon Associates, and Commission Junction.

Charge Backs

This’ll happen when your readers click an affiliate link, go to the merchant’s site, buy a product, then cancel or return the item. When that happens, you’ll get charged back for however much you were originally paid by the merchant, since the purchase didn’t actually get finalized.

This can also happen in CPL programs if your merchants determine that some of the leads paid for are fraudulent.

Click Fraud

There are a ton of automated bots that crawl the internet – as a result, sometimes PPC campaigns receive fake clicks, which is called click fraud. These kind of clicks shouldn’t ever be paid for, since those clicks will never result in conversions.

Commission

This is the predetermined amount you’ll be paid by merchants, based off of their desired outcomes.

Conversions

When you get a lead, the desired outcome is to get them to convert into a full-blown customer by buying a product/service. Conversions will typically be your main source of income.

Cookies

Cookies are used pretty much everywhere across the internet, but have direct implications in your affiliate blogging.

A cookie is a piece of text inserted into your web browser when you visit a site, that assigns you with a certain user ID. Sites usually use it to identify you as a repeat visitor, or to track which items you’re clicking on to recommend other similar ones to you.

As an affiliate, cookies become useful in the event that one of your readers will click on your link, go to the merchant site, and exit the browser. But, if they visit the site again and convert in a certain timeframe, you’ll still be attributed to the purchase.

Cookie Stuffing

DON’T EVER DO THIS.

This is a scamming practice that involves “stuffing” artificial cookies of your affiliate link into a user’s computer. So, when that user eventually goes to a site to buy, your fake cookies will technically associate the purchase with your link, and you’ll get paid.

Except, you probably won’t get paid – you’ll just get banned for life.

First Click

When a reader clicks your link and goes to the merchant site and doesn’t make a purchase, you are still considered the source of the first click. This means that if they then go onto another blog, and click an affiliate link to that same merchant, you still get paid for it, since you were the first to generate the lead.

Last Click

Just the opposite of what’s mentioned above – if your link is clicked by a customer who already has visited the site from another affiliate, you won’t get paid if they convert because of the First Click.

Payment Threshold

Most merchants won’t actually pay you by the click – they’ll only send you a lump sum once you reach a predetermined amount called the payment threshold. This prevents millions of micro-transactions occurring between the merchant and their affiliates every day.

Super Affiliates

These are the legendary people you read about that cash out with million dollar blogs. Super affiliates are the top-generating affiliates of a program, and usually generate about 80% of the merchant’s sales for that program.

Tracking Code

This is the code that is attached at the end of your affiliate URL that allows your merchant to track the click-throughs and attribute your blog with the sale.

Here’s an example: www.amazon.com/?ID=UNIQUEID 

White Labeling

White labeling occurs when a merchant allows an affiliate (you) to sell their product under their own brand without mentioning the actual merchant. For instance, if you were selling wallets from the WalletCompany on your blog called ZingaWallets, and they allowed you to white label, you could sell WalletCompany’s wallets and market them as ZingaWallets without ever having to mention that you’re actually selling someone else’s products.

These are just the basics of affiliate marketing lingo, but they should cover pretty much everything you’ll come across.

If you have any questions for other words/terms, just let me know in the comments and I’ll help get you up to speed.

Don’t miss out on my Affiliate Blogging series – you’ll get loads of helpful info on setting up and successfully running your own income-generating blog daily – so subscribe to my email list to get ahead of the competition.

Anthony Aires
Chief Executive Officer

Real Deal Productions, LLC
Prosperity Publishers, LLC

P.S. Keep coming back to AnthonyAires.com to take advantage of the free goodies I share.

If you’d like to connect with me my social media channels you can go here:

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Anthony Aires YouTube:
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If you’d like to learn how I make 6 Figures A Year Working Only 90 Minutes A Day?

Then jump on my next FREE webcast workshop that’s going to show you how I does it…

You can sign up for FREE for the next one by saving your seat here >> https://anthonyaires.com/webcast

Thanks for being a part of the Aires Crew

source https://anthonyaires.com/5240/affiliate-marketing-lingo-a-crash-course/

The Freelancing Lifestyle – A Primer For My Services Series

I’m about to start rolling out my guides on how to tailor your blog to the many forms of revenue generation – this is a primer for my “Services” blogging series, all of which deal with freelancers looking to drive some attention and clientele to their site.

Freelancing: Waking up whenever the hell you want (so long as you’re getting your work done), working from wherever you want, earning a killing, and still having time for the simple things in life.

It’s not all fun and games, however. You still have to fight for your work and work hard to find clients in the beginning – an entrepreneurial spirit is a must-have.

Once you’ve got a client-base and a steady source of business, though, freelancing is the ultimate employment channel.

But, just how good is the freelancing life? I’ve compiled a short list of the major perks that come hand-in-hand with the decision to work for yourself.

You Earn Every Cent to The Dollar

One of the biggest rationales made in the decision to leave a job in favor of freelancing is the ability to actually earn every cent of value you provide.

