commentluv blogs for comments backlink

commentluv blogs for comments backlink

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http://willenaflewelling.com
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http://merlesmlmsuccess.com
http://internetmarketingblog101.com
http://thedotcomgal.com
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http://www.jimmyhancock.com
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IM is the most loneliest depressing work you will ever do

To all the newbies,

I have been in IM for 6 years, I have had some very high earnings and then months with nothing. Why did I not succeed like all the other guys in 6 years? 

I never stuck with one thing. I started with Facebook spam, jumping from one thing from another every time I would make some or decent money I would quit that method and then jump to another. 

The results? After 6 years I am in CC debt, stressed out of my mind and most importantly I hate the idea of a job because I have become so accustomed to IM life. 

That is not even the worst thing.. The worst thing for me is that it is the most loneliest work you will ever do and you will start liking it. 

Now my website is starting to gain some traction, building my own PBN's have given me too much insight and I am getting a sale or two every day. It's the most consistent thing for me right now but at what costs, all the things that I am losing trying to pursue my dream.

• Nobody understands what we do.
• Your computer is your best friend.
• No communication with people apart from forums or groups.
• Continuous self doubt.
• Forget about actually eating right or working out or talking to a girl because you are continuously stressed out!

Now I know a lot of IM experts are happy in there own life but you can't just take things at face value, look at how much they have worked.

For e.x I am broke and in debt which means going out or joining a co working space is out of the question, hate jobs so that's not happening. I literally have no reason to leave the house but to sit at home and wait while Google plays around with my website.

Maybe some of the experts started in the same boat and they stuck with it to a happy life and I know when I have the grasp of things I will expand the shit out of it to get out of my misery but for those who want to get started, you need to keep some reason to leave the house.

So if I were to give an advice to newbies it would be, If you have a job currently make some time to learn IM on the side, not quit the job and the world in hopes of making it big. IM dream can fool people very hard take it from me with all gurus and experts you won't even know where you got lost but you will.

And most importantly stick with one thing till it starts printing money.

Cheers
Beingink

P.S I know it's not the most creative writing work you have ever read, I just wanted to write it out.

Frank Kern FTC Scandal

Frank Kern FTC

OK, so what’s it like to get sued by the FTC? Well, first off, IT BLOWS. …As if that needed saying, right? But seriously …not a good time. I’ll get to the gory details in a sec, but first some important things you should consider.
1: For the love of God, do NOT take anything I say here (or anywhere) as legal advice.
2: Everything I say here is my opinion and is for entertainment purposes only.

How to ruin your business in one easy step!

I’m guessing you probably already know that I was sued by the FTC back in 2003. After all, I talk about it publicly. But there’s probably a lot you don’t know about that whole story as well. So here’s the dirt.
Let’s talk about the dumb shit I did that got me in trouble in the first place.
Back in August of 2001, I created a product called Instant Internet Empires. I remember this well because I got the idea to create the product while I was sitting in a real estate licensing class.
Why was I sitting in a real estate licensing class you ask? Because I had temporarily been overcome with insanity and thought it might be a good idea for me to get a Realtor’s license.
Anyway, the class was boring as hell so my mind started to wander and I got to thinking about all the Internet Marketing products I’d purchased.
…And I noticed a common theme that was really popular back in the day: MASTER RE-PRINT RIGHTS.
Now, the term “Master Reprint Rights” simply means that you have the rights to re-sell a product and keep all the money …and you also have the rights to transfer that ability to others if you so desire.
It was all the rage back in 2001 and not only had I bought a ton of e-Books with Master Reprint Rights, I’d also noticed they were selling like crazy in the Internet Marketing community.

Jenius Strikes!

Each of the ebooks that I saw on the market were selling for around $20-$30.
So I figured, “Hey! Why not buy a bunch of these, bundle ’em up into a separate product, and sell them all at a discount?”
So that’s exactly what I did when I created Instant Internet Empires.
I took several of these ebooks and bundled them up into one package …and sold it for $47. (If purchased separately, it would have cost around $80 …so the customer was getting a discount.)
I also included a bunch of screencam video tutorials I created that showed people how to FTP, edit web pages, accept credit cards, and so forth.
And you might be wondering, “What’s so bad about that?”
Well, I haven’t yet told you about the

Super Jenius Part!

