The Individual Guide

Remember, as a child lying in bed and listening to stories. Remember how engaged you were. Remember how you never got bored of them and always wanted to learn more.

Well, there’s a good reason why… and here’s how what you learnt as a young child could help you attract, and keep more customers…

Metaphors and stories have proven to be a powerful way of influencing other people. They are also extremely interesting to your potential customer, and connect with a deeper part of the human psyche.

Here’s 10 of the most powerful types of sales stories you can incorporate into your ads and sales letters…

1. Introductory Stories: These are stories about who you are, why you’re writing to them, and how you have assisted other people and/or businesses.

This is a perfect way to connect with your target audience and generate rapport. Reveal something personal about yourself within the story… and establish credibility and trust.

2. Stories Which Overcome Fears: Everyone has fears of some type. Identify the greatest fears and concerns your customer has. And then show how other people… just like them… who had the same concerns… overcame them, and discovered there was nothing to worry about.

If you’re selling a health product, the client may be concerned it will not work for them. Tell the story of somebody else who felt the same and where they are now. Perhaps incorporate this structure within one of your testimonials.

This is a classic “Feel… Felt… Found” approach. I understand how you feel. My previous customer used to feel the same way. His experience now is…

3. Ego-Enhancing Stories: This type of story shows how people respect and look up to people who use your services, or own your product.

For example, if you were selling a Mercedes Benz… you could talk about a guy who bought one recently and how his colleagues, family and friends were so impressed.

4. Attention Grabbing Stories: These are used to get people to focus on you, your products and how you can benefit them. They explain why your customer should sit up and listen to you… right now.

Here’s an example from a sales letter from a company called “The Supper Club…”

“How can I get in on this deal?”

The question was posed by a Daily Reckoning reader who was referring to a deal I mentioned. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a stock. It was a private deal. And it was too late to get in anyway.

But it’s why I’m writing you today.

5. Product Information Stories: Don’t just list the features & benefits of your product or service. Tell a story which integrates this information.

6. Improved Productivity Stories: Outline exactly how your services and/or products have assisted companies to increase their profits, become more efficient, increase output and reduce down time.

Tell a before and after story of one of your customers. You’ll never guess how much (other customers) business has changed since they started working with us…

7. Family Togetherness Stories: This type of story demonstrates how your product or services has caused families to come together.

8. Money Stories: The idea here is to show people how your product or service will save or make money for your customers.

For example, if you’re a mortgage broker, give a case study of a past customer… and how much money they have saved through swapping over to you.

If you’re a PR company, give an example of how you helped one company get out of a rut

If you’re an accountant, reflect on how you helped a specific customer save thousands of dollars on tax last year… because you’re up to date on all the tax changes.

9. Security Stories: This is a prime example of how you would go about selling an insurance policy. Tell a story about how your products have allowed your customers to sleep safely, and with peace of mind.

This could be used in the insurance industry, alarms, people selling trusts, pest and termite controllers, safe cars like Volvos… or any industry where people buy to feel more secure.

At the same time, it could be used for anybody who helps people to make more money… or ensures reliability. For instance, a marketing company could explain how safe one of their clients feels about their business with all the extra income being generated.

10. Closing Stories: Stories can be used here to close the sale and sum up all the benefits you have to offer.

What stories could you use to promote your business?

All the best,

Scott Bywater

Copywriting That SELLS
Level 12 / 418a Elizabeth Street
Surry Hills, NSW, Australia
1300 88 21 91 / + 61 2 9282 6445

Visit my web site for your complimentary copy of my ebook (valued at $29.95) and free subscription to my ezine “Copywriting Selling Secrets” where you’ll discover how to write ads and sales letters that sell. And one’s which put money in your pocket over and over and over again.

Here’s the address: http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au

Don’t muck around. Go there now. You’ll be glad you did!

P.S. These stories can also be used extremely effectively through any type of communication: sales, customer service, etc, and not just sales letters.

