Did you know that roughly 20% of people might pay for a course and NEVER sign in?

That’s what happened to Jon Morrow with his Guest Blogging course. Roughly 2 out of 10 students paid $500 for his course and then flushed the money down the toilet by never showing up to it.

If you’re going to spend that kind of money, you should do everything you can to get the most value possible.

So to help you dramatically increase the value you get from an online course, here are several best practice suggestions:

1. Go Through ALL the Course Content

It never ceases to amaze me at how many people gloss over training materials they’ve bought. If a neurosurgeon only skimmed through his textbook on brain surgery, would you want him operating inside your skull?

I rest my case.

2. Do the Course Exercises

Good online courses include exercises and worksheets so you get hands-on practice. The exercises might seem simple, and you might be tempted to put them off until later – or even skip them.

But the combined results of reading all the material is compounded by doing the exercises. In fact, it’s powerfully compounded.

3. Take Course Notes

Writing out notes is a great way to reinforce learning. And writing notes often results in new ideas you hadn’t thought of.

Taking notes also enables you to build a custom implementation plan to integrate course concepts into your business.

4. Interview the Course Creator

Interviewing course creators helps you learn both how they succeeded.  You’ll get personalized advice on completing the course, and you’ll also have the opportunity to promote the course as an affiliate as well.

5. Interview the Most Successful Students

The next logical step is to interview the most successful students of the course.  Leverage the opportunity to find out what made them successful. Ask what they did in the course that worked, what didn’t work well and what they would do differently next time.

6. Participate in Forums

Forum participation is one of the most underused experiences. Ask any successful student, and they’ll mention the role forums played in their ability to get the most from the course. Forums are also a great place to connect with other students and share ideas.

7. Repeat the Course at Least Once

The first time you go through a course, you won’t absorb all the knowledge from the material.  Taking the course a second time with a clearer picture of how the pieces fit together lets you approach it with a more powerful perspective.

8. Create a Best-Practices Guide

If you’ve done all of the above, then you should have tons of notes. In fact, you’ll have all the material you need to put together a best-practices guide for the course. Imagine offering the creator of this course a guide that he or she can share with their students!

If the guide is good, you’ll get credit, traffic and people looking your way.

9. Start a Mastermind Group

While some courses include a mastermind group, starting your own could make a big difference.  It gives give you the opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss challenges with peers in the course. An extra benefit is that a mastermind group helps you remain accountable.

Signing up for a course is just the first step. It’s what you do once you’ve paid good money for it that really determines your success.

Have I missed any ideas? If you’ve taken a course, what would you do differently next time? What would you suggest as a best practice? Let me know in the comment section.

P.S.: If you’re looking for one of the best online writing courses and a top investment that brings your business great returns, stay tuned. The Damn Fine Words online writing course for business is coming your way May 7 – don’t miss the early-bird registration for big savings!

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Post by Srinivas Rao

Srinivas Rao writes about the things you should have learned in school, but never did. He’s also the host and co-founder of BlogcastFM, where you can download his free webinar on the 7 Pillars of Blog Traffic. You can follow him on Twitter @skoolofllife.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Get the Most Out of an Online Course or Info-Product first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Chris puts his money where his mouth is: He’s visited 193 countries without ever having held a “real” job or earning a regular paycheck. And during his extensive travels, he’s managed to continually write for his A-list blog, build an empire of training resources and publish several books, his latest being the $100 Startup (of which I have a copy in my hot little hands).

Chris writes – a lot. And from the strangest places, too, like third-world airports between lonely red-eye flights and Bedouin tents in the desert while grunting camels lurk just outside.

Alright, maybe the camels are an exaggeration, but clearly this devotion to writing (sometimes under incredibly tough circumstances) requires some sort of magical skill to maintain. It’s nothing short of amazing… and you’re going to learn Chris’ secrets.

I’ve invited Chris Guillebeau to sit down with me for a casual conversation, all about writing. Just how does he keep going? How can he manage to write so well and so consistently from all these crazy locations? And what’s with his eclectic blog that breaks all the “stick to your niche” rules?

You’re going to learn Chris Guillebeau’s writing secrets – all of them.

Join Chris and me on April 30 at 1pm EST and listen in as we discuss writing from anywhere in the world, how to consistently feed a hungry blog and crafting bestseller books without ever losing focus. This call is going to be valuable, especially if you want to leverage your writing skills to live off your success.

You won’t want to miss this conversation – you’ll pick up writing techniques, tips and advice that let you walk away feeling smarter, sneakier and ready to tackle new goals. Chris and I will discuss:

• The truth about writing, and whether you absolutely need to do it
• How to continually feed your blog, even when you don’t feel like it
• Tips to keep writing when you feel lonely, isolated and discouraged
• Advice on writing while you travel and what to do in crazy locations
• The difference between blogging and books – and which you should choose
• The secret to facing your writing critics and what you should tell them
• How to be an eclectic writer who still stays in your niche
• Whether you should outsource your writing or do it all yourself
• How to persevere and stay focused on your writing goals

This conversation is going to be great: Chris is a true gentleman and a real pleasure to talk to, and he’s passionate about challenging people’s beliefs about traditional careers and employment. He’s practically THE freelancer advocate.

