Fifty Plus Marketer

Author: prug8

  • Are you repurposing your content?

    For the past few weeks, I’ve been writing a daily email.

    Posting it on Facebook and my blog. With a link to my opt-in page.

    Although I made a cockup in my Autoresponder Kit.

    In Kit, you must create forms even if you’re using Thrive Architect for your opt-in page.

    By default, Kit leaves the option to send a confirmation email ticked on the forms.

    And not realizing this, I left it ticked and got a couple of signups that were showing as unconfirmed.

    Damn…

    I’ve also been recording all my emails I’ve been sending out.
    Adding them to a spreadsheet with the email subject and link to the email, and then highlighting green for good and yellow for not sure.

    The plan is to reuse the best converting emails I’ve sent out and add them into an automation.

    For future subscribers or whatever.

    Saving me time having to create all those emails from scratch.

    How about you? Are you repurposing your content?

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • Why I decided NOT to use AI for my emails

    Some time back I decided to buy a small course on writing emails.

    The strategy involved using AI and a subreddit to write story-based emails…

    … The story would be the body of the email, with a small pitch in the P.S.

    That consisted of one or two lines linking to a product.
    There was a module within ChatGPT you used to enter the prompts.

    And the emails stories related to ‘true facts’ from a subreddit…

    I must admit the emails were pretty damn good.

    But the P.S. section was rather weak, I thought.

    With some reservations, I decided to test these emails out, sending them out daily…

    After the test, I decided to stop using AI to write the emails.

    For a couple of reasons:

    ✅ You had to mess about with two separate prompts for the main section to get the required output.
    ✅ The P.S. section was piss-ass poor.
    ✅ I had to edit the emails a lot to sound anything like me.
    ✅ Getting AI to write those emails meant I wasn’t improving my own writing skills.

    And it didn’t feel the same for me.

    Although getting AI to do this was quicker, even with the editing it wasn’t any fun for me.

    (Like having hot melted wax stuffed up my nose to rip my nose hairs out, Lol.)

    I found it bloody boring…

    Although I won’t be using AI to write my emails, I still think it’s a great tool to use to create outlines for lead magnets and products.

    But I prefer to write emails myself rather than get AI to do the work.

    Now some people may love that strategy to get AI to write their emails.

    And till you test a strategy you’ll not know if you’ll like it…

    … it may require a little tweaking to suit your needs.

    What do you think?

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • The LEAST well known copywriter

    I was flipping through a book earlier this week.

    By Denny Hatch – How to make a fortune by getting inside the head of your customers.

    Great title aye?

    And in chapter 6 Denny talks about one of the greatest copywriters, and nobody has ever heard of him.

    Mel Martin, master of fascinations.

    Mel who?

    Martin.

    Master of what?

    Fascinations.

    Teasers.

    The taking of old-fashioned teaser copy – appealing to the emotions that drive people to action.

    Mel worked with Brian Kurtz on the Boardroom Reports…

    Mel was Boardroom’s secret weapon and inventor of “Fascinations.”

    If you Google “Fascinations” this is what it tells you.

    “Fascinations” is a copywriting strategy… where you capture your reader’s attention by making them curious.

    You make them so curious that they’re compelled to learn more.

    Fascinations are specific, intriguing pieces of copy. That tap into your audience’s deepest desires and challenges.

    Here’s a couple of examples from the book…

    The gruesome story about the duty-free shops. (Not talked about in the travel industry!)

    ✅ A simple way to prevent Montezuma’s Revenge.

    ✅ The two famous cold remedies that, taken together, can give you ulcers.

    ✅ As you can see, these are bullet points and as John Carlton says:

    You want to create mini-stories.

    Paint pleasing pictures in the mind – write brisk, pithy “scripts” like little movies, little scenes.

    Action verbs.

    I also came across Clayton Makepeace 21 Bullet Secrets That IGNITE The selling Power of Your Copy at the Internet Archive site.

    Which I think will help you.

    That you can use in writing emails for affiliate products. Or copy for an optin page, etc.

