Yesterday I heard on the news that the Canadian dollar was at $0.98 U.S. Today, the Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. dollar. This news really takes aback those of us who grew with jokes about shopping in Canada. Living just south of the Canadian border in Washington State, it was conventional wisdom that you could buy almost twice as much for your U.S. dollar there as you could in the U.S. And it was an insult if someone gave you change (on the U.S. side) that included Canadian pennies, dimes or quarters.

Today all that has changed.

Over the past few months the Canadian and U.S. dollars have been creeping closer together in value until they are essentially the same.

So what does this mean for those of us who sell stuff? We're Canada's new China!

But seriously, if you have an online business of any sort based in the U.S., whether it's copywriting, mlm training, or patio furniture your stuff is now much cheaper to Canadians than it was just a few months ago. Suddenly, you are more price competitive and you didn't have to lower your prices!

In fact, this change has taken place just quickly enough that Canadian retailers have not had the chance to figure out how they're going to lower their prices to compete with their U.S. counterparts. Perhaps living in a town that is just 15 miles south of the Canadian border makes me more aware of this then someone living in Texas, but the benefits go to anyone doing business online in the U.S.

Particularly if you do not ship a physical product, the value of your offers just went up. Let's say you offer an eBook or training course for $97. A year ago that might have actually been more like $130 in Canadian funds. But now, it's actually $97 to them as well so a purchase they may have been holding off making is within the realm of possibility.

So for U.S. marketers, I advise that you make nice with your Canadian friends and remind them that it's actually cheaper to shop with you than to shop in Canada.

And for my Canadian buddies - come on down, the shopping's great!

Hope you're having a great weekend!  I spent the day at a cyclocross event with my daughter.  For those of you not familiar with the sport, it is basically riding your bike through the mud, snow, and over and around obstacles.  The goal of any competition is to generally complete as many loops of the course as you can in the time allotted.  It's a crazy sport and my daughter is a crazy kid - fun though!

Anyway, onto the writing and marketing stuff….

Last week we talked a bit about 5 things you absolutely must have if you want your e-zine to be successful and I promised that there were a few more.  Here they are:

1.  Forward to a friend. 

This is a feature that publishers generally don't think much about but it can have great importance, especially if you offer an informative newsletter!  Don't just place your forward to a friend at the bottom of your newsletter as an afterthought, purposefully ask your readers to spread the word.  They like you and they'll do it. A simple message consistently included in each and every newsletter, preferably in the same place each time, that encourages recipients to  forward your newsletter to friends, family, and colleagues is all you need.  Word of mouth advertising is the best kind and any newsletter forwarded is great word of mouth advertising!

2.  Don't forget to link to your website, at least once.  More on 4 More E-Zine Must Haves

Here's a video that goes through a quick "zip" on getting the most out of making a WordPress (WP) post on the Semiologic theme (and it's features):

 

Believe it or not, patio chair cushions can really help the bottom line for a business. And you can even use an analogy to how well chosen cushions can give you a leg up.

This may not be the strongest analogy in the world, but let's give it a shot…

When you go to an outdoor cafe or even some indoor restaurants, you sometimes think you are being tortured as customer. Why is that? Because the chairs are so darn uncomfortable!

Either the food should be really good, or you have to wonder if you will ever go back there again.

More on Patio Chair Cushions - How They Push Business

E-Newsletters, commonly called ‘E-Zines’, are a must have for any business in today’s competitive market.  E-Newsletters, done correctly, are a creative, non-aggressive method of reaching your current clients and building your prospect base at little or no cost.  They not only provide useful information to subscribers on a consistent basis but they are a valuable marketing tool that allow you to enter your customers’ lives regularly.   

First and foremost, your E-Newsletter must have a:  

1.  SUBJECT LINE  Your newsletter’s headline, otherwise known as the subject of the e-mail, is responsible for 50-75% of its success.  Other than whom the e-mail is from, it is what your reader sees first.  Without a successful headline, your e-mail is destined for the trash can and you’ve missed a golden opportunity to reach your audience. 

 Here a few keys to a successful subject line: 

Appeal to your reader’s self interest. Provide a benefit to your reader and make it personal to your audience of clients and prospects.  Example:  “10 Ways To Increase Your Portfolio Earnings Overnight.”    This type of headline might work for a financial investment firm, or an accountant.  A headline can be tailored to any industry and what your readers are interested in. 

Make it Newsworthy.  Headlines using the words ‘new’, ‘now’, ‘finally’, ‘announcing’, and ‘latest’ give the reader a sense of newsworthiness.  “New Soil Conditioner Increases Plant Life By 10%.”  This headline is both newsworthy and it appeals to the reader’s self interest-assuming that the newsletter is going to clients of a nursery, florist and the like and not to an automotive repair shop!