In fact, you could say Chris is your key to a better, more fulfilling career. (Even if all you have is $100.) After you listen to our call, you’ll feel inspired to plan your next great escape… with confidence you can write your way there.

Dial in on April 30 at 1pm EST. It’s a life-changing event you won’t want to miss.

How to Get in on the Call

To get call-in details for this exclusive candid conversation, just sign up for the Damn Fine Words newsletter below. You’ll get the dial-in number and also be signed up to receive extra bonus content, more hot interviews with leading writers and powerful writing tips from Damn Fine Words.

It’s the best online writing course to help you succeed in business… through words alone.

Sign up for the Damn Fine Words newsletter now.

 

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
A Casual Conversation with Chris Guillebeau on Writing first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

One month you’re rolling in sales and clients, cackling like a fiend at your riches. The next, you’re wild-eyed and panicked because work dried up… and so did the money. A week after hustling hard? You’re loaded again – until you’re back to being poor.

Money’s a real bitch.

No one really prepares you for this financial roller-coaster. No one tells you about the love-hate relationship you’ll have with money. It’s the dirty little secret: If you don’t manage your money properly from day one, you’re in for a rough, rocky ride.

You’re probably making bad financial decisions right now… ones that don’t leave you feeling happy and successful.

• You’ll live well for a year… then get your tax bill and cry.
• You’ll blow money on the new iPad… then eat Kraft Dinner to make ends meet.
• You’ll DIY and bootstrap… and lose clients because you don’t impress them.

Let’s face it: When you own a small business, money can be a blessing and a curse. But do you really need money to happy and successful?

Maybe all you need is a new way of thinking about money.

You’re about to learn what it is.

What would you change if you had all the money in the world?

That’s the question author Laura Vanderkam asked when she interviewed people for her new book, All the Money in the World: What the happiest people know about getting and spending.

She discovered some surprising answers – and they’re not what you think.

I wanted to know what Laura discovered. Badly. I wanted the secrets of these people – how they thought about money, what they did with it, and how they spent it to increase their happiness.

I had to know. I wanted Laura to tell me everything she discovered.

And you get to listen in.

Your Invitation: Let’s Talk about All the Money in the World

It’s time to expose the cold, hard truth about getting and spending money so you feel happier, more fulfilled and more successful. It’s time to ask the hard questions people avoid… and bring you a new mindset that helps you achieve better small business success.

So you’re invited:

Join me and Laura on April 25 at 12.00 pm Eastern and listen in as we talk about money – how to make smart buying decisions, where to spend your money and ways get your money working harder to make you happier. We’ll discuss:

• Why you should avoid that $47 ebook…and spend 10 times as much instead
• How to weight the costs and benefits of every purchase you’ll ever make, ever again
• The crucial question to ask yourself before you buy that thing you want
• Why context counts, and how to turn your spending psychology around 180 degrees
• How bootstrapping could be sabotaging your business income
• The list you need to write today to start creating change in your life
• How to spend your cash so that it brings more money and more happiness to your life
• Why your own spending psychology needs a makeover to keep your budget in check

This is going to be one cool conversation. I know because Laura’s expertise significantly changed my life.

After I read Laura’s book, I began asking myself one extremely important question before making any purchase – even if only cost 1$ – and that question saved me thousands of dollars in less than 4 weeks.

Let’s be clear: I live well, but I don’t have all the money in the world. I still have to think before I make purchases. I have a money coach and a budget. And sometimes I have to plan and save for what I want, just like you do.

But thanks to Laura, my new relationship with money is working to get me what I want a lot faster than before.

So dial in on April 25 at noon and listen as Laura talks about your relationship with money. It’s a life-changing event you won’t want to miss.

How to Join the Call

To receive call-in details for this exclusive event, sign up for the Damn Fine Words newsletter below.

 
You’ll be able to listen to the call, and you’ll also be signed up to receive weekly writing and content-creation tips from one of the best online writing courses for business owners ever.

Book your calendar for April 25, 12:00pm Eastern. Don’t miss it!

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
A Casual Conversation: What Would You Do If You Had All the Money In the World? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Let me tell you a story about what’s happening right now in Greece, my corner of the world, entrepreneurship-wise.

The situation in Greece is quite bad at the moment. We keep hearing how it’s in ‘critical condition’ and ‘hanging from a thread’. If you’re an entrepreneur running your own business, the blows come one after the other: surging taxes, closing businesses, long periods of unemployment, spending on the decrease…
It’s all a vicious cycle – out of which we still don’t know how to exit.

