Here you are trying to earn more income.  You are trying to do something that is not average.  You are investing your time… energy… money and resources towards starting or running your own business.  There are ups and there are downs… there are frustrations, obstacles, challenges, adversities, set-backs and anxiety along the journey.  You sacrifice television watching… your favorite shows… sports games… and more!  Here you are trying to do something special, something above average, something challenging… and then here comes all the minions!

What’s a minion?

Well, I call minions all those people we come across in our lives who are naysayers… who tell you, “you are wasting your time”. These are the folks who chastise you for chasing your dreams… who complain, moan and cut-you-down.  These are the negative, toxic, complainers… who ‘long-ago’ gave up on their dreams and God forbid you continue chasing yours.

These minions are the dream killers, the buzz killers, the antagonists in our lives who knock us down, laugh at us and call us names.  These are the people who are NOT ambitious at all.  These minions will rub salt on your wounds… plant seeds of doubt in your brain… wreck havoc on your goals and severely weaken your confidence!  Minions will destroy your “action-taking-abilities” and they will frustrate the daylights out of you.

Now, they may love you… might be friends or family… co-workers or associates… and they might think to themselves they are doing you some good, but they are usually causing more damage than good… and they are bringing their own shortcomings front-and-center into your world.  It’s hard to battle these minions because they outpopulate the ambitious people on this planet.  There’s like 1,271 minions to every 1 ambitious go-getter. (not a fact, I made that stat up).

Minions… love them or hate them, they are everywhere… in every nook and cranny… under every rock, around every corner and even on your cell phone contact list.  They are abundant… an army… and they are here to squash your dreams and keep you down to Earth (average).  They certainly do NOT want you to go-off getting all successful on them… because that will just make them feel even worse about themselves.

[minion]

Minion speaking to another minion:  “Hey, did you hear about Danny Boy?  He went on and made a hundred thousand dollars on the Interwebs, can you believe that?”

Minion response:  “Is that right?  Well, Danny Boy is probably doing something illegal and will end up in jail by the end of the year.  He aint’ to smart ya know and I’m sure he’ll blow all that money in a week.” [/minion]

So, here’s to all those snapper-heads who said we’d never get back up!  To all those naysayers who said we better stop setting ourselves up for disappointment.  To all the negative-spitting, pessimistic-vomiting, dream-stabbing, toxic-aura-wearing and stink-infested-goal-squashing-know-it-all’s… to all the countless people who have zero faith in YOU!  I’d like to say here’s my goal for 2012:

By the end of 2012, I want to be earning ONE MILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH!  I believe my partners and I can do it!  We will do it!

How you like them apples minions?

Let that goal be an INSPIRATION for you ambitious folks.  Let that resonate with you because I’m an average guy.  Let that sink in because ANYONE with a dream and a goal and the courage to attack those goals can do it too.  Let that stand as a measuring stick for “anything is possible for someone with a goal, a dream and an idea”.

Let that be a beacon for those who want more life… more freedom… abundance… wealth and more.  Let that goal be an empowerment for those who strive for a unique lifestyle.  Let it be encouragement for those who’ve seen me go from newbie to millions in a blink of an eye.  Let it be positivity for you — in a world jam-loaded with negativity.

Because listen my friend, all millionaires have insecurities too.  They have challenges, personal problems and adversities too.  We all do!  All millionaires have minions around them too.  Millionaires are normal people too.  Heck, I can’t even spell right or even design a website!  I can barely put together the bench-furniture my wife bought today.  Successful people have problems and challenges too… they have that little voice in the back of their head that says, “Hmm… maybe I am not good enough for that”… or “maybe that’s not going to work”. It’s no different.

Millionaires struggled to figure their businesses out… they bounced checks and had negative bank balances… they worry too.  They get frustrated too.  They are insecure about the same sorts of things as the rest are.  Millionaires are human.  Some cannot write… some cannot add… some cannot even talk.  There are blind millionaires, death millionaires… millionaires who cannot speak English… millionaires who suffer from depression or panic attacks… millionaires who have ADD, bad addictions, bad health habits, inferiority complexes, diseases, handicaps and major-major problems.  They are human too!!

There are teenagers who make six and seven figures now.  There are folks who were homeless and now rich!  There are senior citizens who have just now finally made it!  There are people from all walks of life who have made it too.  You can.  Anyone can.  The only difference between the millionaires and the rest of the ambitious people here is the millionaires kept getting back up!  They kept taking action despite all those fears and challenges and insecurities.  They kept faith even with personal problems.  They kept on with their dreams and kept believing in themselves despite the minions, nor the problems in their lives.  They just did it anyway!

That’s it my friend.  That’s the difference.  So, when minions or even your own personal challenges present themselves to you… keep faith.  Hold strong.  Be tough.  Be bold.  Get back up and try again, and again, and again.  And when you have given it your everything, do it again.  Then, when you have finally-finally reached a point of giving up, do it again.  And even after all that time, energy and frustration, when enough is enough, do it again.

Never, ever, ever, ever quit.  Do not let the minions win.  Get back up.  Keep trucking along with faith.  Keep pushing yourself out of the comfort zones.  Keep increasing your knowledge and skills.  Keep gaining experience.  Keep getting back up!  Keep learning, learning and learning.  Keep failing.  Keep getting back up.  Keep educating yourself, keep trying, keep learning, keep your faith.  Your faith is everything and do not let anyone, especially minions kill your faith.  Be strong, be honest, tell the truth, even to yourself, keep learning, keep getting back up!  Keep freaking trying!  Keep loving everyone, even minions.  Keep getting back up!  Keep believing in yourself.  Grow!

And when the money comes… and I mean when it comes by the truckload… when you achieve those goals… celebrate!  Then set new ones.

Happy New Year!

Eric Louviere

When it comes to copywriting, one of the most important pieces of the puzzle is your “headline”.  This is the main headline found at the top of your sales letter.  You see, people are busy.  They are busy jumping around from one thing to the next.  Visitors have multiple tabs open on their browsers.  Visitors have “Internet ADD” and they are going a million miles a second.  They switch from one thought to the next thought, to the next — FAST!

You have just a “quick moment” to capture them.  If your headline does it’s job right, the visitors “commit” to reading more.  They subconsiously “commit/invest” in reading the rest of your salesletter, or at least commit to checking it out further.  The headline is critical… paramount… crucial… and the headline is often the one part that most newer marketers screw up.