See, here’s what I haven’t told you yet.
I also offered re-print rights to the Instant Empires collection.
So if you bought Instant Internet Empires from me for $47, you could:
A: Read all the ebooks, watch the videos, and learn some stuff.
B: Set up separate websites that sold each of the ebooks individually, keeping 100% of the money (using the included website templates that came with the ebooks or by creating your own).
C: Set up a separate website that sold Instant internet Empires as a bundled package and keep all the money from each sale.
Now, if this was a multiple choice quiz and I asked you “Which one of the above activities got ol’ Frankie in hot water with the Feds?”, which would you choose?
Here, I’ll just tell you: THE ANSWER IS “C”.

Here’s Why “C” Was So Damn Stupid

When someone bought Instant Internet Empires, I foolishly gave them the rights to re-print, use, and re-sell the very sales letter I’d written for it. The same sales letter that had my name in it, as well as my bank statement photo and my earnings information.
And this led to all kinds of bad stuff happening, such as:
Bad Stuff Part One: Within a few months, there were a gazillion websites doing business as “Frank Kern” …but only one of them was mine. (There are still a bunch of Instant Internet Empires websites out there with my name on them …NONE of them are mine. Dammit!)
Bad Stuff Part Two: Some people started sending SPAM using my name …and promoting their Instant Internet Empires website that also had (you guessed it) my name on it.
Yay!

But Here’s Where It Gets REALLY Awesome!

One of these companies proceeded to call their customers and tell them they either were me, worked for me, or were my partners. (None of those statements were true.)
….And then they’d kindly sell them $4,000 “coaching” packages (with “mentors” and everything!)
That really pissed me off because people would email me saying “your sales staff called me and they were rude!”. And since I didn’t have a telemarketing staff (never have, don’t plan on ever doing so either), I got a little freaked out.
So I finally figured out who these nice folks were and I got an attorney to send them the ol’ “cease and desist” letter.
They got it, I talked to their head dipshit on the phone, and they promised to stop using my name.
All of this happened within months of my creating the Instant Internet Empires product and by the time Spring of 2002 rolled around, it had all died down.

Fast Forward To May, 2003

That was when I got sued by the FTC. I’ll never forget this moment.
I worked from my house in Macon, Ga back then and I was pacing around in my driveway while talking on the phone.
I looked up and noticed a man in a white golf shirt getting out of a burgundy ford ranger pickup truck. He walked right up to me and said, “Are you Frank Kern?”.
“Yes.”
“This is for you.” – and he handed me SEVEN POUNDS of paperwork.
…Then he left. The poor guy actually looked apologetic when he handed me this stuff. (He was simply a process server. Contrary to popular belief, the FTC never “raided” my offices or anything weird like that.)
Anyway, I hung up the phone, walked into my home office, and started reading what he handed me.

Here’s What It Said

(This is a very rough translation)
“Dear Mr. Kern. YOU ARE SCREWED. Sincerely, the FTC.”
…They were a lot more eloquent than that though. They basically told me that Instant Internet Empires as a pyramid scheme (what??) and that they’d frozen my assets …and that they were going to take all my money.
I damn near had a heart attack.
I mean …a pyramid scheme?? We’re talking about a $47 bundle of ebooks here. There was no “downline” or anything even remotely like that.
Turns out that doesn’t matter.
See, their argument was that the product didn’t have any value other than the fact that it could be re-sold. And that due to the way I had worded my sales letter, it would be physically impossible for anyone to achieve the results I’d experienced by simply re-selling the product.
Damn.

Here’s What Happened Next

Over the course of six months, I borrowed over $100K against my home, got really stressed out, and eventually settled out of court.
I never attempted to fight them because it would have taken forever and I probably would have lost anyway.
Plus, I don’t want to make enemies with any government agency. That’s stupid.
I’m pretty sure I could have just called them and said “I want to settle immediately.” And they’d have been like, “OK. Give us all your money.”
But my damn lawyers in Atlanta wanted to get their cut so we did a bunch of useless paperwork stuff (to the tune of $100K in legal bills) and then I gave the FTC all my money.
Speaking of lawyers, here’s something that’ll amaze you.
Long before I got sued by the FTC, I had an attorney review my website to make sure everything was cool.
For some reason, I was worried about getting into trouble (duh!).
Anyway, he said, “Looks fine to me, Frank” and I went about my merry way.
Here’s what a dumb ass I was back then.
That guy was my family’s TAX LAWYER. He knew NOTHING about FTC regulations. I was so naive that I thought all lawyers were created equal.
DUMB.