Unfortunately “we” more or less includes the entire world. It’s a test for the globe’s financial and social structure, which one way or another affects all countries with no exception, even if indirectly.

It’s a test we’ll all have to take.

There’s an upside in all of this. We Greeks – and I expect the rest of the world to follow soon – are finally starting to realize that if we want to make it, it’ll be through our own honest and healthy work, carried out both individually and in teams.

We’re distancing ourselves from traditional institutions, whether the state and its bureaucracy, banks and their often impossible terms or unsustainable sources of support and funding.

Instead we turn to healthier assistance: our local community, online aid in every shape and size, and new, more agile and modern types of investment.

Realizing the need and also the existence of alternative options, more and more of us have decided to take the plunge and become entrepreneurs – if you think about it, it’s the oldest type of job man can do.

In fact, a large fraction turn to online entrepreneurship for good reason. An online business is faster to set up, requires comparatively less starting capital, has an abundance of tools that help you get the work done efficiently, and there’s direct access to the world market.

A recent survey found that online connectivity is one of the last expenses to be cut in Greek households – and I believe it’s because people realize the strength of the online world.

It’s heartening to see architects setting up clothing e-shops for their designs, science grads trying their hand at olive oil e-commerce, IT teachers selling handmade jewelry online, engineers starting an internet business – all to enhance their income or to leave a saturated industry and start anew.

It’s happening in Greece and elsewhere. There’s an imminent financial meltdown, but if that’s not the best way to ‘not let a good crisis go unexploited’, then I don’t know what is.

In short, financial crisis is eventually a good thing. It’s not about the problems we have; it’s about what we’ve been doing wrong. It’s not about money handling gone bad; it’s about how to learn to handle money better. It’s not about how close we’re to economic meltdown; it’s about how far the economic reform we initiate can take us.

It’s a chance for all of us to reassess how we’ve been doing things so far (or how we’ve been letting things happen) and take control of the situation in our hands.

And that can only be a good thing.

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Post by Dimitris Athanasiadis

Dimitris Athanasiadis is a freelance social media consultant who has come to terms with the term.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Why Financial Crisis is Good for Entrepreneurship first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Freelancers tend to struggle with selling, to some extent.  Some of us are better at it than others, and we know you folk by the fact that you’re making a healthy living and thumbing your nose at us as you drive by in your shiny new BMW… but I digress.

If you’re anything like me, you’d love to just open your email and find a steady stream of “Can you do this for me? I’ll pay you cash,” requests that you just need to click to approve and move on to doing the work.

In the real world, it doesn’t quite work that way.

So, we need to deal with the necessary evil of sales.  If only there was a way to earn money without having to deal with finding, wooing and convincing all these new clients…

Wait a minute – there IS a way!

We have a terrible habit of forgetting one of the most common-sense business rules: It’s far easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to find a new one.

And to help you get started, here are a few time-tested, guaranteed-effective methods that work:

The Up-sell

The up-sell is one of the oldest money-making tactics. If you’ve ever gone to McDonald’s, you’ve had the up-sell tried on you, because every cashier worth his name tag has asked, “Do you want fries with that?”

And probably 70% of the time or more, you’ll get the fries. You’ll think it’s because they’re devilishly yummy and you’d nearly forgotten, but the truth is that the power of suggestion is incredibly powerful!

The up-sell is as simple as suggesting another purchase based on the success of the last one your customer made. For example:

• Offer a complimentary ebook or e-course on your ‘Thank You’ page that appears immediately following the purchase of a different product.
• Enhance a basic service by offering options available at a “pro” level.
• Encourage the purchase of a related book after hosting a webinar or a course.

The up-sell, if done well, should feel completely natural to both you and your customer.  It should be as simple as, “I know you’ll benefit from what you just purchased, and you can take it even further with this, so I’m pretty sure you’ll appreciate that I’m offering it to you.”

The obvious danger is trying to blindly up-sell everyone on everything.

It might be tempting to fire off emails to every customer you’ve ever serviced to see if they’d like to buy your new ebook. But if a given customer worked with you once and you get in touch to offer something random, the chances of them seeing a natural connection and taking you up on the offer are probably pretty slim.

Offer them something directly related at the right moment, though, and you’ve got a good chance of getting somewhere.

The Cross-sell

Cross-selling is a little different from up-selling, and it takes a little more forethought to pull off properly.

Cross-selling means introducing a customer who has shown interest in one of your products or services to other products or services that aren’t directly related. It’s easy to screw this up, so take your time and think it through.

Let’s say you’ve worked with a sales consultant to create content for his blog, and he’s really thrilled with the results.  And in the course of conversation, the consultant shares he’s having a tough time gaining traction with his local sales conferences presentations.