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • Ideas for emails…

    A few years ago, when I first started out online.

    I created my very first email marketing funnel.

    (I felt so proud of what I achieved)

    I started sending traffic to my opt-in page and the sign-ups started coming in.

    I thought to myself ‘Wow this is amazing!’

    Then on day 6, it was time for me to send out my first daily email…

    I felt like no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t think of anything to write in the email.

    My mind went completely blank as I sat there staring in a daze at the flashing cursor on the screen.

    Have you ever felt like that when trying to write an email?
    Seth Godin has the saying

    ‘There’s no such thing as writer’s block because people don’t get talker’s block.’

    I don’t know about that, but at the time it sure felt like I had ‘writer’s block’.

    If you sit down and think, “I have to write an email,” then you’re going to make yourself tense.

    This is something I learned from Chris Orzechowski if you talk and think to yourself…

    What would I say to someone in this email?

    And

    How would I tell the story and just write naturally?

    You’ll be good to go.

    A good habit to get into is writing down possible email ideas.

    Make a list and whenever an idea pops into your mind, or you think ‘That will make a good email.’ Add it to your list.

    Possible ideas are:

    ✅ What’s a challenge you faced and how did you overcome it?
    ✅ How did you get started in your business?
    ✅ Share some feedback you received either from a customer or subscriber.
    ✅ What were you up to yesterday, last week?
    ✅ What mistakes did you make early on and how did you fix them?
    ✅ Share a tip, tool, etc.

    I hope you find this useful.

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…
    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • 27 provocative words and phrases…

    Most of today has been spent fixing a laptop for a family member.

    I had to wipe and then reinstall Windows on the laptop using a Windows 11 USB stick that I had created.

    Meanwhile, the wife was cooking the Sunday dinner.

    We had lovely tender beef, chicken, mashed potato, veg and Yorkshire pudds with gravy.

    (Absolutely lovely. She makes a mean Sunday dinner.)

    I swear she thinks I have a barrel for a stomach though… Lol.

    She always piles the dinner sky high…

    Whenever you are writing headlines, email subject lines and any sort of copy.

    There are certain words that you can add to your copy to make it stand out that bit more.

    Below is a screenshot from one of Ted Nicholas Copywriting seminars of some of those words.

    (It’s an old training so the screenshot is a bit fuzzy.)

    Although it says for headlines, these words can be applied to all areas of your copy.

    It’s a good idea to build up a swipe file of these words. That you can add to your copy to give it that bit more of a punch.

    You can test this in both your emails and affiliate marketing…

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • ”Nothing has improved my consistency like ___”

    It’s another lovely sunny day here in Notts.

    Can you believe we’re already in March?

    Damn it’s gone so fast…

    If you’re stuck in the 9 to 5 grind while you’re trying to figure out how to make it online.

    And you’re following some sort of strategy.

    Then, keeping consistent in the strategy you’re using to accomplish this is going to be probably the most important thing you can do.

    I was just recently speaking with someone on Facebook about what I’ve been recently doing in my business.

    To which the reply was.

    ” It sounds like you’ve really put in the work to refine your strategy.”

    I thought about this for a few minutes just mulling it over.

    I asked myself ‘what have I been doing to keep myself on track with what I needed to do?’

    And it hit me like a bolt outta the blue…

    I set my intention on what I wanted to do and that no matter what… I was going to do it.

    (I made up my mind to do it no matter what!)

    And I used a notebook to write down the tasks I wanted to do (sending out an email being the top one), for that day.

    I’d then set a timer for 25 minutes and then just started to write. And once the timer went off, I’d get up and take a 5-minute break from the computer.

    And carry on if needed.

    It’s ALMOST the exact same process I used when I was working on the outline for my first product, the sales page and graphics.

    I say almost because I was also testing Microsoft OneNote for my tasks as well as writing down in a notebook, then I’d tick the tasks off that I completed.

    Keeping a record of what I’ve been doing in my business has really helped me see over the weeks what I’ve been doing that’s both been working and not working.