Here’s What I Learned

1: You don’t have to be a star, baby, to be in my show.
During my $100K round of useless paperwork, we actually did get something of value. My lawyers asked the FTC for copies of all consumer complaints filed about Instant Internet Empires.
And remember that company I told you about? The one where they would call the customers and say they were me?
Well, almost ALL OF THE COMPLAINTS were actually about that company. …Not me!
They even listed that company’s name on the complaints and everything!
When I discovered this, I thought my troubles were over because:
A: I have absolutely no connection to those guys.
B: I had copies of the cease and desist letter I’d sent them long before the FTC ever entered the picture!
C: That other company had a lot more money than I did and would make for a much better “target” than me … a 31 year old guy in Georgia working out of his house.
When I excitedly called my lawyers about this, here’s what one of them told me: “It doesn’t matter. You created the product in the first place …and more importantly, they’ve already issued a press release about you and they’ve convinced a federal judge to freeze your assets. There’s no way they’re going to go back and say they went after the wrong guy.”
Out of all the stuff that happened, that’s what shocked me the most. My guess is they got a gazillion complaints against “Dipshit, Inc.” for selling Instant Internet Empires and simply assumed that I was the guy in charge …mainly because my name was on a ton of websites. From the outside, it probably looked like I was the “Kingpin” behind a major spam operation which then called customers and sold them bogus coaching products. Why they never shut down the guys who actually were hosing people will always be a mystery. (Those guys are still hosing people to this day.)
But here’s the point: IT DOESN’T MATTER. I believe that once the FTC even thinks you’re a bad guy, you’re screwed. You can technically even be “right” and still get into trouble.
Here’s what I mean: out of all the consumer complaints we received, only EIGHT mentioned my company. The worst complaint was “I didn’t like the product”. No kidding. And because I’m totally OCD when it comes to customer records, I was able to show that all eight of the people who actually did business with me had received full refunds …and one of them even thanked me for having good customer service.
And guess what? THAT DOESN’T MATTER.
The FTC is the FTC. Your best course of action is to try to be obnoxiously compliant with their regulations. If you get on their bad side, YOU WILL NOT WIN.
2: Disclaimers Don’t Matter
A popular misconception about my FTC lawsuit is that I didn’t have the correct disclaimers on my website.
While I probably didn’t have the right disclaimers on my website, having the “right” ones wouldn’t have mattered much.
In fact, since all that stuff happened, I’ve actually become friends with a former FTC lawyer and here’s what he told me.

“The FTC pretty much thinks that if you have to have a disclaimer in the first place, you’re probably doing something wrong.”
Here’s what this means to you.
You can’t have a website that says “You’ll get rich if you buy this product.” …and then hope your disclaimer that says “not really” will keep you out of trouble.
It won’t.
3: The FTC is Complaint Driven
I asked my friend (who used to work for the FTC) how someone even ends up on their radar in the first place.
He told me that most of their actions are driven by consumer complaints.
This means that YOU NEED TO TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE GOLD.
And by the way, simply giving refunds is not NEARLY enough.
You need to make sure that what you’re selling exceeds their expectations.
After all, satisfied raving fans aren’t going to file complaints about you.
4: If you’re worried that what you’re doing might get you into trouble, it probably will.
The “problem” with the FTC is that you can’t just call them up and ask them if what you’re doing is OK.
…And their rules are pretty ambiguous.
So my advice to you is that if you’re even remotely concerned that what you’re doing might get you into trouble, then stop doing it. It’ll probably get you into trouble.
Hire an experienced FTC attorney to look over your stuff and then DO WHAT HE SAYS.
5: If “everyone else” is doing it …and “they’re a lot worse than you” …you can still get into trouble.
When I look back on it, my ad copy for Instant Internet Empires was hypey as hell.
Granted, everyone in the Internet Marketing Community was writing super hypey stuff back then. Many of them worse than me. (Hell, my customers liked me for crying out loud!)
But the fact is, if everyone else is doing it too …you’re still likely to get into trouble.
In fact, if a lot of people are doing it …you’re probably going to get into more trouble because the FTC likely to be really sick of hearing complaints against “your type” of stuff …and they’ll be looking to make an example out of someone.
Remember a few months back when everyone was doing those fake blogs selling weight loss crap and scammy biz opps?
Look what happened. FTC came in and kicked major ass.
I’ll bet the guys that got sued were thinking, “Wait! Why us? Everyone else is doing it!”
…Doesn’t matter.
The FTC is no joke. Don’t press your luck.
6: For Christ’s Sake, Get A Good Lawyer!
Remember when I told you that I’d had my Instant Internet Empires website reviewed long before I got sued?
And remember when I told you I had it reviewed by my TAX ATTORNEY??
Well learn from my idiotic mistake. If I’d have had any clue that what I was doing could get me into trouble, I’d have stopped immediately.
I’m sure you would too.
But the only way to know is to get qualified legal advice.
I recommend you have an attorney who is familiar with FTC regulations review your stuff.
DO NOT use your family’s tax attorney.
DO NOT use your buddy who just got out of law school.
And DO NOT hire an attorney and ask “How do I get away with this?”
Instead, ask “How can I make absolutely sure I’m being 100% compliant with the law?”

