Hector Cuevas | Blogging & Online Marketing Tips For Entrepreneurs

The 1,062 Words Guide To Creating An “Almost Perfect” Sales Process

Hector Cuevas — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:13:29 +0000

First, a teaser. I’m working on a brand new training program on how to build an effective blog that generates leads, gets comments & builds an audience. Watch out for that..

anyhow – while working on it, I was thinking about the sales process that I created for my first product and wondering if there’s anything I can tweak to make it better.

THEN, I figured that many of you might be thinking about creating and offering a product of your own, SO… this is what this post is all about and I hope you find it useful.

The Anatomy Of An “Almost Perfect” Sales Process

Take note that the ONLY reason I said “almost perfect” is because I believe everything can be improved. After reading this guide on creating your own sales process, you can take it and tweak it however you see fit.

So with that said, let’s go..

The Source & Why It Matters..

The very first thing you might wanna consider when creating your sales process is where you’re gonna be getting traffic from. The source of your traffic may WILL affect the amount of people you convert into buyers.

For example, if you’re getting traffic from PPC then the visitors that you’re trying to convert into buyers PROBABLY don’t know who the hell you are, so they’ll be a bit more skeptic about what you’re offering.

As oppose to driving traffic from your own email list or blog, where conversions will be a lot higher since they know you and trust you (hopefully).

This is our advantage as bloggers. We are constantly adding value to the marketplace, we are constantly creating an audience, and we are constantly building our list of targeted prospects.

If you’re thinking that the stuff you’re doing right now is a waste of time, YOU ARE DEAD WRONG!!

Everything I’ve been sharing with you about Creating Special Reports and creating an Ideal Lead Generation Process is all part of a bigger picture. I want you to KNOW (if you don’t know already) that you have something people will PAY YOU to learn – either one-on-one or through a training program.

If you continue adding value and building your blog TODAY, then TOMORROW you will have the resources, connections, audience and authority necessary to GET PAID for what you have to offer.

Yea.. I know I went a bit off-topic there, but I felt it needed to be said..

Let’s move on..

The Offer..

The next step in the process is to present them with an offer.

This is where a lot of people drop the ball, but luckily you won’t because you’re reading this :0)

There’s a lot that goes into getting people to buy your stuff, but I find that there are also some key principles that NEVER change.

1. Give them what they WANT – I know it sounds simplistic, but hardly anyone does this. Most people first create a product that they THINK people want to buy without doing their research and making sure anyone will buy it.

BIG mistake! – when selling ANYTHING, you want to come across as a “Giving Person” for lack of a better description. When you create something and then try to convince people to buy it, CONGRATULATIONS! – you’ve just become the annoying sales person we all hate.

2. Make them an offer they’d be CRAZY to refuse - It’s all in the OFFER.. forget Copywriting for now, forget whether you’re gonna use text or video in the sales page, forget what color you want the graphics to be, forget EVERYTHING and craft an offer that provides 10X more value than the price and people will buy. (assuming it’s something they want)

Next!!

The Process + Some “Little-Known” Secrets..

Since I know you all love these graphics… I made this just for you.

Right under the image, you’ll see an embed code that you can use to put it on your blog if you wanna tell your readers about the process.

Secret #1 – You might be wondering, “why are you capturing the contact information after the see the offer page?” – Two words. CART ABANDONMENT.

Not everyone who clicks the ADD TO CART button is going to buy, (that’s a shocker isn’t it?).

This is called cart abandonment, but you can reduce the amount of people who don’t buy right away simply buy adding an opt-in form before they purchase. If they don’t go through with the purchase, a simple email reminding them that the “payment is not yet complete” might give you an extra small boost in sales.

If you’re using Amember like me, then this is done automatically – however, if you don’t have any member management software, then I suggest placing a regular autoresponder opt-in form between your offer page and your payment page.

Secret #2 – After the payment is made, I highly recommend sending your new customers to a separate list of Buyers. This is great to do, because when you release new products, services or reports, you know where your valued customers are so you can give them special discounts and first dibs on free stuff.

The Download Page..

This is why I love Amember.

It gives everyone who buys, their own Username & Password so that I can have a protected area to place all of my downloads. Security is very important when creating your sales process.

So, whenever you’re ready to get into creating your own digital products, you should consider investing in a members script like Amember for increased security.

That’s about it.. I hope you got a lot out of this post.

On my last long post Terry Tiessen said, “…You are certainly correct when you said it would be a highly valuable post, I have got less in paid reports...”

I want to recreate that many times over, and there’s more to come.

972 words later.. I want to ask you to please retweet this post, and share it with your friends on facebook using the buttons on top. & leave me your comments below..

Questions..

Are you thinking about creating a product soon?

Are you stuck on What To Create? – let me know, and I’ll try my best to help you out..

Talk soon
Hector Cuevas

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8 Tips for Writing Blog Comments That Get Approved

Hector Cuevas — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:52:15 +0000

Guest post by James Adams

“Write comments on other blogs” repeatedly comes up as one of the tips to drive traffic to your own blog.

While there are some authors who merely approve all comments, others are quick to weed out the spam comments which are designed solely for building backlinks.

Here are some DO’s and DON’Ts for getting your blog comments approved.

Here are some things that you should do when leaving a blog comment:

1. Show respect

The blog author was respectful in creating the post, you should be respectful in commenting about it. When you begin your comment with ‘you’re wrong,’ profanity or threats, you are not making any headway with the blog’s owner. You would not want a new visitor to your house to start the conversation with cursing, would you?

