In the past few years that I have been involved with internet marketing, I have come to realize that there really are only a few key skills that contribute to the success of someone when it comes to succeeding in email marketing.

With that being said, I am convinced that the number one skill aside from a few others that is key in email marketing is….. COPY WRITING!

What is copy writing? In short, it is salesmanship in written form. When you are driving down the street and you see a billboard that catches your attention and it gets you to look into a certain product or service, that is copy writing that is designed to grab your attention.

Here is an example off the top of my head:

Car need maintenance? At Jiffy Lube, get your $19.95 oil change now. Free 15 point inspection included. All in 30 minutes or less or its FREE. Only through March 31st, Stop in NOW!

This is kind of a silly example, but you get the point. The idea of copy writing is to get the reader to take action on what you are wanting them to do.

In this case what do they want them to do? The answer is simple, get into Jiffy Lube and get there oil changed at a low price so they can then try to up-sell you on more services. Don’t we do that same thing in internet marketing?

Some of your best places to study the art of advertising is just to look around at the advertisement signs on the street. The big corporations that advertise everywhere you go have literally invested millions upon millions of dollars into advertising campaigns and know what works.

Take their best stuff and mesh it with your product of service.

If you have attended some of my webinars lately on copy writing you will see that I refer to the “5 point formula for persuasion”

What is the “5 point formula for persuasion”?

1. Identify the big problem – This is were you hit hot buttons. This is literally where you hit right at the heart of what the overwhelming statistics show. For instance, if you are in network marketing you would see that the statistics show that a majority of people struggle with lead generation. This is a hot button that will get people to take action on what you are asking them to do as long as you can provide the solution.
2. Unique benefit or promise – So going inline with identifying the big problem in point one, how is it that your product or service will fix the problem they are facing? For example: “If you lack leads, join our system and learn how to generate 10-20 laser targeted leads everyday for your business”. You see? This shows them what is capable with your system or product. This is where they can picture themselves attaining the results you’re referring too.
3. Provide Factual Proof – This is your opportunity to show results from people or yourself where you have gotten results with your product or service. This can be very powerful and very persuasive to the reader. There is one thing that I caution you against though, and that is making up fake testimonials. DON’T DO IT! It’s important to be truthful with your message, and not break the law. But providing proof of results is very, very persuasive and can convert optins and sales.
4. Risk Free Offer – This is where you basically take away their apprehension in taking action. For instance, someone might hesitate to take action because the don’t want to be on another email list. This is where you assure them that you will only send them value based information that will help them in their business. It can also include things such as a “30 day money back guarantee” if your selling a product or “7 day free trial for $1″ or something of that sort. This is designed to remove the apprehension from the reader, and help them to make a fear free decision to take action.
5. The take away – Ahh yeah, this is my favorite…..lol. The good old move now or forever hold your peace call to action…..lol. This works so well because the greatest thing most people fear is not getting a good deal. Or missing out on that awesome training program that will take their business to the next level. You can use language such as “Limited time only” or “Only available to the next 20 buyers“. The key here also, is don’t say it unless you MEAN IT! Don’t make it up. If you are only making it available to 20 people, make it 20 people and be done. Don’t just say that to get people to move. You loose credibility when you do that and you hurt your reputation, so be honest in your take away.

By integrating this into your email marketing, you will get much better results, and it will cause you to have more fun in your business.

I don’t know about you, but I like to have fun and get results with what I do. If I am not getting results, I stop, re-evaluate and then make a change. Good copy writing will get you results all the time.

There are two things I want to recommend to you if you want to improve your copy writing skills.

1. Copy Writing 101 webinar – I just recently did a webinar training for ViralURL solely on this topic alone. It is 78 minutes long and is jammed packed with good information that is really going to help you get results. This webinar is full on content rich value for your business. You can attend this webinar free of charge and take advantage of the training.
2. Copy writers guild course – This is for those that really want to take their business to a whole new level. This is for the person that is not messing around with their business and really wants to step up their game in not only their email writing skills, but their copy writing skills in general. This course is not free, but in my opinion the best information never is free. If you want to invest in yourself and your business, go pick up this course right now as you will not regret it one bit. Once I went through this course and applied what I learned I saw an immediate response in my marketing, so much so that I would venture to say it was the best money that ever spent. Remember, the best investment you can ever make is in yourself. I recently did a blog post about this, and you can check that out here….

Why Investing In Your Skills Will Make You Money

Focus on your skills, and your copy writing for emails, and you will see results.

To your total success,

Mark Harbert
Skype: markharbert
Blog: http://markharbert.com/

Step 1: Sign up for ViralURL by CLICKING HERE

Step 2: Register for the ViralURL Link Cloaking webinar by CLICKING HERE

Lol… Anything to get you to click on a headline, don’t think that even makes sense

This is a general update to let you know that I have been very busy working on some new projects, ViralNetworks and also a couple of new things with Frank Bauer. You can read about them here:

Colin Klinkert Dot Com

That is my new blog, I might start using ViralKing again, but for the moment, only time for the one, so please join that RSS to get news updates and info about posting contests and other prizes you can win. Thank you so much for your support.