While All That Sucked Really Bad, It Was Also Kind Of Cool

I realize that’s a crazy thing to say but hear me out.
I learned a lot of lessons during that experience and I’m grateful for it. (Don’t want to go through it again, however…)
The biggest lesson is that if you treat people right, they will stick by you.
The FTC made me email a copy of their lawsuit against me to something like 18,000 customers.
I thought I would be ripped to shreds once that went out …but the opposite happened.
Many customers wrote me telling me that they liked Instant Internet Empires and that they’d learned a lot from the videos I’d included and so forth.
And most of the Internet Marketing Community stood by me and gave me encouragement to keep plugging away.
That was cool and I haven’t forgotten it.
It’s part of the reason I include good free stuff for everyone on this blog. Friends stick together.
Another thing I learned is that when the shit hits the fan and everything goes to hell, you CAN get back up again and come back better than ever.
It’s hard, it takes a while, but it’s worth it.
And finally, I learned that in the end, everything will turn out fine.
Always has, always will.

FTC Cracks Down on Internet Scams

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and its law enforcement partners announced settlements with 10 people and five corporations the FTC had accused of Internet-related scams, the agency announced Thursday.
Those court settlements include a variety of "deceptive schemes and illegal scams," according to the FTC, including Internet auction fraud, bogus business opportunities, deceptive money-making scams, and phony credit offers.
Since October 1, the FTC and its law enforcement partners have taken action on more than 285 criminal and civil indictments, convictions, and searches targeting Internet scams and deceptive spam, not including the settlements announced Thursday.
Following is a list of some of the court settlements reached through the FTC and its partners, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Ill-Gotten Gains

The FTC announced a settlement with GM Funding, of Irvine, California, Global Mortgage Funding, and Robert D. and Damian R. Kutzner. The settlement bans them from sending spam and requires them to pay a fine of $60,500 for what the FTC called "ill-gotten gains."
A related settlement, with Universal IT Solutions and Anthony Tamras, bars them from making spam-related misrepresentations, or assisting and facilitating others in making misrepresentations, and contains a suspended judgment of $60,500.
The FTC accused GM Funding and the other defendants of using deceptive spam, including the unauthorized use of logos of well-known financial institutions, to induce victims to disclose sensitive financial information such as income, mortgage balances, and home values. According to the FTC, the spammers purported to offer consumers competitive financing and refinancing loans.
The FTC charged the defendants with unfair and deceptive practices, violations of the FTC Act, and with posing as an entity they were not in order to get sensitive financial information--a violation of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Envelope Stuffing Scheme

The FTC charged that five defendants used fictitious names to promote a fraudulent envelope-stuffing, work-at-home scheme. The defendants used deceptive spam and Web sites that claimed that for a $50 fee, consumers would receive envelopes and pamphlets. The promoters claimed that they would pay consumers $1 apiece for stuffing the envelopes and claimed that consumers could make $500 to $1500 a week. Some of the unsolicited e-mail promised that consumers' payments were fully refundable.
Instead of receiving envelopes and pamphlets, consumers received a booklet containing instructions on how to market the defendants' deceptive credit repair manual to other consumers. No consumers made the promised earnings, and consumers did not receive refunds.
The settlements with David and Irene Herrera and James and Vincent Zezula permanently bar them from sending spam, from making deceptive representations, and from providing others with the means to commit deception. Based on their financial statements, the defendants will be required to pay $7000 back to victims. The FTC estimated that the group had a total of $536,412 in ill-gotten gains, but only $7000 was left in their bank accounts. Their operations were based in Los Angeles.
"On the blood and turnip theory, we settled for the $7000," said FTC spokesperson Claudia Bourne Farrell. "But should we find out they were lying, we'll demand the entire amount."

