8 Free Ways To Get Ultra Powerful Backlinks

free-backlinks

After many months of research, many training and courses, trying to figure out how SEO works I come up with a ‘plan’. The system that will apply on small niche sites and medium sized. I learned a lot of new concepts and found out a lot of contradictions in various teachings. Because I just started a week ago to apply them on my sites, they are not yet tested or proven. But because many people are using them, I believe most of them can bring some great results in getting free backlinks.

All methods can be applied with no costs attached, only what you need is time. Here are 8 ways to get free backlinks to your site, ordered by the most effective:

  1. Articles Submission – It’s one of the oldest marketing ways to gain free traffic and also backlinks to your site. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of free article directories where you can submit your content. Under each article there is a resource box where you can include 1-3 links to your sites (number depends on the directory’s rules). What I found out studing Google algorithm is that relevant backlinks are much stronger than irrelevant backlinks.
    If you can combine:
    - high page rank site
    - content on the page relevant to your site
    - backlink with your targeted keyword in anchor
    - relevant words near backlink
    - backlink on the very top of the page
    - secret Google sauce ; )
    You can receive insanely powerful backlink, from authority site that is in your niche with all the other atributes listed. Although it’s pretty hard to achieve them all it’s definitely possible to get a lot of them using article marketing.
    You should always write your articles relevant to the content that is on your website. This will immediately create trust in Google’s eyes, especially if the article directory is an authority website (high PR, lots of updates). That’s why backlinks from articles can be deadly effective if you do it right.
    Couple of problems:
    - you need to write unique content in each of your article – it will cost you time or money if you outsource
    - spinning your articles is just a temporary thing that will work to the moment when Google algorithm become smarter (if it doesn’t happen already). It can be still a very effective method to submit your article to many article directories although every marketer will tell your otherwise. There is never ending dispute about this.
    - duplicated content – you can still get quality backlinks submitting the same article to many article directories, although you can’t expect the same results as with a unique content
    - submitting your article to 100s of directories – it helps your site being noticed by Google, create good link popularity (number of backlinks coming to your website) and it can create more opportunities for other people to pick up your content on their site. It will give you some natural backlinks growth that is the best way to build links. Although if you want someone to pick up your article, it needs to be a really good one. That’s the problem with spinned articles, they may not be the best quality and less people may syndicate your article on their site. Decision is up to you.
    So is it worth it?
    I believe it’s definitely worth it. It’s a quite slow way to build links but very powerful, proven to work for years for many people.
  2. Directory Submission – I think it’s a pretty good idea to submit your new website to directories to get noticed by Google and get some extra boost on start. You can try some free directories, I use Directory Submitter 3.0 by Hash Software where I can add my websites to over 1,500 free directories. Most of them don’t require a reciprocal links that is a good thing.
    The best way is to start with the paid directories. They will give you really good backlinks and instant advantage.
    Couple of good paid directories:
    - Yahoo Directory ($299 per year)
    - Best of the Web ($69.95 per year or $199.95 lifetime)
    - Business.com ($199 first year, $149 to renew)
    - Dmoz (Free)
    - JoeAnt ($39.99 review fee)
    - GoGuides.org ($69.95 review fee)
    - Microsoft bCentral
    - Gimpsy ($40 review fee)
    - Starting Point ($99 per year)
    - V7N Directory ($49.95 review fee)
    - Umdum ($40 / $100) 22.RubberStamped ($29.95)
    - Aviva Directory ($49.95 / $74.95 per year)
    - Webotopia ($10 / $30)
    - Webxperience ($10 / $30)
    - Uncover the Net ($59 / $199 per year)
    - Jayde (Free)
    - Elib (50 Euro / 150 Euro)
    - Skaffe ($44.99)
    - Web World ($25)
    If you don’t have any money to spend, at least submit your site to DMOZ. It may take them months to review your site but it’s worth it.
    Word of caution! Stay away from the auto-directory submitters that can blast your link to tens of thousands of directories. It may be fast and cost-effective but the results are really weak. The reason of it is because most of these directories are spammed every day. Once it happens the authority of the site goes down in Google’s eyes. What it means for you is that the backlink you are getting from this directory becomes lower and lower quality. Some people say it can even harm your site rankings if you have a lot of backlinks from ‘a bad neighborhood’.
  3. Angela & Paul Links – This method exploits social sites where you can set up a simple profile for free and leave your link there. The trick is that many of these social sites have public view profile page and dofollow links. It creates an opportunity for any link builder. In addition a lot of these sites are extremely popular with high PR. Angela & Paul links are updated every month with new ones. Angela links consist of 30 sites, Paul 50+. You can get Angela links here and Paul links here. Learn how to automate Angela links here. Learn how to outsource it here.
    This method can be considered blackhat. If you think about it you just spam all the social sites with an empty profile and a link. You don’t contribute to the community and if admins can detect you can get removed quickly. From my experience it’s not always the case, that’s why it’s a quite effective technique for link building.
    How to not get deleted:
    - upload a picture in your profile
    - use a real name
    - to be safe, add a link to your profile after 1,2 weeks
    - don’t try to spam 10s or 100s of links in your profile, try 1-2 per profile
    - use different emails
    The main problem I faced with this technique is getting your links indexed. To make it happen faster social bookmark all your public view profile pages using onlywire or ping.fm.
  4. Mininet – Here is a small diagram demonstrating how it works:
    mininet-smallThe basic idea is to create bunch of pages on social sites that allow you to post some content. You can post there your articles, videos, rss feeds, images and other. The main key is to create these green pages with relevant content that is in your page – page you link to. Another good idea is to link to your subpage, for example mydomain.com/cooking-frenzy.
    Another concept is called link-wheel and it looks like this:
    mininet-mediumThe only difference here is that you link each social site to another one. It creates a ‘wheel’ and can pass some nice link juice (strong backlink).
    If you want to go bigger, you can add another layer:
    mininet-largeIt becomes a bit more complicated. The second layer is blue. You use the same concept of linking  each blue site to another as before. The only difference is that you also connect layer 1 green sites with blue ones. It creates pretty powerful backlinks with different high PR domains.
    List of the top social sites you can use for mininet:
    http://www.Squidoo.com
    http://www.HubPages.com
    http://www.WetPaint.com
    http://www.Weebly.com
    http://www.Wordpress.com
    http://www.Zimbio.com
    http://www.Blogger.com
    http://www.Vox.com
    http://www.Blog.com
    http://www.LiveJournal.com
    The only problem I see in this method is that it can be risky. You are basically manipulating with these sites to get nice PR passed through links. In perfect world the users that liked your content should make squidoo lenses about it and link to you. I don’t know how long this linking strategy will work, what I only know is that it’s working quite well for many people right now.
    Should you use same content, unique content or spinned content on each of these sites? It’s hard to say what’s worth to do the most. Unique content will definitely bring you higher in rankings, thus increasing backlink value. Although if you will use duplicated content, it will be still a valuable backlink with relevant content nearby.
  5. Video Submission – Videos are trendy online and Google list them well. Also there are a lot of high PR video sharing sites where you can syndicate your video, thus getting even more backlinks. It created a new opportunity for free traffic and backlinks.
    To get a lot of backlinks you can use video distribution services like Tubemogul (free) or TrafficGeyser (paid). These will help you to distribute your content to dozens of top video sites like YouTube, Metacafe, Yahoo Videos, Myspace Videos and others.
    You can include your link in video description. On YouTube to make link clickable remember to include http:// at the very beginning. Some video sites are not allowing clickable links but it still has a value.
    To make simple videos you can use Animoto (awesome photo slideshows), Jing (to record your screen and voice) and your webcam.
  6. Social Bookmarking – Social bookmarking sites are these where people can share their favorites websites with their friends. Pretty simple concept and a new opportunity to get some free links. You can create an account in each dofollow social bookmaking site, check the list here, and bookmark your sites, articles, videos, literally anything. It will help your page to get indexed faster, drive some free traffic and get some nice links. Remember not to overuse it!
  7. Blog Commenting, Yahoo Answers – Both methods are very similar. In blog commenting you are going to different blogs in your niche and commenting the posts. Once you are commenting, in author name you can put the main keyword of your website and in website field your site address. Some blogs have dofollow for comments some nofollow, remember to check it before. This method is very easy to implement and in order to search blogs in your niche just search in google ‘niche’ blog or use google blog search. Remember to post quality comments, long enough with some content in it. Spammy comments will get deleted instantly by the blog owner.
    Yahoo Answers is a website where people ask questions and others answer. In the answer you can include the link. That’s where you can get your backlink. Look for main keywords in yahoo answers and identify questions related to your site. When you are answering remember to provide a quality information that can actually help someone in something.
  8. Topical Directories/Yahoo Site Explorer – Topical directories are directories in your niche. There are many directories focusing just on one niche. These can give you much better link because it’s more relevant. You can find such directories by googling:
    - ‘niche’ submit your site
    - ‘niche’ add url
    - ‘niche’ links
    - ‘niche’ revuews
    - allintitle:’niche’ submit your site
    Some of them may require a link back, look for ones where you can get one-way backlink. That’s the best backlink you can get. If there is no submission form  just send an email in request to add your site.
    Yahoo Site Explorer can tell you how many backlinks are coming to any website. What you can do is to spy the competition. Pick 5 top sites for your main keyword term in Google and check their backlinks. Search for patterns. Look for sites where you can get some free backlinks. Top sites in yahoo site explorer are ordered by the most quality ones.

