A few weeks ago, I rented a NAVY Seals training documentary from Netflix.  First of all, it was one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a while and I highly recommend you rent it if you have Netflix.

One of the big lessons I got out of it was a phrase they said over and over… “it pays to be a winner”

Whenever the SEAL instructors put the guys through grueling workouts they always made it a competition – and the team that won got a 5-10 minute break while every other team had to do more excruciating work…

Throughout the film you could see this drilled into their head over and over.  The potential SEALS were taught that second place is worthless – it’s the same as coming in last.

After watching I couldn’t help but relate a lot of this to Seth Godin’s book The Dip.

Seth says that there’s no reason anymore to be the #5 general grocery store in the world.  You’re better off being the #1 organic grocery store.

Nobody wants the 5th best dentist in your town, they want the best dentist in your town.

And when it comes to our industry the same holds true.  No affiliate wants to promote the 5th best offer on Clickbank.  They want the highest converting product that pays out the most per sale.

The difference between being 5th and first is drastic.  It could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for a publisher.

One of his quotes sums this up really well…

… the real success goes to those who obsess. The focus that leads you through the Dip to the other side is rewarded by a marketplace in search of the best in the world.

and then he has this gem…

The most common response to the Dip is to play it safe. To do ordinary work, blameless work, work that’s beyond reproach. When faced with the Dip, most people suck it up and try to average their way to success.

Settling is easy.  Anyone can do it…

It pays to be a winner.

]]> http://www.justingoff.com/winner/feed/ 3 http://www.justingoff.com/increase-income/ http://www.justingoff.com/increase-income/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:19:31 +0000 justin http://www.justingoff.com/?p=547

I wanted to tell ya about a little experiment Ive been doing over the past 4 months. Some of you may already do this…

In Dan Kennedy’s book Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneurs (a MUST read) he has a chapter on donations and saving.

Basically from all of his work with millionaires, he noticed all of them always have 2 things in common….they save money and also donate money routinely.  So Dan has people try this experiment out and almost always they see an increase in their income from it.

I had similar results  over a 4 month period.

Basically it’s pretty simple, any time you make money and you are depositing it into your bank account make sure you take a standard amount each month and donate it to a charity and then take a percent and put it specifically into a “wealth” account.

Here’s how I did mine…

I did 5% of my gross (I believe you should do the net, o well) to a wealth account and then 5% I donate to a charity I like.  I actually do my donations and savings each Monday throughout the month.  I think this is a better way than doing it just once a month.

Well Ive done this for the past 4 months, and my income has gone up about 35-40%.

Basically the idea behind it as Dan says is that it triggers something subsconsciously in your mind that most rich people do and changes the way you think about money. I can honestly say I’ve noticed it as well. Im more apt to go after things I would have probably held back on before.

I thought this was as hokey as could be when I read it, but I committed to it for 90 days, and now Im a believer.

If you’re not currently doing something like this every time you make a profit, give it a shot, I think you’ll see some big benefits from it.

BTW the book is Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneurs. I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s really helped me to break some bad mental blocks that I’ve had in regards to money.

- Justin

Two things have had a bigger impact on my outlook on life than anything else…

• being an entrepreneur
• and getting serious about working out

Before either of them I always had a “victim” mentality.  I had an excuse or a rationalization for everything and I would blame anything but myself for the situations in my life.

Wyatt Woodsmall, a popular expert on “change” and NLP says “Human beings are addicted to their sufferings.  It’s what allows them to rationalize their existence”

This is exactly what I was doing…

One of my first “awakenings” was when I was working out with Vic about 2 years ago…  Vic was my trainer and put me through some grueling workouts.  I remember in one of my high rep deadlift workouts I was ready to call it quits and go home.  We had another superset of pushups and body rows to do, but I was just planning on skipping them and being done for the day.

Vic had other plans…

The thought of me leaving didn’t even cross his mind.  It was in that moment that I realized why I had never seen results with my workouts before.  I was never willing to do what it took to get results.  I always cut things short, or did just enough to get by…

It wasn’t my genetics or some other excuse that was holding me back.  It was me.

Mark Rippetoe has a great quote about this in one of his Youtube videos…

“The process that a person goes through when they go from sedentary to active, demonstrates quite conclusively to everyone that does it – that you get out of this activity exactly what you put into it…it’s the most stark lesson in the way the universe operates”

That single lesson has taught me so much.