Instant Internet Empires

Instant Internet Empires, based in Macon, Georgia, touted the money-making potential of five pre-packaged Internet businesses, promising that buyers could make more than $115,000 a year using the product. For their $47.77 investment, consumers received the right to reproduce the defendants' Web site and the right to try to resell its contents to other consumers, according to the FTC.
To achieve the promised $115,000 in earnings, consumers each would have to sell the product to 2400 additional consumers, who would each need to sell to 2400 additional consumers to achieve the same earnings, according to the FTC. By the third generation of the scheme, participants would need to make more than 13.8 billion sales, more than twice the earth's population, for each of them to achieve the advertised earnings.
The stipulated final judgment and order with Instant Internet Empires and Irwin F. Kern IV, also known as Frank Kern, bars them from making false or misleading income claims, from participating in chain marketing schemes, and from providing others with the means and instrumentalities to violate federal laws. Based on their financial statements, defendants will have to pay back $247,000 to the victims. Should the defendant's financial reports be found to be inaccurate, the total of their ill-gotten gains, $634,222, will become due.

Auction Fraud

The FTC charged that Eric Stetzel, a resident of Nevada, offered computers, computer-related equipment, and other merchandise for sale on Internet auction sites. Consumers who tried to buy the merchandise never received it. The FTC charged Stetzel with violating the FTC Act and the Mail Order Rule. A default judgment prohibits violations of FTC Act and the Mail Order Rule and orders restitution in the amount of $9723.66.

17 of The World’s Most Powerful Written Persuasion Techniques

by LOU

“They who influence the thoughts of their times, influence all the times that follow. They have made their impression on eternity.”

Influence and the psychology of persuasion. Whether you are writing an advertisement, an email to a friend, an inter-office memo, hoping to change a family member’s actions, or trying to convince a group of people to come over to your way of thinking, you need to know the methods top persuaders use to change people’s thinking and get them to take action.

Here is a collection of the most persuasive techniques used by politicians, advertising copywriters, spin-doctors, propaganda writers, lawyers…anybody who has to change an individual’s mind–or groups of people’s minds–quickly.

A person could use these techniques to get people to do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do, change their beliefs, get them to change their minds, get them to take action.

I’ll give some short examples for each technique in an advertisement using the fictitious Special-J Dog Food. I’ve tried to sum up each technique with a sentence or two, but you could expand each one into a few sentences or paragraphs. That would make the techniques you are using much more powerful.

Here we go:

1. Appeal to Their Identity. Who a person is and how they see themselves is an incredibly important influence tool, maybe the most important of them all. If you can tie in what you want with what their identity would do in a similar situation, you’d have a very good chance of getting him or her to do it. As a matter of fact, if you’re convincing enough, you would cause inner conflict that would compel them to act in the way you want.

Of course people have more than one identity. They combine with their roles in life and how they see themselves. Many of these are fairly universal: being a good parent, a good friend, a good manager, being interesting, honest, etc.

Another use of the Appeal to Their Identity is the use of Labels. What positive label could you put on the person(s) you are writing to? Here are some frames you can use for labeling someone:

* You’re a natural _______. (“You’re a natural entrepreneur.”)

* You’re not the type of person who _______. (“You’re not the type of person who would lie .” The label here? Honest.)

* One thing I really like about you is _______. (“One thing I really like about you is your open-mindedness.“)

* Unlike other ______, you’re ________. (“Unlike other managers, you’re generous.“)

The above frames are very useful in buttering a person up before asking them to do something for you. You would use one of the above frames and then make a request that would cause a conflict with the label you gave them. So, if I used the, “Unlike other managers, you’re generous, ” I would then, later on, ask for a raise or a loan of some sort.

Here are a couple of examples I might use when selling to dog owners:

• Pet parents always serve their dogs Special-J Dog Food.

• Caring pet owners feed their dogs Special-J Dog Food.

While you’re writing, ask yourself, “Who is this person?” Who does she think she is?” “What roles are important to him?” “What positive, complimentary label can I apply to him or her?”