That’s about it. You can find here some killer and free ways to get backlinks. One of the most crucial things though is to build links naturally and consistently. It won’t help only in Google search results but also in Yahoo and MSN that have simpler algorithms. Let me know if you have any suggestions and more ways to get free backlinks. Apply these techniques right now and you will see top ranks on Google for your main keywords!

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Backlink Myth 1: Pagerank Mass Confusion

How to build backlinks the right way? From which websites can you get free backlinks? Why Pagerank is important in strength of your backlink? How to choose wise sites from which you get backlinks? What determine if link is stronger or weaker? How can I benefit from this information right now?

Any of the above questions sound familiar? It’s all answer in below video, if you like it leave feedback. I’m planning to do next myths but need to know if this information is valuable for you. Leave comment down below, thank you : )

myth1

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Some silly outline

Just some out of my head predictions, same based on very early data, most not.

How your list can make you money

1 sale per 100 hits -> $14

10 subscribers -> 15 clicks/mo

100 subscribers -> 150 clicks/mo -> $21/mo

1000 subscribers -> 1500 clicks/mo -> $210/mo

3000 subscribers -> 4500 clicks/mo -> $630/mo

How to build a list

capture page 20% opt in rate

100 hits -> 20 subscribers

100 subscribers -> 500 hits

1000 subscribers -> 5000 hits

3000 subscribers -> 15000 hits

How much traffic can cost in Adwords

avg 1 click -> $0.20

1000 subscribers -> 5000 hits -> $1000

3000 subscribers -> 15000 hits -> $3000

What’s the initial investment?

1 sale per 100 hits -> $14

1000 subscribers -> -$1000 + $140 = -$860

3000 subscribers -> -$3000 + $420 = -$2580

How long to make your money back?

1000 subscribers -> -$860 -> $210/mo * 4 months = $840

3000 subscribers -> -$2580 -> $630/mo * 4 months = $2520

How much can you make in 6 months?