That person may not even realize you’re capable of – or interested in – writing speeches, press releases, handouts, or a hundred other possible items that could really help him get where he wants to go.

Now’s your chance to carefully yet confidently let him know!

If you’re not capable or interested in providing those services, you can still be the hero by recommending a great fellow freelancer who specializes in whatever your client needs.  It may not mean more money in your pocket (unless a referral fee is in order) but at the very least, your karma’s in great shape.

Reciprocity’s a beautiful thing! Which brings us to the next sales opportunity…

The Referral

Referrals work in various ways, all of which end up mutually beneficial if well handled.  Here are some examples:

• You’ve just finished an incredibly successful web design project for a small retailer at a local mall.  This one is easy: Simply ask, “Do you know of anyone else whose website could use an updated design?” Success ensues.
• You’ve just put the finishing touches on a series of articles for the company VP, and she’s thrilled with the results.  You’ve heard through the grapevine that her boss, the CEO, has been considering writing a book about his unique management philosophy.  Ask the VP, “Any chance you can introduce me to the CEO?  I think I can bring some real value as a ghostwriter for that book he’s thinking of writing.”  Slam, bam, thank you ma’am.
• Your latest client just mentioned her need for a virtual assistant, and you just happen to have coached a bright young woman on her brand new VA business just two months ago.  What do you do?  You guessed it: introduce them. (And they live happily ever after.)

Referrals are awesome for at least two reasons:

Any referral comes with an implied endorsement of your work, which is money in the bank for you.  It’s a head start on the road to a contract, especially if arranged soon after your current customer’s smile of approval on the job you did.

If the referral doesn’t pan out into a paying job immediately, you’re now connected with someone new, someone who may never have been on your radar before.  And in their mind, you’ve already got a star next to your name, thanks to the implied endorsement.

When they need someone like you… well, there you are!

The Uber-sell

All three methods discussed above can and should be used in any combination based on given circumstances.

If your relationship with a client makes it seem natural to offer something more and their needs are such that you can do more to help them out, by all means up-sell, cross-sell and work out some referrals!

Don’t feel you’re overdoing it or bothering your client.  You’re not. Ask!  After all, what’s the very worst your client can say? “No.” That’s not such a big deal! And the alternative is that your client’s eyes go wide, her mouth gets all smiley, and she says, “Wow!  I never even thought of that.  Let’s do it!”

As much as you’d probably just love to have fun in your creative work and leave the nitty-gritty of sales to some invisible person somewhere, you probably don’t have that luxury.  So embrace the sale and make the most of it!

I’d love to hear your suggestions on how you could expand a relationship with an existing client or how you used any of these methods in your own business. Let me know in the comments!

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Post by Justin P. Lambert

Justin P. Lambert is a freelance copywriter and content marketing specialist who constantly thinks about uber-selling his clients and blogs about what he should have done at Words That Begin With You.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How to Master the Freelancer’s Uber-Sell first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Why do those ancient cave paintings, with their crude renderings of animals and people and symbols, intrigue, draw us in, and provoke a sense of wonder?

Because they tell a story. They tell of deaths, births, times of feast or famine—the gritty and sometimes grace-filled stuff of life.

People are storytellers (and story listeners). They have been for ages, whether the words were inscribed on resistant stone, delivered in a lilting voice or scanned on a Kindle’s screen at 30,000 feet.

As Joseph Campbell said, “Everything begins with a story.”

Many cultures have creation myths: often grandiose, extravagant tales that embody idealized concepts critical to a people’s sense of self—the noble warrior, the self-sacrificing parents, the wise witch. Even the most impossible, implausible accounts are grounded by human elements: the basics of love, hate, greed and generosity.

Ghost tales grab us because they were us.

The lack of a story is where many businesses falter, and fail to reach their customers. They may have a great product, i.e., “The ergonomic design of this shoe results in the absorption of 93.7 percent of all heel-strike shock,” but their products—or more tellingly—their business itself, doesn’t put a picture, a story, in the customer’s mind.

There’s no cave painting, no ghost story, nothing at stake where the customer’s imagination is engaged, where they nod in agreement or ask for more.

Stories sell before products.

Does Your Business Fail to Tell a Story?

Businesses often have a perception problem: the public looks at them as soulless boxes. When people think of a General Motors or an IBM or even smaller businesses, they rarely consider them to be dynamic, thriving hives of activity, where dramas (or comedies) unfold.

Rather than inviting customers in, the typical business face erects a wall between its message—its story— and the listener, the customer.

Creative storytelling can dissolve the wall between your message and your audience and overcome their initial defenses of skepticism or doubt.

Of course, you probably don’t want to make up a story out of whole cloth—“Our natural spring water comes from the exact center of the earth, delivered in clay vessels by naked nymphs”—but you need to place your reader, your customer, in the dramatic arc of your tale.