It’s helped me with my workouts.  It’s helped me with my business – And it’s helped me to be a better person.

It’s a lesson I wish I would have learned earlier in life, but I’m grateful that I finally did learn it.

I’ll leave you with a quote that Clem Stone (billionaire salesman) told to Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup author) when Canfield was interning for him…

Taking 100% responsibility means you acknowledge that you creat everything that happens to you.  It means you understand that you are the cause of all your experience.  If you want to be truly successful, and I know you do, then you will have to give up blaming and complainging and take total responsibility for your life – that means all your results, your successes and your failures.  This is a prerequisite for creating a life of sucess…You see, Jack, if you realize that you have created your current conditions, then you can uncreate them and recreate them at will.  Do you understand that?  Are you willing to take 100% responsibility for your life?”

I hope I have a few more “eye openers” like this coming my way…

When I started making a living online 2.5 years ago I was making some good money each and every month.

For someone who was just starting out, I was regularly having months of $12,000+ profit and working about 7-8 hours per week (yes per week).  For a 22 year old kid, fresh out of college this was like hitting the lottery.

But looking back now, I realize just how naive I was…

When I started out I had an income source, not a business.  I exposed a flaw in the search engines, and was raking it in solely from a mistake that Google hadn’t fixed yet.  Looking back now, my biggest mistake was not scaling the operations and milking the situation for all it was worth.  I sat by and was content with the money I was making – not knowing it was all going to come crashing down in a few months.

After everything crashed, and I had my income source taken away I was scrambling to find a new way to make money online.  As much as it sucked to have my income source taken away, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me.  Back then I had no work ethic, and no idea of how a real online business worked.  I had no assets in my business (like an email list), and everything could have just been taken away at a moment’s notice (like it was).   Since then I’ve come a long way in my business knowledge and work ethic due to reading a ton of books and by seeking the advice of people who were already successful in the online business…

I’ve had numerous setbacks and triumps in the past year or so.  I sold a blog that was only 7 months old for $40,000.  I also jumped into a new industry only to realize I didn’t “know it all” and I had a ton to learn.  It’s been a long, slow ride to get in a good spot to succeed with our fitness site.

But part of being a good entrepreneur is going through the tough times.  It’s similar to being an athlete.  The best athletes in the world aren’t the best because of their talent…. They’re the best because they never quit, and they always want to better themselves. They take their lumps each and every year, and only the strong willed that truly have a desire to succeed will stay at the top.

I’m reminded of this all the time as an entrepreneur and recently I’ve seen my girlfriend go through a similar tough time trying to start her own business as a freelance photographer.  People are going to cut you down, insult you, call you an idiot and question everything you do.  A lot of people who work regular jobs, are secretly unhappy and would rather see you fail and be miserable just like them.  And some of your biggest problems will come from the people who you’d expect the most support from… your family and friends.  Most of them can’t see you as anything more than what you are right now, so they try to keep you at the level you’re at.  Jealousy definitely plays a factor in this, as deep down they don’t want you to be more successful than them.

If you’re running your own business be prepared to take some lumps and be prepared for the unexpected to happen.  I’m not making as much money as I’d like right now, but I think I’m in a great position to have my best year ever in 2010.  We have our fitness product finally done, and we’re getting ready to jump into PPC and start promoting this baby.  I’m sure we’ll go through some tough times, and hit a few dips, but I also have grown a lot in the past year, and literally know about 50x more about business than I did even a year ago.  I’m a better marketer, copywriter and I understand the web a lot better.

As Dan Kennedy says, most entrepreneurs that continue busting their ass usually experience “the phenomenon”.  This is when you attract more wealth in a 6 month span than in the previous 6 years (or something similar).

I feel a phenomenon coming for me soon.  And so should you if you’re determined to grind it out and stick with it.

- Justin

If you’re trying to sell to the fitness industry there are some common appeals that continuously work  in selling fitness & weight loss products…

Here’s a few things you MUST know if you want to write a killer ad, infomercial or salesletter…

• No matter who you are targeting your prospect wants results ASAP.  A 12 week workout manual, will always outsell a 6 month workout manual no matter what niche you’re in…

• People are flat out lazy – 95% of people don’t want to put in any work, they just want to take a pill and wake up 15 lbs lighter.  This explains why the supplement industry is able to sell cheap powders for $85 and people won’t think twice.  It also explains why the acai berry and nitric oxide offers are killing it on the CPA networks.