You see, most newer marketers write the headline first, then carry on writing the rest of their sales copy.  Once they get in the flow of writing, their writing gets better down the salesletter and they actually start writing better headlines further down the salespage.  When I critique copy, I spend most of the time looking at the headline and sub-headline.  I also spend a great deal of time looking at the “main offer”.

The main offer (or main hook) of the sales page is THE MOST IMPORTANT part to making a sale. If your stuff is not converting, then it’s likely the copywriting is bad… or if you have done a lot of hard work on the copy and it’s still not converting, likely your offer is just not compelling and people dont want to buy that thing.  An offer is critical and often times, all you have to do is tweak your “offer/hook/USP” and the thing will start selling.

Back to headlines…

I think most newer marketers screw-up their headlines.  I’ve seen the worst headlines on Earth and I often think those headlines were written in less than 5 minutes… never to be looked at or tweaked again.  I think it’s somewhat human nature to think once you’ve done something, it’s done.  It’s over with, not to be worked on again.  Well, in marketing that’s a big mistake.  HUGE mistake.  The name of the game in marketing is to “convert” and that requires tweaking and testing… it requires putting in a lot of time, effort, energy and even money to get your stuff to convert.  Because once it converts, you can drive traffic from all over the Internet!

Back to headlines…

One of the best ways I’ve ever heard “headlines” explained was from Tony Blake.  He told me years ago that a headline should “disrupt their flow”.  That’s an amazing way to explain “headlines” and it’s dead-spot-on!  Your headline should disrupt your visitors “flow”.  They are looking for answers, looking around, dancing around with “Internet ADD” and when they read your headline, it should disrupt that flow and get them to STOP that flow and read more!  Brilliant

When I write headlines, I write a bunch of them… tweak them… keep tweaking them… keep playing with them…. keep analyzing them… etc.  I’ll write a headline for an hour!  Then, leave it alone for a day, come back and tweak it again.  I’ve written headlines, only to come back a month later and think to myself, “That’s a crappy-ass headline!”  Then, redo it yet AGAIN!  Sometimes changing just one word of a headline can make a huge difference too!

Never.

Stop.

Testing.

And.

Tweaking!

Therefore, here are some of my favorite templates for writing headlines:

(1)   How To _____ Even If You Are _____ And ______.

For example:  How To Write Powerful Headlines Even If You Are Broke And Dumb!

(2)   How I Took A Bunch Of ______ and Showed Them How To ____ And How You Can Do The Exact Same Thing!

Example:  How I took a bunch of clueless newbies and showed them how to write powerful headlines… and how you can do the exact same thing right here and right now!

(4)   What If You Could ______!?!

(5)   Imagine If You Could _____!

Example:  What if you could make money without spending money!?!
this example is a question but I like to use two exclamation points and one question mark like so:  !?!
this is a great sub-headline template to use lower on your salesletter (in the body copy)
I also like using this one on sales videos!

(6)   Who Else ______

Example:  Who Else Wants To Convert Like A Super-Guru And Double Their Income Overnight!?!
Example:  Who Else Wants To Double Their Income Virtually Overnight Using Amazon Kindle!?!

(7)  Here’s A Formula That Is Helping People To _______

Example:  Here’s a formula that is helping newbies earn their first $1000 online the first week!

(8)   If You ________, then _______

Example:  If you want to earn money by this weekend, then this formula works even if you’ve never made squat!

(9)   Now You Can ____ even if you _____

Example: Now you can write converting sales copy, even if you cant spell or have never written a salesletter in your life!

(10)  Revealed!  A ____ Way To _____ Quickly And Easily!

Example:  REVEALED!  A Masterful Way To Earn Passive Income With Social Media, EASILY!

Now, of course there are many other headline templates beyond these listed above.  These just happen to be some of my favorites.  If you have more ideas for templates you like, post them in the comments and I might add them to this main post for you.  I’d also bookmark this post and use it as a reference.  Or you know what to do.

BONUS ADVANCED TIP:

One little known technique I love to use is making your salesletters more like an advertorial.  This is where your salesletter does not start out looking like a salesletter at all.  It looks more like an article you wrote.  These work!  You see, I learned from a great guy (Blair Warren) a little secret on persuasion that is HUGELY powerful!  Blair explains it like this:

“People are resistant to sales attempts”

“People are not resistant to sales attempts they do not detect”

Therefore, if you start out your advertorial or salesletter to seem more like an article (where it educates the reader) and then transitions into a sales pitch… that sales pitch will not seem like a “knock them over the head sales attempt” and seem more like a “recommendation”.  This works beautifully in your auto-responder emails too!  Here’s a little more on how to pull this off and an example:

“How To Write Compelling Headlines And Double Your Conversions Instantly!”
By Eric Louviere

By putting “By Eric Louviere” right under the headline, it already looks more like an article than a sales letter.  From there I’d start off by educating the reader and teaching stuff in my writing.  I’d take them by the hand and steward them through my “article” only to transition into a sales pitch (subtle sales pitch).  I’d use a transition word like “in fact”… like this here:

And that’s how you go about writing compelling headlines and increasing your conversions.  But it does not stop there at either.  There’s other tricks and techniques to increasing your conversions and the more tricks of the trade you know for persuasion, the more money you are going to make, period!  you should spend a great deal of your time learning copywriting, sales and persuasion because it will impact your bank account more than just about anything else you can do as a marketer!

In fact, I have an entire report based on copywriting and it has been a catalyst for thousands of marketers already!  This report covers all sorts of persuasion tricks and copywriting lessons.  Some have said it’s changed their markeketing lives and this report has received so many testimonials I’ve lost track.  you can get it here:

Ad Influence!

(now, that report is free but make believe it was for sale).

that technique of teaching (educating) and then transitioning into a sales pitch can sometimes out-convert the best “knock them over the head” sales pitches around!

All in all, even if you plan on never writing a lick of sales copy yourself, studying sales, copywriting and persuasion is one of the best things you could ever do to increase your income.  Most marketers who enter this industry probably spend less than 10% of their time, resources and energy on studying copywriting, sales, etc. and it should probably be the other way around… where 90% of their time, energy and focus is put on copywriting, persuasion and sales.  And, then, they wonder where all the money is hiding at.