Use the classic elements of storytelling: drama, humor, mystery, surprise, peril, renewal. Your goal shouldn’t be the selling of widgets, but the initiating of a relationship, where your business and your products are customer-centric, and the customer can step into your story.

For instance, has your business overcome great challenges? Let your prospects know that you stumbled, reversed course, burnt the midnight oil and then, eureka! Tell that story in your “About,” or elsewhere on your site.

It’s often friction, obstacles or unforeseen, secondary paths that make a reader hunger for more, that they can relate to in their own struggles, and gain an emotional toehold on your products. (That toehold might turn into a whole foot later.)

Obviously, don’t be falsely manipulative, attempting to force an act on a call to action, but rather pose an opening, a door into an idea about your company that brings light, strikes sparks, paints pictures.

Stories Are Living Things

Because stories are living things, it’s great to present your business bio in video form, or perhaps as a podcast. Sincerity is more important than looking like Angelina Jolie, though it can’t hurt if you do.

Make your Contact page big, fat with invitations to shake electronic hands. Or if it could work for your business, perhaps have a forum or some other means of interaction for people to talk about your stuff, how they use your stuff, how your stuff makes them feel.

They’ll talk about it elsewhere—if it’s worth talking about—but if you can get them to drop the curtain on their ideas right in your backyard, you can invite them in closer to the campfire.

The important thing is to connect, as people do, by telling stories.

Maybe your parents’ parents started the business in their cellar those many years ago, maybe you tried a thousand formulas for getting ink to stick to your paper and were days from quitting, when formula one-thousand-and-one worked, maybe you graduated from veterinarian school and realized that you really wanted to design and sell bespoke picture frames.

There’s a story behind every business, and there are people behind every story.

Share your stories with your customers. Ask them into the conversation. Put your products into that story, and populate it with your customers as the characters, showing how they can plant your heirloom seeds in their own gardens, use your software to research their ancestors, handle your hammers to reframe their houses.

Just start your “once upon a time…” and watch them lean in. Everyone loves a good story—and especially one in which they play a part.

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Post by Tom Bentley

When words fail us all, Tom comes to the rescue with a good story and smart business advice. To learn more about Tom's sharp wit and sharper wordsmithing skills, visit his site at The Write Word.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Why You Should Invite Your Customers to a Campfire Storytelling Session first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Icky. It’s a word that makes me shudder.

I shudder because this juvenile term is being used by fully grown adults. Business owners. People who should by now know a little more professionalism and who should speak words a touch above my 7-year-old’s current lexicon.

Really, people. Icky?

But using a childish term when you’re 40 or so isn’t what most turns me off. What really makes me roll my eyes is that some people equate ‘icky’ to a crucial aspect of business success. An aspect so integral to business survival that doing anything less than embracing it leads to fast, hard disaster:

Failure.

You see, if you’re in business, there’s really no room for ‘icky’ at all. In fact, if you start feeling ‘icky’ about an integral area of your business, you might as well just close up shop right now. Rip down your website. Turn away your customers. Because there’s just no hope.

What am I talking about? Sales and marketing, of course.

And there’s nothing ‘icky’ about it.

If you’re in business, you’re in it to sell.

This is absolutely the first tenet. The whole purpose of being in business is to sell services or products to people who need them, allowing you to make profits in the process.

You’re in business to make money. To earn a decent living. To bring home a salary or an income that feeds your family. You’re not in this for back-pats or accolades or warm fuzzies. Praise is nice, but it doesn’t pay the bills.

Without sales, your business hits a dead end.

“But Jaaaaammes, selling is just so… so sleazy… so icky!”

Please. No it’s not. There is absolutely nothing distasteful about telling potential customers that you have something good they might be interested in. There’s nothing disgusting about promoting your products or services if you believe that what you sell is worth money.

Here’s the real truth of the matter:

If you feel uncomfortable selling, you lack faith in what you sell.

I learned this lesson long ago, and now it’s time for you to learn it too: If you don’t 150% believe that what you have to offer is worth someone’s money, then you’re going to feel unsure, uncertain and under-confident.

You’ll have trouble selling. You’ll have trouble telling people to buy – even if they really want what you have. You’ll feel awkward saying, “This is a good thing. You should get it.” You’ll feel uncomfortable asking for money because deep down, you don’t think that what you have is worth it.

Think about that a minute: If you felt 150% confident that you had an amazing offer that people should snap up right now because the deal was that good… don’t you think you’d step up to the plate?

“This is the best damned popcorn you’ll ever taste – and I swear after one buttery-sweet mouthful of this luscious stuff, you’ll never want that other crappy, over-salted dry cardboard again. Go on, try it! Have some and see for yourself!”

That’s convincing. That’s persuasive. That confident attitude makes people believe that yeah, this popcorn does seem to be better. And sure, they’ll have a try.