1 MONTH – 1000 subscribers -> -$860
2 MONTH – 1000 subscribers -> -$650
3 MONTH – 1000 subscribers -> -$440
4 MONTH – 1000 subscribers -> -$230
5 MONTH – 1000 subscribers -> -$20
6 MONTH – 1000 subscribers -> +$190

What if you use free traffic?

1000 subscribers -> 5000 hits -> $210/mo

5000/30days = 166 hits/day

or

5000/60days = 83 hits/day

How much can you make in 6 months sending 83 hits/day?

1 MONTH – 500 subscribers -> $0
2 MONTH – 1000 subscribers -> $105
3 MONTH – 1500 subscribers -> $210
4 MONTH – 2000 subscribers -> $315
5 MONTH – 2500 subscribers -> $420
6 MONTH – 3000 subscribers -> $525
FUTURE $630/mo

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6 Surefire tips to help you start your own information products empire

avoid pain gain pleasure

Yesterday I learnt few useful tips that you can incorporate while selling information online:

  • Send at least first 10 follow up messages every day, next ones you can send every 2,3 days, depends on your goals and market – It will help to remind people on your site and sell in first weeks where they can be most willing to buy.
  • Knowing your customers is the king – don’t take for granted that you know your target market if you didn’t do any research. Biggest frustrations or desires are also the biggest motivators for people to buy any ebook. Make sure to incorporate biggest frustration or pleasure factor in your headline on your sales letter. It will hook the right people and talk to them like you really know them well. You will present to your potential customers that you know their problems and you have the solution. The thing is that first you need to prove them that you care about their problems, that you understand the frustration or dreams they have in their mind. That’s where the magic happen – when you can connect to your customer on the deeper level.
  • Be specific in your sales copy. Don’t try to write very generic and general statements that doesn’t mean much. Instead focus on something that you think your customer has problem with and thinking about ti all the time. Once person will find your copy, he/she will be extremely captivated what do you have to say. Also don’t use unnecessary words in your headline, be short and precise. If you headline is 4-7 lines you may separate it to 2 separate headlines, it may enhance readibility and clearance.
  • How well you are going to do in any niche depends upon the amount of frustration/desire people have in this niche. It may not be related to the size of the market or competition. Although once a customer has more choice, the selling may be harder as he/she have more choices, some markets are selling better and some worse. Sometimes it’s hard to say which market can be better for your product. The easiest way is to test them. You can try to promote some affiliate products at first and see how they are converting. Another way is to go to various forums around this market and see how many questions people have. If you can find a lot of frustration and problems around this niche – it can be a good sign. Dig deeper and deeper before making any assumptions about the market.
  • Some markets may seem not too profitable at the first sight, but can be extremely profitable long term. We often have assumptions about some market, that they can’t be hot. You have to remember that your knowledge about specific niche may be actually very limited and it may be must bigger than you even thought. That’s why research and testing can help find these untapped market that many people didn’t try. No competition on clickbank doesn’t mean the market is bad. If you are aiming into a small niche there can be simply no competitors and a lot of money to be made. Most people prefer to go into bigger niches where there is more money to be made. That may be not always true. Especially regarding traffic generation, I’ve found out that generating a lot of traffic to small, untapped niches is so much easier, and dominating this niche on Google very easy. It doesn’t require any super-ninja tactics like everyone is showing you in internet marketing market.
  • Avoiding pain is almost always better than gaining pleasure. We, as humans, tend to response much more to avoid pain solutions than pleasure. It comes from our nature, it’s undeniable. When you are looking for a hot market, avoid pain markets can be extremely lucrative. Some of them are related to treating diseases, remedies, avoiding embarrassment etc.
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How to make a video from an article in less than 20 minutes

I just created 5 training videos, explaining step-by-step how to create a video from an article. I’m going to share these training materials to my virtual assistants that are going to help me create a lot of videos. I though it would be a good idea to share this content with everyone. I think that making videos is one of the easiest ways to get a lot of free targeted traffic. It may be a bit technical but once you grasp it, you will see amazing results.

To create videos I used:

  • Powerpoint 2007
  • Camtasia Studio

Here are the videos:

1. Make presentation
Part 1 – http://screencast.com/t/02r4Wtgm
Part 2 – http://screencast.com/t/tRCNsKUX86T

2. Record presentation
Part 1 – http://screencast.com/t/QjSMB7vQ
Part 2 – http://screencast.com/t/nGOPvpwwuM
Part 3 – http://screencast.com/t/keDNXnEkl

3. Render video
http://screencast.com/t/HOxP0odUf

If you want to give this content to your assistant, provide these files to him:

  • Article with title
  • Ending selling script (like go to www.site.com for more information
    and subscribe to my free newsletter to discover the secrets of the cockatiel
    care and training)
  • Link to the site
  • Above 5 videos
  • Camtasia Studio installation
  • Powerpoint 2007 installation

You may create youtube videos to promote clickbank products as an affiliate, own products and even physical products or CPA offers (Neverblue accepts a lot of social traffic in their offers). To distribute videos use TubeMogul.com, best free service I know and use all the time. Happy recording!

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Email marketing free report

New report about some very insightful email marketing techniques has been just released. It’s a really good content with many golden nuggets, so if you have a mailing list you need to definitely check it out:

Download it here!

What’s interesting, the guy who wrote this report tested different subject lines for their emails in dozens of different markets and found out that the best open rate subject line was: “This is so awesome”. There are much more samples in the report.

If you want to see some more great email subject lines join some Michael Cheney mailing lists. He has some great subject lines in each e-mail. I remembered him because of his subject lines.

Some good examples:
Cheney says "Lucas is a great boss!"
I'm with stupid..
if only..
big scary question.. (NEW video)
do you believe in magic?
you booked yet?
what would you do?