To celebrate the launch of my new main blog: Colin Klinkert Dot Com

I am running a top commentator contest, this will likely be every month, and also I will be adding in more cool contests and hopefully lots of good content:

Read about the Contest HERE

Or Here: http://www.colinklinkert.com/commentating-contest/

Please Join my RSS feed there too, so that you can stay up to date with new posts.

To all my readers. Whilst ViralKing is a good concept, I feel I can post better on my own domain name as I can share much more related to all niches.

Please Visit and subscribe to my RSS Feed there as that is where I will make most of my posts now: http://www.colinklinkert.com/

Niche Vs Internet Marketing? Which One Is Best For Me?

There is a lot of marketing going on the Internet. With so much going on, it can be extremely difficult to distinguish the differences in the two. I am going to make it a little clearer for you, I will review some of the differences between Internet marketing and niche marketing.

Internet marketing and niche marketing are apples and oranges, they are both fruit, but yet have their unique differences. Internet marketing is the apple, where niche marketing is the orange.

What is Niche Marketing?

Niche marketing is when you are selling a specific product to customers looking for that particular product. There are some niches that are extremely competitive, and some that have little or no competition. You can also take a niche market and create a microniche market. The key is for you to find the niche with little or no competition.

There are so many of the larger niche markets that are open to the latest and greatest marketing strategies, whereas the smaller niches are much easier to break into because they aren’t swamped with all the big-time Internet gurus posing as your competition. By going with your own niche market, you get to promote it yourself, or promote a niche affiliate product.

How To Find A Niche Market?

You can find a niche market for anything! If you can imagine it, you can sell it. All you need is a great idea, great product (whether you create it or not), some advertising, and a strong will and intention to succeed.

What Is The Internet Marketing Niche?

This is where you are promoting your own Internet marketing product. There is a lot of competition in this market and much harder to break into and see quick results.

You are competing with a lot of very wise men and women who are the best of the best when it comes to Internet marketing, also known as Internet Gurus. Does this mean it is impossible? NO…you CAN DO IT!

You are in a world that works with supply and demand, meaning if you have a product that can go up against the big guys, and if you have an iron will to win, then by all means, you will succeed in the big league. Remember however, there are easier ways to get started than jumping right into the ball field with the hard hitters.

There are innumerable niches that are still untouched, just waiting for you to jump in and take over. Go with something that you are familiar with, a hobby, a talent, something you are passionate about. Not only will this give you an edge in the market, but you can have fun with it too.

Niche Marketing Tips

1. Make your niche very appealing for anyone to sell or resell your product. By making your product appealing, you make it easier and more cost effective to advertise in a specialized market.

2. Focus on the specific needs of your target audience and create your product to meet those needs.

3. Maybe you have written an Ebook on beating insomnia, giving proven methods to overcome this safely and easily, and can virtually apply to everyone. You will be sought out by those who suffer insomnia, searching for the information you have to offer.

4. If you have a website, blog or product that focuses on writing the perfect resume’, you will not be attracting the market looking to start an online business. Focus on your market, your targeted audience.

Summary…Remember, Apples and Oranges…

By using your creativity, a little elbow grease, some committed action, and niche marketing will become a very effective and cost efficient way to sell your products and services, advertise to a specific audience, and bring in buyers of your product or service.

WOW – Sorry to everyone who reads my posts here, I guess I need to focus more on the ‘blogging’ side of life!

Just got back from a 2 week cruise around Northen Europe and had a great time, visited many places that I hadn’t been to before and met a few really cool people too, so all in all a trip well worth it.

Before that I was very focused on  my main business and have to give a shout out to Frank Bauer – Superman – for holding down the fort whilst I was done. We have some VERY exciting things planed in the coming months, so stay tuned… Oh, and I promise I will put up a nice, content filled post early next week

Hope you had a great month too… Onward and Upward

What can you do to become a pro-blogger?

Well, you need to get a lot of traffic to your blog.

And now you thinking….’I already know that, but HOW am I going to do it? I have some trade secrets to let you in on. By using these trade secrets, you too, can become a pro blogger.

Today, you are going to learn some great tricks of the trade to grab the attention of StumbleUpon, and use their platform to set your blog on fire. These tips and tricks will get you anywhere from the hundreds up to the thousands of StumbleUpon visitors each day.

StumbleUpon does lean toward some niches more than others, and you need to use this to work for your advantage. You will find that StumbleUpon can be one of the greatest viral marketing tool out there. So here are some tips:

• If you do have a niche that is lacking in the mass appeal, StumbleUpon will be a great boost for you where the others won’t. Digg uses a broad forum which keeps their power from weakening in traffic. StumbleUpon works a bit differently by creating more specific categories, providing a more targeted audience.

• Write posts that appeal to the particular social media, if you go for the general appeal, you are going to lose your followers. For instance, Del.icio.us likes anything that their users prefer, Digg likes the appeal of the masses. You have to have content that is going to get thousands of hits, or you won’t become a pro-blogger.

• When you are writing for StumbleUpon, you don’t need to worry about pleasing the masses, matter of fact, you benefit more by sticking with your niche, yes, even your small ones, and this will bring you some highly targeted traffic.

• So, write your content for your niche, not for the general public. By doing this, you will increase your chances to your post will be submitted to receive more traffic in a more specific category.

In another blog, I will go into the types of posts you should and should not be making. I will go into the types of content and the things you can do to make your blog more appealing to StumbleUpon.