Respectfully,

Eric Louviere

PS - Blair Warren has a book called “Forbidden Keys To Persuasion” and that is one of the best, if not the best book I have ever read on persuasion.  It’s deep… it’s pervocative… but it’s truly facinating and has changed my persuasion/copywriting forever!   In fact, here’s the testimonial I left him for the book and is found on his salesletter:

“This is the most intelligent and articulate book I have ever read on persuasion. It is truly masterful and in the right hands can transform not only your business and marketing, but you!

I give this book my five star endorsement, two thumbs way up and would recommend it to anyone and everyone who is actually ready to discover why people do the things they do, including buying or not buying your products. Just get it and read the living heck out of it.”

Eric Louviere – EricLouviere.com

PPS – You can get that book here (not an affiliate link either):

PERSUASION!

If you’d like to earn a lot more money, then what you need is a new, shiny, valuable, skill set or expertise.  For example, if you are an ambitious Internet Marketer and you want to start earning a real income, all you need to do is acquire a new skill set… or a new valuable expertise in one specific thing.  More specifically, you could focus on becoming real good at “social media” (Facebook and all that)… and then you would be WORTH more.  You could focus on getting good at writing, creating and shooting “sales videos” and become WORTH more very quickly.  You could focus on becoming good at writing, distributing and utilizing “Press Releases” and you’d be WORTH more quite quickly.

You could focus on becoming good at “YouTube and video marketing” and become WORTH more quite quickly.  You could focus on becoming good at CPA offers and CPA (cost per action) marketing and be WORTH more quite quickly.  You could focus on becoming good at driving traffic with PPC with Bing and become WORTH more quite quickly.  You could focus on becoming good at WordPress Blogs and Plugins and become WORTH more quite quickly.

Or, if you have a day job, you can focus on becoming good at something (like graphic art for example) and become WORTH more quite quickly (or bookkeeping, sales, spreadsheets, whatever).  You could add one specific skill set or expertise and quickly be worth more than YOUR BOSS!  You can add one skill or expertise and price yourself out of that job and into a higher paying (more demand) job.

If you own a small business, and want to earn more profits, you could be one skill or expertise away from doing just that — very quickly.  For example, any time or energy you put into YOURSELF can pay huge dividends.  Imagine you own a small business and you have 5 sales people who work for you.  You take my recommendation and purchase “How to master the art of selling anything” by Tom Hopkins.  You go through that program, study what is taught and poof!  Your salespeople will not know what hit them.  Their sales skyrocket, your income skyrockets and you send me Christmas cards every year from that point forward.

Anyone can get good at something worthy.  Anyone can get good at a new skill set, or expertise.  There is an abundance of information everywhere.  I mean, there’s that Internet thing that exists now (Information Super Highway anyone?)… and there’s a bookstore on every corner.  This is the information revolution… the information boom… the information bubble… and there’s no excuses for NOT increasing your skills, knowledge and expertise.  Anyone with a pulse can do so.  quickly too

But, the truth is… most people are “receivers” in life.  They just take and accept what life gives them.  They coast through life and take the path of least resistance.  Most are lazy… too lazy to focus.  The number one challenge I’ve listened to over the past 5 years… or excuse… from thousands of ambitious wanna-be Internet Marketers is a lack of “focus”.  By FAR, the number one challenge people have in this market is a “lack of focus”.  They say things like:

• I have information overload
• I am paralyzed with analysis
• I dont have enough time
• I dont have enough money
• I dont have the skills
• I dont know how to get started
• I’m lost
• I dont know how to do ____(blank) yet
• and so on

All are excuses.  Here’s what is really being said:

• I’m lazy
• I dont apply myself
• I dont try
• I dont put in effort
• I dont like to think
• I dont like to think for myself
• I dont want to have to figure anything out by myself
• I dont want to learn or educate myself
• I’m full of fears
• I’m just bored and this Internet Marketing thing is kinda entertaining
• I want someone to do it for me.
• I want someone to show me everything, then do it for me too.  yeah
• I dont WANT to invest the money, I’d rather buy pizza and video games
• Take care of me

But, really, although I’m being hardcore here, it’s on purpose… because it opens the eyes to the possibilities of creating new thoughts… new beliefs… and then new habits.  If you want to make more money, make yourself more valuable.  More money is first found on the inside with a new skill set or new expertise in something that is in DEMAND.  Many small businesses and business people MUST recreate themselves every two years or so just to stay on top.  this is a must in a fast moving, ever changing world we live in.  If you do not recreate yourself ongoing… with new skills or expertise… then everything starts to die… shrivel up… and rot away.

Even gurus must recreate themselves.  I mean, when Adsense does not work as well as it did, and you were the Adsense King, then guess what?  Time to become the Facebook King or Google Plus King!  All a guru or maven must do is master a new skill set or expertise.  For example, if I immersed myself into “Social Media”… it would not take long before I had a full blown course on Social Media.  If I mastered “How To Earn Quick Money With Amazon Kindle”… it would not be long before I had an Amazon Kindle Club Membership for $47 per month!

As the world turns, so should you.

You are one new skill set or expertise away from a windfall of new income!  But can you focus?

~Eric Louviere

Last time, I posted about “Failure” and some people chimed in with some great comments to that post.  Mike Carl listed out a lot of fears in his comment and others had some savvy responses.  In that post I mentioned the saying “Fortune Favors The Bold!” and that is one of my favorite quotes of all time.  It just brings out a sense of “courage” to me when I read that quote.  It makes me feel strong, bold, courageous and confident!

When I think about the millionaire marketers and business people I’ve met and known, nothing stands out more to me than their own courage and self-confidence in what they do and the actions they take.  I mean, even if these achievers are not sure their action will work or if it is even a calculated risk, they believe they can do it and make it work.

One of the first millionaires I ever met told me something I’ve always remembered.  It was kinda strange, but it certainly has been with me every since and that was almost 15 years ago now.  He said that his attitude was one where he would cut a check for $20,000 even if he did not have 20k in the bank.  He said he knew he had a day or two to go make that 20k and he was confident he could do that.  He said that’s the mentality of a go-getter millionaire!  wow

I had no idea what that meant at the time, but now I do.