2. Read the blog post you’re commenting on

Reading the blog post is essential to forming the ideas necessary to create a comment. There are quite a number of individuals who are solely interested in gaining their own link that they do not say something that is relevant to the conversation. If you post something about fish and chips when the post talks about grammatical issues, you do not look like an expert.

3. Keep it simple and concise

A comment is intended to offer your personal insight on the matter, not a personal dissertation. If you find that you are overly passionate about a subject, bring that discussion over to your personal blog. Give the original blogger the link back to their site as well as sending them an email which tells them that you have backlinked. This is a courtesy which will set you apart from other bloggers.

4. Proofread your comment

Proofreading your comments is very important if you want to convey any sort of authority. Make sure that you have attended to any grammar issues. Read over your work to make sure that you do not have typos that would not be caught by spellchecker. Once you release that comment ‘into the wild,’ you cannot retrieve it again.

Here are things that you should avoid when commenting on a blog:

5. Don’t advertise your services

When your comment is written, you are asked for your URL and email address. That is enough advertisement for your post. If you are screaming about your product at every available opportunity, your post will most likely be deleted. It is hard to enhance the conversation if the only words out of your mouth are ‘eat at Joe’s.’ Do not leave five or six lines of irrelevant links in your comment.

6. Avoid being ambiguous

Comments like ‘thanks’ and ‘great’ are useless platitudes that add nothing to the conversation. It immediately becomes obvious to everyone who is reading that you are only interested in generating a link. If you are going to say ‘great’ or ‘nice post,’ back it up with reasons. If you have nothing to say other than ‘nice post,’ then don’t comment.

7. Comments should be unique, don’t reuse the same comment

Be original with your blog comment just as you would be original with your post. The authors of the commented blogs read other blogs. If you are always writing ‘save the trees,’ then you will perpetually be known as the ‘save the trees’ person and consistently have your comments deleted. Take the time to think about what you are writing, and you will likely be approved.

8. Don’t use your URL as your name

Blog authors want something interesting to read that encourages dialogue. If you have ‘sunscreen products’ listed as your name while commenting about better blogging, your posts are very likely to be erased. The best blog commentators have information that is relevant to the discussion, and through those comments they are able to raise their reputation and curiosity.

When you want to get your blog comments approved, follow some rules of common sense. Do not suspend your own ideas into believing that spammy and unrelated comments work with other people. Good luck, and may you get a lot of backlinks!

James Adams, who works as a blogger at an ink cartridges shop, writes reviews of newly released hardware like the HP 350XL and contributes to their blog about advertising, art and design.

If you found this post useful, please retweet and share it on facebook – all the best…

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8 Killer [Must Read] Posts From All Around The World Wide Web

Hector Cuevas — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:30:45 +0000

As you all probably already know, I read A LOT of blogs out there (too many for my own good because I end up getting very little done)…

But I can’t help it, the amount of information available on the web is enormous – even though a lot of it is pure crap, spam and autoblogs – the ones listed below are definitely the cream of the crop.

I don’t publish posts like these as often as I would like, but I’m thinking about making this a bi-weekly routine where I bring you the best stuff I run into throughout my blog browsing.

Let’s get started (this is in no particular order)

8 Killer [Must Read] Posts From All Around The World Wide Web

1. How to Convert Traffic into Buyers with Dave Navarro – This is an interview Corbett Barr did with Dave Navarro (A.K.A) The Launch Coach. It’s 54 minutes of great useful content. Check it out.

2. How to NOT Get Paid to Write Online (And Make Money Doing It) – This is a guest post by Johnny B. Truant on CopyBlogger. You’ll learn How to make “not getting paid” pay off. It’s a cool read and I think you’ll enjoy it.

3. 7 Tips To Help You Become A Millionaire – In this post Yaro Starak shares, not 7 – but EIGHT (8) tips to becoming a millionaire. The dude’s got some insight, so I think we should pay attention and take notes.. ;0)

4. How I Generated Over 6000 Ideas to Write About on My Blog in 15 Minutes – This is so cool.. When you watch this video Darren Rowse posted on his blog, you will never run out of blog post ideas, and the best part is that you can automate it.

5. Are YouTube Videos and Podcasting Worth the Effort? – After reading this post I was immediately convinced that I had to broaden my reach. Check out Pat Flynn’s post to see what videos and podcasting did for his traffic.

6. How To Stop Feeding Fears That Paralyze Your Business – Wow.. I don’t even know what to say about this post. Dave Navarro hit it out the park with this one. If you want to stop feeding the Wrong Wolf.. check out this amazingly written post.

7. How And Where to Get Blog Post Ideas? – One of the most critical things of blogging is no ideas to post. Devesh shares many FREE resources you can use to find blog post ideas very easily – check it out.

8. 2,897 Words on How to Create Viral Content (The Key Element Behind Every Successful Blog) – This is a great post on viral marketing and how you can easily create content that has a very good chance of going viral. Glen shares all the components and trust me, you won’t wanna miss this one.

That’s it.. Is There Anything Else You’d Like To Add..??

Other Than Your Own Stuff - of course..

If you’ve come across a great post in the past couple of weeks, lets us know about it in the comments below.

Please retweet and share this page with your friends and followers to make sure more people get to see this amazing content.

Thanks & Talk Soon

Hector

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How To Create An “Ideal” Lead Generation Process On Your Blog

Hector Cuevas — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:07:18 +0000

If you don’t have a system or process in place that every one of your leads go through, you’re NOT using your blog to it’s fullest potential.

We hear it everyday.. (I’ve even said it once or twice) that your blog is where you “show-off” your talents and skills so that your market begins to view you as a leader/expert in your particular topic.