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6 Laws Of Persuasion

Persuasion is a form of social influence. Social Influence is the way of affecting other person’s thoughts or actions. There are specific techniques to help persuade people to adopt new ideas and attitudes toward something. Over the years of studies and experiences we know exactly what persuade people to take action, change belief, etc. Understanding the main laws of persuasion will give you a big advantage over other marketers online to get your message across and get the results you always wanted.

marionette
Are you a master of the puppet or a puppet?

Because I’m an internet marketer, I will present you these 6 laws with exact samples how you can use them in internet marketing area. It will give you an idea how to take this information and apply in your online business.

1. Law Of Reciprocation

6lawsofpersuasion-reciproca
This is one of the most powerful weapons of influence but hardly ever used consciously. Actually, most of the time, we are unaware that we use It. This law is saying that we are programmed, conditioned to repay what other people provide to use. For example, if you will send a text message to someone with a Christmas greetings, there is a pressure, obligation on you to reply with similar greetings. Returning a favor is written in our nature.

This rule is so powerful, because it creates a totally different state of mind for your prospect. People love to buy but hate to be sold. Additionally, this law produces a “yes” response in their minds, that can easily give you an advantage at start.

Free Samples

These techniques can be used in any marketing messages by giving away something for free. If the content you are giving away is good, people will feel obligated to do whatever you ask. Free samples, free CDs, free videos, free reports are some ideas. That’s the best way to get people check out your content at first, and then – in return – check your site and purchase the product.

Free sample technique is used everywhere. If you go to the supermarket, you will be offered a free sample of cheese near cheese section with some new brand of cheese. Once you take a slice of cheese and taste it you are automatically obligated to at least check it out. There is much more chance to get person buy it, if it tastes good.

Giving a free sample on start is a well known tactic in any kind of capture page, squeeze page, where you ask your visitor to put their name and e-mail address to get their information in your database. To fully utilize law of reciprocation, you need to make sure to provide quality free content. Amaze people with stunning content and they will start to listen to you. If you are selling own product, get the best chapter of your ebook and give it away for free. If it’s a video content grab the best few minutes of pure content that will totally shock your audience and give a great value.

Marketing Sales Funnel

With this law in mind you should think about proper sales funnel. It means that to attract the most customers, you need to start from free sample, then proceed with low priced products and move on to higher and higher ticket items. In that way you will satisfy people with more needs and money and those who want low priced products.

Here is how it works in music industry:
1. The free download
2. A single
3. An album
4. T-shirt or poster
5. A boxed set
6. A live concert

Here is how it works in internet marketing:
1. Give a free report/video/audio/call
2. Introduce low priced e-book/video/interview recording for $7-$27
3. Offer more advanced course for $47-$97 – for example with videos, interviews with experts
4. Full home study course with all goodies and in physical form – videos, audios, reports, study guide, checklists, action plans, access to members area, private forum, mastermind group for $97-$497
5. Promote your seminar/teleseminar/mastermind group for $497-$9,997
6. Private coaching for $10,000+

6lawsofpersuasion-salesfunnel

“There is an obligation to give, an obligation to receive, and an obligation to repay” by Marcel Mauss

Obligation

What is worth taking notice, is that a small favor can produce an obligation to return much more significant favor. It doesn’t have to be equal. The nature of the return favor can be manipulated to exploit this rule. In fact small, first favors often stimulate larger return favors

Once being obligated to return a favor, we have this unpleasant felling of indebtedness. It weights on us emotionally and we want to lose it as soon as possible. We are conditions upon human social systems to be uncomfortable. This rule is itself a great benefit for any society. We are taught from childhood to fell like that. That pushes us to repay larger favors than we received.

There is also a fear of rejection that plays an important role in a reciprocation rule. Once a person violated the reciprocity rule, person can be disliked by some social group. Fear of pain persuade us to follow this rule.

Rejection-Then-Retreat Technique

Lets say for example, I want you to agree to my request. To increase my odds, I will make much larger request – one that you will certainly don’t agree with. After you will refuse it, I will come up with much smaller request – initial request that I wanted to start with. If presented properly, you should see my second request as a concession and should feel to respond with your own concession.

This technique can be used on your sales letter. If someone will try to exit, try to use exit-windows with some cheaper product or some product discount. It may trigger many people to check it out and your sales will increase.

Upsell Offers

This technique can be also used in your upsell offers. For example, after someone will buy your product, introduce them with very cheap products for 20-30% of initial product price with irresistible offer they can’t miss. Make it a one-time-offer feeling – explain the urgency and value of your offer. Make it feel like a great deal you are giving away, like a favor you are doing. People hate to lose opportunities, they are afraid that they can miss something great that can change their lives. It should be nicely presented with the lower price than the product they’ve recently purchased. If a person will turn down an upsell offer, try even cheaper offer – maybe same product but without video content? Or instead of physical version offer digital one for a lower price.

Another way of using this rule is to present very high price as a value price for the product and at the very end of the sales page cross it down and put 3x, 5x or even 10x lower price. It will shock your visitors and make them buy even more.

This rejection-then-retreat rule is working not only because of a reciprocity rule, but also because of a law of contrast. If you present your product as a value of $597 and later offer it for measly $47, the lower price will appear smaller by comparison. If you will present it as $47 it will appear much higher. Your perceived value will sky-rocket. We are conditions to think that more expensive = better. Although, it’s not all true in all instances, that’s how we operate. That means, if you will present a higher price for your course, you will create the feeling that your product is high quality and have something unique and amazing to offer. Of course, you have to justify why have you priced it for $597 value and selling for $47. Justifying as a favor for your visitor can be a good reason.

If you will combine reciprocity rule and law of contrast, it can be a powerful persuasion tool.

Why larger-then-smaller-request works so well?

Responsibility – person feels more responsible for the final deal. This rule causes person to say “yes” more often. Satisfaction – person is more satisfied with final agreement.

