Anyone that has followed me for a while knows that I love Marlon Sanders and his products. There is a reason too. Marlon gives great quality in his products but also gives great quality in the free information he supplies.
Here is a great article from Marlon as my gift to you on Thanksgiving Day. Enjoy.
How To Cut Your Learning Curve By At Least 50%
(The Secret, Hidden Power of OMG Marketing That Saves You Enormous Amounts Of Time, Money and Energy And Gets You To Paydays 50% Faster — And It Doesn’t Even Cost You A Dime)
Save this article for reference and use it as a reminder
By Marlon Sanders
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I hate learning curves.
Because they take time and cost money. Plus, they’re a pain.
What do you have to create?
* Banner ads
* Sales letters
* Graphic design
* Affiliate site
* Web site
* Ebook cover
* Upsells
* Downsells
* Ezine ads
* Google ads
* Blogs
* Facebook sites
Would you rather find the success you’re seeking in 6 months or 1 year?
Which do you prefer?
If you want to do it in 1/2 the time, if you want to be on the 6 month program and not the 1 year program, then I’m going to share with you three simple rules to cut your learning curve by 50% or more, speed your progress enormously and get you the results you want many times faster.
Rule one: You Can’t Create From A Vacuum
I’m a writer by trade.
And the hardest thing to do is to write from a vacuum. If you start and have no input but expect to crank out output, you’re in a pickle.
That’s why when you write or create, you build yourself a fodder package.
This can be samples of other writings, quotes, materials, articles, web sites you print, books, pages ripped out of books — anything that will prime your brain when you begin the creation process.
Rule Two: Always Have A Model
When I do consultations or the rare event where I critique items for mmy customers, I notice a trend: Almost no one follows a proven model.
They omit obvious factors used in almost every successful sales letter, blog, banner ad, upsell, Google ad or creative you see online.
This goes hand-in-hand with rule one. You can’t create in a vacuum. So build up a collection of sales letters and web sites you KNOW work.
Then, when you go to create YOURS, make sure you incorporate all the successful elements you see in the model or models.
I’m always taking screen caps of guarantees, headlines, page designs, bullet points and order forms that I can use as examples on our next project.
What you do is COMPARE what you’re creating against your models, your benchmarks, your examples in order to make sure that what you create is up to speed.
I don’t see a lot of people doing this.
What I see the vast majority of people doing is putting a small amount of effort into the end result and not doing their homework.
Plain and simple: The people who succeed in this business do their homework. Those who don’t, don’t.
But this isn’t some arduous task.
You do it while sitting on the sofa watching TV and during commercial breaks. You surf web sites and save good ones to your hard drive. Or take a screen cap of the best elements.
Then you take your MODEL or MODELS and you print them out. Hang out on a lawn chair or go down to your fav coffee shop and read over them. Study them. Sink your teeth into the copy, the headline, the psychology.
This is EASY work. It’s actually fun. But it’s extremely important.
Rule Three: Make A Side-By-Side Comparison
After you create whatever you have to create, whether it’s a banner ad, sales letter, graphic design, web site, ebook cover or anything else, do a side-by-side comparison.
Literally print out your web site, sales letter, banner ads, ebook covers or whatever else it is.
Compare YOURS to your model or models side-by-side.
Look at the length, the size, the colors, the balance.
Ask others to compare the two and tell you which they feel is most effective.
I see people creating sales letters, web sites, designs, ebooks and sales processes without doing their homework.
It’s no huge secret which sales letters do really well online.
Grab yourself one of those and compare it to YOURS.
“But Marlon, my widget is different.”
This is why I have my Ateam calls. You can do your best then show it to me on an Ateam call and I’ll give you quick feedback.
But short of that, do your searches on Google. Find other web sites you know to be successful and compare YOUR creation with what you see.
My message today is simple:
* Model success
* Do your homework
* Make side-by-side comparisons
Typically, when someone asks me to critique their sales letter, blog or web site, I can tell in 10 seconds — they didn’t do their homework.
They worked without a successful model in front of their face.
WRONG!
You get your models. You stick them in front of your face. You use them as fodder for your creativity. You don’t blatantly rip off. But you make darned sure you include the successful elements and components. And that there’s a modicum of resemblance in a side-by-side comparison.
If you don’t do your research, you’re totally ignoring the immense amount of money and time others have spent getting a model that works.
Real world is this: 9 out of 10 things you try don’t work.
That’s real world.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is blowing smoke up your ying yang.
So do YOU want to be the one who goes out and tries the 9 things that don’t work?
Why not find the 1 that DOES work then use it as a model.
Now, blatantly ripping people off can be illegal, is in bad taste and is NOT what I’m referring to.
But modelling and emulating is good. Finding all the successful components or elements in something and making sure you use them is GOOD!
People ask me to critique sales letters that are about one tenth the length of any successful sales letter you can find at a similar price point.
And they wonder what I think.
It’s simple: I think the person didn’t do their homework.
Do your homework.
Model success.
You have something that is NOT working, NOT selling, NOT converting, NOT putting bacon on the table?
Start out by comparing it to what you KNOW as a fact works.
That’s a very good starting point.
Compare.
Find the differences.
Make changes.
Test again.
“Oh look! There are testimonials here! Oh look! The bonuses have more than one sentence of illustration. Oh look! The bonuses have illustrations.
Oh look! There’s a certificate for the guarantee. Oh look! They have 10X the raw number of bullet points I have!”
Oh look!
See, that’s the power of comparison.
It’s called “Oh look” marketing.
And it doesn’t cost you a dime.
“OMG (Oh My Gosh) their headline has numbers an specifics in it and mine doesn’t! OMG, their banner has a numerical benefit and mine doesn’t. OMG, this super power web site has a sales letter that prints out to 25 pages and mine prints out to TWO!”
OMG!
If you do this, you will at LEAST cut your learning curve by 50%. That means you can hit pay dirt in 6 months instead of 1 year.
OMG, their sales letter has subheads and mine doesn’t!
OMG, their sales letter has a deadline for acting today and mine doesn’t!
OMG!
See, all those OMG’s save you an enormous amount of time learning them on your own by trial and error.
You don’t need to reinvent marketing.
Marketing has already been invented.
What you need to do is to have the smarts to learn from others who have gone before you.
I’ll also add that the best investment you make is in your own education, learning from those who have gone before you, tried tons of things, cut out the 90% that don’t work and share the 10% that do work.
Marlon Sanders
P.S. “OMG, this sales letter has a PS! OMG!”
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Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That
Sells Products Like Crazy.
Hope you enjoy and have a great holiday.