Your blog is the best place to share valuable content that makes people TRUST you and want to BUY from you, rather than going to some other guy. – (because they’re gonna buy anyway, it might as well be from YOU, right?)

In this very long, but very detailed post I’m gonna be sharing with you (or showing off) what I know about creating an ideal leads process on your blog.

There are a few moving parts, and I want to give you a step-by-step guide (probably the best guide you’ve ever gotten for FREE) for creating this lead generation process with your blog.

A Quick (& IMPORTANT) Announcement…

Before I begin, I just wanna let you know that my plans for this blog just got a whole lot more exciting for me and for you.

I’m gonna try my best to give you the best content I can possibly give you. I’m gonna be writing more posts like this one and like the one about “Creating Special Reports”, because I want you to learn everything I do, AS I DO IT.. not months down the road.

What I’m gonna show you today is the process that I worked on and completed in about 3 days. I could have done it a lot quicker but I was also creating another Special Report to make my ethical bribe a bit more enticing for my visitors.

But, ideally, you can create this lead generation process for your blog in 1 day if you really put forth the effort..

Another thing to keep in mind is that, if you already have your lead generation process created on your blog, then skim through this post anyway – you might find some gold nuggets that can help you out.. :0)

If you don’t have a Lead Magnet yet – be sure to read THIS POST.. & then come back to this post when you’re ready..

Let’s Get Started – Grab a Pencil (you’re gonna need to erase stuff)

The process is simple, but like I mentioned before.. it does have a few moving parts that we need to put in the right order. I call this the “ideal” lead process because it’s exactly what I want my visitors to do when they get to my site.

Not every visitor will go through this process, but you want to have it in place to maximize the effectiveness of your blog. This process we’re gonna create can be totally different for you, that’s why the first step is to DRAW IT OUT.

Here’s the ideal process that I want everyone to go through when they visit my site. You’ll notice that there are TWO roads your visitors can take…

The goal is to get more first time visitors to take the BLUE ARROW route, and less first time visitors taking the GRAY ARROW route.

HOW?? Simply add more ENTRY points to your desired route.

The “3 Free Reports” Link

First I have the 3 Free Reports Link at the top of the page. Anyone navigating the site will probably notice it and click on it. That link leads them to a page with a Free offer and the opportunity to sign up to my BLOGTIPS newsletter.

(which I just noticed is not in the image above, sorry)

If you want to see the page I’m talking about, simply click on 3 Free Reports and you’ll be redirected to my Newsletter Sign up page.

This page is really easy to create, all you need to do is go into your wordpress admin dashboard, click on ADD NEW PAGE and start writing.

I recommend testing the page by adding audio or video to see if you get a better response. This is also the page that you send people to, if you’re using guest blogging as a traffic generation strategy.

The Sidebar Offer

The next ENTRY point is the Sidebar Offer, and this is one most bloggers know about. There’s a good chance you have this already set up on your blog.

So I’m gonna give you some tips and an idea of how I created mine since I’ve been getting emails about it. The first thing you want your sidebar opt-in form to do is STAND OUT. If it doesn’t stands out, it doesn’t get noticed and you won’t get many opt-ins.

So what I did when I was creating the image in photoshop (yes, that’s all it is, an IMAGE – there goes my big secret..), anyhow.. I created something that grabbed people’s attention.

Big BRIGHT Red letters on top – since my design is mostly blue and gray..
Strategically chose benefit-driven titles for the reports
Put a call-to-action on TWO places
Mentioned it’s completely FREE << very powerful word
And used visuals to increase desire for the Lead Magnet

If what you have is working great for you, then leave it – don’t change what you’re doing. But if you’d like to be getting more sign-ups, by all means, model what I’ve done here. It’s working well for me.

The Pop Up Offer (I know Peter’s gonna like the image)

The last ENTRY point is the Pop Up Offer (powered by Popup Domination << affiliate link). This is the EXACT same offer that is given to all of my visitors, but through a different medium.

If they don’t navigate and click the link on top or opt-in through my sidebar form then the last opportunity they have to join my list would be the Pop up opt-in form.

I won’t get into why I think you should experiment with Popups because that will just take me off-topic. If you wanna see the results I’ve gotten from using the Popup Domination plugin.. READ THIS POST.

Now, let’s move on to the next step in the process.

After someone give you their contact information (name & email) you now have their permission to follow up with them and give them more information, and market your products or affiliate products that you believe can help them.

There’s a whole lot I can get into when it comes to Email Marketing but we’ll leave that for another day.

Your goal, after someone opts in, is to make sure you give them what you promised them. Whether you decide to make them confirm their email or not, your goal is to deliver and OVER-DELIVER on the value, by creating an experience that they’ll remember.

The First page they see after they subscribe can be a video, audio or special message from you, letting them know how you roll and what they can expect. Having this “conversation” is crucial if you want a long lasting relationship with this person, who could eventually buy something from you.

The Download Page

This page is also pretty straight-forward and very simple to create. Just go to your WordPress admin dashboard, click on ADD NEW PAGE and write down instructions for people to download whatever it is you promised them.

You can also add a video, audio interviews and written articles to that page - stuff that you only want your subscribers to see. That’s why I call mine the BizBlogging Vault ;0)

Please don’t feel like you can’t do this stuff just because there are some technical things you need to do. It really is simple (then again, all this is second nature to me now)

But seriously.. if you have a domain, hosting and blog set up, you CAN do this stuff - trust me.

Make sure to send your new subscribers an email telling them where to get your Lead Magnet, by that I mean the EXACT URL because you want to decrease the amount of people emailing you back tellig you they can’t fidn your downloads.