What are the objections, why people won’t follow reciprocation rule?

Some people may be aware of this rule, and because of that be more cautious before trying even a free sample. To justify their decision, they need to be more persuaded than other people. If you are selling in internet marketing niche, especially to more advanced marketers, you need to be aware to become more original and persuasive in your message, and in the same point don’t show it. People won’t let you give them a free gift because they know what can it persuade them to do. It’s tricky. The gift has to be made in a good faith. Justify why you are giving this gift, it will make people more comfortable to receive it.

2. Law Of Commitment and Consistency

6lawsofpersuasion-consisten
Once a person commit to something, there is a rule of consistency, that will push the person to be consistent with their previous decisions, even if the initial benefit was removed. Consistency is well respected and inconsistency is perceived as a negative feature. Individual who is steadily inconsistent, can be viewed as two-faced or even mentally ill. This can cause fear or rejection that is one of the biggest fears of any human. The other benefit of consistency is that once a person made their mind on some issue, decision, they don’t need to think about it anymore.

Cognitive Dissonance

The term ‘cognitive dissonance’ is one of the most influential theories in social psychology. Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding 2 contradictory attitudes or believes at once. People have a motivational drive to rationalize their beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. Dissonance happens when inconsistency occurs to a person. Even if it’s possible that we actually made a bad decision, our defense mechanism will try to create good reasons for our choice.

Commitment

To make this technique works, you need to ask for commitment because commitment is the key. If you are going to attract people to some high ticket program and your prospect did not decide yet, ask for some action to be taken by him, small commitment, like deposit of small amount of money. Because of this even small innocent commitment, person will be pressured through consistency rule. Initial commitment is the most effective when it’s public, effortful and viewed as internally motivated.

Sales Call Sample

I experienced rule of commitment and consistency few months ago when a sales guy called me. It was easy to find out he has something to sell. He told me that he got my contact info from some top marketer database who I bought product from. Because I know this marketer I kind of started to listen to him. I knew it was some kind of coaching or high ticket training, because only these programs are sold over the phone. That’s why my intention from the start was not to got trapped to any $5k coaching program, but well… My goal was to learn from him from reverse engineering how to do good sales calls and how to trigger your potential buyer to take action.

It was a very good call, at first the sales guy asked me what I’m doing online, my background and my goals. Next, the guy presented to me, that this ‘thing’, he has to offer will accomplish all my goals. Later on, he started to transform my mind my dream lifestyle, asking what would you do, how your life will change if u will achieve your goals. I saw these techniques many times, used to wake up the right part of the brain, in different business opportunities sales letters or teleseminars. It is also proven in NLP that changing your state can dramatically change the way you will think, make decisions and it did for me. He started to explain it’s a mastermind group with 1o1 coaching with top marketers and he told me all features and benefits. Later, I asked my questions and objections and he of course demonized them all. 2 More points for him! I told him what I expect from the perfect coaching program and he told me this program is offering everything I desire. The next objections I had was authority issue, is it for real, so he sent me a website with more information about the company and about the program with some testimonials. The sales guy told me the price for this program is $2k and I knew I’m not going to do it. It’s just too much for coaching and I preferred to invest my money to my upcoming projects.

The reason I’m telling you this story is because of the rule of commitment and consistency used in a very sneaky way. Because $2k was too much for me, next suggestion from him was, what about 3 payments $700 each. That sounded much better but I always prefer to do some research, reviews on different forums, etc. He told me that it’s limited time offer and price $2k can come back to normal price $5k pretty soon or program can be closed any time soon. Here we go – scarcity factor – I’m going to talk later on here. That’s the point when the sales guy proposed me a small commitment to do right now and to pay full after I will decide.

I could also get a full refund if I asked later on. It was like $20. But $20 was nothing compared to $2k, it was the symbol of commitment. Commitment that I’m serious because the way he justified this commitment is that he wants to do me a ‘favor’ (does it sound familiar to you?) and give me a chance to be a part of this one and only super-amazing coaching program. It made sense, was logical, coaching programs can’t have 100s of people but the seats have to be limited. I was still not fully persuaded and giving away my credit card info over the phone. But because he passed the authority rule I felt more confident to try him. I finally decided to give him my info and pay $20 as a small commitment. At this point I was trapped in consistency pressure. I would feel really bad to say I want a refund even if I will find out some bad comments about this program. But because I didn’t – I proceed with full payment.

It’s a well known tactic used in selling high ticket programs over the phone, I’ve experienced very similar scenarios with 2 other calls I got from sales people who pushed almost all persuasion rules and small commitment was always the last thing they asked, if I said ‘no’. It was their last weapon of persuasion that was pretty seductive. From my experience, this method worked really well and I see know more clearly why.

Free Trial Offers

How can you use this rule, if you are not selling any high ticket programs? What about famous $1 free trial offers? What about FREE CD (just pay shipping and handling). It’s now almost anywhere and I tried almost all these programs. The trick is that many of these has some continuity program – forced continuity – so be aware. Although some offer $1 for trial 14 days and after you will try the product it will automatically charge your card $47, but you can cancel anytime in these 14 days. I believe it’s a fair deal, there is no risk involved and it works pretty similar to full refund guarantee. The distinguishable difference is that people love to try special offers, special discounts, $1 offers or free CDs. It’s the trap almost any of us are falling into, and if you won’t utilize it in your business, you are missing it. It will increase your conversion dramatically, I can assure you that. It’s much easier for the person to pay $1 than $47, especially if they are cold prospects with no relationship to you. It’s hard to send $47 to person you don’t know, just reading a long sales letter.