How you answer questions depends on many factors. Example what type of situation is it. Are you working with your colleague or talking with your boss. Are you doing an interview with the media or announcing a breakthrough with your business.

Most people have told me that they worry the most when it is the media, because embarrassing or damaging answers could end up on public display. However, the reality is the most reporters are not out to get people, they are just looking for the facts behind the story.

Sometimes it can be difficult to state your answers because each person has their own agenda of things that they would like to accomplished or have answered.

It is important in these situations to remain calm. When you are stressed out or upset, you literately shut off your thinking cells.

If you use the example of a manufacturing company looking at moving or upgrading their facility and media has heard they are shutting down, putting the employees out of work, we can look at different scenarios.

Many people find yes / no questions very annoying or upsetting because in either case it can be very misleading.
For example, if they asked, are you closing down the plant? and you answered with a yes, that sounds permanent and possibly putting many people out of work. Where as it may be temporary to accomplish some upgrades or maybe you are relocating to a more efficient location.

If you are being asked yes or no questions that could be misleading, there are ways you can answer with an explanation without looking like you are making excuses.

A couple of examples would be;

1. Yes, and in addition to that… (we have found a more efficient and safer builder)
2. No, there is more to this…(We are completing some upgrades for safety and efficiency)
3. I do not know about that, I do however know…(We do have plans to upgrade and improve safety)

Other times you may have the media interviewing you and they are not quite sure what questions to ask. Often, they appreciate it when you help them out. If you find the questions they are asking confusing or irrelevant you can lead them to the important issues.

Some of the ways to do this are;

1. What I think you’re getting at is…(We had concerns for the safety and well being of our employees)
2. That is one possibility and…(another is to find a safer building to work in)
3. But perhaps an equally important issue here is…(the workers safety comes first)

Sometimes it is important to emphasize an issue. The person you are speaking with may not realize what the important issues are.

You can help them out by saying:

1. What I would really like to point out is….(We at XYZ Company take safety seriously)
2. The most significant issue here is…(Once we heard about the safety issues, we took immediate action to resolve it)
3. What distinguishes this from others is…(We took the time to listen to the workers concerns and acted right away)

Remember, stay calm, think through your answer and prepare your self in advance. It is not about answering the quickest, it is about getting the facts right, which helps both you and the reporter with their story. This in turn helps build your credibility.

P.S. If you like what you’re reading in this ezine,
you’ll love the book,“Media Protocol”

If you have ever been terrified to have an interview with
the media or answer their questions, this is the ebook for you.

Media Protocol

All the Best!
Maria Boomhower
The Master Communicator
To sign up for a free report on

“The 7 Secrets to Communication Mastery”
go to:
http://www.falconfreedom.com
Master Communicator Blog

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The site above will take you to OurMillion.com where you will
find an amazing way to get hits on your web site. “Buying pixels
on OurMillion.com is one of the smartest investments you can
make. Each pixel on OurMillion.com costs $1 each, and they
provide you with lots of traffic to your website. The minimum
purchase amount is 10 x 10 pixels because anything smaller would
be difficult to see. A 10 x 10 block costs $100″ but is now on
sale for $25! Check it out! You won’t be sorry! I’m not!

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t get an email from someone saying:

“Michael, I just don’t know what to do. We are not getting sales, nobody is signing up, we are not making any money. What is going wrong?”

They start thinking about search engines, more marketing and expensive advertising. When what they SHOULD be doing is taking a step back and saying;

“Why aren’t the people who are already finding my website doing what it is I want them to do?”

If you can get to the bottom of that problem you might not even need to get more people to your website. If you can convert a high percentage of the visitors that are already finding you into sales you won’t need to devote as much time and money to marketing your site in the first place. So let’s talk about some quickfire ways you can improve your conversion rate.

**This Visitor Will Self-Destruct in 5 Seconds..

You have probably heard a lot of figures and the average seems to be about 4 - 5 seconds: the time you have from when somebody lands on your home page to actually convince them to remain on your site.