The goal is automate the entire process and NOT HAVE TO TOUCH IT AGAIN. That’s the power of the internet. That’s how you can leverage your time and work on driving traffic to your site. That’s how you can build relationships on autopilot.

That’s how it’s DONE!

Now… Go Make a Viral

OK.. maybe this won’t make it go completely viral but it’s a smart little element to add to this entire thing so we can leverage the power of social media.

When you get to my download page, there’s a link all the way at the bottom that says “Click Here To Tweet About the Vault…” – when anyone clicks on that link they are redirected to twitter where their status update is filled with the message I WANT THEM TO RETWEET – so all they have to do is click “TWEET” and it goes out to all their followers on twitter.

That’s great but how does that make it VIRAL? I’m glad you asked…

The message has a link back to my Sign Up page, so anyone who clicks on that link will probably sign up, and go through the entire process all over again... (in a perfect world of course – but it’s nice to dream)

Thanks!

Well, that’s about it.. I think it should give you a good start with creating your own IDEAL Lead Generation Process. Again, it doesn’t have to be exactly like mine but you’re more than welcome to model what I’ve done.

Let me know in the comments section if you’re gonna be working on this, so I can stop by your blog when it’s done. If you tell me and the rest of us, we’ll promise to hold you accountable so you can get it done QUICK!

Until next time!

I wish you nothing less than success! Leave me your feeback below and please share it with your friends and followers – really, it only takes 4 seconds..

Talk soon,
Hector Cuevas

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Exclusive Interview With Patt Flynn From SmartPassiveIncome.com

Hector Cuevas — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:57:47 +0000

Hey Guys.. today I’d like to bring to you an exclusive interview I did with Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com

I hope you all take out a pen & pad because he’s about to answer some great questions for us, that you might wanna know the answers to (you can thank me later..)

I thought about some of the stuff people’s been asking me through email – and I wanted to get Pat’s view on it since his story is not only unique, it’s also very inspiring in my honest opinion.

So, here you go.. enjoy!

1. First of all Pat.. thanks for agreeing to do this interview. Can you tell us who you are and how you got started online?

“Hey! I’m Pat Flynn.

I always like to tell people who know nothing about me except for the fact that I’m successful online, that I am NOT a millionaire. I’m just a husband and father who makes a living online in a way that allows me to spend more time with my family, and do the things I love to do like surf or go fishing.

It all started with getting laid off.

I had a very good 9 to 5 job working as a Job Captain in a popular architecture firm here in Southern California, and life was fantastic.

Then one day, my boss called me into his office. He sat me down, folded his hands together, rested his elbows on his desk and said, “Pat. You’re one of the best and brightest we have. Unfortunately, we have to let you go. I’m sorry.”

It was at that moment that I knew I wanted to work for myself. I couldn’t stand the fact that even though I worked so hard for that company, and I was one of the best and brightest they had, that I was still let go. I might as well just have slacked off the whole time, because my fate would have still been the same…and that just doesn’t seem right to me.

If I lose my income and everything goes down the toilet, I want it to be because of something I did, not because of something that I had no control over. At the same time, I want to be rewarded for all of the hard work I put in – so I decided to do business online.

See, right before I was laid off, I was studying for the LEED exam (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which is an exam based on sustainable design and green (environmental friendly) buildings. I had started a blog to help me keep track of my notes and had no intention of ever making money from this website, let alone having other people see it. It was simply created to help me organize my notes so I could access them while I traveled for business, or while I was at work and on a break.

Well, little did I know, after a couple months after launching that blog, thousands of other people around the world were using my notes to help them study for the exam.

It scared me at first, but I then realized how many people I could help – so I took my notes to a whole new level and created a huge resource with tips, tricks, charts and case studies all to help people easily pass this exam.

Then, when I was laid off, I decided to turn my free blog into a business. I created my own study guides and audio guides, and even partnered with a few companies to eventually turn this little niche website into a profitable business. I used principles from the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss to actually automate a lot of the process, such as accepting payments and delivering electronic goods.

Just to give you an idea, my best month of income was in March of 2009. I had just gotten married to my beautiful wife April, and we spent half of the month on vacation in Hawaii, yet I was still able to earn a nice $30,328.48.

Now, sales on that site have slowed a little due to some changes in the industry, but I’ve taken the same passive income principles and have applied them to several other arenas to create a diversified income for my family. This includes an iPhone application development company I co-founded, niche and affiliate marketing, and more.

Looking back, my layoff was the best thing that ever happened to me. As one of my friends put it, “Pat, you should thank your previous employer for cutting that ball and chain off of your foot and allowing you to finally be yourself.”

2. Thanks for sharing your story with us.. Now, a lot of bloggers just starting out might get discouraged when they look at their stats and see no visitors coming to their sites – what would you say to them to help them overcome that obstacle.. what’s the first thing they should do?

“You’re not going to see any kind of traffic coming in right away. Remember, we all start at zero, and it takes time to get results.

The first thing I would do it simply not worry about the numbers at all. Worry about providing excellent, over-the-top content on your blog, and the traffic will come – almost automatically. Of course, there are ways to make traffic flow to your site faster, which I’m sure we’ll get into later in this interview, but bottom line – content seeds traffic.

Secondly, don’t get discouraged, because even though I tell you not to worry about the numbers, I know you will. I did, but even through I was seeing less than 10 visitors a day for the first several months of my blog, I’ve since grown into a blog with an Alexa ranking of 17,000 because of the content that I created and the relationships I’ve built with other bloggers online. I almost gave up several times within those first few months, but boy I’m glad I didn’t!