People believe in your business because YOU believe in your business.

Here’s what most people do:

“Well… I think my popcorn is good… and I know it’s a bit expensive but it takes a long time to make… and maybe you won’t like it but that’s okay because I could give you your money back… if you’re not ready to try it maybe you could just test a bit of it with a smaller sample… does that sound okay?”

I don’t know about you, but the person who’s practically pushing the bag at me and telling me they have the best damned popcorn ever is the one who gets my vote.

And there’s nothing ‘icky’ about it.

Here’s another truth for you:

Selling doesn’t equal unethical, evil intentions.

People who walk around saying sales and marketing are ‘icky’ demonstrate an ignorance of a pretty basic concept. It goes like this:

Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.

What that really means is that objects, actions and tools aren’t good or evil. They just are. It’s what you do with them and how you use them that makes all the difference.

Allow me to demonstrate:

A baseball bat is a piece of sports equipment. You can use it to knock a ball out of the park or beat someone senseless. It’s still just a simple baseball bat at the end of the day. It had no idea what it was doing.

A banana is a fruit. You can eat it for breakfast and fuel your body, or you can whack your sister with it until her nose bleeds. It’s still just an innocent banana, going about its pureed business.

A sales strategy is a set of actions meant to persuade people to buy. You can use it to tell people that you’re having a sale, or you can scam them into buying something they didn’t want or need. The strategy isn’t evil or unethical. It’s just a strategy.

It’s all up to you, what you choose to do, how you choose to do it and the intention you have when you do it that determines everything.

A banana doesn’t have intention. The baseball bat doesn’t have intention. Strategies don’t have intentions.

People have intentions, both good and bad.

All this means that sales and marketing strategies aren’t ‘icky’. They aren’t evil actions you should avoid at all costs. They aren’t bad behaviors you should shun.

They just are. It’s the intention you use them with that changes the game.

And here’s the biggest truth of all:

You can’t go wrong if you operate with integrity.

Integrity is the saving grace of people who feel ‘icky’ about selling. Integrity is what helps good people do good business in good ways that are right, just and fair.

Integrity means sticking to moral and ethical principles. And the strongest marketing and sales tactics tell you the truth. They’re honest. They’re open. There aren’t any lies or smoke and mirrors or false claims or sneaky ulterior motives.

You don’t have to lie. You don’t have to hide the truth. You don’t have to use yellow highlighter and exclamation marks.

You do have to embrace sales and marketing if you want to succeed.

If you want to win at this whole game of business, you can’t downplay the importance of selling with integrity.

You need to believe in yourself and in your business. You need to believe that what you offer is great. You need to believe that people should get in on it because it’s helpful to them in some way.

And you need to believe that it’s perfectly FINE to tell people about it.

Using a few sales and marketing strategies may feel strange at first, especially if you’ve been vehemently opposed to them up to now, but think about it as a blind date.

Get to know the strategies (like you get to know your blind date). Familiarize yourself with the tactics (like asking your date for more persona details). Look for the good and the positive (every person has them). Figure out how you fit together (so you can be friends).

You might even fall in love.

But if you can’t, if you won’t, if your mind is closed tight… Well, pack up your shingle. Business is over.

This post, though, is not!  Tell me what you think about sales and marketing. (Also let me know if you promise never to say ‘icky’ again, because it would really make me happy to hear that.) Do you hate sales strategies? Have you embraced marketing?  What are your feelings? I want to know.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Why You Should Embrace ‘Icky’ Sales and Marketing first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

When I was growing up, it was a given that when you finished high school, you went to university. This was automatic. This was guaranteed.

If you went to university, you’d be fine.

If you didn’t, you’d be screwed.

But most people I know with extraordinarily successful careers say a university education can be a waste of time. They’ve seen many, many students who attend university only to finish with degrees that are completely irrelevant to their future career.

The same successful people will tell you that an online course can absolutely transform your business, your career, and your success.

Here’s why:

Online Courses Correlate to Your Business

In university, most of your classes won’t translate to your career.

You’ll learn language skills as you write essays, sure, but no one’s going to ask you to write a 20-page screed on Proust in any marketing department. You might learn statistics skills or some algebra, but you won’t learn how to do your taxes.

And so on.

Online courses are specifically designed to solve real-world problems. Problems you’re probably having in your business right now

Not sure how to market your business? There’s a course for everything from how to set up an email marketing account to how to conduct a full-scale guerilla marketing campaign. Don’t know how to write that sales page? There’s a course that tells you exactly how. Not sure how to write an ebook? There’s help for that too.

Online, you’ll find a huge array of courses that makes sure that whatever your problem, someone can guide you step by step through the answer.

And that’s guidance that’s near impossible to find anywhere else.

Speaking of which . . .