In a company, when a bid is made to a client for your services, the bid includes overhead costs (management, technology, leasing value, etc.). So, you may be providing $2,000 worth in design services – but you’re only actually getting a third of that.

When you’re freelancing, you can still bid for overhead costs. The difference? You keep every cent of it. There’s no dividing funds among management and no trickle down in capital. Every bit is yours.

You Make Your Hours

Sure, you’ll still have deadlines.

But, you can choose to meet those deadlines in whatever fashion you choose. Kids have a field day? No problem. Start work at 6p.m. You got invited to go on a camping trip in the middle of the workweek? Go! You can work from your laptop at night.

That’s the main allure of freelancing. You choose when you work, how you work, and where you work.

Work/Life Balance

Get this: Only 29% of freelancers work a full 40-hour workweek (which is crazy, considering my next point).

That means more time for your spouse, more time for that novel you’ve been writing, more time for exercise…. More time for living.

Higher Earnings

As a freelancer, you’ve got to get real familiar with bidding. You’ll set your rates for certain projects and submit them to the clients. If you bid too high, they can barter you down. Or, you can simply say no. Then, clients who value your work more will pay you higher.

You’ve got to be careful here, though. Don’t get too zealous with the bidding system and set your rates to ungodly levels. That’ll be sure to drive all of your clients away.

A good rule of thumb is: If you’re being asked to take on too many clients at once, you should probably increase your rates by 20%. If your client-base is bone dry, though, you should do the opposite. You’ll eventually find the sweet spot.

The average US freelancer earns 45% more than your average employee, too. Pretty phenomenal, considering all of the other perks that come with the job.

You Control the Project

This is the pinnacle of creative freedom. Sure, you still have to appease to the client, but no Creative Director or higher-up will have a say in your work. This could potentially be perceived as negative – there isn’t anyone to correct the mistakes you may not be able to see.

However, yet again, an entrepreneurial mindset is needed to be a freelancer. With that comes a nearly obsessive need for perfection.

As a freelancer, you’re given the freedom to think outside of corporate barriers and office politics.

Also, you won’t be subject to some of the boring projects you would have to complete in a corporate setting – You choose which projects to take on.

Several Methods of Income

You can’t survive without a solid portfolio of clients to provide you with work. That’s the great thing about freelancing – You aren’t relying on one client, or waiting for that potential corporate layoff.

You’ll always have the added security of a plethora of clientele, so long as you keep your effort levels high and quality of work impeccable. One client decides to shrug you off? Forget about it. You’ve got plenty more to keep you busy, and another spot open for another client.

Paradise or McDonald’s

Work where you want. You don’t need to check in with a boss, or clock into a time sheet.

You’ll be a member of the laptop lifestyle. Free to travel where you want, work with clients across the globe, and live a life completely void of locational ties. Work in paradise, or use McDonald’s WIFI – It’s up to you how and where you live.

Self-Generating

Here’s where the entrepreneurial mindset comes back into play. With that obsessive attention to detail and perfection comes a desirable, high quality of work. When you submit projects to first-time client’s, they’re likely to want to transition into a long-term work relationship.

This is especially true if you’re working with an agency representative or a startup. Sometimes agencies like to outsource their workload to qualified freelancers in order to balance their capabilities and meet deadlines. These types of clients are very keen to long relationships, and you’d do well to give the highest quality of work you can provide.

A Foot in the Door

For some people that test the waters by freelancing, it turns out to be a sour lifestyle. For whatever reason it may be, it just isn’t right for them. They may need more structure, more oversight, etc.

That’s just fine – Because now they have a portfolio good enough to get their foot in the door of a physical job opening in a corporate office. Not only does freelancing put you into contact with hundreds of business owners, but that work you’ve done for them can now be used as leverage to land job positions.

But, that’s only in the unlikely event that you decide the luxuries of freelancing aren’t for you.

Happiness

Cliché, but true.

Your overall levels of happiness will rise dramatically from the transition into a freelancing career. How could it not? All of the points made above are testaments to this. More freedom, more financial capabilities, more time for life.

Being a freelancer does have drawbacks. Things like self-employment taxes, health care, and the initial lull in work when you start are some factors that need to be taken account for.

But, once you accommodate those factors into the lifestyle, freelancing is a dream for entrepreneurial-minded individuals with the talent that business owners are looking for.

What are you waiting for? Join my newsletter to get constant updates on new content to help you traverse your freelancing career as successfully as possible.

Anthony Aires
Chief Executive Officer

Real Deal Productions, LLC
Prosperity Publishers, LLC

P.S. Keep coming back to AnthonyAires.com to take advantage of the free goodies I share.

If you’d like to connect with me my social media channels you can go here:

Anthony Aires Facebook Timeline:
Friend Here >> http://facebook.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires Facebook Fan Page:
Follow Here >> http://facebook.com/aireswins

Anthony Aires Never Stop Striving Facebook Group:
Join Free Here >> https://www.facebook.com/groups/AnthonyAires

Anthony Aires Twitter:
Follow Here >>http://twitter.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires YouTube:
Subscribe Here >> http://youtube.com/anthonyaires

Anthony Aires Instagram:
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If you’d like to learn how I make 6 Figures A Year Working Only 90 Minutes A Day?