2. Use Their Hierarchy of Values. This technique can tie into the one above. People place a value on practically everything. And that includes time, goods, ideas, people, etc. But they do have priorities. They will compare the characteristics of one thing to another to determine which one is more valuable to them, especially if they have to make a choice. How can you tie in what you’re offering with one or more of their highest values?

Some of the fairly universal values (at least here in the west) are these: love, health, attractiveness, security, safety of family, pleasure, impressing others, happiness.

Think of something fairly expensive you bought recently. Why did you buy it? What value(s) of yours made it appeal to you? What would have stopped you from buying it? What would have had to happen for you to pay twice the money for it? Whatever your answers to these questions, they show the values you applied to your purchase.

An example:

• What’s more important to you, saving a few bucks or your dog’s health?

Questions to ask yourself while writing: “What’s important to this person?” “How can I make my offer just as valuable?”

3. Invoke Emotions. As any professional advertising copywriter knows, you sell something by getting the prospective customers’ emotions involved. Propagandists and spin-doctors know this too. Positive emotions like hope, anticipation, love, and negative emotions like anger, loneliness, disgust can spur people into action.

You also need to use emotionally charged words that add impact to your writing. Try to pull out bland words and head to a thesaurus to find words that have a punch.

An example:

• Show the love for your dog that he or she shows you.

Ask yourself, “What emotions do I want to invoke, and how can I do it?”

4. Motivate Your Reader. Why should they do what you ask them? What’s in it for your reader? What do they get? What’s the incentive? What are the major benefits of doing what you are asking them to do? Make big promises. Promises you can keep if you don’t want major fallout later. A great way to get your readers motivated is to use a list of benefits, just pile on all the great benefits of what you are offering or what they will get when they do what you are asking.

Here’s an example:

• When you feed your dog Special-J Dog Food, you’ll notice your dog will :

* Be more content and happier

* Sleep better

* Have a shinier, healthier coat

* Be less likely to get sick

* Recover from injuries faster

* Have cleaner breath

While writing, ask yourself, “How can I motivate my reader(s) to act now? How can I light a fire under them? What are all the benefits they will get if they act?”

5. Show Them the Consequences. How will your readers lose out by not doing what you suggest? Paint a word picture for them. What pain will they experience if they don’t do as you ask. This doesn’t mean make threats. That will set up resistance. Just tell them some of the negatives of not doing what you want, choosing an alternative to what you are offering…or doing nothing.

An example:

• Many dog foods are not nutritionally balanced, especially imported dog food. The last thing you need is for your dog to get sick, start losing his or her hair, becoming listless, just because you have been serving your dog canned food that isn’t as healthy.

An important point when using this technique is to NOT dwell on the negatives for too long. People are exposed to negative news all day long. If you spend too much time on the consequences, you might lose them. Keep it short.

Ask yourself, “How will they lose out if they don’t act now?” “What pain will they experience if they don’t do as I ask.?”

6. Ask Questions. When you ask lots of questions of your readers, you get them involved. And once they are involved, you can lead them where you want them to go. One old time use of questions in sales and copywriting is to ask several questions in a row that get the prospective customer to say “Yes”. This will, more often than not, get them into a positive mood and more receptive to your request.

Another good way to use questions in your writing is to make suggestions rather than orders.

“Why not order now while you are still on this website,: instead of just using “Order now!!”. Questions are an ideal way to insert embedded commands.

Some examples:

• How do you know your dog is getting the proper nutrition heshe deserves?

• Why not treat your dog to Special-J Dog Food today?

When writing try to put in a few questions to get your readers involved.

7. Reframe Possible Objections. What would stop someone from doing what you want them to do? What possible anxiety could they feel about doing what you ask? Write down all they could possibly reject about your offer or request. Then take your list of possible objections and reframe them. Put a spin on them or change their perspective.

Example:

• Special-J Dog Food contains micro-capsules to release nutrients into your dog’s body all throughout the day, keeping her immune system running at peak levels, lessening the chance she will get sick. (THE POSSIBLE OBJECTION IS: “All dog food is the same.”)

What you DON’T want to do is ignore any possible objections. By not bringing them up, you risk looking like you’re hiding something, or you are making your offer sound too good to be true by leaving those objections out.

Ask yourself, “What would stop this person from doing what I want?” “How can I put a more positive spin on this objection? “”What else could this mean?” “What’s not apparent to them?”