(1) He had a business where he could “put it into overdrive” and make that money in a day.  He had a system (a business) that was capable of producing new revenue (profits) that could equal 20k in a single day.  He was a hard worker, a mover and shaker and he was hugely confident.  I used to say he “drank his own cool-aid” when describing him.  Fortune does indeed favor the bold.

(2) He had the confidence and was willing to take a risk.

(3) He thrived on putting his back against the wall — so he could come out swinging and fighting.  I understand this better now too.

It’s not uncommon for a successful business person to put themselves in a position where they MUST come out fighting and where their back is against the wall.  These people are known to put themselves in a tight-spot where they must defy the odds and triumph in the face of adversity.  Why is this?  Why does this happen?  I’ve seen it happen many times.  But why??

For me, I’ve done this myself.  I’m not 100% sure why.  Maybe you know and can shed some light on this phenomena.  Here’s what I think… I think it’s because we realize we must escape our current comfort zones and we know if we put our backs against the wall, we will force ourselves to escape our current comfort zones.  It’s the underdog mentality.  Is this just me that feels and notices this, or what?

Fortune does indeed favor the bold.

Therefore, one of the most profound characteristics of millionaires and highly successful people is:  SELF-CONFIDENCE!  Can self-confidence be taught?  Can it be coached?  Can it be learned?  Is self-confidence something some people are just born with, or raised with?  Or, can it be learned and achieved?

Well, I believe it can be learned.  I know it can.  I’ve lived it.  Besides, at times I’m shy and other times I’m far from shy.  At times I have the highest self-confidence in the world and border on cocky and arrogant.  Other times, I’m as humble and shy and insecure as can be.  Sometimes I drink my own kool-aid and believe I can earn 100 million per year in business and other times I am more on ground level… not in the clouds.

So, yes it can be learned.  I remember when I did my first tele-seminar in front a large audience.  I was intimidated, shy and NOT confident at all.  Well, I guess I was enough confident to do it, but it was terrible.  Now, today, I can do them in my sleep.  YES, self-confidence can be learned and I’ll give you some tips on how to boost your own in a second.

But why is this important?  It’s important to boost your own self-confidence because I believe with self-confidence comes faith and courage.  With faith and courage, you take action.  When you take action, you get results (good or bad).  When you get results, you can tweak those results (some would call that failure). When you tweak results and stick to something, you succeed.  eventually.  if you dont quit.

The root of all of this, is indeed courage and self-confidence.  Think about it.  It’s pretty hard for someone — who has barely made 30k a year — to become a millionaire, if that person does not have self-confidence.  How would that person ever take any action without it? How would that person EVER overcome adversities or obstacles or problems or set-backs (some would call those failures)?  How would that person handle ANY success they luckily get along the journey?  Would that person sabotage their success?  Probably huh?

A person without self-confidence — or courage — would be hard-pressed to find long-term success in just about anything, right?  It would be hard to sustain success or achieve it at all.  Ever met an insecure millionaire?  I have, all of them are!  They are just not insecure about what they do to earn money!!!

We’re all insecure at some things.  I bet if you put me in an airplane, 20,000 feet up, and asked me to jump out with a parachute, I’d probably cry like a little baby.  (1) I dont like heights too much and (2) I’m not jumping out of some damn plane ok!?!

HOWEVER, put me in a “make money” spot and I’ll make some damn money baby!  I’ll do it like a champ!  Put me in a tight spot money wise and I’ll come out swinging like a honey badger on steroids.  Cash flow is addictive and boy, I can be very good at it.  I’m confident in it.

Can it be learned?  Can self confidence be learned?  YES!  Here are some tips on boosting your self-confidence:

(1) Build relationships with people who are already confident in the area you want to be confident in!  Be around them, hang around them, collaborate with them, befriend them, emulate them, mastermind with them, get mentored by them, ask them.

(2) WRITE down your goals every day!  I know, you’ve heard this one about ten million times, but IT WORKS!  If you know where you want to go, you’ll get there.  Most dont know where they want to go, most never write down their goals.  Try it.  I double dog dare you.  Do it right now.  If you ever feel insecure about something you want, try this:  Write down your goals.  You’ll feel like a million bucks afterwards.  And if not, you’ll certainly feel more self-confident.

(3) Think about what you want not what you don’t want.  You always have a choice here on this one.  You do.  You have a choice as to how to think and there’s usually only two ways to think:  What you want or what you don’t want.  If you practice on ONLY thinking of what you want and NOT what you don’t want, you’ll change your life!  seriously.  Heck, I should write a post (or a book) about this topic.  For example (I dont have enough money) compared to (I want more money)…. or (I cannot afford this) compared to (I want to afford this).  Isnt that a total change in your perspective?  If it isnt then think about this more and stay tuned because I will write more about this topic soon!   However, this alone can boost self-confidence

(4) Develop faith.  However you can boost your faith, that’s what you should do.  Life is a very strange and mysterious thing, and it’s absolutely amazing what you can accomplish if you have faith.  AND, if you don’t believe in all that “faith” stuff, then my advice is to REALLY-REALLY-REALLY focus on self-confidence big time, because you’re going to need it… if you have no belief in “faith”.  I”m not saying that to be sarcastic.  I’m saying that because it’s true.  the one universal law of the universe is math.  You can not believe in religion, or the law of attraction, or any of that “faith” based stuff and that’s perfectly fine… but you’ve got to believe in math.  And, with math, you have to take action to produce “mathematical results”.  In order to take that action, you must have self-confidence.  So, self-confidence becomes critical, paramount, crucial to success/achievement.

(5) Work harder than everyone else.  If you work harder than everyone else, you’ll gain confidence in anything.  In other words, if you worked harder than everyone else at copywriting, you’d make a ton of money.  You’d study persuasion, writing, copywriting, sales and do all of this so much… and work so hard… you’d be confident at it.  If you work hard to be a runner and you run every day… running a mile will be childs play to you.  You’d run that mile and barely break a sweat.  You’d be confident running a mile, because you often run 5 miles or more!

Millionaires take action at what they are confident in despite fears, obstacles, adversities, problems or what anyone else on the planet says.  They have ultimate self-confidence in something that produces income.  If you are lacking in the “income” arena, then develop stronger self-confidence.  By doing that, you’ll become a millionaire on the inside first… then the outside (dollars) will quickly follow… and by the truckload!

Got Courage?