    Give them a try and see how you get on.

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • If you’re emails suck try these

    For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on my email copy.

    I’ve enrolled in a great email copywriting course to help with this.

    And have learned quite a lot.

    Learning to write better emails is a skill that needs constant working on.

    And it doesn’t matter what business you’re in online.

    Whether that’s affiliate marketing, selling your own products or services…

    So I thought I’d share some of the great tips I’ve learned so far.

    1. Write as though you’re writing to a friend. When you write, it should be as though you were writing to a friend.

    It should have the same look and feel. Use plain text that’s not full of images and graphics.

    Even if you’re writing to 20,000 people, it should be as if you’re writing to ONE person, a friend. That means NOT using words like Hi everyone, how are you all doing? etc.

    2. Focus on ONE thing in each email. When starting out, you should focus on ONE point, or ONE takeaway or ONE lesson that person can get from your email.

    3. Read your copy out loud before sending. You want your emails to read smoothly and make sense. As Joseph Sugarman said.

    “Every element must be compelling that you find yourself falling down a slippery slide unable to stop until you reach the end.”

    4. Cut 10% of your word count. When writing say to yourself… ‘can I say what I want to say using fewer words?’

    It’s not important to do this with every email. But if you’re someone who’s self-editing then it might be a good habit to get into.

    5. Write like a fifth grader. You want to avoid having too many complex sentences. And a good tool to help with this is the Hemingway Editor online app.

    6. Be yourself. It’s far easier just to be YOU than trying to mimic someone else. Your personality is what’s going to make people like you.

    Use those tips above and you should start to see an improvement in your emails.

    Remember the more you write the better you’ll get.

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • 90 Day challenge

    A few years ago, now.

    Before I got into IT support, one of the things I was learning about was web development.

    I did a basic web design course at college and really enjoyed it.

    Learning the basics of HTML and a little CSS.

    Even touching on Dreamweaver and using Flash.

    (Things were a lot harder then.)

    Since then, things have moved on with the technology but there’s ONE thing that’s stayed constant.

    Do you know what that is?

    Writing persuasively.

    This is a skill that is essential in success online.

    There’s no getting away with it, nope.

    The more persuasive you can write, the more you’ll sell, it’s just that simple.

    It’s required for:

    ✅ Emails

    ✅ Opt-in pages

    ✅ Product titles

    ✅ Lead magnet titles

    ✅ Blog posts

    ✅ And more.

    So for the next 90 days I’m returning to the basics of the copywriting classics.

    (An idea inspired from an email I got from someone in the web development niche.)

    It’s something I’ve mentioned before that can improve your copywriting skills immensely if you can complete it.

    And it’s NOT easy…

    It’s Gary Halbert’s 30-Day Copywriting Challenge.

    The challenge consists of 9 classic copywriting books and newsletters to read through.

     (Although it’s 30-days, it’s too much to do within that time.)

    A sh*t load of “sales letters” to copy out by hand (NOT type).

    And more.

    Most people will NOT do this.

    There’s a certain mindset you need to have to achieve your goals.

    A mindset that CAN be learned by anyone.

    Without the right mindset, no matter what you do to try and make money you’ll end up sabotaging yourself.

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • Changing this helped me start seeing success…

    A few years ago, I made a couple hundred dollars in commissions online.

    And that was it.

    I was stuck not knowing what to do to keep making money.

    At the time I didn’t realize how important it was to have an email list.

    I bought a few different products not knowing really what the heck I was doing.

    I felt no matter how hard I tried I wasn’t getting anywhere fast.
    So I joined a coaching program for a bit then dropped out.
    A year or so later I rejoined the same program.

    Thinking “I am going to create my own product.”

    After giving it a try for a couple of months, I got overwhelmed feeling like I couldn’t do it.

    I stopped trying to create my product and started something else for a couple of months.

    (Like hearing the ‘Piped Piper’ drawing me to the next shiny object. Lol)

    Then went back to carry on creating my product.

