Entrepreneurs-Journey.com Down-To-Earth Advice For Bloggers and Internet Marketers

With my new Macbook Pro I have some sophisticated video tools available and I’m not afraid to use them - so be warned!

As many of you know, I’m reopening Blog Mastermind hopefully in just a couple of weeks time. What this means is a ton of work for me to get things ready.

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com has always been about sharing the behind-the-scenes details of my business with you, so I’m going to do a series of video posts talking about exactly what I am working on for the relaunch of Blog Mastermind. I prefer to teach through what I am doing rather than talking about theories and observations without practical experience.

This is a real live case study of a real live product launch, so if launching a product of your own using your blog (or not) is something that interests you, stay tuned, you will enjoy my upcoming videos. You might want to subscribe to my RSS feed if you haven’t already to make sure you don’t miss any.

Note since this is a case study you will get the good with the bad. My launches are far from perfect and there is room for improvement. Also since my video skills are still underdeveloped I apologize for any production issues - I’d rather get something out to you than kill myself trying to make it perfect. No doubt I’ll get better with practice too .

Case Study Video 1: Talking About The Sales Page

Here’s the first video of the case study talking about what I’m working on right now - the sales page - Enjoy!

I should have the next video out to you tomorrow.

Yaro Starak
Playing with iMovie

In today’s Internet marketing world we are so used to seeing those long sales pages with a huge list of testimonials including plenty of smiling faces, sometimes audio and even video comments endorsing a product or service or person.

The last few days I’ve been preparing my first draft of the sales page for Blog Mastermind in preparation to hand it over to my friend Will Swayne for a review, who knows copywriting better than me, and then to a paid copywriter for a final review (apparently copy is important or something!).

In some ways I think having a long-form sales page is a necessary evil when it comes to selling online. I realize a lot of people will join Blog Mastermind just on the back of knowing me and sampling my work. They will probably scroll straight to the first “join” button and sign-up, ignoring all my carefully constructed copy. That’s great of course, yet I can’t simply launch a product with a page that says “join” on it because I’ll be loosing a lot of potential clients.

There will be those who come to Blog Mastermind with little prior relationship with me, or with certain sticking points they have to move-past before they will join. It might be looking for a money-back guarantee, or a demonstration of proof that I actually make money from blogging, or a further explanation of how blogs make money in the first place. All these issues need to be addressed in the sales page, along with all the other classic sales page triggers that copywriters know and utilize as staples of their craft.

Many people hate long sales letters, I’ve felt similar feelings at times myself, but the fact is, when you need to address all the possible concerns or questions a potential customer has, the long sales page is a stable performer. I could on about the long sales page, including some interesting evolutions I’ve seen coming from the Ari Galper/Perry Marshall clan, but I’ll save that for another article. Today I want to talk about testimonials.

Inserting Testimonials

Yesterday I spent a good chunk of time on an activity that was, well, a lot of fun. I was reviewing all the great things my readers had said about me and sent me as testimonials and then adding them to my sales page, along with all their smiling face photographs.

Here’s a snapshot of the people featured as testimonials for Blog Mastermind:

All these wonderful people provided comments for me to use as endorsements for my work and it’s a wonderful feeling to read them all and know they will help so much with the success of Blog Mastermind.

I have to admit I’ve been skeptical of testimonials before, but now that I’m actually adding genuine feedback from real people, which was provided just because I asked for feedback (no incentive), I can see how powerful they really are. My sales page would be empty without them and heck, even I’m interested in joining Blog Mastermind now - that Yaro guy seems to know what he’s talking about based on what all these other people have said ;).

How To Gather Your Own Testimonials

If you are considering releasing your own product or service online then you must understand the importance of having genuine testimonials. It’s vital to understand that testimonials are not just given because you ask for them, they come from months or even years of building a relationship and adding value to people’s lives.

My testimonials came from people who have read this blog for years and subscribed to my newsletter for just as long. They know my work well, have been influenced and benefited from what they learn from me and as a result are willing to “give something back” in the form of a testimonial when I ask. What’s great about this is that these people genuinely benefited from my work so the testimonials are that much better - you can feel the authenticity (or at least I can!).

Authenticity is very important for testimonials to be believable and it’s important that you start fostering relationships now because you never know when you might need to call on the support of your friends to help launch a product or endorse what you do.

In a lot of ways my sales page, including the testimonials, is the culmination of years of work. As a static point in time it may have looked easy from an outsider’s point of view for me to get feedback - I just emailed and wrote a blog post asking for testimonials - but it was only easy because of years of work.

You have to start planning for your future too, so start building relationships now.

Yaro Starak
Testimonial Giver

The more I use the Internet the more amazed (and frustrated) I am at how so many people are putting online websites that are built to make it difficult for viewers to actually do what the website is designed to do.

Here’s a quick checklist for anyone working online, especially those in Internet business who want their websites to sell - try and avoid these issues.

1. State what the website is aiming to achieve in the space “above the fold”. Above the fold is the area that a person sees without scrolling down. In this space it should be obvious why your website exists. Is it to educate? To sell? To have someone enter a sales funnel? What is the niche you are targeting? All this should be clear in one very quick glance. You can’t solve someone’s problem if they can’t even figure out what it is you do.
2. Use large fonts with lots of white space. This is a no brainer. You want your website to be read by as many people as possible so don’t use tiny fonts, don’t use clever fonts, just keep it simple, double spaced and big. You wouldn’t whisper your sales pitch to a potential customer in real life, so don’t do it online.
3. Don’t get fancy. Graphics are secondary to text. The words on the page are primary. Graphics should only be used to enhance the presentation of text and never hinder or distract the visitor from what they are supposed to do at your website - read it!
4. Use headings and bolds and lists, etc. This is something that must be drummed in over and over again - break up long towers of words into nice manageable blocks with headings and highlights. Combine this with the aforementioned large font and your website will be an efficient read and effective at getting your message across to as many people as possible. You want as many people as possible reading your website right?
5. If you are limited in skills and resources, just use one nice text-based page. You can have tremendous success online by using a webpage that is just a simple letter format. Follow the rules above and tell your story using just words. If you can’t do website design yourself or can’t afford it, you can keep things simple and still have a very effective message. It won’t be pretty, but like I said, pretty doesn’t sell - the words do.

Yaro Starak
Simpleton