Eric Louviere

PS - How can people boost their own self-confidence, courage, faith, etc?  How can people increase their fortune?

Have you ever thought about embracing failure?  I mean, to actually welcome it with open arms and appreciate it for it’s true beauty and mystery?  Have you ever been knocked off your feet… been screwed over by someone… lost it all… made huge mistakes… beat yourself up about things so much it makes you a walking-wreck-of-emotional-horror?

Have you ever been wounded so badly, you develop a fear that is so encompassing it stops you in your tracks and prevents you from getting back on the horse at all?  Have you ever had such a huge failure or mistake that you carry it with you everywhere?  I mean, does that mistake or problem or emotional scar follow you everywhere and all the time, even when you sleep and at every waken moment?

Do you have an emotional scar that’s so deep it seems permanent and handicaps you from achieving your dreams/goals — or even functioning at all?  Well, not only does everyone fail and has problems and adversities, but we all have one major thing in common with each other… we’re human.

You know that old saying that it’s not what happens to you that is important, but how you react to what happens that’s truly important?  I believe it’s true.  Your resolve to get back on the horse… your determination to push through adversities and face fears… shapes success and achievement.  Therefore, failure is a part of the footsteps towards success.  Your willingness to take leaps of faith, despite the chance of failure, shapes success.

You know that old saying, “to get the fruit, you must go out on the limb” or something like that… well I believe that too.  I call it a leap of faith.  Some may even call it taking a risk.  When people who reached 100 years of age were surveyed, one of the questions asked was what they regretted in their lives (looking back over those 100 years) and one of the most common answers was they regretted not risking more in their past.

Pretend for a moment you are 100 years old.  Your 1o1st birthday is next.  At any second, you could be gone from this planet.  That breath you just took in, could have been your last.  When you wake up in the morning, as a 100 year old, you’re thankful you get to see another morning on planet Earth.  You are 100 years old right now (for pretend — unless you really are 100 years old, then congrats on a long life journey).

Now, think back over your 100 years of life.  Don’t you wish you would have risked more??  Doesn’t those little pesky adversities and fears seem microscopic now?  I mean, think about the things that hold most people back from taking leaps of faith… those things dont seem so BIG now do they?  I mean, are you really afraid of what people will think now?  Are you really still worried about how you look on video… how well you write… how smart or good looking you are… about an accent you might have… about a lack of time to implement things?  NO, it should not feel so BIG  and so HARD to take action because of fears of continued failure.

Failure is just another opportunity to try again but better the next time around.  You see, many times, if you have true faith, failure can be an opportunity for something better.  Ever heard of the saying… “Thank God For unanswered prayers”?  Have you ever had something that seems bad happen, only to later find you are damn grateful that bad thing happened?

I mean, I wanted to be a pro baseball player.  Looking back now, maybe I would not have met my wife if that dream had come true.  Or, I remember not getting this one awesome job I applied for.  I really-really wanted it and when I did not get it, I was down and out, and completely upset.  I failed.

But, I’m now extremely grateful I did not get that job.  Maybe… just maybe… if I would have gotten that job, I would still be at that job earning 75k per year, instead of having many (single) months where I’ve earned that much online!  Maybe I’d be scraping by, maybe I would have gotten fired.  Maybe it would have been so stressful I got sick.  Who knows?

In the book, “The Science Of Getting Rich”, the writings explain how when you have faith and follow the principles in that book, you are to be grateful when something you want does not work out.  It says to be thankful and have faith that something better is to come.  Do you believe that kind of stuff?  I do.  It has worked for me and I think it has worked for millions and millions of other people too, even people who do not realize what happened.

Failure?  Are you kidding?  It’s part of the journey of life.  Want more life?  Take more leaps of faith DESPITE that risk of failure.  You can take calculated risks, smart moves, smart action steps, but don’t ever let the fear of failing prevent you from achieving your dreams and goals.  Take leaps of faith.  Success and abundance is found on the other side of taking leaps of faith.  When you take action, you set everything in motion for you.  Lack of taking action keeps you right where you are and right where you’ve been.

Fortune favors the bold.

Just do it.

Everyday is Christmas!

Respectfully,

Eric Louviere

PS – how you approach and think about failure can shape your entire life.  Sometimes just tweaking the way you “think” about failure is all it takes to explode your success and achieve dreams.  How should people view failure?

Visit http://unbreakablesociety.com/forum.php to participate in the forums.

If you are like most people who read my stuff, then you are someone who is looking to either make your first income online ever… or looking to INCREASE YOUR INCOME even higher.  Well, if you are one who wants to make even more money and believe you should and can make more money… lots more money… then I think you’ll dig what I have to say here.

When you take a strong look at your income/revenue, you’ll notice that you have a system that is working.  That system is producing income.  You’ve got the system down and it’s nice.  You see many more people out there struggling to even believe this online marketing  thing is real or not.  But make no mistake about it, you’re making some cash and you are starting to really want to make even more than ever.  But how?

This past weekend I went to the pen and notebook to just think.  I like doing that in the quiet and many times I get some really big breakthroughs doing that.  However, what’s really weird is even if I spend an hour consumed in my thoughts, the really big breakthroughs come later one when I’m doing something else… like taking a shower, or jogging (ok walking)… or driving… or cleaning… or watching a movie.  Weird huh?

Well, I took a strong hard look at the past few years of making money online and tried to identify the true “money sources”… and narrow-in on those sources… and think of how I can increase those money sources even more.  Mo Money!

Weird thing is, it’s not rocket science at all, but it is indeed powerful.  Lets take a look at the main areas real fast:

MORE CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS

Sounds like common sense doesn’t it?  Wrong.  It’s not.  First, do you even think of your customers as clients?  Do you cherish them?  Do you love them?  I know we all hate the haters we get, so ignore them to an extent (your attitude wise)… and only use haters to improve your game.  Do not let them distract, limit, or persuade you to slow your roll.

But customers (clients)… do you cherish them enough?  In the world of quick transactions and automated income, and outsourced Filipinos, and ebooks, and software, it’s easy to ignore them and forget they even exist as people.  But, if you cherish them and love them, and give so much they are blown away by you, how can you help but to make a crap load more money?  A happy customer (client) is much easier to sell other stuff than it is to gain a brand new customer (client)… right?