8. Use Quotes. Authority and Social Proof are incredibly convincing ways to persuade. Just by quoting an expert or a celebrity (in the form of quotations), or satisfied customers (in the form of testimonials) you ramp up the persuasive content of your writing quite a few notches.

Another benefit of using quotes in your writing is that they attract the eye when put inside quotation marks.

Example:

• “Nine out of ten veterinarians feed their dogs Special-J Dog Food.”

• “My dogs love Special-J Dog Food. They’re healthier, happier, and look great!” ~ Marlin Perkins

When writing your piece, ask yourself where you can find quotes and testimonials that will support your case.

9. Employ Metaphor. The use of metaphor (and analogies and similes) have been used to influence, persuade, educate, and convince for thousands of years. Most of the Bible and other religious books are written in metaphor. It’s another powerful technique. How is what you want them to do like something they love to do? What are the parallels between the two?

If you are selling a product, how is your product like something else very desirable? The classic advertising positioning statement “ABC is the Rolls-Royce of printer inks” uses metaphor for this effect.

Here are some examples:

• Special-J Dog Food is like an immunity booster shot for your dog.

• It’s the canine Fountain of Youth!

Ask yourself, “What is my offer like?”

10. Compliment and Flatter. If you can pull it off, make your reader feel special. This technique might be a bit transparent when writing to cold audiences (people you don’t know), but if you know them or you know the type of people they are (like a certain car owner), you should compliment them, especially if you have something negative to tell them.

If you can’t think of anything nice to tell your reader (C’mon!), you can always do what Joe Gerard (Guinness Book of Records’ World’s Greatest Salesman used to do: mail them cards that said “I like you!” inside. He swore that this technique worked miracles.

It also ties in quite well with Technique 1 (“Appeal to Their Identity”).

Ask yourself, “What do I appreciate about this person?” “What do I like about this person?” “How can I compliment them with sounding like a brown-nose?”

11. Show No Gray Area. Point out to your readers that there really isn’t any choice in what you have to offer. They have only a very positive outcome if they do as you say or a very negative one if they don’t. Which one are you going to choose?

You can (or will) do/have/be (POSITIVE), or (NEGATIVE).

An example of this technique:

• You can give your dog nutritious, balanced meals, or you can take him to the vet every month.

When you are writing your piece, ask yourself how your readers don’t have a choice. It’s only black or white.

12. Belong to a Special Group. Because of our tribal nature, we almost always seek out people who are similar to us. Veterans, collectors, artists, even people who have the same illnesses are all groups that come together in rapport.

There are a few variations on this technique that you can use alone or in combination:

a) people who already belong to a special, desirable group

b) people who don’t belong to a special group…BUT WANT TO

b) having a mutual enemy

c) getting on the bandwagon or being left out

Each one would require a different approach.

Here are some examples using each of the variations above:

a) To all you pit bull owners out there….

b) Here’s how you can become a pit bull terrier lover too…

c) The State wants to take your pit bull away!

d) If you own a pit bull terrier, this is your last chance to join Pit Bull Owners of America.

“A sharply defined enemy is a far stronger argument for your side than all the words you could possibly put together.” ~ Robert Greene

Of course this technique works well with Technique 1 (“Appeal to Their Identity”) because when you are part of a group, it’s also a party or your identity or a role you take on.

When using this, ask yourself, “What groups of people does my offer appeal to? What are their interests and desires? What group of people would my target want to belong to?” “Can I start a desirable group of my own?”

13. Have Them Make a Commitment. When people make a commitment to an idea, they tend to find it very difficult to change their minds without creating conflict or anxiety (called, Cognitive Dissonance). This is a little more difficult to do in one-way writing (say an advertisement or a sales letter), but it can be done.

For an advertisement, You would first ask your readers a question where they would most likely say yes. Then you’d continue with your writing. Finally, you’d remind them of what they said yes to.

For example:

• Do you love your dog? (THEN I’D CONTINUE WITH THE BODY COPY OF THE AD.) Earlier in this article (letter/ad), I asked you if you loved your dog. What better way to show your love for her by giving her a delicious and nutritious meal...

For a more personal correspondence, say an email, online chatting, or a letter, you could ask one of these questions:

• I thought you said you were….,

“I thought you said you were a Conservative. That’s not what a Conservative would say.”

