If you haven’t heard yet, Google Checkout is finally here. People have been speculating as to how it will work and if it is a “PayPal Killer”. I don’t know if that is true or not, but while signing up for my own account today, I ran across their videos describeing how it will work for you and your customers. It looks pretty good, but I can see that people are going to be in a frenzy integrating it to their websites. Watch these videos to get a good overview about Google Checkout.

Google Checkout Video Tour

Selling with Google Checkout An Overview

Google Checkout For Sellers

Google Checkout For Buyers

Did you download the Microsoft WGA - Windows Genuine Advantage Tool? In case you have’nt heard, it was released in 2005 by Microsoft as part of their anti-piracy program. The WGA utility collects hardware and software information from users’ computers and delivers them to directly to Microsoft servers - the collected information is later used to trackdown potentially pirated or improperly licensed copies of the Windows operating system.

In fact just the other day during a recent Windows update, it came up on my computer. I clicked ok, since I have nothing to hide.

The issue is not with the tool… it’s the way Microsoft distributed it. According to a recent lawsuit filed, some people claim that it was not entirely explained properly and they claim it is classified as spyware which Microsoft has installed on potentially millions of computers.

Now, I agree with the basics of the tool. How much money is Microsoft losing due to unlicensed copies of their software. I would imagine many millions. I don’t know if I would sue them for it, but they should get their handslapped for trying to slide it by all of us in they way they, which was a Windows update. It is an invasion of privacy if you don’t read and know what it is when you download it.

The lesson from all this?

Simply… be honest with your customers. If they would have just said what it is, then there would be no issue. Sometimes the truth may be hard to say, but in the end, it will save you loads of time and money if you just lay it out there.

You will never make every single one of your customers happy. That’s just a fact. Once you get over this, you will be better suited to carry on business as usual. It seems many times in business, you are put under a microscope by your customers, you can’t make every single one happy… ALTHOUGH, THIS SHOULD BE YOUR OBJECTIVE, by working on the majority.

What can you do in your business to make your customers more happy?

1. A free teleseminar - no pitching
2. A free product
3. A teleseminar just teaching them how to use your product

If you think about it, there are a number of ways to gain a customers loyalty and make them happy.

Try one today.

If you’ve been on the Internet at anytime at all over the past 18 months, no doubt you’ve heard about the on going battle between Google and MSN. Sure maybe not publicly, but there is no doubt in my mind that MSN is definately in fear of Google. I was thinking about this while looking at a recent issue of Fortune Magazine and how Microsoft has recently brought in new blood to spearhead the development in order to combat Google’s dominance in online search. It’s a lesson I think we all can learn from.

As I was reading… I thought… It’s simple, MSN is WAY OVER THERE!

What am I referring to?

Well Google has placed themselves in front of us all the time. Think about it.

With Google you can…

• Get a date
• Find a phone number
• Send an SMS message
• Check your email
• Place a classified ad
• Creat your own Calendar
• Make a webpage
• Create a blog
• Search for blogs
• Upload videos
• Get alerts
• Search Catalogs
• Search from your desktop
• Search the earth
• View the earth
• Check your stocks
• Comparative shop
• Search images
• View maps and get directions
• View your news online
• Search newsgroups
• Create your own group
• Find,edit and share photos
• Create 3d models
• Instant message
• Translate webpages
• Speed up webpages
• And last but not least… search the Internet

You see, Google has surrounded us with their tools and technology. We can’t help but use them. It’s not just a company, but it has grown into our everyday culture.

Do you say MSN it? or Yahoo it?

No, you say I Googled them. Or I Googled it? That’s power.

As for MSN… IT’S WAY OVER THERE!

What I mean is MSN is not at my finger tips like Google is. Even though all I have to do is type www.MSNSearch.com mentally in my mind I feel like IT’S WAY OVER THERE.

Google is right here. I don’t have to go anywhere. I just open up my browser.

How can we learn from this?

Think of ways you can surround your customers with your products or services. If you are in front of your customers all the time, it makes it quite easy for them to buy one of your products. It takes less work. YOU ARE RIGHT HERE!

