Today's post is by Alan Bechtold of Ink-U-Bator Mastermind, one of my VERY favorite people in Internet marketing and publishing… cause he's someone who truly CARES about your success AND shares fantastic advice. 🙂
There’s one key to a never-ending supply of fresh, targeted traffic and revenue most affiliate marketers never talk about – even top experts. Maybe it’s because the subject is sometimes seen as politically incorrect. Perhaps it’s because some consider it outright offensive. Still, it’s tough to escape the basic logic of this time-tested technique.
It’s sad so many people are so prudish about it. If more people knew about it, they’d see the success in their lives they richly deserve. Perhaps the social stigma would finally lift, if it was discussed more openly. Maybe we could finally spread the word about this simple, life-altering concept, far and wide, changing even more lives.
What’s the fact so many people avoid discussing in public?
It’s this: people will always follow you in growing numbers directly proportional to the body of work you’ve produced.
I’m often confused by the general reluctance to discuss it. People seem more than willing to avoid acknowledging the existence of this fact at almost any cost. They’ll spend weeks building elaborate SEO campaigns and pay thousands for the latest Click Bank traffic “tricks†course to keep from having to consider the almost inevitable impact applying this simple principle would have on their lives.
I think it’s the “work†part of “body of work†most people are too embarrassed to discuss. Even worse, “body of work†implies work you do more than once.
Oh, no!
Seriously, when it comes to information publishing, the more you’re “out there,†the more people will find you naturally. A growing body of work accomplishes this every time. Without tricks. Without having to work endless variations of systems designed to trick the search engines that always seem to get shut down just about the same time you finally get them all set up and running.
Every time you add a new information release to what you already offer, people who got what you last released will be there, eagerly waiting for its release. They’ll be your best customers for whatever you release next and they cost nothing to reach with the news that there’s something new to buy.
Each new release also acts like a magnet, pulling in new people from word of mouth and the natural buzz something brand new seems to carry with it. When people discover your newest release and like it, they’ll start looking for other things from you.
They’ll look for your body of work.
This increases the sales of your previous releases. The bigger your body of work, the more impressed they are and the more inclined to make more than one purchase they become. This creates an undeniably proven exponential effect that continues growing even long after you stop feeding new releases into the mix.
It’s really not all that hard to do. You just have to shake off any natural aversion you have to the concept of building a body of work and start putting it together now.
Think about publishing outside of your Website or newsletter more often, to get this rolling. Look through all your past published work. If you’ve been online for a few months, you’ve already got enough blog posts or Website or newsletter updates to gather and publish in a good book, with just a bit of editing.
Select a sub-topic that’s currently hot with your audience, then gather up all the related posts and comments that relate to it. Add some updates and maybe a bit of running commentary of your own, to bring things up-to-date. Possibly provide the “story†behind the topic and even behind-the-scenes stories about how the entire discussion unfolded – what you were doing as it happened, how you felt, responses you considered posting, but didn’t.
Call some of the people who contributed to the conversation and interview them. Transcribe it and include it. Add photos of them and you.
Ask your blog or website visitors to contribute their stories on a selected topic. If you can, offer a prize for the best submission. Prizes aren’t necessary, in most cases, but they do tend to turn up the heat on participation. Still, people love will love knowing they could see their names in a book, electronic or otherwise. They always will. A lot of people will happily contribute just for the satisfaction of getting published.
You’ll build more rapport with your current audience with this sort of interaction, and you’ll get your next book built for you!
Set a goal to get something published expressly for distribution outside of your current in-house online media at least every three months. Every two months, if you can do it.
You can always sell or give away what you publish on your blog or Website, too. You probably currently do. However, today’s e-reader market (Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc.) is now so easy to reach with your published works, there’s no reason not to also make your work available on them, too. After all, they represent a ready-made potential audience of millions who could discover you and want more from you as soon as they see what you have to offer now. All you have to do to reach them is set up some accounts, follow some simple formatting instructions and publish.
I know it sounds tough. It does require some consistent effort for a while. But, the effort is honestly easy and fun. And there are dozens more ways to quickly put together information products that e-reader users will love.
Even better — e-reader book buyers are showing a marked preference for shorter works. This is excellent for all of us! It’s much easier to quickly produce 24- 48-page books, and the more you release, the faster to your body of work grows.
Just focus on quality and value. Always over-deliver. Give people $10 worth of information for free, to generate leads with links inside. Offer $50 worth of information value for $5. Remember that the value of the information you’re providing, especially in the e-reader market, isn’t based on padded page counts. Focus on quality, regardless of the resulting number of pages and you’ll build an ongoing flow of traffic and revenue that grows exponentially over time.
It’s virtually a can’t-miss system, proven over decades of constant testing. Your body of work has the power to put you in the diver’s seat of the rest of your life. The small amount of work (pardon my use of the word, right out in the open and everything), over a short period of time, is a tiny sacrifice in return for the huge rewards it so surely will bring.
Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!
Cheers,