If you will start to offer some cool deals to your potential clients, they will trust you more and appreciate the opportunity you’re giving. It can bring much more benefits than you could ever imagine. Because of the law of consistency, once someone commit to try your system, it’s socially ‘not-cool’ to quit then, it’s also ‘not-cool’ to refund if they liked your product. Even if it’s only 1 email they have to send to get a refund, if they really got the value from your product, it’s almost impossible from them to ask you to cancel it. Of course it’s not going to happen always, some people may be insensitive about this matter and exploit the system, but it’s always a minority. That’s why, I want to encourage you to employ somewhere this law of commitment and you can expect great results.

Goal Setting

That’s why, if you read about setting goals, you will find out that everyone is teaching to write them down. This small commitment – writing goals down – will bring you more motivation to accomplish it no matter what. I used this commitment rule in my ‘0 to 50k challenge’. Detailed description of my goals for next 5 months and income I want to achieve. It’s all written and publically published. How would I feel if I won’t accomplish these goals? Pretty bad, it’s more than just consistency for me but I know it’s an extra motivation to pursue my goals. Once you understand this rule, you can use it in your life, to end your bad habits, do something outside your comfort zone and sell more stuff ;) .

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” Emerson

Defense

In the defense people can have a gut feeling that something is wrong with this offer. That it’s not made in a good faith. You can diminish these objections by brining some good reasons, why do you require this small commitment. It will demolish most of the ‘defense mechanism’.

3. Law Of Social Proof

6lawsofpersuasion-socialpro
Social proof rule is happening everywhere, all the time. We are following this rule on our daily basis without even thinking about it. It’s an automatic response. Social proof tells that we are more likely to do the things other people are doing. If you find out that many people are doing something, you will more likely do it or at least be persuaded to try it out, than if no one will do it.

Crosswalk Sample

Have you ever wanted to go through crosswalk but stopped because of the red light? What happened, if one person will go through crosswalk on red light and there are 5 more people on your side? Do you feel more justified that ‘this is right thing to do’ or that it is ‘ok’? It’s like you are getting extra few points to ‘YES’ decision against ‘NO’ decision. What if you will see 2 people going on the red light? It will mostly cause you to go with them. If more than 50% go through crosswalk, almost everyone will do it. It’s just a basic example and seen by me almost everywhere. It’s a pure example of imitation. It happens in every similar situation. It may be perceived as we are ‘like robots’ – looking for proof, seeking what other people are doing to justify our actions. We just feel much less uneasy if we do what other people are doing, than do it by ourselves. I’ve seen also the situation when there were over 10 people waiting on the red light, no one crossed it and suddenly a woman running across. I heard a voice of dissatisfaction of this situation. It’s funny, because if there will be more than 1 person, we will perceive it as more natural. But if it’s a single individual, that’s different, like person is going away from the ‘group’. Very strange, but also ‘very human’.

Advertising

Social proof is used almost everywhere in advertising. Anywhere you look there will be a testimonial from someone, who tried the product, and what I miracle it was. One of the phrases justifying it’s socially proven to work for many people is: “largest-selling” or “fastest-growing”. It implies that if it’s selling well and fast, it has to be good. It has to be quality if people are spending money on it.

Just go to YouTube and examine yourself how do you select which videos to click – one with 45 views or other with 34,644 views? What if 1 video has 1/5 rating and second 4/5 rating? Which one you are going more likely to click? It’s just natural we like to watch the best movies, listen to the best music, the most popular bands and so on. If it’s popular, it must be good – that’s a reasoning that we are following in making our decisions.

Testimonials

Social proof can totally explode your sales letter conversion rate. Use testimonials always, it will diminish people’s uncertainty and make them more comfortable to proceed. You can use different kind of testimonials, text, audio or video testimonials. In text ones you can include picture of the person and the before-after-effect proof. It will increase the integrity of the proof. Mediums like audios or videos are even more powerful. If you can get person on the phone and ask for testimonial, that’s the easiest way to get an audio testimonial. It’s a bit more hard for a video testimonial, but it’s 10x more powerful than the text one. Almost anyone will believe you, if it’s in a video. It’s an instant proof, best possible way of social proof you can have. Include also a first name of the person and where is he/she from. Put also a headline on the top box with the best phrase from the testimonial that can sum it up.

There are 4 questions you should ask to get the best possible testimonial in the world!

1. Where you skeptical when you first ordered? Explain it
2. What did happen then? (did the product delivery go smooth?)
3. Did it work for you, and how well? Explain
4. Tell me some of the people that you might recommend this product to

Similarity

One of the very important and mostly missed things you have to remember about is the similarity rule. You need to know your target market. Then find the testimonials from people that match the best to your average model prospect. In that way, you will speak to most of the people. If the person who gave the testimonial is similar to the person who is reading it – testimonial will be much better received and much more powerful. It’s from the simple reason that we are more persuaded from people just like us. It can be similar age, same sex, accent, look or anything else that defines the person. That’s why audio or video testimonials are that powerful, they are giving these 2 extra mediums that are audio and video. Once you watch someone on the video, you will hear his way of talking, his look and expressions. After short testimonial you will feel that you know this person, you will establish a bond with him/her. The good idea is also to diversify your testimonials, different people from different places, etc.

Suicide

We are most receptive and influenced when we are unsure of the decision, when we are not certain. In this moment we look and accept actions of other people. There were very interesting studies being made about suicidal rate increase after a suicide story was published in newspaper. In the first month of the story, monthly suicide rates increased to over 1300% average rate, 1 month after 900% and after 2 months 100%. This increasing spike has been viewed many times in suicide story published cases. It seems, that in a state of uncertainty, suicide people are getting persuaded that they can do it because someone did it just a few days ago. Newspaper publication may also be perceived by a suicidal that if you kill yourself you can be famous – first page on newspaper. That’s pretty sad and scary statistics can give you an idea how powerful social proof is. I hope you will use it in a good will.