Don’t make your customers work to find you again. Give them reminders. Heck, just start a blog like this or something. So you can keep in front of them as much as you possibly can.

HERE’S A SHAVING UPDATE:

Ok, I’m growing it back. Thanks for the input. My wife likes it. So you know how that goes.

As many of you know, I’ve had a bit of facial hair for as long as I can remember. Well… I got home today after 4 weeks on the road speaking at different events and I decided to shave it off! Look here for the results - It may shock you!

Like I said, I shaved off my beard/goatee or whatever you want to call it. I’ve even chronicled the shave for a bit of fun.

Here’s the pic with me before the process began…

Here’s a pic of me HALF way through.

Here’s a pic before the big unveiling…

The final result - A clean shaven face!!

It’s time to vote - voice your opinion!.

I get a lot of questions from people about building their businesses. Everything from managing it, creating products, marketing and even how to leverage it into other businesses or ideas. What Ifind most interesting is that copywriting is almost always the last thing on their list. Why is that? I think I figured out why…

Everyday we are mostly focused on the "how to’s" of our business.

• How to make a websites
• How to create a product
• How to make more money
• How to get more traffic
• How to use Adwords
• How to create an affiliate program
• How to create our own graphics
• How to get more optins
• How to create a buzz

What most people don’t realize is that at the forefront of everyone one of these items, COPYWRITING should be #1.

You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you can’t communicate it’s benefits and why a person should purchase it, then you have an enormous problem and you WILL NOT make sales.

I have to say first and foremost that I am not a great copywriter, but I do ok. You see, I’ve written most of my own copy for the 10 years on the Internet. But, I also have studied the people whom I believe to be the best. I’ve looked at their structure, their layout, their words, their phrasing, their embedded commands and a whole lot more. I’ve managed to do ok communicating my message and people have purchased my products.

Copywriting is about communication.

A clear and concise dialog with your reader persuading them to purchase your product and service. Yes, I said "persuading". If you think your product will sell itself… you are dead wrong. You can’t assume the reader will be able to read between the lines and figure out exactly why they need your product. You have to lay it out for them in plain english. Don’t make them work in order to buy your product.

Michel Fortin is one of the best copywriters on the Internet today. Not because he is a close and personal friend of mine, but because Michel is a self-proclaimed fanatical tester. If you ask him who the true genius is when it comes to copywriting, his response will always be… the reader. Why? Because, it ultimately doesn’t matter what you write, what matters is the results you receive from your writing.

Check out his Copywriting Membership Site: http://www.thecopydoctor.com/ I’m a member and it’s worth every penny!
The beauty of the Internet is that you can test your copy now faster than ever. It’ doesn’t cost much and many times you can do this for free. Here’s an example… Phil Huff created a program called Split Test Generator (No relation ) It allows you to do a simple A - B Split test. It sends half your traffic to Page A and the other half to Page B. Just use a different order link for each product and you now have your winner. Pretty easy.

You can get as advanced as you want. Marc Quarles and I developed MultiTrack Generator. This is the most advanced testing software on the Internet. In fact, you can test up to 30 different items simultaneously. The page will use the variables you’ve given it and it will over time create the perfect salesletter for automatically. Pretty slick huh?

In summary… my message is for you to pay attention to your copy. Start testing your salesletters and marketing messages. One small tweak can increase conversion dramatically.

Since, I wrote my last post, many people have been asking how to create a top knotch product in very little time. This is much easier than you think, as long as you know the process. Everything is about a system. Anyone can create a product and make an amazing living from their own information.

Here it is… are you ready?

What I’m going to show you is not how to create one product but a whole slew of products in record time.

1.) Let’s start off with a teleseminar. Anyone can do a teleseminar. You simple pick a subject which you know about and can teach others about and then invite people on the call.

If you have a list, then email them and charge them to be on the call. This way you can get paid to create your product. If you don’t have a list, then put some Google adwords and drive traffic that way or just send out some FREE invites for people to join you. You need to have people on the call, this will make sure you work harder and you will give better content if someone is listening.