• Most people have failed over and over again with workouts and diets.  Sympathize with their situation and use that to your advantage.

• “it’s not your fault” is a common theme used in fitness infomercials, sales letters and ads.  This continues to work because it sympathizes with the reader and makes them feel that they failed because of an outside force… This is usually tied in to “you’ve been lied to”, “you’ve been mislead” etc…

• There’s certain niches that continue to be successful.  The skinny kid who packed on muscle will always work…  The overweight office employee who lost 10 lbs in a month… The mom who lost her baby weight…

• People are always looking for something “new”.  They want the next big thing that will solve their problems.  This was part of the appeal of the acai berry offers.  It was a “new discovery” from the rain forests of wherever…  P90X also employs this technique.  They claim P90X works because of a new breakthrough called “muscle confusion”.  If you can put something “new” or a discovery in your selling, make sure you do it…

• Without before and after pictures you have nothing.  The easiest way to sell a fitness product or service is through good before and after pictures.  And if you want to sell a bunch of them you should have before & afters from as many different races and demographics as you can get.  A 45 year old will connect with a testimonial from someone their same age, while someone who’s asian will easily connect with proof that another asian got results with the program…

• Specific benefits will always work better than a vague promise.  Nobody wants to be “healthy and have peace of mind” – they want to lose 15 lbs and get ripped in just 90 days.  Make sure the benefit you’re selling in your ad (and the headline) is specific…

• Capitalize on current trends and fads.  Mike Geary does a great job of this with his Truth About Abs product.  His website is capitalizing on the current acai berry fad and he instantly connects with the people who understand that it’s a bunch of B.S.

  

• Most people “don’t have time to workout”…which is usually just an excuse for them watching too much tv and not managing their time well.  Either way there is a huge opportunity to capitalize on the fact that people don’t have any time…  Nutrisystem does this with their meals delivered to your home.  We capitalize on this with our fat loss workouts by stressing the fact that they each take less than 15 minutes.  If your program or service takes “little or no time” make sure you emphsize that…

• Most people who are out of shape believe that there’s some kind of “secret” that they don’t know that’s keeping them from getting in shape.  Some people even believe there’s a conspiracy keeping them from finding out the secret that will solve their problems.

• People who are looking for a solution to their problems want “THE” solution.  Even though there’s probably not a black and white solution for every problem that’s what people want.  There’s big money to be made positioning your product as “THE” answer to their problem.

If you have a fitness product and you want to write a killer ad, salesletter or infomercial then follow the proven staples I’ve outlined above.  They have been proven to work in almost any fitness niche, and they continue to work over and over again.

If you have a fitness product you’re serious about doing 100k+ with, and you’re looking for a kick-ass copywriter to help you get there… feel free to email me to see if I’m right for the job. My email addy is justingoff{at}gmail.com (or call 419 656 5063)

- Justin

About a year ago I hopped into the fitness business and was introduced to the world of info marketing…

Before that I had mainly made money through affiliate deals and advertising.  The thought of selling an information product was “odd” to me and I was wondering why anyone would pay big money for an info product over a regular book.

Sometime in 2007, I was introduced to copywriting by Brian Clark at the Elite Retreat conference.

Brian is a very, very good copywriter, and I remember diving in and checking out his blog.  I read tons and tons of blog posts and then came across his post on the best copywriting books

I remember buying John Caples Tested Advertising Methods, and it was great.  A lot of it was a bit over my head, so I looked for a book that was even simpler.  Since then I’ve read a bunch of books on copywriting and direct marketing, in just over a year my grasp on business, writing and marketing is 10x what it once was.

Here’s my boiled down list of copywriting books every entrepreneur and marketer should own…

• The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly

This was the book that really broke everything down for me and got me started.  It’s great for beginner’s-intermediate marketers and will really help you if you’re totally confused.  Bob goes over everything from headlines, to the appeal to your call to action.

• Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joe Sugarman

Hands down, I think this is the best book on copywriting.  Sugarman is an incredible writer and not only does he break everything down, but he gives examples of everything as well.  His chapter on psychological triggers is alone well worth the price of the book.

In the age of info marketing, Im surprised Joe didn’t sell this book for $297+.  If he did, it would still be well worth it.

• Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples

Brian Clark pointed this one out to me along with Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins.  I dont know if I have a bad copy of Claude’s book, but I wasnt that impressed with it.  Everything seemed pretty obvious.