• Didn’t you say you…,

“Didn’t you say you loved animals? Why would you eat meat…”

• Don’t you think (UNDESIRABLE TRAIT or TYPE OF PERSON) is (NEGATIVE LABEL)? IF THEY AGREE…LATER FOLLOW UP.

YOU:Don’t you think being a cheapskate is a horrible?

HE: Yeah, sure.

…LATER…

YOU: Hey, can I borrow twenty bucks?

When writing your piece, find out how you can get your reader to make a commitment, even a small one: donating a little money, trying something, even saying “yes” to something, etc.

14. Change their life. Most people are unhappy with their lives…or at least a some aspect of it. Many of them want change. But they don’t know how to change, or if they do, they are too afraid or lazy to do so.

How can what you are offering change your target’s life for the better? Your offer must do more than change lives though, it has to change lives with the least amount of effort. What many people are looking for is the Magic Pill. Something where they wake up and their lives are magically different.

• As you know, your dog’s life affects your whole family. You, your spouse, especially your kids are affected by the health of your beloved dog.

Your offer can probably change your readers’ lives for the better someway, somehow. How?

15. Overcome Inertia. The first rule here is to simplify the steps they need to take. Don’t go into too much detail as to what they have to do. Narrow their choices or options down. It’s been proven that people won’t take action if they have too many choices available to them.

It also helps to show them the consequences of not acting now (See Technique 5 “Show Them the Consequences”).

Top persuaders often create urgency by telling their readers how scarce their offer has become. You can use a time deadline, a limited quantity, a limited supply of a freebie/bonus/premium, or a soon-to-arrive price increase to get your readers off their butts.

Some examples:

• Get a 25% discount of Special-J Dog Food before November 10th.

• Receive a bottle of Special-J Puppy Shampoo with every case of Special-J Dog Food. But please hurry, we only have 53 bottles left.

Ask, “How can I increase the urgency of my offer?” “How can I add a deadline?”

16. Add Presuppositions. These are compelling ways to put thoughts into people’s heads without even verbalizing the thought. You can find more on presuppositions and what they are here. Here’s a quick way to incorporate presuppositions into your writing: Use questions. This requires a little more thought than Technique 6 (“Ask Questions”) presented above. Just think of what you want your readers to believe about your offer or product. Then put it into a question form.

Some examples:

• Do you know of any other dog food that makes your dog healthier than Special-J Dog Food? (NOTE: Whether they answer yes or no, by answering the question they imply that Special-J Dog Food will make their dog healthy.)

• How are you going to handle your dog’s newfound vitality and playfulness?

When writing, ask yourself how you are going to imply your claims.

17. Use Rhetorical Questions to Make Claims. This one is used a lot by the mass media. Why? Because it lets claims slip into readers’ minds without resistance. If I say, “XYZ tablets let you lose weight while you sleep,” you probably won’t really believe it; you’ve heard claims like this all the time. But if I ask, “How has XYZ tablets helped thousands of people across the USA lose weight while they sleep?“, it has a better chance of being accepted without resistance.

Take a claim that you want to make, and try out different types of questions to frame it in.

Example:

• How does Special-J Dog Food help your dog live a longer, healthier life?

When you are writing, ask yourself, “How can I put some of my claims into question form?”

There you have seventeen ways to influence and persuade….

…When working on your project, keep sentences fairly short. One mistake I see quite often in ads and other forms of persuasive writing is sentences that are too long. The longer your sentences, the more difficult they are too read, and the more likely they will be ignored.

You can mix and match these techniques depending on your project. The US military’s Psychological Operations (PSY-OPS) has had a lot of success with leaflet drops over enemy territory. They are often quite small in size and need to get the job done quickly. They tend to use Technique 3 (“Invoke Emotions”), Technique 4 (“Motivate Your Reader”), and Technique 5 (“Show Them the Consequences”). For something like a billboard, demonstration placards, or bumper stickers, you could use Technique 6 (“Ask Questions”) or Technique 9 (“Employ Metaphor”).

You now have a ton of power in your hands. You’ve turned your pen (or keyboard) into a formidable weapon. Please use this power ethically. I don’t know if you’ve already begun to notice how great you feel because of this power.

Thanks for reading this post. Clearly, you are an incredibly intelligent person. And I like you, I really do.

“It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people’s lives.” ~ Clint Eastwood

In the next post, I’m going to be turning this article into a free PDF workbook that includes about 10 more powerful persuasion techniques.