Therefore, one avenue for more revenue to your bank account is to cherish your clients, treat them better than anyone else does, give, give, give… and keep giving.  Because, if you love them… they’ll love YOU!

Get more clients.  How?  Well, look at all the resources and areas and distribution avenues and opportunities available to you.  Chances are, if you’ve mastered one system/model for making money online, you ONLY have one or maybe two avenues for generating new customers.

Perhaps, your only way of getting new customers is through SEO.  That would mean there’s an abundance of opportunity for you to gain more new customers through Paid Traffic… Solo Ads… List Swaps… Banners… etc.  Or, perhaps you have TWO avenues (SEO and paid traffic).  What else could you do?  Affiliates maybe?  Joint Ventures perhaps?  Referrals possibly?  Direct mail even?  Integration you think?

Adding just one other avenue of “getting clients” can severely increase your overall income deposited into your bank account.  This alone can double, triple or more… your cash!

(you’re welcome).

LTV BABY!

Want even more cash?  Increase the lifetime value of your customers (LTV).  If you’re making some money online, chances are you have a system that’s working for you.  If your system involves gaining “customers”… then this is a solid gold mine waiting for you to do something about it.  However, if your system is just making money off of people clicking links (Adsense for example)… then perhaps your tripled income will come from changing your business model and increasing your chances for even more income.

Let’s assume you have an info product, and if you don’t, then you need some.  That move alone can change your life.  So, you have an ebook or video course or something.  Now, focus on increasing the LTV of those customers you have and get.  Sound like common sense?  NOT EVEN!

Millions and millions of online businesses have no backend, have no up-sells, have nothing else they sell their customers other than their main product.  These businesses could easily add products (more expensive products)… and could even add other people’s products (as an affiliate or Joint venture partner).

If one customer buys from you at around $50 per sale, just adding a couple other products… even a high ticket one that’s much more expensive, could increase your income 8 times or more!!  And, if you are a consultant, or someone looking to make their first bucks online, then HELLO?!  Did you catch the part where I said millions and millions of online businesses have no backend?  BINGO and money in da bank my friend!

In fact, I heard of a business here in Austin, TX that has generated millions of dollars very quickly by just doing THAT… increasing the revenue for online businesses that are already established.  They have no backends brotha’

or sista’

OTHER!

There are some other areas identified for increasing income big time.  I’m not going to share them on this post, but might in the next post or future posts.  However, I’d love to hear what you think of.  If you come up with some other areas, let’s hear them.  What are some ways to increase your income?  I’ve got a list and I’m checking it twice!

Those 6 or 7 of you who read my blog, post your comments and lets see how they shake out.

After working with tons of customers over the years, I’ve paid close attention to what makes people tick.  I’ve watched closely to see the differences between those who achieve good results and those who never do get over the hump.  I’d like to think I’ve identified many different areas or traits, or whatever you want to label it, as to the differences.

One of the MAIN areas I’ve witnessed about a gillion times is this trait:

Resourcefulness!

I think that’s the best word to describe it.  I’m not sure if there’s a better word that describes what I’m referring to here, but so far, that’s the best word I’ve found.  Some people have it… most don’t.  Unfortunately for the great many who DO NOT have resourcefulness, good results are seldom achieved.

Basically, it means to “figure it out”.

Let me explain… many people in this business who are trying to get over the hump or make their first breakthrough dollars online… instinctively look to someone else to do it for them.  Why not, most of us are used to people paying us a paycheck every two weeks, telling us when we can or cannot take vacations, writing us up, reprimanding us, giving us speeding tickets, running our lives and restricting what we do.

Therefore, we often operate in this box… where we expect things to just be given to us.  We don’t like to think for ourselves, and many of us expect every single detail or thought to be answered by someone else.  Sure, if you buy a product on how to make money online, you should expect a lot of details and instructions.

However, it’s almost impossible for every product creator to think of every single thought or detail that may or may not come up or need to be answered by customers who buy that product.  This is understandable of course, but what separates the successful from the non-successful is resourcefulness.

You see, those who succeed figure out those missing details or they fill in the blanks by figuring it out themselves.  They think about the challenges or obstacles and problem solve.  They see a challenge and dont see a failure.  They look for ways around, over or through the obstacle.  Nothing is perfect and no two businesses are often identical.  If I followed a step-by-step blueprint and you followed that exact same blueprint, there’s a pretty good chance we’d still do things a bit differently.

Maybe I write bad copy, or perhaps your graphics look better.  Maybe I’m good at engaging my visitors with my voice and videos.  Maybe you’re good at capturing them with compelling copywriting.  Maybe I use Google Adwords and you use Yahoo to drive traffic.  Maybe I hate Facebook and you love it to death?

The point here is, those who can figure it out themselves and make it work, any means necessary, are often the ones who succeed.  Those who find a negative, or obstacle, or challenge in pretty much everything… and use those obstacles or problems as excuses to quit and move on to something else, often fail.

Look, there’s always an answer.  There’s always a way.  There’s always an opportunity to adapt.  And, in every failure there’s opportunity.  Therefore, the next time you feel frustrated that you don’t have ALL of the answers and all the details covered and thought of for you, instead of remaining frustrated or quitting, focus on how YOU can figure it out yourself… or find a way over or under, around, or through any obstacle.

This may sound simple and obvious to you, but to many-many out there, this one major trait, “resourcefulness” is the major road block that’s keeping them down.  You see, for many out there, they do not even ask questions.  They do not seek answers to the pieces of the puzzle they are missing.  They dont even Google it! They just chalk it up as yet another opportunity that’s not for them… another opportunity they wasted their time (or money) on… another opportunity to seek/search some other opportunity that might be a better fit.

For me, I had problems with technical stuff (still sort of do).  For a while, that one challenge has held me back.  I’ve noticed it holds many back.  It does not have to.  There are plenty of people who can do it for you.  I’ve seen the same thing with copywriting and conversions.  Most people suck at it, yet they continue to write their own copy… and then wonder why they cannot convert.  Conversions are a major obstacle to succeeding online. A large percentage of the market is totally terrible at it,  yet they cannot afford to pay someone to do it for them, so they are stuck.

Some people go years and years in this market with the same major problem preventing them from succeeding — conversions!  Yet, years later, they still cannot afford to hire someone to do it for them… and they have not figured out a way to cover this weakness.