Caples’ book is incredibly in depth and he covers headlines, the appeal and the layout of the ad in amazing detail.  I really like that Caples give you TONS of examples of headlines that work vs. headliens that don’t – And also test results from testing different appeals in the copy.

• Marketing To The Affluent by Dan Kennedy

While this is not exactly a “copywriting” book, Dan gives out tons of practical advice for marketing your products at a higher price level to the affluent crowd.

Most people always want to compete on price, but when you do that you miss out on a bunch of money, and you end up with the worst customers possible.

Dan’s book really helped open my eyes to selling high priced goods.  I highly recommend it…

• Influence by Robert Cialdini

This was one of the first marketing books I have ever read, and I still recommend it as the first book every marketer or salesperson should read.

Cialdini goes over all of the solid as stone principles that can be used to persuade someone into buying whatever you are selling.  No matter what market you’re in, Influence is sure to help you make more $$$.

If you read all of these books not only would you become a better writer and marketer, but you’d also would be able to up your income pretty quickly with the strategies you learn.

Leave me a comment with some of your favorite copywriting/marketing books…  I wouldnt mind picking up a few more.

- Justin

This is extremely hard to boil down…

I could easily write about acquiring new customers, my problems with implementing things quickly, our lack of project management skills, my need for an assistant, my problem of focusing on non-money making ventures or even the fact that we have 3 dogs at our house that contantly interrupt me through out the day

But I don’t think any of those are the actual problem…

I think the biggest problem I have (and this is incredibly hard to admit) is a mental block.  The fear of becoming uber successful.  I’ve written about this before, and it’s something I have been working on reprogramming my subconcious for…  But Im not sure if I’m really getting anywhere…

Just the thought of me some day making $30k or so a month (which is my goal) makes me a bit nervous.  I kind of get the feeling that I don’t “deserve” to be able to make that much – and I know in my head this is ludicrous, but there’s a mental block somewhere that I feel sabotages me from being more successful.

I remember when I first read Psycho Cybernetics, he talks about how they’ve studied salesman who work in the worst district possible and yet they crushed all the other guys and we’re making $5,000 a month (this was back in the 1940’s).  BUT when they took those same salesman and moved them into a better market, their performance suffered and they still found ways to make the same $5,000 a month.

Basically what they realized was that this salesman never saw himself as more than a $5,000 a month guy.  He couldn’t picture himself being any more successful, so whatever market they put him in he did whatever it took to make $5,000 a month…  In the perfect market where they thought he would double that, he subconsciously did everything he could to sabotage himself and stay at $5,000 a month….

Now in my situation, I don’t know exactly where the mental block comes from, but I have a feeling it has to do with how I was raised.  Being raised in small town and in a middle class family, you constantly have thoughts put in your head that “rich people are jerks” and that doing real, honest labor is the right way to do things (even if it doesn’t pay well).

I believe this line of thinking has come into play a lot with my business, and it’s starting to worry me.  Whenever things start going my way and I have some good success, I usually find a way to just hold steady or even regress, instead of grabbing the bull by the horns and taking advantage of the situation…

Napoleon Hill talks about the power of the mastermind in Think and Grow Rich, and I truly believe it makes a big difference in our lives.

The more I hang out with successful people, the more this line of thinking seems to go away.  When I was at Elite Retreat, it was amazing to see lots of really successful people supporting my ideas and my vision for our Gym Junkies website.  It’s a nice boost of confidence when someone who’s killing it online, thinks you’re gonna be a big success.

I’m sure this isn’t what most people would consider a “startup problem”.  But I firmly believe your thoughts control your actions – and if my thought’s aren’t where I need them to be, then I won’t be as successful as I’d like to be…

In all honesty, I didn’t want to write this, because I didnt want to admit it to myself.  I almost just deleted this post halfway through writing it as well.  It’s been an internal struggle just to put these feelings out there…The only thing that pushed me to do it was the quote I have hanging above my monitor…

The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open… – Chuck Palahniuk

Whether I win or not, just opening up and writing this was therapeutic…

- Justin

Why is that people think they can just interrupt your day when you work from home?

If I was a lawyer would you come to my office and ask me to come to your house and help you fix the sink in the middle of the workday?  Probably not… but why do people think they can do it when I’m working at home?

Or how about people that call me or text me all day and get mad when I don’t respond immediately.  I’ve never once been called or texted about something that couldn’t have waited 2 hours or til the end of the day.  Just because you call me at noon doesn’t mean I have to pick up your phone call right then.