You don’t have long - after the 5 seconds if people don’t see what they want to see they will disappear - forever. What happens is when I come to your site - I am looking to get a series of questions I have in my mind answered as quickly as possible.

For example, I want to know;

- Why you are different to your competitors, maybe where you ship to, how many products do you have on your site?
- What sets you apart from everyone else in your region or in your industry?
- What do your customers say about you?
- Do you have any testimonials?
- Do you have any press coverage?
- Do you have any accreditations?
- What makes your product so special?
- What do you actually provide on this website?

I want to know all of these things in about five or six seconds.

Now it is not easy, nobody is saying that it is easy, but you do need to get over these benefits as soon as you can on your homepage. One of the ways you can start to do this is to actually bullet points of information.

**Be Ruthless With The Pages on Your Website

Take a look at your web site and pare down everything that you think is not essential. Try to take a step back, put yourself in the shoes of the customer, look at your website and look at every element and say;

“If I removed that - would my web site be any worse?”

As a customer would that make the experience any worse, would that give the customer less information?

It is quite a scary thing to do. I have been down this road myself. When you start to do this it turns around your whole perspective on what your website is actually trying to do. I have landed on some websites, as I’m sure you have, that have the opening line;

“Welcome to our home page. Welcome to ABC Ltd. We were formed in 1973 and we have 50 staff. Our core services are..”

And it just goes on and on and on - boring long paragraphs. People just don’t read like this on the web. They just want something now, they want it yesterday. So you need to think about how your website content is put together.

Don’t put things on your site that the managing director wants on there or things that you want on there or the graphic designer or developer wants on there. Put things on there that your CUSTOMER WANTS.

**Don’t Try To Be All Things To All Men

Another way you can improve your conversion rate is to try to focus on one single goal for your website or for each page.

The problem I see a lot of people struggle with is that they are trying to do too much with their web site;

- They are trying to sell a product

- They are trying to get people on their subscriber list

- They are trying to give information to their employees

- They are trying to get new business

- They are trying to get information to customers

- They are trying to give information about the community

Just hold fire a minute and zero in on the ultimate goal of the site. What is your site’s primary objective?

You need to have one goal for the site or at least one goal for each page.

**Your Website Only Needs To Do One of The Following 2 Things

To help your thinking in this there are really only two things that a web site should do. If you are in the position that you can sell directly over the web that is what you need to do - you need to be selling through your website.

If you can’t do that, and there are a lot of companies that can’t due to the type of business they are in, then you need to be getting people’s contact information. That is it. Just two things.

Either sell to visitors or get their contact information.

Once you realise this, and it might not be a nice thing to hear, because you might look at your site and think that lots of your pages are now redundant, or that certain pages don’t sell anything or get contact information. You might realise that specific paragraphs aren’t getting contact information for you or selling anything. The entire creation and copywriting process of your website becomes a totally different exercise.

But if you don’t focus on one of those two things then nothing is going to happen. I know from experience that not many visitors will read through your homepage, through the about page, through the services page and then dawdle along and click on contact and say;

“I will go to the enquiry form and see how much do you charge.”

You might get the odd one. But you are not going to get tens, thousands or tens of thousands. You need to sell something or get contact information. Your website needs to be a machine that does one or both of those things and that is it.

This article is an excerpt of “From Zero To Hero” - a free 30-minute Audio Masterclass you can download here:
http://www.websitemarketingbible.com/marketing/

Having your own tanning bed in your home can actually help you keep your sanity! We all know we could use a few extra moments to ourselves, and tanning is great for that. So are canopy tanning beds the answer?

Come take a moment to enter my world. It’s probably a lot like yours, actually. A house with a few bedrooms, furniture collected from all over the place, kids and toys galore, and a small corner for you.

After hearing all about the negative effects of tanning beds, I’m here to give you the positive news. But with all our stuff around, how can we find the space to enjoy a new tanning bed?