Appeal to your reader’s emotions.  Fear, Pride, Insecurity, Curiosity, Love, Happiness, Boredom, Laziness, and Altruism are among many of the emotions that you can use to motivate your reader to open your newsletter.  “How To Ask Your Boss For A Raise,” would be good headline for a staffing company.  It appeals to the reader’s curiosity.  Another curiosity driven headline might be “10 Questions You Should Never Ask A Prospective Client.” 

When in doubt, choose simple and straightforward over clever.  A subject line that simply states the newsletter, issue, and volume will be opened far more often than one with a subject line that is unbelievable or just plain hokey. 

 

 2.  VOLUME NUMBER AND A DATE.  It may seem obvious, but one thing that is consistently overlooked in E-Newsletter publication is the volume number and date.  When you provide a consistent publication date, and volume, you give your readers a method to archive and/or search when they’re hunting through old issues for the amazing content that you’ve supplied them. 

By organizing your newsletters by volume and date, you also make it easier to track each issue’s effectiveness.

 
3.  INFORMATION.  Your newsletter must contain useful information.  Content Is Key!  Even if your newsletter contains an editorial piece, you need to give your readers something valuable.  

We’re a nation hungry for information.  Non-fiction consistently outsells fiction in the bookstores and ease of information is in high demand.  As far as information goes—Nothing Is Better Than Free, Helpful Information Delivered To You On A Consistent Basis!

According to an article recently published by the Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Association www.newsletters.org  —“Publishers need high-value content to reach readers and advertisers. ……editorial quality is just as important for a free newsletter as it is for a subscription newsletter. ……advises publishers to talk with their user base at all times, survey readers and know their needs.      

4.  AN OPTION FOR READER FEEDBACK.  An option for reader feedback in a newsletter is a good way to build your community and to add content to the publication.  It not only lets you know what the readers are responding to in your newsletter but it encourages reader participation and people, whether they admit it or not, like to see their name in print.  

A simple feedback form occasionally included in the newsletter or a more consistent ‘Dear Abby’ type column where readers ask questions and you (as the expert) answer them, is the easiest way to include this feature into your publication. 

5.  AN OFFER    Besides endearing your clients and prospects to you and your company, the main purpose of an E-Newsletter is to build your business or in other words, SELL. 

Don’t let a single issue go by without some kind of offer; a click through to your web site, a coupon, a new product for sale in your store or on your website, an inside sale.  

Tie the offer in to your theme and with a good headline, you have a sure hit!  Let’s go back to our very first headline “10 Ways To Increase Your Portfolio Overnight.”  Let’s assume that the newsletter is from a team of financial advisors. 

Don't go overboard!  A general rule of thumb is to have 80% of your newsletter copy presented as informative content and 20% of it can be sales or promotional copy.

We've just touched on a few of the requirements for a successful e-newsletter.  Next time I'll touch on  a few more and wrap it up.

Take Care!

 

 

This is a video asking for input from my uVme group. I have a landing page at GamersProfit.com that gives an intro to marketing online, which also provides a link to the official uVme signup page. I would like to redo the video to perhaps reflect more closely what people actually want to see in an intro video before they sign up for the free web site.

So, what got you interested in uVme?

Was it the idea of making money from online games?

Was it the part about using the internet to make a good living?

Or maybe you like the social network aspect of it?

Perhaps you're big fan of network marketing and you really want to see it take off online?

The kinds of things that have attracted you to uVme will likely be the same kinds of things that will have others take a look at it. I want to make a new presentation - a version of the video at GamersProfit.com - that addresses more directly the kinds of things that made you take a second look.

The new video will be a couple of minutes shorter and easier to "brand" with the name of your "pre sell" web page. By the way, that's what the GamersProfit.com page is - it's intended to give visitor a personal perspective on the business before they hit the corporate site.

Since it's unique, you would be able to put it on your own site with your own text along with it. You drive your internet traffic there and the goal is for visitors to follow the link to your free uVme site.

So take and look and give your feedback!

Writing copy that converts readers into buyers is a challenge that sends many business owners running for the hills - or at least seeking expert help.   Today I'd like to offer a simple bit of advice for those that prefer to do it themselves…Pay attention to your verbs.

Verbs are the POWER words in your sales copy. 

Verbs are the words that give your copy action.  They compel emotion and paint a scene that makes your writing pop! 

 

Using Verbs.  4 Simple Steps to Activate Your Copy.

These four steps are designed to be taken after you've written your sales letter, email, article, auto-responder etc.  They're part of the editing process.