Stick with it, and give yourself and your blog a chance to grow.”

3. You now have over 9,000 subscribers at your SmartPassiveIncome blog, what do you think was the biggest contributor to that success?

“I do my best to stand out from the crowd.”

“A lot of what I do on the blog is done purposely to be different from everyone else in my niche, and I am definitely in a crowded niche.

What to do exactly depends on what niche you’re in, and what everyone else is doing, but in my specific case it’s things like:

1. Reporting how much I make each month, down to the penny. Most people are afraid to do this, but it has helped put me on the radar. And yes, some people have done it for a long time (i.e. Shoemoney and John Chow), but I do it every month, and give a detailed explanation of exactly what I did to earn it.

2. Responding to every single comment on my blog. No other A-lister blogger does this.

3. Being totally transparent and honest about my businesses, and this includes all of my mistakes and failures as well.

4. Having a newsletter with a 25 email autoresponder series that just gives away pure content, and doesn’t try to sell anything.

All of these things help people remember me and my blog, amongst the thousands of other blogs out there.

I have a lot of other cool little “stand out of the crowd” things, but I’ll let you figure those things out”

4. There are a ton of traffic-getting strategies out there, from SEO and video marketing, to blog commenting and forums – based off your experience, which do you think is the best to reach a much larger audience?

“The best strategy I know of is to guest post on other popular blogs in your niche. Hands down.

This works because:

1. You know that the people who will read your guest post are people who are interested in what you have to say.

2. It’s sort of like a mini-Oprah effect. Since the blog owner publishes your post, he or she is telling their large group of followers (who also happens to be your target audience) to pay attention to you, and a recommendation from someone else is much more powerful than any recommendation you could give for yourself.

3. You get backlinks back to your blog at the same time (from a relevant, usually higher ranking site), which helps with SEO.”

5. It’s one thing to get visitors, but it’s a whole other to keep them coming back – what tips would you give bloggers to make their blog a bit more “sticky” and worthy of return visitors?

“Great question! (you’re welcome guys..)

It’s true, visitors are one thing, but fans, a tribe, followers, and loyalty is another. It’s like this analogy I like to use: a blog is a bar.

If you own a bar, sure it’s nice to get random visitors here and there every once and a while for a drink, but it’s the loyal ones who return to your bar consistently every single day that make your business and build that community that you can’t wait to serve the next day.

To help you with making your blog more “sticky”, I invite you to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What’s the first thing people notice when they come to my blog?

If it’s a popup and a number of flashing advertisements, then you’re probably not going to get too many returning visitors. Really think about the first impression that you’re giving people when they come to your blog. This can be hard to do, since we’re always so engulfed in our own blogs and fail to see it from an outside perspective, but it’s really important to understand. As you probably know, it’s hard to erase those first impressions.

2. Is the purpose of my site clear right from the beginning?

It is said that people spend an average of 7 seconds on a website, so you’ve got 7 seconds to tell people what your site is about, or they’re going to leave. Ask a friend who doesn’t know anything about your blog to visit your site, and as they are visiting tell you what it’s about. you might be surprised.

3. Am I giving people an easy opportunity to come back?

In other words, are you giving people multiple opportunities to subscribe to your RSS feed, subscribe to your newsletter, subscribe to comments, retweet and share your posts, bookmark it, etc. People online are LAZY (no offense), so you have to make it really easy for them to return.

4. Are I engaging and creating a community?

If you strive to create a community on your blog, a place where people can discuss and interact, then you will definitely get more people to come back. In your blog posts, ask questions. Respond to all of your comments, and ask even more questions! The more people participate, the more they will feel like they are part of a community – some place they can go online for help, or give their advice if that’s the case.”

6. You now have a baby boy… Congrats – when will you be teaching him how to create his own blog?

“Haha! I don’t really know, but I definitely want him to learn the ins and outs of how blogging works and how money flows on the Internet someday. Maybe we could host a father son podcast together – that sounds kind of fun.

We’ll see though. It’s really all about what makes him happy and what he wants to do.

He is my motivation for everything I do in life now.

Thanks again Hector, for letting me share my story and a little of my knowledge with your audience. If you ever have any questions or would just like to come say hi, feel free to join me on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/smartpassiveincome.”

Thank YOU Pat for answering all the questions with so much details and examples – I’m sure everyone reading this will get a ton of value from it.

If you all want to learn more about Pat, you can find it at SmartPassiveIncome.com and join his facebook page.

Leave you questions and comments in the comments section below..

Hector

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The Entrepreneurs Report August 2010 Edition – [PDF Download]

Hector Cuevas — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:16:59 +0000

It’s that time again! Today’s the day I release the August Edition of the Entrepreneurs Report.

This month I have 5 popular bloggers who, without a doubt, KNOW what the heck they’re doing. They’re out there, spreading good valuable content and helping people – this is what it’s all about

…plus making money – but first is VALUE and these dudes got it!

Which is why they were featured in the Entrepreneurs Report. Here’s a quick run down what you’ll find when you download the report today:

The Ultimate Guide to Finding Your Unique Selling Proposition

Is Guest Blogging Really Worth it?

Back To The Basics… Enough With All The Ninja Moves!

21 Ways to Get More Subscribers to Your Blog

Writing an ebook. A Journey of Blog, Sweat, and Tears

I strongly recommend that you check out these pieces of content – plus, I KNOW you wanna know who these articles belong to and who was FEATURED inside (I would too)

Just click DOWNLOAD to get the report, sit back, relax and start learning what these guys are putting into the world – because it’s world-class stuff.