You’re Never Without an Online Course

I know many people who’ve taken workshops, seminars, or specific courses to learn more about business topics. Those courses are often great, and they usually offer the ability to talk directly with the instructor or speaker, so it’s easier to get questions answered in the moment.

The problem is that it’s extremely rare for those workshops or seminars or courses to be offered when you actually need them.

If you saw a flier tomorrow for a seminar on how to conduct an affiliate program, you might pass up because you’re not currently looking to start an affiliate program. Six months from now, when you have a product that needs affiliates, you’ll wish you’d taken the course.

But it’ll be too late.

Online courses are usually more flexible. Whenever you want to learn something, you can find someone offering it. You can educate yourself at the same pace your business develops, which means you’ll never have to walk into a new phase without the knowledge you need to pull it off well.

Oh, and by the way…

Online Courses Are Cheap

Many people balk at the price of online courses, which can run in the thousands. This always baffles me, and here’s why:

On average, an upper-level university course costs about $3,000 in the United States – and there’s no distinction between useful courses and non-useful courses. Want a full education? $40,000 is the norm. (It’s not much cheaper in Canada, by the way.)

And out of that 40 grand, there might be two courses that were in any way useful to your career.

But the same people who shelled out tens of thousands to take Shakespearean iambic pentameter balk at paying a reasonable fee for information they actually need to run their business.

That class on Russian social studies will never earn your business any money. The online course on how to launch a product successfully? You bet it will.

Any course worth its salt helps you earn back the price of the course AND go on to make a sizeable profit on your investment. They give you immediate potential to create more wealth – and they’re tax-deductible, too.

I’d say that’s the best ROI you’ll see in the business world.

And guess what?

Online Courses Get Personal

Sitting down in a classroom with other students and the instructor has its advantages. Interaction is one of them: You can raise your hand, discuss with peers and listen to what they have to say.

Some people think that online courses are still plug and play, where you learn on your own in a solitary vacuum, and the instructor never shows up. And way back when, that’s exactly what used to happen.

Online courses have changed a lot since those days.

Most online courses come with forums where you can interact with your peers and your instructor. Some have live calls where you chat as a group. Some have video conferences, or webinars, or chat features.

They’re alive. They’re real-time. And you always know how to email the instructor for personal help so he can answer your questions promptly when they arise.

Learning online is the next best thing to being in a classroom – in fact, it’s even better. What university lets you show up in pajamas, munching on a snack and holding a mug of Irish coffee?

Yeah. Exactly.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
How Taking an Online Course Can Transform Your Business first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

This quote has been stalking me for weeks now:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”- Jim Rohn

It gets me. It really gets me. And here’s why:

In the business books and blogs we all love, there is constant talk of finding our ‘tribe’, our most ideal clients. We create elaborate customer avatars to dig down into the demographics and psychology of our tribe.

And we spend no small part of our time strategizing where we will locate potential tribe members, how we can connect with them and the key influencers we need to give us credibility.

Cultivating a tribe (even if you don’t call it that) is what most good marketing strategies are all about.

But in order to build and maintain our business tribe while still producing our actual products and services, there is another sort of tribe that we cannot ignore. It’s the tribe that Jim is referring to in his quote.

The Foundational Tribe

This is the tribe of significant others, friends, family or colleagues that we turn to when we need a break. They are the ones we call when we score a new client and they’re also the ones we call when we lose a client. They’re the people we lean on.

Most of us spend a lot of time thinking about and cultivating our ideal business tribe, but hardly any time creating our best possible foundational tribe.

Why is that?

We need a strong foundational tribe in order to be able to create an awesome business tribe. It’s basic common sense: if you feel alone and unsupported, all of your endeavors, business and otherwise, are going to be a heck of a lot harder.

Our foundational tribe is the engine that drives us to run our business, complete the marathon, publish that book or take that vacation.

Pretty important tribe, huh?

So ask yourself this: when you think of the average of the five people you spend the most time with, are you happy with that idea? Or do the names you come up with disturb you a little?

Maybe it’s time for some tribe cleaning.

Is there someone in your foundational tribe who really shouldn’t be there? Someone who takes and takes but isn’t giving you much value in return?

A lot of us are holding onto people that aren’t contributing to our rock solid foundation. Instead, we’re allowing them to put cracks in it.

And let me reiterate: If you’re not getting the support you need outside your business, that weakness will eventually sneak its way into your business.

So this isn’t even a purely personal question. This is about creating sustainable, solid businesses that thrive for a long time to come.

Without a strong foundation to stand on, your business will suffer.

It’s your tribe. You choose who stays or leaves. You are not chained to any of these people. If you’re not satisfied with the relationship, do something about it.

Easier said than done. Taking action in these situations is tough, especially when we have history with the person, mutual friends or maybe even live on the same street.

I get it. I’ve been there a bunch of times. If there was an easy checklist to make this less painful, I would give it to you. But there isn’t.