Social proof can cause apathy. It may be seen often in different kind of emergency situations. There were studies about this subject and the result was that we are a very apathetic society. Even in case of emergencies, we are not willing to take action. It’s not because we are bad people but because we need this extra motivation and be assured it’s really an emergency and not some kind of joke. One time a person was seriously injured and no one did help him. When the person screamed directly to someone and told him about the situation, the person felt responsible to the injured person life and took action right away to help him.

Defense

Every time you are trying to sell something or even make people take some action, justify It with some social proof, testimonials. Inform the prospect that many have done it too. It will make persuasion so much easier. Remember about objections people may have about testimonials. Are they for real? Is the story real? To diminish all of them try to get some video testimonials – they can look amateurish from webcam, it doesn’t matter. No one expect glamour testimonials but real people. That’s the key. Don’t try to fake it, people are smart and are going to detect it immediately. Fake it once you make it? The answer is no ;)

4. Law Of Liking

6lawsofpersuasion-liking
We tend to be influenced more from the people we like. It means that we value opinions of our friends much more than from the strangers. It’s nothing surprising.

What causes liking?

Attractiveness

Good-looking people have an advantage in social interaction. It’s called “halo effect” when 1 positive characteristic of a person dominated the way is perceived by others. Attractiveness is one of the most significant. Subconsciously we connect good-looking to intelligence, talent, honesty and kindness. Even though we may have different associations consciously, judgment is being made without us being aware. Good looking equals good is a true statement.

Some experiments showed that attractive people tend to get more help and have much more power of influence in changing other people’s opinions. This rule is clearly exposed with sales training. Sales people are trained how to wear fashionable clothes, how to look good. In face to face selling you will mostly meet pretty people because people tend to listen to them more.

Similarity

The second thing that can produce liking is similarity. We like people more that are like us. This rule was also showed in social proof. Similarity can be in areas of background, lifestyle, dress, opinions and nationality.

When I was in London on English course I experienced that similarity factor. It happened when on break people gathered to others in same nationality. When I found someone in my nationality there was an instant contact, effortless. Because of accent, cultural, look differences it may be harder to establish relationship to the person from different background.

I did remember many times I talked to some sales guy, that I’m from Poland and he related that his parents/aunt etc. where from Poland too. Instant similarity factor. This can be manipulated by any sales people to establish an instant bond and trust with a client.

Celebrity

Have you ever seen a TV commercial with some celebrity praising a product? Sometimes these celebrities have nothing to do with the product they promote, but because of the principle of association and relations, some celebrity can be connected to fun. If some celebrity is promoting coca cola product, it relates: celebrity = fun so when I drink cola I’m going to have fun, positive emotions, pleasure. If you like this celebrity particularly, the message can be even more powerful.

Sport Teams

Association principle appears also with sport fans. They associate the victory or failure with the team they like. When our sport team wins it proves our own superiority. When our sport team wins we are saying “we’re number one!”, not “they are number one!”. But when the team is defeated, the association may be weaker, because it’s a negative association.

The main causes of liking are physical attractiveness, similarity and association.

Liking In Marketing

Did you hear about viral marketing? It’s a new way of getting tons of traffic utilizing the rule of liking. It can be used with tell-a-friend script where you are recommending some link to your friends. A friend will be greatly influenced by the sender because of the liking factor. It also means that this friend can send to next friends, and these friends to more friends. That creates the viral effect. It happens all the time with so called ‘viral videos’ getting millions of views overnight. It’s all based on word-of-mouth marketing and is extremely powerful, especially because internet has became a big social network that is available to almost anyone.

Now, more than ever before, people have more power to rate what’s good and what’s not. Internet people have the power to share opinions about various services, products and nothing can be hided. I believe it’s a good thing, people are becoming smarter, they do the research first before buying anything. They base their decisions on other people’s opinions. It means that even less known products can sell better than more popular ones. It’s because first products are just better, provide more value to the customer. Liking factor plays an enormous role with a friend recommendation. If you are looking for tell-a-friend script just google it and you will find plenty of them.

5. Law Of Authority

6lawsofpersuasion-authority
People tend to obey authority figures, even if the actions can be questionable. From the small child we did obey our parents and teachers. In adult life we obey to employers, judges. It makes sense because we view authority figure as someone with more knowledge, wisdom and power than we have and it’s smart to obey them. It may be definitely beneficial for us but it can also allow us for automatic obedience. We are reacting, rather than thinking. We prefer mindless obedience, not questioning authorities.

Authority influence can be stronger than liking influence. For example, if you are going to a doctor about your medical condition, you are going to believe him more than your friend. It’s obvious. Because authority obedience is written in us from very beginning we tend not to question opinion of the authority figure.

“Think for yourself and question authority” by Timothy Leary
“When I say think for yourself, I don’t mean think selfishly for yourself. I mean think independently.” by Timothy Leary

Authority Symbols

People often react mindlessly to a person that appears to be an authority. We react very strongly to symbols.

Titles

Titles can be the most difficult and the easiest to obtain. Professor, doctor titles will change the way you behave to this person. You will listen more carefully what this person is saying because he/she is an authority.

Clothes

Authority clothes can trigger people automatically to listen to them without questioning. Blue color can be related to security – police. White clothes to a doctor – help.

Trappings

Jewelry, cars, expensive clothes carry the status and position. We will behave differently with the person from economic and expensive car.

Authority In Marketing

Do you know any well-known marketers? They can be your authorities in internet marketing. Especially if you bought from them some products and liked them. If I did buy some product from some marketer and liked it, I know I will buy more from this person and read every email he sends me. Because of authority aura, I believe he can give me greater value than anyone else.

To become an authority – expert in your niche – you just need to claim it. Claim that you are the expert in this field and you need to listen to me. It’s that simple. Of course, you will need to provide some proofs, testimonials to back this statement.