You’ll be glad you did..

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY

Talk soon and please leave me your thoughts about the report below in the comments section. If you have an extra 4 seconds, could you please share this post, too?

Thanks.. and enjoy

Hector

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Top 4 Traits Of A Successful Blogger (No, It’s Not About Technology)

Hector Cuevas — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:08:32 +0000

Most bloggers have dead blogs – meaning they get little traffic, no comments and no subscribers. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true. But there are reasons for this and that’s what I’m gonna try to explain in this post.

You see, my blog is no different than yours. I have a domain and hosting and you have a domain and hosting. I use wordpress and you (hopefully) use wordpress, too. I’m using a theme from WooThemes and you can get the same theme for 70 bucks.

So, if we’re all on a the same playing field – how come some blogs generate thousands of visits, a ton of comments and hundreds of subscribers every single month, while other go unnoticed?

Here’s a hint: It has very little to do with technology and a lot to do with the blogger.

The Top 4 Traits Of A Successful Blogger

Trait #1 – Successful Bloggers Focus On Adding Valuable Content
…not traffic stats, not pageviews, not sales – Content! It’s important to realize that the only reason people come back to a site is because they liked it the first time they were there. No matter what market you’re targeting, quality content is what attracts readers, and encourage subscriptions.

If you focus solely on adding content that will actually help the people in your market, you’ll start seeing success.

Trait#2 – Successful Bloggers Stay Consistent
Consistency is definitely key. The moment you stop putting up new content for your readers is the moment everything starts going downhill. Remember the first point, the reason they come back is for your valuable content so make sure to continue providing that content over time.

Trait#3 – Successful Bloggers Don’t Hold Back
This is something I used to struggle with a lot. I used to say to myself, “I can’t publish that, it’s too good, I should put that in a product that I’m gonna create someday”. Little did I know that those “ideas, tips & strategies” that I wanted to leave for future products are the ones you SHOULD be publishing for everyone to see.

Those posts get popular, those posts get linked to and those posts gain you tremendous credibility and trust with your readership – so don’t hold back.

Trait#4 – Successful Bloggers Network With Other Bloggers
The phrase, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is not completely true. I mean you can definitely build your blog to a point where it’s getting a decent steady stream of traffic, comments and subscribers all on your own, using the tips that you’ve gotten so far.

But, you should start thinking about those 8-10 other bloggers that you can network and collaborate with, because you can always get ahead a lot faster working with a strategic group of bloggers than on your own.

What traits would you add?

Leave your thoughts and responses in the comments section below.. and please, if you found this post useful, please share it – thanks!

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“Live” Case Study: This Changed My Mind About PopUps Forever…

Hector Cuevas — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:03:49 +0000

To pop up or Not to pop up? That’s been the question in my mind for a very long time until 2 weeks ago.

Today I’m gonna reveal to you why and what changed my mind about pop ups forever in a “live” case study I did on my own blog.

The reason it’s “live” is because as you read this, this amazing plugin is working for me getting me more opt-ins, and all it took was 15 seconds to install and about 7 minutes to set up.

It’s called PopUp Domination.

This is a wordpress plugin that creates a beautifully designed popup light-box on your blog, enticing your visitors to sign up for your newsletter or a free gift.

It works with any autoresponder service ( I recommend Aweber cuz they’re so cool) and one of my favorite features is that it allows you to set how often it pops up.

The last thing I want to do is annoy the hell outta you guys so this feature HAD to included in order for me to buy it.

Well, enough with the features and stuff, let’s get into what you really wanna hear. What can it do for YOU?

Here’s What It Did For Me..

For this case study I wanted to have REAL & RECENT results to show you, so I created a brand new list, using a brand new special report.

The reason for this was to eliminate any doubts that you might have in your mind about growing your list of subscribers.

I want you guys to know that you can actually do this right NOW – starting from scratch.. So here’s what happened.

First – I created the Launch Your Blog special report. Read this post if you want a step-by-step guide to creating a content packed Lead Magnet.

Then – I created a new list in Aweber on August 5th and didn’t do any type of promotion for the report. I just added it to my free stuff page link on the top navigation.

Then – On Tuesday August 10th, I bought PopUp Domination and set it all up within 10 minutes of buying it. Here’s the receipt I got from Clickbank:

Lastly – I started writing my regular blog post, just like I always do and BAM!! – as the traffic came, so did the optins.. here’s a screen shot I took of the last 2 weeks using this plugin..

Keep in mind that I do get a decent amount of traffic and results may vary depending on the amount of traffic you generate – but the results speak for themselves..

If you were debating whether or not to add a popup to your site – then hopefully this helped you make up your mind.

Do I recommend it? YES!! – So..

Click here to order PopUp Domination Now!

You’ll be glad you did.

I know there might still be some people who still DISLIKE popups.. so here’s a quick question: How do you feel about Popups? Leave your answer in the comments below..

Thanks!

Hector Cuevas

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8 Simple Ways To Increase Blog Traffic For Free [Cheat Sheet]

Hector Cuevas — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:18:39 +0000

I love writing list posts – they’re great because I can provide a lot of value, and give you guys a lot of ideas that you can work with.

BUT – they’re also very dangerous because all the tips, strategies and methods can be a bit OVERWHELMING, and the last thing I wanna do is make you feel like you have to do EVERY single method at once.

One thing to keep in mind when reading list post on any blog (not just mine) is to take away 1 or 2 tips and put them to work immediately. This will ensure that you don’t try everything at once, and get NO RESULTS later.