The key here is to record the call.

2.) Now that you have a recording of the call. You can burn it to CD - You have product #2 now.

3.) Send out the recordings to be transcribed. Now you have an ebook of your call. Every hour you speak will be approximately, 35-45 pages depending on how fast you talk. You now have product #3.

4.) Now you can sell the digital version of both online as a package. That’s product #4.

5.) You can burn a physical CD of the call. That’s product #5.

6.) You can sell the physical version of the transcription. That’s product #6.

7.) You can sell the physical CD and the transcript in a 3 ring binder and charge anywhere between $97-$297 for the call and call it a Homestudy Course. That’s product #7.

8.) You could license this information to others and sell it for several hundreds of dollars. With a license, they pay you for each copy sold. That’s product #8.

9.) You could eventually sell resell rights when you don’t want to sell the product any longer. That’s product #9.

10.) Take the transcript and turn it into a physical book and sell it on Amazon and other offline stores. That’s product #10.

As you can see, it’s not that difficult to create a product.

The bottom line is you have to do it.

Have you noticed the same thing as I have? There has been a huge trend going on in the Internet Marketing industry. Product development has seemed to gone by the wayside and in its place we have resell rights packages, product blowouts and what seems to be fad type products. This must change for the sake of these product developers and for the sake of the industry itself. Let’s take a look at each one of these type of so called products.

1.) Resell Rights

This is by far the least dangerous of my complaints. Heck, I love a good resell rights product which has a great value and is a legitmate product. Here’s the scenario though.

Hey… I buy almost every resell rights package that comes out!  

If you follow many of these people with “resell rights” packages. You will start to notice that this seems to be the only type of product they release. Hmmm?

In order to give value to a resell rights package, the product should already have shown that the market wants this product by the fact that the original owner was selling it already. This makes the overall value of the package that much more valuable. Many of these new types of products don’t follow this rule. In fact, the product itself was specifically designed to be sold as a resell rights product. No market research was put behind it all, they just assumed the market will want this. In many instances this was just a clone of another product.

Now to the marketer who knows what they are doing… this is good!

Why? Because most people who purchase a resell rights package will not ever do anything with it. So this leaves just you many times to profit from this. Just be carefull that you know what the product is before you buy it.

2.) Product Blowouts

Now, I’m not picking on any one marketer or group. But what this product is, is simply a large grouping of product SPECIFICALLY developed to sell the resell rights to.

What makes me laugh about this product is the fact that most have an affiliate program with it.

Having an affiliate program with this type of product is the most rediculous thing I have ever scene. Let me explain.

Ok, I just purchased this huge product package for $200. Now, my plans are to sell it to my customers, my list and so on. But what do I do? I signup for the affiliate program and instantly wipe out any chances I have to sell any of these products to my list. Why? Because I just told them where I got my next 50 products I plan to launch. Instead of buying from me they buy the products themselves and market them themselves.

Also with each package I sell, I increase my competitors in the marketplace and again ruin my changes to make any sales. Do you see what I mean? Now, I don’t blame the affiliate owner for this, I blame the affiliates themselves for not thinking this through to see what is happening. You have to think in business!

3.) Fad Type Products

My only problem with “fad” type products is that they are fad. Wake up people. Why go through all the work to creat a product which won’t be there 6 months or a year from now? You have now have to develop another product to replace the income from the lack of sales from the first one.

The concept of product develeopment is to increase your income or should I say add to your income with each new product you create. It builds upon the previous one as does the income. For example, if you create one product and it makes you $3000 a month, there is no reason why this income should go away if it is built upon solid principles. Using this same model, if you have 2 products of same value you should now be up to $6000 a month. Do you see my point? It makes sense.

My point is this… create a product or a product line which will stand the test of time. Don’t create events, but create products which will will last. Each and every month, I sell EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY PRODUCTS. In fact, some of my first creations are still my best sellers.

Can you say the same thing? Just think about.