Giving Yourself a Raise…Continually

I recently had an “Ah-ha” moment that is changing nearly everything I am doing with my life, especially in business. This new “strategy” does not refer to the latest fad, the hottest new product or even to a career change. It DOES, however, require a new way of SEEING things…and if you’ve known me for very long, you will know that “seeing things differently” is a lifelong passion of mine.

I want you to think about how you are currently earning or receiving an income. Perhaps you are working for a company at an hourly or salary rate. Maybe you are self-employed and provide a service of some sort, like repairing cars or editing books. Some of you may buy and sell things for a profit, from real estate to jewelry. You might even have a residual income from rental properties, stock investments or other forms of passive income. The fact is, we each fall somewhere into one of these areas of earning an income.

Now think about this: What is the maximum amount of money you can earn in one week in your current income structure? This will vary quite a bit depending on what you do for a living, but I want you to seriously think about it. For me working as a self-employed graphic artist, I can produce around 2 to 3 covers a week along with 2 book paginations (I know this because that is what I am doing this week). If I really pushed the hours, I could probably complete three book paginations during the week, but it would take some effort. Working with that workload (which is pretty much my max) would net me around $4,000 in a best case scenario and depending on the customer. Of course I would not be able to do anything else but work on those projects. Now here’s the catch…and this is where my “ah-ha” comes in: If I want to make $4,000 next week, I have to do the same thing all over again…complete three more book covers and paginations. Do you think I would burn out after a while? You bet…been there, done that. And here’s what is really scary…if something were to happen to me, my income stops because it is based on my production. You can understand why I have been looking for alternative solutions for my income.

While finishing up the work on my Public Domain Code Book, something suddenly occurred to me…something huge! I was putting the same time and effort into creating the book cover and pagination for that project that I would for any customer except for one big difference. I will not just get paid once for that work…I will get paid over and over and over again…every time someone purchases that book. So instead of me doing the work once and getting paid for it once, I do the work once and get paid for it over and over again. I’ve already made more on the Public Domain products than what I would have been paid for the work by someone else and I haven’t even officially released it yet.

Here’s the point I want to get through to you. Within your current income situation, you are most likely limited by an hourly rate, a salary, a maximum production rate or whatever. Think about what you can do once that will earn you money continually. I’ll use Ed Owens as an example (I’ve talked to him about this already). Ed is a massage therapist. How many clients do you think he can massage in one week? Fifty? A hundred? Whatever the amount, there is a limit to the number of massages Ed can do, even as good as he is. But what if Ed took his knowledge and turned it into an information product like an e-book, videos, a home-study course or maybe even a membership site of some sort. Now Ed’s only limit on income will be based on how many products he can sell or members he can have sign up. He’s effectively multiplying himself. He would do the work once, and then get paid for it over and over again. Beautiful, isn’t it?!

My challenge for you today is this: What can YOU do in your niche that will multiply your income without subtracting your time? How can you do work once and get paid for it over and over again in your area of expertise? I’d love to hear what you come up with.

Tony

The Emotion of Headlines

I was recently tasked by one of the publishers I work with to create a half-page ad that would run in “Fresh Outlook” magazine. The ad was to feature one of the publisher’s newest titles, “Happiness Matters.” The basic layout of the ad includes a header line at the top, a picture of the book, a book blurb, an author bio or endorsement and contact info. As I thought about the book (one that I had laid out previously…it’s excellent), I wanted to really capture the audience with the header. I do not write headers for this publisher that often, but in this case, it had not been provided.

I knew that for the header to be effective, it needed to tap into the emotion of the reader. This was not a trade magazine, so the purpose of the ad was to sell to the consumer, not the bookstore buyer. After some experimenting and re-writing, I came up with the following header:

“Imagine how your LIFE would change, if YOUR happiness mattered.”

Most of us feel unappreciated at one time or another and THAT is the angle I wanted to write to. The headline may not be perfect, but it’s not bad. The reason I’m sharing this with you though is not to boast about a headline, it’s to provide a teaching example from the response of the publisher. When they e-mailed their corrections, they said that, while they loved the headline, the one in charge of final approvals was unreachable and she normally likes to use headlines that refer to the company. They included the following revised headline:

“[Publisher’s Name] International Best Seller”

Now let me ask you a question…Which headline will motivate you to buy the book? The point I want to make here is that, when creating a headline to sell your product—whether it’s books or boats, services or products—it’s important to understand a few basic facts: 1. Know who your customer is; and 2. Know how to connect to the customer emotionally. These points might seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many companies and individuals do not understand these two points. Let’s look at both of them briefly.

Know who your customer is… This seems like a “Duh” statement, but do you really know who is buying your products or services. Let’s look at the example I sited above. I know from serving in the publishing industry for nearly 14 years that the primary purchaser of books in the Christian publishing marketplace is women…they are the ones who will most likely purchase this book. We could even get into the demographics of the magazine to discover who the readership is by race, sex and age group. You need to be aware of these facts when approaching any selling campaign. Know your customer.

Know how to connect to the customer emotionally… When it comes to preparing copy and especially headlines, you need to connect emotionally to your customer in one of three ways: 1. Make them laugh; 2. Touch their emotions; 3. Wow them. In the headline I wrote for this ad, I went for number two. I wanted to activate their memory with pictures to connect to their emotion. That’s why I began with the word “Imagine.” Notice that I also uppercased LIFE…I wanted to make it personal to them. Next, I chose “would”… “Imagine how your LIFE would change” I didn’t say “could”…that leaves room for the possibility that it will NOT change. Then I closed the headline with emphasizing “YOUR.” I wanted to drive the point home that this was about them and their happiness. The two capitalized words leave an impression of “Your Life.” Women are usually extremely underappreciated and I wanted to convey, subtly, that the solution was available in the book.

The publisher decided to use point three…to wow them. I know from personal experience that women are hard to wow…men are easier to capture that way. Add to this the information being used to wow them…that the book is an international bestseller. You would be amazed at how few books you need to sell to declare a title a bestseller (not even thousands…although this title probably has sold several thousand copies). In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of books out there that are “bestsellers.” For me (as a guy and a purchaser of a lot of books), a statistic like that doesn’t wow me unless the book has been Number One on the NY Times bestseller list for a few years, and even then, it usually doesn’t matter. I file info like that under “So what!” In my personal opinion, I believe the publisher will leave money on the table by using this approach for the headline.

Please do not come away from this article thinking that I’m out to criticize my customer…I’m not! This ad does bring to light a great lesson to bear in mind as you develop products and services for your potential customers. Copywriting is a learning process…and there are many excellent resources available. I would recommend studying some of the great copywriters from the past like Robert Collier, Bruce Barton or Kenneth Goode. I would also recommend learning from some of today’s greats like Joe Vitale, Harlan Kilstein and Clayton Makepeace. Sign up for their newsletters and study what they write. Observe how it makes you feel and whether it motivates you to want to purchase. You’ll be well on your way to headline success! That’s it for now.

Tony