That’s what I do to increase blog traffic – and it works really well for me…

So, on with the list!

8 Simple Ways To Increase Blog Traffic For Free..

In this post I’m gonna be talking briefly about each of the 8 traffic methods – but if you want a more in depth look at 2 of my favorites, grab this FREE REPORT.

Method #1: Guest Blogging
Guest Blogging is a great way to reach an entire new audience that other bloggers have spend months and even years building up. I still get traffic from a post I did on Laura Roeder’s Blog.

Method #2: YouTube Marketing
Video Marketing is a very good method of generating traffic because your videos will stay up there forever. (or as long as the site is running) Videos that get popular and get a lot of views, tend to stay popular – so they will generate a steady stream of visitors to your site without fail. I recommend sticking to YouTube and mastering it since it’s the most popular video sharing site on the web.

Method #3: Commenting on Blogs
Blog Commenting is one of my favorite because I get to learn, interact and drive traffic all at once. It’s a bit time consuming but the results are amazing.

Method #4: Facebook Marketing
Facebook Pages & Groups. This is not about going to groups and posting your links all over the place (unless of course it’s a TRIBE that you’re involved in). I recommend creating a Fan Page or a Group on Facebook that attracts your target market. That way you can add value to them by driving them back to your blog for content.

Method #5: Outbound Links
Outbound Links are great to drive traffic because of Trackbacks. Whenever you link to another person’s blog who’s using wordpress, a trackback is automatically created which tells them exactly where that link is coming from. Other people can click on that link and come back to your blog.

Method #6: Yahoo! Answers
Yahoo! Answers Traffic. You can go to Yahoo! Answers and search for unanswered questions related to your topic or niche. You can answer the question with a link to a post where you address the actual in much more detail.

Method #7: Give Away Free Reports
Give Away Free Reports. I just uploaded 3 reports to GetFreeEbooks.com. It’s a free service that allows you to upload your PDF’s and then it’s blasted out to 19,000+ readers. I’ll share the results once they post my reports (hopefully they’ll be good).

Method #8: Forum Marketing
Forum Marketing is another one of my favorites because of the immediate traffic it can generate. You also get a feel as to what your market wants and needs as you interact with members of your community.Starting a new thread will expose your signature file to anyone reading your post. This is very targeted traffic!

You Cheat Sheet - “Sssshh, don’t tell anyone..“

I created this Cheat Sheet for you so you can have an idea as to how much time to invest into ONE particular strategy is you want to try them all out.

Again, I strongly recommend sticking to one and mastering it, but if you want an overall strategy of how to generate traffic, here’s a monthly action plan to follow. Doing this will give you an idea of which ones work best for your blog and which you enjoy doing the most.

Doing these can increase your traffic dramatically over the coming months so download it, use it, and grow!

Click Here to Download the Cheat Sheet + Monthly Action Plan.

Question: What are you doing to increase blog traffic? I’ve visited a lot of your blogs lately and there’s a lot of growth happening really quickly, so please share your experience with this community so we can all learn from it.

If you enjoyed this post please ‘pass it on’. Retweet it, & Facebook share it with the buttons on top – and leave me your thoughts..

Talk soon,
Hector

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How To Create A Content Packed Lead Magnet In 6 Hours Or Less

Hector Cuevas — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:45:35 +0000

When your business starts losing momentum, and you need more gas to fuel the engine.. do what I DO – Create a Special Report!

Let me tell you a short story.. before I started writing special reports, my leads weren’t coming in as fast as they are today. Before HectorJCuevas.com (the blog), I literally tried everything to entice people to opt-in into my email list.

I was creating a lot of online real estate, in the hopes of getting someone to bite and become a lead.

This online real estate was mainly lead capture pages which gave away some sort of LEAD MAGNET. I experimented with online videos as a way to entice visitors to give me their contact information but it wasn’t working for me.

I must’ve been doing something wrong, but I didn’t stop there.

So.. Started Writing Reports

These reports (along with my blog, of course) have allowed me to get where I am today, as far as listbuilding goes – and not a day goes by where I don’t FUEL my business with NEW BUSINESS - that simply means, everyday I get new leads into my marketing funnel.

*Just A Side Note* You should, everyday, do at least ONE THING that fuels your business with new business – because if you don’t, one day you’ll run outta gas and your business will be NO MORE.

But I know for some of you creating these Special Reports might be a bit intimidating at first.

I mean, I don’t read anything unless it’s top-notch, quality stuff that will somehow, someway help me or my business. You need to keep in mind that with the overwhelming amount of information available on the web, the people in your market will have the same attitude – no matter what market that is.

Special Reports are exactly that “SPECIAL”, in that they should add tremendous value to the reader, and it should solve any problems their having with getting ONE, and only ONE, thing done.

If what I’m reading is not going to help me in that way, then I don’t bother finishing it. (maybe it’s just me, but I believe very much in getting the best use of my time – so I spend it where I believe I’ll benefit the most)

I don’t say that to discourage you if you’re just starting out (I’m sure you have the same attitude about your time) – I say it to get you to start thinking about OVER-DELIVERING, because when you get in the over-delivering state-of-mind, you will ALWAYS exceed their expectations.

Now that we got that out of the way… let talks about creating the dam’ thing..

Creating A Lead Magnet In 6 Hours Or Less

There’s a lot that goes into creating a content packed lead magnet – especially if you want to over-deliver and ‘wow’ your subscribers. Luckily, I’ve written enough of these special reports to know exactly what you need to put inside of them – and you’re gonna get an entire rundown, right here, for free!