What would a resourceful person do?

Ok, I’m over it.  I’m done.  It’s not worth it.  Time to move on and focus on my own things instead of worrying about what other people I have no control over are doing.  It’s not my mess to clean up and besides, I CANT clean it up.  I’m not perfect either (nobody is) but when people blatantly lie — and even laugh at the fact they are lying in the face of the customers who buy their lies — it just bugs the daylights out of me.  So, I plan on moving on… water under the bridge… let the market correct itself on it’s own (which it will)… and let there be light!

Let there be light in the form of: VALUE

Yes, the value train is coming.  Soon (very soon) the market will get flooded with great value at affordable prices, I say!  I can feel it.  It’s coming.  I have seen the future and it comes beautifully laced with gold and silver… treasure for all who are left after the bulls##t storm has left us.  Long gone will be the lies, cheats and crap products.  What will be left standing is value.  Sure, I expect a few crap products here and there (crap products = outright lies) to surface forever.  But, the RUSH/FLOOD/HAMMERING of crap products in our market will soon die off and be replaced with good old fashioned value.

And what about the star marketers who salvaged their lists (souls) to scramble to earn money by (if you cant beat them join them) marketing those crap offers — EVEN WHEN THEY KNEW AHEAD OF TIME THEY WERE PROMOTING CRAP OFFERS? Well, they’ll have to do some salvaging right?  And that will come in the form of free valuable content, goodwill and “giving”.  It’s coming.  I’ve seen it.  Buulieve it.

But, before the flood of crap-offers disappear and get slapped silly from all directions… I’d like to just leave this right here for you:  My custom created crap product swipe copy example of said crap products (enjoy!)

Crap Product Copywriting Example:

“How To Extort, Launder and Screw Your Market And Customers

With Fake Names, Paid Actors, Crap Products and Bold Faced Lies!”

The Step-By-Step Guide On How NOT To Market, How To Kill Your
Lifetime Customer Value And Create A Mob Of Pissed Off People, Pitchforks And All!

PLUS – How To Do It All… While High As A Kite On Meth & Coke!”

From the desks of:  Bugsy Segal, Jimmy Two Times, John Gotti & Charles Manson

Dear Soon-To-Be-Ripped-Off-Customer,

Before I get into what this product is, let me first show you a bunch of fake screen shots of my income.  See?  I’m rich.  I am clearly showing you fake screen shots of how I made all this money daily on clickbank.  Well, actually, this screen shot is not fake right here, it’s real… it’s real because I made that money on my last crap product launch.  that’s right, I did not make that money from the technique I’m about to reveal to you (actually i never do)… but I made that money by doing a launch.  So, that one is real.  This other one is real too, but it’s not mine, it’s my friends’.  He wont care if I use it because he’s in jail right now anyway.

Because you see, I’ve been at this for a long time.  I”ve failed miserably for years.  I never made a dime until I started lying!  I mean, as soon as I lied, I made money.  I just made up a bunch of lies, used fake screen shots and made up some crazy story about how I so-called stumbled upon some treasure map I found from some guru in the mountains of Packistan and now have the golden goose of making money online.

Yes, that’s right!  I made up the entire story… the mountains… the guru… even the goose!

The fact is, I have no Earthly idea how to market or make money online other than by selling bold faced lies.  AND, this has made me $1,000,000 (one million dollars!).  That’s a lot of money my ripped-off-friend and I’ve spent every dime I’ve made on partying like it’s 1999.

Additionally, what’s really interesting, is out of that one million dollars, I only got to keep around $22,000 of it.  Yeah, sucks because I had an 82% refund rate and had to pay affiliates 50% of the remaining portion.  Oh, and I have yet to actually get that $22,000 because it’s frozen.  They are holding the funds because of my astronomical refund rate.  I guess they are realizing my products dont have any value and that I am ripping people off so bad.  Funny huh?  I’m laughing out loud at the very moment.  Damn this is funny.

But that’s OK, because today… RIGHT NOW… I have yet ANOTHER rip off for you to jump on!  But, you’ll have to hurry because I’m only going to sell 125 of these (not really, I’m going to sell 5,000 of them and get refunded on all of them but the 125 units).  But I digress.

Look, listen ripped off friend, I am using fake names right now.  I mean, most of these names are dead or in prison…

Understand that I’m just blatantly ripping you off and it’s not your fault.  It’s not your fault you are getting ripped off.  It’s my fault.  So, don’t worry about buying this product and getting any value out of it, because you’re not!  Got it?  Now take action and buy.

OH, you might be wondering what this product even is.  Still here?  Great, that means you’re motivated.  It means you are finally ready to get ripped off royally and I’m very glad to be the one who does it to you.  Sound good?  It should because I’m good at lying (not really but I sure pay someone well to lie for me really well and even hire paid actors to do my ripping off words for me).

Anyway, back to the product.

HERE’S WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET:

Before I tell you what you’re going to get… let me tell you how I stumbled upon this great loophole for getting money from Yahoo!  it’s an amazing story and I’m sure you’re not going to believe it, but here it goes…  I met a man from Nigeria.  He emailed me and said he had 25 million dollars in a Cayman bank account.  But in his country they will not let him receive the cash.  When I asked him how he made his money, he said with Internet Marketing.  He had learned from the Warrior Forum how to run WSO’s and from that, he’s a multi millionaire.

He wanted me to retrieve the money for him (from Cayman islands) because he could not do it himself.  And for doing that, I’d receive a percentage of the money.  BUT INSTEAD of taking an easy million dollar finders fee, I got smart.  I negotiated that instead of receiving 1 million dollars in cash, that he would teach me his secret loophole formula for making millions in Internet Marketing.  He Agreed!  Wow!  Bam!  Swoosh!

Well, he taught that loophole to me and I’m now going to provide you with an ancient secret loophole for making billions of trillions of dollars.  YES, you read that right.  You get the entire formula right now… and I’m not going to charge you $1,000,000 for it (although its worth every penny of that million bucks).  No, no!  You get for far cheaper than that (if you are lucky enough to be one of the 125 spots).  YES, you get it all for the dirt cheap (limited) price of only…..

…wait for it

… wait for it

Yes, you get it all for the dirt cheap price of only………. $35!

Wow!  Now, that’s cheap enough for you to just cast off and not ask for a refund.