Advantages Of A Canopy Bed

Canopy beds allow you to have the same benefits from tanning with a normal bed using up less space and time in your home. The curved canopy of the Wolff bed will allow you to get a full tan just like you would in a general tanning bed. Plus, the canopy will adjust to meet your specific height, and you can choose to tan on one side if you need to even out your tan!

Additionally, canopy beds are fully mobile. Rather than having to set up a separate space in your house for your tanning bed, you can simply pull your canopy bed out of the corner when you need it.

Since you aren’t in a closed bed, you can keep an eye on your kids. Wolff’s great beds offer features allowing you to use a fan and plug your bed into a standard 120-volt circuit.

Tanning in a canopy bed can help you tan and release all the stresses of your day without taking up a ton of your time, space, or money.

Jon Butt hosts http://www.the-tanning-bed-guide.com A large advice site featuring how to choose your perfect tanning bed, where to get the biggest online discounts, which lotions and accessories will make tanning easier and safer, along with tan-thru clothing, sunless tanning advice and skin care to keep you looking like a goddess

Crackers attack thousands of security and protection systems
every day, with no company too small to be targeted. Software
protection inventors are fighting back against crackers, and it
is an endless war. For security companies it is simply “A la
guerre comme la guerre” or Business is Business…

Representatives from 9rays.net Inc and StrongBit Technology
today announced an exciting partnership. In order to combat the
ever-advancing underworld of crackers, and to meet many
developers’ requests to both companies, they have come together
to form a new innovative product. The goal of creating a
flexible, multi-layer, universal software copy protection and
licensing system, based on a combination of encryption and code
obfuscation techniques and aimed at prevention and protection.
The new product will be able to combat the latest and future
software threats with ease, including: reverse engineering
tricks, cracks and illegal use. Now for the first time ever it
will be compatible with different programming platforms and
environments. While the announcement of the partnership just
occurred today, the product itself has been in development state
for quite some time Both project participants are planning to
launch the beta-version in the near future.

StrongBit Technology- Specializing in windows applications copy
protection and licensing systems plans to combine their famous
protection techniques with 9Rays.net who currently specializes
in .Net software protection and decompilation. Both groups are
finally combining efforts in development of a collaborative,
cross-platform, software copy protection and license management
solution

Both 9Rays and StrongBit are known by their current
anti-cracking tools using encryption and “protection by
obfuscation” principles in application protection and license
management. Until recently these great products were always for
different programming platforms or compilers. StrongBit
EXECryptor is intended for protection of 32bit executable files
written in Basic, Delphi, and C/C++. Spices.Obfuscator from
9Rays it is oriented to protection of .Net applications.

Based off of in-depth private scientific research in software
reverse engineering, analysis, and cracks StrongBit (part of
SoftComplete Development) developed an innovative approach to
software protection based on various techniques including their
renown code obfuscation method coined ‘Code Morphing’.
Professionals have used this technique as a complete solution in
software copy protection and license management. The EXECryptor
2.x series that combines ‘code morphing’ obfuscation with
program code encryption launched two years ago, in July 2004. As
a result of some of the best protection schemes in the industry,
today it has the reputation of “uncrackable software protection”
with an open challenge to crackers. Today it is at the top of
software protection and licensing tools, with one of the longest
standing uncrackable records to date.

The 9Rays’ Spices.Obfuscator one of Spice.Net suite components
is a .Net code protection tool that offers the wide range of
technologies to protect .Net code and intellectual properties.
Spice.Net comes with five components - Obfuscator, Decompiler,
Modeler, Investigator and Documenter. Other features of this
technology are automatic size optimization and additional
options like assembly merging, adding managed resources,
self-installation and encryption features. Thus, Spices.Net does
the entire cycle of assembly processing - obfuscation,
optimization, and verification of the generated assemblies, with
both a .Net Framework and Compact Framework versions and also a
Console version.

About Allies:

1) 9Rays.Net is know for partnering with several groups of
developers with each group offering its own unique product line.
These high-skilled professionals have joined their efforts to
achieve better marketing results and to provide the best
possible quality product.