If I answered every phone call/IM/email when it came in, I would have about 15 minutes of productive work per day.  My whole day would be dedicated to getting other people what they want instead of getting done what I need to be more successful.

That’s all…

- Justin

Here’s my thoughts on a personal training business site.  I think you’ll be able to pick up some good tips from this if you run a local business (or a training studio)

The site: Mike Hanley’s Studio that offers Personal Training in New Jersey (TheTrainingStudioNJ.com)

Initial thoughts

Ok where did he get this designer and why haven’t I hired him yet?  Seriously this is a great, clean design that has pretty much everything you could need for a local business.

I’m split on designs a lot.  Being a big blog reader and also a big fan of direct marketing, its tough to combine the two.  I do however think there can be a middle ground where a good design meets great copy and this will bring in you in some customers…

Problems I see with the site…

• The copy sounds like it was written by an exercise scientist, not a real human being.  This is killer #1, when trying to connect with your audience.  If your audience says over and over that they want to lose body fat, then don’t try and tell them about your stability training, core activation and corrective exercises.  Your client wants to hear that you have the solution for their problem.  Don’t shove your agenda down their throat.

• The SEO on the site could be improved a lot.  On the programs/services page each of those services needs its own seperate page.  So for example, he should have a page on Nurtrition, Powerlifting, Bodybuilding etc…  This way he’ll be bale to rank in the search engines for each of those phrases…

ex… New Jersey Nutritionist, Powerlifting in New Jersey etc….

• The call to action needs to be better.  Just putting a link to your email is not gonna cut it.  You need to get in their face and tell them exactly what you want them to do.  John Carlton calls this “selling from your heels” and it’s a major mistake.  When it comes time you need to give a big ole phone number for them to call or a huge button to click on to send you an email.  Don’t hold back when it comes time to take action…

• Testimonials need to be featured on the homepage.  I think I found a few testimonials on some other pages, but we need to get them right up in the front and center.  Testimonials are the lifeblood of a local business site.  You could sell a personal training package with nothing more than before and after pictures if you had to.  Before and after pics are absolutely necessary when it comes to selling a fitness product. My business partner Vic who runs Fitness Bootcamps in Columbus also has made this mistake.  He has testimonials on his personal training page, but not on his bootcamp page.

• The title tags need keywords.  One of the biggest factors in ranking well in the search engines are the keywords in your title tags.  Mike’s site has some pretty general title tags, and has no local keywords in them.  His target should be to rank for local keywords like New Jersey Personal Trainer or New Jersey Nutritionist.  Having things like Programs/Services in the title tag is doing him no good.

There ya go, those are some of the biggest mistakes on his site.  If you are making any of these, you should probably get them switched up as soon as possible

- Justin

Your Story

When I was at the Elite Retreat marketing conference, I sat down with PR & social media rockstar Chris Winfield and the first thing he said when he looked at Gym Junkies was “Whats the story here?”

I thought our blog was in great shape in regards to design, but after having it picked apart by most of the guys there, I knew I needed to make some changes.  This is quite humbling to guy like me who thinks they know everything

Chris recommended we feature Vic’s story on the blog as much as we could (especially since its a great story).  I jumped on this right away and created a tab at the top of the blog that said “my story”.

After doing some testing with Crazy Egg, I found that page has become one of the most popular pages to click on in our site.  Along with that, I think it really helps give new visitors an idea of what our blog is about in a quick way…

Add a My Story page to your site and let people know who you are and where you came from.  You could also use a video to tell this story as well…

Personality

The old design on Gym Junkies had what I thought was a good design.  It matched our hardcore image perfectly.

After talking to Stephan Spencer at Elite Retreat, he told me he thought our site looked “too corporate”.  I was a bit surprised at this considering we havent even tried to sell any products yet (or take advertising)

His suggestion was to move our blog to a different domain, which had a more personal feel.  I totally disagreed with him on this, as our blog is the main component of our site, and I dont think that would have helped at all.

However, I did take his advice and pump more personality into the site by adding a picture of Vic to the top header and featuring more video/audio/picture content on our site.

This is a HUGE tip for all bloggers.  Make sure your blog looks like its one guy running a hobby site.  Even if you’re making $30k per month, you dont want your readers to think this is some big corporate process with multiple people working on it everyday.

Let your personality shine through on the blog, and you’ll connect with your readers in a much deeper way…

Let me know is this helped you.  leave me a comment below!

- Justin