1.  Eliminate passive verbs.  Passive verbs tend to leave your copy flat, uninteresting, and easily dismissed.  Powerful, active verbs compel action, engage the senses and even elicit emotions. 

Take the following sentence for example, "We are a provider of excellent customer service." Instead, you could write, "We provide excellent customer service."  or "We excel in customer service." The verbs 'provide' and 'excel' are more powerful verbs. 

Editing Step - Replace your 'state of being” verbs; is, am, were, was, are, be, being, been, with action verbs. Using your computer's software search and replace feature, search for these words in your copy and replace them with more active verbs.

2.  Eliminate the conditional tense verbs.  Conditional tense verbs are would, could, or should.  Instead use future tense verbs like will or must. 

For example, "To save time, you should write your copy first without editing."

"Write your copy first, then edit - it will save you time."

Editing Step - Use the find and replace feature on your word processing software to quickly replace all 'shoulds,' 'woulds,' and 'coulds' with more positive, future tense words. 

3.  Choose specific verbs.  To deliver a clear, compelling and emotive message strengthen your verbs by making them as specific as possible.

For example, the word 'teach' can also be expressed with the following verbs advise, brainwash, brief, catechize, coach, communicate, drill, enlighten, explain, instruct, lecture, train, tutor and so on….

Editing Step - replace vague verbs with specific verbs.  Use your Thesaurus.

4.  Avoid adverbs.  An adverb is a word that describes your verb.  If your verb needs describing then it probably isn't specific enough. 

For example, "Let's get out of here she said loudly."  Loudly is the adverb.  To add power to this sentence, replace the words 'said loudly" with a more specific verb like 'yelled,' 'bellowed,' or 'hollered' 

Editing Step - Using your find and replace feature, look for all words in your copy that end in 'ly'.  Kill the adverb and replace it with a specific, power verb.

I'm a big advocate of spending time on things that are worth your time. That can be hard to do, since it seems easier just to do things ourselves rather than hire someone to do it for us. This is where mapping out the processes in your business can really pay off.

By knowing what you actually spend your time on during the day on a regular basis, you can hire and train someone to do that task for you. This doesn't have to be someone that comes into your office either. Nor does it have to be someone overseas. There are plenty of people who work from home that could take over some regular tasks for you.

These kinds of things run from answering the phone and processing customer orders to writing content for your web sites. Don't think you can afford it? Then check out the following article…

More on Are You Doing the Things That Are Worth Your Time?

Good ideas are just a little too easy to come by.

When I first got into the world of marketing on the internet, I found myself in the same position as a lot of beginners. I was (and still am) learning all kinds of cool stuff about marketing, but the big question: "What Do I Sell?" hit me as hard as anyone else.

Once you get a bit further along in understanding the ins and outs of internet marketing, you end up with a completely opposite problem: "What Do I Focus On?". There are just so many good ideas, so many markets looking for a good product, that it can be hard to focus on development once you get started in a market. Especially if the part you really enjoy is the startup phase.

For example, there's an eCommerce store I started for outdoor furniture. That was a lot of fun to put together and it's a great market. But once I got the site up, I was distracted by other equally cool opportunities. The only problem is that there are only so many hours in each day, and you can only take on so many things at one time. It's true that a good process will have many of the tasks outsourced, but you still need to spend the time to develop the process and then find the people to fill the positions.

Finding good people may be the most difficult challenge in all of business, whether it's online or offline. But once you find good people that frees your own time up to continue developing markets and chasing down your other good ideas.

So a plan of action that I really need to take is to focus on developing my existing assets, continue supporting the many great people who come to me for MLM training, and continue sharpening my own marketing skills so that I can pass that knowledge on to my organization.

So as you work on your business, remember to make it the best it can be while defining what the individual tasks are. Then find good people to fill those tasks so you can continue building out on your ideas. Trying to ride two horses at once is pretty darn tricky. I'd rather have those horses pulling me in a wagon. Then I can have lots of horses.

I can't believe I did this.

One of my mentors, Ed Dale, announced this year's "30 Day Challenge" a few days ago. At first I was just going to "watch from afar" as Ed took people through this course.

But then one of the people I had invited to the challenge asked if I had set up a team and if she could join it.

This got me thinking. Which usually ends with me taking some sort of action.

I went back to the "30DC" site and looked over everything Ed is offering. I was actually a bit surprised at how much material they're going to cover! He's even going to show how to use an online tool called "Twitter" to keep in touch with your team.

Ah, now there's a connection to network marketing I can get behind and add this to my list of "what I can do to help people in business".

Plus, I just love Ed's teaching style. Can't get enough, really. Especially when it doesn't cost anything.

So, here's the deal…

More on Like I Needed Something Else To Do…