Then jump on my next FREE webcast workshop that’s going to show you how I does it…

You can sign up for FREE for the next one by saving your seat here >> https://anthonyaires.com/webcast

Thanks for being a part of the Aires Crew

source https://anthonyaires.com/5235/the-freelancing-lifestyle-a-primer-for-my-services-series/

Entrepreneurs & Day Jobs – How Did They Find The Time?

There are success stories on both sides of the spectrum – entrepreneurs who dropped out of their school or day job to pursue their vision, and entrepreneurs who built their business on the side, while still working or studying full-time.

There are plenty of stories out there revolving around the greats and their methods of success. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson; dropouts turned billionaires.

But, what about the ones who decided to stick it out in a full-time job or university, while keeping their vision and building their businesses on the side? Today, I’m going to look at 4 of those entrepreneurs and how they managed to find the time to create billion-dollar companies while taking on full-time work.

Markus Persson – est. net worth of 1.4 billion

Markus Persson is the legendary creator of Minecraft – the simple, 3-D animated video game that went on to sell to Microsoft for $2.5 billion. He didn’t drop out of college to do it, either. Persson began developing the Minecraft independently as his own personal project while working at King.com, the makers of some pretty famous apps like Candy Crush. He then even went on to change jobs and started working at jAlbum.

He finally launched his game in 2009, and quit his job after sales steadily began expanding to work full time. Persson created the game company Mojang, and went on to sell Minecraft to Microsoft in 2014.

He’s a legend. By creating a visually simple, immensely satisfying sandbox game, Persson became a billionaire with an idea he pursued while working a full-time job. What is his number one recommendation for time management?

“I think that actually beginning to work on something is more important than thinking about it. Just get started – even if it isn’t something big. Start small… If you just sit around planning something and don’t do it, you won’t ever get anywhere – for some, that’s the biggest waste of time. I also think, for me, working on Minecraft was like another job. But, it was also my hobby. Since I was passionate about it, and did Minecraft as a hobby, I made the time, learned faster, and believed in myself.”

Sara Blakely – est. net worth of 1.01 billion

Sara Blakely worked a full-time day job selling fax machines while toying around with her idea of Spanx, briefs/leggings that comfortably helped shape a woman’s appearance. She worked that sales job a total of two years and sold fax machines from 9-5, and Spanx pantyhose by night and weekends. Sara didn’t resign until she was 100% sure that her idea would take off after Oprah Winfrey named Spanx her “favorite product”. She’s now worth an estimated $1.01 billion.

Here’s what Sara has to say about time management:

“Personally, the word time-management is hard for me. I didn’t manage time, I just used more of it. Instead of sleeping, I’d drive back and forth from Atlanta to North Carolina where I would always just encounter a bunch of “no’s.”

Larry Page and Sergey Brin – est. net worth of 35.7 billion and 35 billion

My last two are the founders of one of the most iconic names in technology: Google.

Page and Brin weren’t employed in full-time jobs when they created Google, though. They were in an arguably rougher curriculum – both were current students at Stanford University.

Before they started working on what would soon become Google, Page and Brin met through a Stanford school tour, which Brin had volunteered to guide. They didn’t kick it off well at all, though. They debated on various topics, and thought each other to be strong-opinioned and obnoxious.

The idea behind Google sprang from the necessity of a groundbreaking doctoral thesis. Page knew his career would rest on his thesis, so he spent a long time thinking before coming up with the idea to create a crawler that indexed links throughout the world wide web. Brin was blown away by the idea, so he jumped at the chance to help with the mathematics involved in the project.

The idea behind time management and balancing a work schedule with these two is much different than our first two entrepreneurs listed. Larry Page and Sergey Brin did what most entrepreneurs fail to think about doing – they combined their thesis work (day job) with their vision of creating a business.

Here’s what you need to take away from their story: It’s possible to leverage your day job to build your business.

There are a ton of things you need to avoid so you don’t get fired or sued for “working on company time,” but that doesn’t mean those 8 hours of your day job need to be wasted. For you, in a full-time job, it’s important to take on projects that will give you valuable skills for your new business. You also could have the opportunity to explore untapped markets within your current business’ structure.

Don’t get yourself fired, but don’t let your day job become a place where you go only to get a paycheck – learn from every aspect of it as possible.

While there are several different ways to go about managing your new business while working a day job, there is always one common, universal factor needed to execute it correctly: Passion.

In every one of these examples, these entrepreneurs were driven by an unkillable need to make their visions a reality. Without passion, you’ll never be able to take on the monumental task of creating a successful business. Besides, as the adage goes, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.

source https://anthonyaires.com/5211/entrepreneurs-day-jobs-how-did-they-find-the-time/