These reports will be added to your arsenal of marketing weapons and will increase the amount of leads you get if you use them right.

Cool?

Great!

Step 1 – Figure Out The ONE Thing You Want To Help People Solve

(Time: 30 minutes)

Most people when they write reports or create any type of content, they hit too many topics and don’t end up solving anything for their subscribers. Doing it this way doesn’t create the ‘WOW’ effect and it doesn’t make them WANT to learn more from you.

But how can you figure out what they need help with? …hmm, here’s a super secret strategy that not many people use. I learned it from years of studying marketing because no one wanted to spill the beans -Just ASK!

………obviously, I’m kidding… but simply asking your subscribers what they want will get you much closer to creating a killer special report.

Take my Launch Your Blog Report for example… it only helps people solve ONE problem – which is how to effectively launch their blog. Not the technical stuff, but the other things that you don’t hear much about… like: “What to do before I get visitors, What plugins do I need, What to do immediately after it’s up and running…”

The reason I created it was because I surveyed my subscribers and it was one of the topics mentioned – simple huh?

Step 2 – Gather Information & Framework Your Knowledge

(Time: 120 minutes)

I don’t know it all – Yeah.. I know, that’s hard to believe – but it’s True ;0) – but the best part is, you don’t have to know-it-all neither. You can use good ‘ol Google to gather information from at least 4 different sources, LEARN IT, and then put it together in your own words.

We’ll get into the writing part in the next step, but first.. you need to understand that even though I can now write a 5 – 10 page report in a matter of hours, I still need to Framework my knowledge – and here’s how you do that.

Frameworks, by definition, are structures that support or contain something – but in this context they are structures that contain an idea or concept. Our job is to take the stuff that we learned during our research and put it together in a step by step, easy to understand body of content.

This can be done through:

acronyms
list of tips in sequential order
graphs & images
mind maps & flow charts displaying the process
…or a combination of all of these

The more creative ways that you explain a concept or idea to your readers and subscribers, the closer you’ll be to creating a perfect lead magnet with the “WOW” factor.

Take this post for example, even though this is NOT a special report (which is should be, since it’s jam-packed) I took the time to break down the idea of creating Killer Reports into actionable steps. Each step is also broken with definitions, tips and examples.

If you get ANYTHING out of this post – get this… Framework your Knowledge so that you can help other people “GET” what you’re talking about.

Step 3 – Start Writing… & Don’t Stop til Its Done!

(Time: 180 minutes w/ 15 minute breaks)

What about writing… is there a certain way it needs to be structured? does the number of pages matter? how many pages do I write? are there certain elements that need to be included in the report?

Whoa… what’s with all the questions? – one at a time please ;0)

As far as structure goes, just make sure that the report can be easily read, and that it’s broken down into the smaller concepts and FRAMEWORKS that you created. Include images to describe ideas – graphs and flow charts are great if they fit with what you’re saying.

Structure also includes HOW you write the report. Your writing NEEDS to do 2 things. Educate and Communicate. Educate using the frameworks you created in step 2 and communicate with your readers by being conversational with your writing.

Telling stories and adding humor are 2 great ways to connect with someone on a deeper level, and that deeper connection will enhance the “WOW” factor.

Since these reports focus on eliminating ONE problem, then you can make the report 5 – 10 pages and your subscribers won’t care since their problem is being solved.

You won’t hear anyone say, “hmm, I just created my first special report, and I’m getting a bunch of leads everyday thanks to Hector’s report – but I didn’t like it cuz it wasn’t a gazillion pages long”

So, keep it short – they’ll thank you for it.

Step 4 – Make It Look Appealing

(Time: 30 minutes)

This is when you make it look nice. If you’re writing the report on MS Word, you can add images and graphics, add borders around special phrases or sentences. Read it and re-read it to make sure it doesn’t sound like a text-book.

Make sure it’s very friendly and it doesn’t talk down to anyone. Make sure you didn’t accidentally plaster your affiliate links on every other sentence trying to make a sale.That not only looks bad, it’s bad for business.

We’re building long term businesses here, and that type of stuff will not get you very far. Focus on delivering real value to your subscribers, and you’ll gain some really cool loyal readers and fans along the way.

Report graphic e-covers are NOT required to make this work, although they help with making the report look a bit more professional. Focus on delivering value more than anything else because the best graphics in the world won’t save you if you deliver crappy content.

Cool? – Great, next step…

Step 5 – Convert, Distribute, Rinse & Repeat!

(Time: 30 minutes)

Once you have your Microsoft word document, you can head over to PrimoPDF and download the FREE version of their software that allows you to turn your word document into PDF’s.

The next step would be to get in your readers’ hands, and making money from giving this Free Report away to your visitors.You can either use this report you just created and give it away as a Free-download on your blog without asking for the opt-in, or you can use it as a lead generator.

Why would you want to give it away without asking for the opt-in? Well, you can give your readers giveaway rights and they’ll be able to give away your report to their friends and followers. This creates a somewhat viral campaign that can reach many more people that you could ever reach on your own.

Or you can set up your lead capture page and generate leads using the report as a lead generator.

There are many things that go into creating a automated lead generation process once you have your perfect lead magnet, and a couple ways to monetize so you can start seieng cash-flow.

I get into those advanced tips & strategies in my Funnel Secrets Training Program.

Thanks!

Well, that was a super long post, but I think it should give you a good start with creating your Killer Lead Magnet/Special Report and how to leverage it to attract more leads into your business. Until next time!

I wish you nothing less than success! Leave me your feeback below and please share it with your friend and followers.

Talk soon,
Hector Cuevas

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