It’s low enough for you to buy on impulse thinking “ah, it’s only $35 what the heck”.  It’s cheap enough for you to buy — just in case I’m NOT lying to you.  It’s cheap enough to buy and then hopefully forget to ask for a refund.  Hey, we’re all very distracted in our lives.  Yes, it’s cheap and it’s a lie… but it comes with software I paid $50 to get created.  So, it’s got to be worth something huh?  Well, the guy I paid ran off with the $50 bucks and never finished the script, but I’m selling it anyway.  It’s likely you’ll give up trying to make the script work anyway and think it’s your fault when really, it’s ALL FREAKING MINE! YAAAH

So, buy now.  right now.  you only have 45 seconds left on my countdown script that cost more than the entire product you’re about to buy.  Buy now!  Like that buy now button?  It was custom created and also cost more than the product you’re about to get.  See that fake screen shot?  Yep, it costs more too.  My $8 domain name cost more in fact.

Buy Now,

Jimmy Two Times

PS – Stay tuned for my next crap product.  Look for the fake name of Bernie Madoff.  hehe, that’s a killer fake name huh?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++end of crap product copywriting example

Ok, hopefully that’s the last I’m going to post here about crap products.  I got it out of my system.  I wrote all of that in about 10 minutes.  I feel better.  And, to the crap product creators… I don’t understand why you don’t just provide value?  It’s not that hard to provide value.  Just provide more value than the price tag you’re asking for.  that’s it.

Later

Last post we talked about being a business owner instead of a pipe-dreamer.  If you have not read that post, you should.  It’s eye opening and the feedback from it has been great.  There is a lot of heavy info in that post — if I do say so myself.  On this post, I want to talk about something that severely holds people back from achievement in business success… and that’s being worthy OF THAT SUCCESS!

Let me explain… most people out there have the wrong belief-system when it comes to money.  They might have been taught that money is bad… that money is evil… that only bad people make lots of money and they do bad things to get it… that rich people are crooks and poor people are good.  Look, even if you don’t think that now and chalk it up as complete nonsense now in your life, what about the conditioned thoughts from years and years of your past??

If you are in the clear and dont have that belief, great for you.  You are lucky because MOST people dont. Even though they may not admit it, or even realize it yet, many people have a hidden belief that “they are not worthy” yet.  The keyword there is… YET!

Ok, this is deep and I admit that, but hang with me here because it’s powerful.

You see, most people feel they are not worthy (YET). They think they have to pay some kind of price first… earn their stripes… no pain no gain… put in the time (years) first… and so on.  In the Internet Marketing community, many have the belief they have to “have a known name” first… or have earned a substantial income first… or have to prove themselves in the eyes of the market first… or impress their peers first… before the true wealth can come.

Does that make sense?  It’s a bit hard to explain, but I’m trying.  Keep reading…

Even though most everyone wants to achieve a substantial income… have freedom… be secure and comfortable with their own online business, most feel they have to do something first to be worthy of that substantial income.  They have to pay some kind of price, they think.  If that resonates with you and makes sense and you understand what I’m talking about, then let me be the one to tell you…. It’s all bullshit.

You don’t need to do a damn thing to earn your stripes.  You don’t need to pay any kind of price and you don’t have to put in years and years of failure before you hit the big time.  That’s all beliefs and those beliefs are dead wrong.  Seriously.  There’s no prerequisite on hours you have to work in order to earn a substantial income.  There’s no “years worth of experience” necessary in the business world.  Money does not care if you are 14 years old or 84 years old.  Money does not care if you have 10 years experience in this IM business or 10 weeks experience.

This is true.  Money does not care if you are black or white, red or green… if you are articulate, beautiful, smart or funny.  Money does not care if you are talented, good at tech stuff, a good copywriter or a good friend.  Money does not care if you are mean, nice, happy or sad.  Money does not care who your parents are, how you were raised, what college you went to, your grades, your hobbies, your favorite TV shows, your addictions, your habits, your available time, your boss, job or if some bully in 1st grade punched you in the nose and took all your lunch money!

Money does not care about your most embarrassing moments… your biggest failures… or if you even got in trouble with underage drinking (keg stands in college during spring break).  Money just DOES NOT CARE about all that stuff.  AND, it just does not matter.  Not one bit.  Now, it may matter to YOU, but it does not matter to money.  And, money is not evil — unless you think it is.

So what does “money” care about?  Nothing.  Money is just dirty paper and a symbol.

However… to get money and keep money, there are laws and those laws abide by the universal laws of “mathematics”.  Yep, and money does not care if you failed algebra ten times.  The point is, all the other stuff, the “not feeling worthy (yet) stuff”, is all in ya’ head.  Money does not care, so why should you?  You are “worthy” as soon as you say you are.  You are worthy of making even a million dollars per year — if you believe you are.  Heck, even if you don’t believe you are… but still do the right things to earn that money, you’ll make that money anyway, despite your feeling of “not being worthy yet”… because you simply “DID” the right things to earn that money.

Money does not care about feelings.  So however you feel, or whatever emotions dominate your life and thinking… money is made despite how you feel.  Money does not care and is not made because you feel good or feel bad.  Money is made because you “do things”.  You “cause” money to happen (cause and effect).  You make money because you did something that caused money to be spent in your direction.  You deposit money into your bank account because you did something to create/generate that money.

DESPITE IF YOU ARE WORTHY OR NOT!

Understand?

So, let me say this… in order to make more money, and take those “money making” actions that causes money to flow to you, you have to “cause” money to happen.  One of the main reasons people dont “cause” money to happen is because they dont feel worthy (yet) of taking those actions to CAUSE money to flow to them.  Because they dont feel worthy yet, they put off those actions.

Because they dont feel worthy yet, they refrain from doing those things that cause money to flow to them.  Because they dont feel worthy yet, they are not worthy yet.  You are not worthy if you say to yourself that you are not worthy yet.  You are not worthy yet if you BELIEVE you are not worthy yet.

And, if you continue to think you are not worthy yet, you’re not.  You’ll never be worthy yet, until you believe you are worthy.  When will that be?  Have you met people in this community who have been at this for 10 years?  AND, they still don’t make any money?  Guess what???  They continue to put up obstacles, barriers and imaginary “reasons” why they are still not worthy………………….yet.

~Eric Louviere