9Rays.Net has gained wide experience on the tools and components
market, developing high-quality products for the following
platforms: Microsoft. NET (Windows.Forms and ASP.Net), Borland
Delphi, C++ Builder, ActiveX. The company’s primary product
focus is on development of .Net tools and components compatible
with Visual Studio .Net, C# Builder, Delphi.Net and other IDE’s
for .Net Framework.

2) StrongBit is a SoftComplete Development division specialized
in anti-reversal, anti-crack, and anti-piracy software
protection private scientific research and development, creators
of the famous EXECryptor Software copy protection and HardKey
software license management products. SoftComplete Development
specializes in creating software protection & license management
systems, fuzzy text processing and other developer solutions.
9Rays.Net http://www.9rays.net/ StrongBit
http://www.strongbit.com

Before leading affiliate PPC programs like Adsense came along, many web sites were losing money. In fact the debate over what exactly needed to be done to ensure that a web site could pay for itself had raged for a number of years.

With the rise of this popular affiliate ppc program, it became possible for the first time for web sites to make significant amounts of cash without selling a single product or service.

Of course many web masters and blog owners could see the benefits of the affiliate ppc program right from the word go. Experience had already shown them that selling something online was not a very easy task. It was obvious that getting the visitors to a site to click at an ad for more information was a whole lot easier than getting them to purchase something from the site. It was clear that they were bound to make a serious income from being paid every time somebody clicked on the ads displayed at their site, even if every click paid just a few cents.

The result has been that the quality of content on the net has improved dramatically as many smaller sites and blogs have aggressively gone all out to compete for traffic and ppc affiliate program revenue with larger more established sites.

Christopher Kyalo is a successful online entrepreneur involved in several lucrative affiliate programs. Read other parts of this article at his Affiliate program blog. Subscribe to his Affiliate Insider Secrets newsletter now and access a free copy of his life-changing special report My Sure Fire Guide To 6-figure check Affiliate Success. To subscribe simply send a blank email now to affiliate-insider-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Bulbs form the core of all flashlights. An integral part of every lighting device, bulbs help in making our lives brighter and more secure. However, like all things, they need replacement too after a limited number of years. And to replace them with equally efficient bulbs, numerous companies provide different types of flashlight bulbs, suitable for different types and sizes of flashlights.

Companies dedicated to providing bulbs of highest order include All Spare Tools, Reflectalite, The Led Light, Everled, Ledtronics, Top Bulb, Rayovac, Led Corp, Radio Shack, Super Bright Leds, C.Crane, Happ, and DeWatt.

All types of bulbs can be sought for at Rayovac. ‘Heavy duty’ for everyday use; ’specialty bulbs’ for AAA, 2AA, and more; ‘krypton bulbs’ for brighter light; and ‘LEDs’ for more efficiency and super-bright light can all be found at the aforementioned company.

Led Corp provides a lifetime guarantee for all its LED bulbs. Offering products like ‘Epicon bulbs’, ‘Universal bulbs’, ‘Led Corp LED bulb’, besides many other bulbs, it even guarantees a hundred percent satisfaction and a 30 day money back guarantee.

Screw-in flashlight bulbs are available at Ledtronics, Top Bulb, and Reflectalite. Apart from this, Reflectalite and Top Bulb provide push-in bulbs too.

Flashlight bulbs for brands such as MagLite and Coleman can be found at companies like All Spare Tools, Top Bulb, Everled, and Reflectalite. Everled flashlight replacement bulbs do better with focus-type flashlights.

C. Crane allows a 30 day money back guarantee on its products. It houses different types of flashlight LED conversion bulbs, which include ‘3-LED flashlight replacement bulb’, ‘Everled LED conversion bulb’, ‘Flange-type 2-LED flashlight bulb’, and many more.

Ranging from1 super white LED to 3 super white LEDs, different flashlight bulbs are all available at Super Bright Leds. DeWatt has flashlight bulbs of different volts as well.