Get the testimonials from well-known people in your niche. People that appear to be an authority in your industry. Such testimonials can be very powerful.

Think about the colors you are using on your pages, maybe try to use authority colors or increase security factor? Blue background can be a good way to increase safety feeling on your site.

Provide proofs that your system works. Show before and after effects, pictures, videos how your life changed after discovering this secret system. To appear as an authority you need to persuade people that you are one.

Objections

You are not an expert, you are laying.
Provide more proofs from people telling that you are indeed an expert in this field. More testimonials, more authority figures talking about you.

I can’t trust him.
Similar to above. Provide guaranteed policy, show picture of yourself, signature and address of your company. Do everything to appear as a real person that people can trust.

6. Law Of Scarcity

6lawsofpersuasion-scarcity
Scarcity can generate higher demand to your product. We tend to think if something is limited, rare in quantity – it has to be valuable. People hate to lose any opportunity to change their life and may resist to not try your offer. “For limited time only” is a well known marketing tactic to trigger scarcity factor.

If you collect coins, more rare the coin is, more valuable it is. The rarest coins can be sold for a lot of money and the demand for it can be huge. The price rises because of the higher demand. It means you can sell the same content for the higher price if you use the scarcity factor. It will be automatically perceived as more valuable.

Scarcity in marketing

One of the previously discovered ways of marketing new products is product launch. In a few days to few weeks you are giving to people free content and testimonials and all other elements from the sales page. You’re giving it in small chunks to make people interested and intrigued about your product. There is a deadline set up, with exact date and time. At the end of the product launch there is limited time only, limited quantity, limited low price scarcity rule employed. Product launches are open mostly for just few days, if not few hours and sells like hundreds of high-ticket programs ($1,000+) in a matter of days or less. Because a lot of products in product launches are physical, there is easy justification why it’s limited. “I’ve only 200 copies of this powerful system, so don’t wait and claim your copy right now!”.

In addition to build bigger event around the product, people employ pre-launch tactic to send to the ‘special list’ broadcast message, 10 minutes before, with ‘secret link’ to get some more cool bonuses or discounts. That’s why you are seeing $1M in 2 hours launches. It exploits scarcity factor perfectly. Learn from these launches and employ it in your own marketing. It’s indeed one of the most powerful weapons ever discovered in online marketing. Product launches mostly employ all 6 laws of persuasion in small videos, reports, audios, teleseminars. If you want to learn more about it check Mass Control or Product Launch Formula.
Add in you sales page limited quantity factor before order button. You can also add it in PS message. Provide honest cause of doing this. You can tell for example:

“PPS - After the first 100 people sign up I'm raising the price to $XXX.00. So take action and order now to make sure you get the best price!”

“You have to act fast, because I'm only making 23 memberships of the XXX membership available.”

“PS. Get in now before the price goes up. Right now is the lowest investment XXX will ever be. Lock in your spot now before you kick yourself later! “

“It is on that basis that I am locking myself in at the insanely low, one-time investment of $197.00, $97.00, $77.00 Just $47 ONE-TIME (for a very limited time only) and clicking the below secure order link below to get started! “

“I realize that the price will go up to $47 then $67 then $97 soon - and the secret mystery bonus will be removed, once the next 100 16 copies have been taken. “

“This is an exclusive bonus available only to the first 500 60 people to pick up a copy of XXX...so what are you waiting for? Get it now! “

Scarcity works best when it’s newly scarce and people have to compete with others. You can say that if you won’t act right now I’m going to give this wonderful bonus to someone else. No one likes to lose opportunity and especially giving it to anyone else. It’s associated with a painful feeling.

Objections

People can recognize that your scarcity factor is just to persuade them to buy it now. They can think your cause of scarcity quantity is not true. It can decrease your reputation on the market so always keep the word. If you have a limited quantity, don’t sell after you will sell this amount. It may actually create scarcity afterword and in re-launch increase sales.

Ending

6lawsofpersuasion-ending
I didn’t plan to write such a long post, there is just so much I wanted to share. I hope you have learnt something from this and will implement some of these laws in your marketing. It’s crucial to take this knowledge and apply it. Don’t wait tomorrow, do it today! What if small changes in your capture/sales page can increase you revenue by 200%? Any small change can be incredibly valuable for your business.

I hope you will use this knowledge in a good will and market the products that will give value to the market and change people’s life.

“The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.” By Zig Ziglar

Great Stuff:

19 Best Ads
100 Best Headlines Ever Written
Great TV Commercials Collection
“Dont Fight Monday” Monster Ad
Social Proof Ad Example
Scientology Marketing Strategy

Demotivational Funny Images Related To Influence:

Commitment
Consistency
Authority
Social Proof
Social Proof
Persuasion

References:

“Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini
Give It Back Image
Ending Image
Persuasion on Wikipedia
Cognitive Dissonance on Wikipedia

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Give a FREE CD And Make More

Russel Brunson is going to launch his new product Micro Continuity. I watched his pre-launch videos and I’m really impressed. An idea to give something for FREE and make much more then selling course is great. If you look to any CPA network most of these offers have FREE CD – just pay shipping & handling $4,95. These offers have a great back end offers that make perhaps $50-$200 per customer. That’s why they are paying you $30 for free trial because they know the numbers.

Anyway, that’s the first time I see someone teaching this powerful strategy, proven in so many markets. I will definitely use this technique, won’t really buy his couse because I know pretty much how this strategy works. If you are selling any expensive course, the best way to start finding potential buyers, is to offer FREE CD with few secrets.

I’m going to launch soon, some FREE CD offer with some internet marketing strategies I’ve learnt so far. That’s the first time I’m going to sell *physical* product :)

Here are the videos going more in depth:
Video #1
Video #2

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