Bankruptcy to Millionaire

I’ve finally figured out the secret as to why this blog isn’t sky rocketing with popularity, fame and fortune… And why yours isn’t either.

First off, happy Monday and Happy December to everyone. The countdown has finally begun.

Why I’m an Ass… 

I’ve been studying endlessly (it seems) as to what makes a good blog, and what makes a blog good.

Sometimes it would seem the answer would be obvious… but it never seems to be. But ultimately, it comes down to being interesting and entertaining.

Thus I have found the errs in my ways. So far this blog has been filled with self-indulgent jackassery.

I’ve fallen into a pattern of writing for the “hell of it”. Not really concentrating on providing valuable, pertinent, and interesting content. This is where I went terribly wrong…

Today this changes.

I had to do some thinking about why I have this blog. What is it’s purpose? And quite quickly it occurred to me, it’s about doing what it takes to become a millionaire. It’s about helping inspire, motivate, and educate others on how to know they can become a millionaire as well.

So here what I’ve learned this weekend to help both you, and me succeed when we’re blogging:

Being a copywriter, I know that the Headline is THE MOST important copy of the entire sales letter. There are products that have made and lost fortunes based on solely their headlines. The headline in advertising must force the reader to read the article.

This same technique MUST be applied to your blog posts. I have forever just picked a few words that came to the top of my head for the title of each of my blog posts.

THIS IS WRONG! 

More thought, and technique should be put into the headline than the rest of the post! Because if you can’t get someone interested with the Entry Title, YOU HAVE NO WAY IN HELL OF GETTING THEM TO READ THE POST!

This seems SO obvious. Yet, I have forgotten to put this much effort into my titles, and from the dozens of different posts I read on a daily basis, others seem to forget this very important point as well.

Your titles should invoke emotion from the reader. They should feel STRONGLY about it. It should make them ecstatic, pissed, curious, enamored, sad, excited. They should feel  a strong emotion from reading your title, otherwise you’re never going to get the chance for them to read the important information contained in your post.

• “I’m giving away $100 cash in the next 10 minutes” -excited
• “12 died in a tragic bullet train accident” - sad
• “George Bush, impeached!” - ecstatic/pissed (depending on whose side you’re on )
• “Do you know the 3 things, you can avoid, but you’re doing that are preventing you from making $10,000 next month?” - curious

Those are just a couple headlines that came to me off the top of my head that would evoke an explicit emotion. And more importantly would probably force the readers to read on for more information.

Next time you’re reading an interesting blog post, take a look at the headline. Is that what drew you in? What was it that attracted you to the article?

When you’re reading the newspaper, what draws you into the story you’re reading? The headline (and maybe the picture, but that’s a whole ‘nother entry).

Think about it…

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I’ve heard this statistic before. And it seems to come up every now and then: 90% of small businesses fail in their first year…

It’s some absurdly huge percentage like that. The sad reality is a huge majority of small businesses fail in their first year of being in business. (And probably even a larger number of online businesses)

But in all reality they didn’t fail in their first year. They fail on day one. The day most businesses open their doors they’re doomed to fail. Not because “statistically” most are doomed to close. That’s like the guy that brings a bomb on a plane, not to blow up the plane, but rather he noticed statistics showed that it was nearly impossible for two people to bring a bomb on a plane. Much greater than just a single person bringing a bomb on a plane. Therefor if he were to bring one, it’s statistically impossible for another to have brought one on a plane too…

(Hell… with all this “bomb on a plane” talk. I’m probably on the Homeland Security watchlist)

Anyhow their doomed not because of: bad management. Bad bookkeeping. Poor financial backing. Etcetera and so on… Yes this could be a factor. But more likely they fail because they don’t have:

DIFFERENTIATION

You MUST set yourself apart from your competition. Because in todays market, you’re almost certainly going to have some sort of competition.

You MUST give your buyers a reason to buy from you, work with you, or use your product, other than that other guy down the street.

If you don’t, what reason do they have to use you? Because you’re “better”. Because you’re “nice”. No.

And not only do you have to be DIFFERENT, you have to be different enough to be compelling enough to pull your clients away from your competitors.

The first thing most small businesses do to set themselves apart is make themselves “cheaper” than the competition. This can work. But most likely it’s a death wish for your businesses instead think about setting yourself apart by not being cheaper. Brainstorm by starting with some of these ideas:

• Become exclusive
• Offer products or services that are “outside the box” from your normal products (think: the first guy to offer WiFi at his Coffee shop.)
• Expand your product or service line
• Adding a personal touch
• Giving stuff for free
• Offer discounts for products that relate to yours, that you don’t offer (joint ventures, cross promotions)
• Market to the affluent
• Look at what your competitors are doing. Don’t do that. (Note: Use common sense.)

You can get your haircut anywhere. But a salon that offers you a choice of your favorite cocktail, and an iPod with a diverse selection of music gets my vote.

A coffee shop, can sell me a cup of coffee once. But one with internet access will probably get my refill business on the weekends.

I can get my picture taken anywhere. But a custom portrait studio that promises to take more time, and more photographs, indoor and outdoor, digitally enhanced, with photographers that are more experienced than any others in the area… I would pay for that privilege.

If a business can truly accomplish being DIFFERENT enough. It CAN’T FAIL. It can only become a huge success.

If every new business can answer and follow through with their answers to: “What makes me different? What makes me better?”

We’ll see a new statistic soon enough.

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