    Deep down I was thinking “Damn, this is hard I don’t think I can do it.”

    But I kept at it even with a load of self-doubts.

    I created the sales page and all the marketing material, and it wasn’t easy, that’s for sure.

    I’d listen to a load of inspirational audiobooks like Les Brown and Think and Grow Rich.

    Added with the productivity hacks and time management skills I learned.

    The real test came when I had to start selling my first product.
    I’d contact potential partners to promote the product.

    And boy was that hard mentally… with all those doubts about whether my product would be good enough.

    I got caught up in a tidal wave of emotions.

    Dealing with all those thoughts like ‘What if they don’t like my product?’ Etc.

    But you know what helped me the most?

    Having the RIGHT MINDSET and being consistent.

    Once I shifted my mindset things started to happen…

    Most likely you are already knowledgeable about building an online business like I was and you’re likely familiar with the concepts of:

    ✅ Emails list building
    ✅ Optin pages
    ✅ Sales pages
    ✅ Copywriting
    ✅ Product creation
    ✅ Etc

    I was taking a lot of courses and studying a lot of techniques, but the more I learned, the more confused I felt.

    Have you ever felt like that?

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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  • The midget and the Hippo

    There’s a story that Dan Kennedy sometimes tells before he starts a few of his training programs.

    That goes something like this:

    One morning CNN reported an incident that happened in a European classic three-ring circus.

    (A circus in Europe with 3 separate acts, going at once. Such as a trapeze act in the middle, a lion act on one side and clowns on the other.)

    About a circus performer known as Frans the Midget.

    Born and raised in the circuses and had been a circus performer for 30 years. That had a trampoline and trapeze act.

    And because he was so small and hefty, he could bounce himself way up in the air.

    And catch a trapeze and swing back ‘n’ forth and drop back on the trampoline and go sailing up even higher up in the air.

    And that was his act.

    So, he’s in the side ring on one side, with something going on in the main ring.

    On the other side of the ring is the hippo act, where the hippos get up on bicycles and other stuff.

    Frans has been doing his trampoline act day in day out for the past 20-odd years.

    You know how it is you’ve been doing something so many times for so many years you’d just about think it’s impossible to screw up.

    As Frans performs his act, he gets higher and higher—instead of hitting the centre of the trampoline, he misses this and hits the edge of the trampoline.

    And instead of flying straight up, he flies in an arc. Flying over the centre act into the open mouth of a hippo.

    The hippos are used to being thrown big fish as rewards for doing their tricks…

    They’d get up on a box, and then the trainer would throw them each a big fish, which they’d swallow whole.

    Frans comes in about 40 mph – straight into a hippo’s gob, the hippo thinks it’s a fish, then swallows him whole.

    So, Frans goes from the trampoline through the sky into the hippo’s mouth and down the hippo’s throat.

    The circus people rush and grab the hippo, taking it off stage to the back where the vet is. But unfortunately, it’s too late.

    So, Frans has died in the stomach of the hippo.

    Then Dan goes on to say that the two things that immediately occurred to him were:

    1. Anytime you think you’re having a bad day doing whatever you’re doing. Think about this guy who’s been doing the same act for 25 years, and by now nothing could go wrong, and this guy gets eaten by a hippo.

    2. The second thing that occurred to him. As a performer or someone who puts on events, this is a massive problem you now have with your word-of-mouth advertising.

    The audience now thinks they’ve seen the greatest trick in the history of circuses.

    A guy sailing through the air and disappearing into the mouth of a hippo.

    They’ll be rushing to tell their family and friends. How do you now deal with this marketing/ public relations problem?

    Later on, Dan says that he heard it might NOT be true, but he still likes to tell it, lol.

    Have a great Tuesday.

    Zaf.

    P.S. Get on my list and get this free video…

    The New Way To Create Multiple Streams Of Long-Term, Passive Affiliate Commissions.

    Beginner Friendly – No Prior Experience, Products Or Technical Skills Required.

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