For some people, walking away isn’t the solution. Maybe these are your right people but neither of you have been investing in the relationship. Maybe it’s not too late and you can still get the train back on its tracks.

For others, walking away might be the only solution.

I can’t tell you which option is best and neither can anyone else. And you don’t need me to. Deep down, you know what needs to be done.

Yes. You do.

Are there people in your foundational tribe that are hurting you more than they’re helping? What are you going to do about it? Are you going to let them keep affecting your business negatively?

Or are you going to replace them with a tribe that truly helps you flourish?

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Post by Annika Martins

Annika is currently based in the Cayman Islands. When she’s not standing in her kitchen eating sun-dried tomatoes by the gallon, she spends her time coaching entrepreneurs (and the wanna-be self employed) to bring in the revenue they need to live the lifestyle they want. To read more (and watch her cool videos) about her passion for tomatoes drowning in olive oil and her belief that every entrepreneur needs a good swift kick in the ass, visit her blog.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Is It Time to Clean Up Your Tribe? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

It’s the middle of summer. You’re going camping, and you have the option of two campsites. One is by a running stream. The other is by a pond.

Which do you choose?

If you’ve ever had a run-in with mosquitoes before, you pick the stream. Running water doesn’t allow algae and rotten leaves to collect and rot on the surface, which means mosquitoes don’t have anywhere to lay their eggs.

What does this have to do with writing?

If you’re doing the same things over and over again, your writing has become stagnant.

Nothing is moving. Nothing is changing. Your creativity is festering. And yeah, your business is probably starting to go a little rotten around the edges.

Here’s how you keep your stream of thought clear – and avoid a business that stinks.

Keep Things Moving

Moving is better than standing still. That means you should be constantly learning, applying new ideas, and pushing forward.

If you’ve been at the same level in your business for more than a year, you’re a still pond. You’ve had the same number of clients and a consistent level of income. You write the same number of posts on the same topics every week. You haven’t launched a new product in months – maybe you’ve never launched one at all.

Since nothing is strictly wrong with your business, you think you’re doing okay. But since you’re not challenging yourself, you’re probably getting pretty bored.

And your creativity is completely stale.

It’s time to get the river flowing again.

Challenge Yourself

Challenge yourself to do one new thing in your business every day. Crack out those e-courses and ebooks you’ve bought and start writing down the tasks they suggest in your calendar.

Your business will begin growing and changing because of your efforts. And as your business changes and grows, up the challenges.

If you’ve successfully launched a product, start researching how to pull off an even bigger launch next time. If you’ve doubled your client base, start investigating whether you should take on some help to triple it.

Never stop moving forward. Standing still is how the skeeters get you.

Clear Out the Debris

After applying new strategies and ideas, you’ll find that your business has begun moving forward – but slooooowly. You’re not so much a river as a trickling stream, and you’ve probably got a lot of debris collected around the edges.

What do I mean by “debris”?

A bad accounting system. Procrastination habits. An email system that doesn’t work. A typo that’s been on your website for ages. A newsletter that you never actually send out, even though you have sign-ups and subscribers.

That’s the sort of stuff that’ll start to fester and wreak havoc on your business if you don’t watch out.

So here’s your second challenge: in addition to adding one new thing that works for you every day, start looking for one old thing that’s working against you.

These can be small things. On the first day, maybe you fix that typo. On the second day, write an email for your list. On the third day, call up some accountants in your area.

One new thing and one old thing, every day.

Raise Awareness

Any environmentalist will tell you that one of the reasons running water turns into stagnant pools is because of erosion and destruction by well-meaning campers.

Since they don’t know they’re causing harm, they don’t stop. But if they realize how important it is to help out, they’ll get engaged – and they’ll recruit others to the cause.

This equates to marketing.

If you’re looking to make your business a more engaging, creative, fast-moving place, you need people to rally to your cause.

You want to bring around and encourage people who want to work with you – or even for you.

You want to develop relationships with people who have similar ambitions, like colleagues and peers who are willing to lend a hand when you need one in exchange for your help when they need you.

How do you improve your marketing? By raising awareness.

Get on social media and talk about what you’re trying to do. Ask for help and get people’s feedback. Write to people directly and see if they’d be willing to help.

Let people know what you’re trying to do. Revamp your mission statement or philosophy or About page. Put up a notice on your home page that says what you’re all about.

Promote your products and services. Shout it from the rooftops: this is a place where creativity flows.

Smell that? That’s not the stinky whiff of stagnancy. That’s the sweet scent of awesomeness.

Got some ideas for stirring up still waters? Let’s hear ‘em in the comments.

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Post by Taylor Lindstrom

Taylor hails from Boulder, CO, and she blogs for people who are too good to fail over at... well, Too Good to Fail. Go check out her inspiring posts now.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Are You Building a Business That Stinks? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.