V.L. Thompson's Blog, page 24
August 9, 2013
Forget Forgiveness, I’m Pissed!
Can we be frank here? When someone says something to me that makes me mad, sometimes I don’t want to forgive them. Sometimes I want to stay mad and sometimes I want them to feel my wrath. Sometimes I want nothing more than for them to realize I was right and beg for my forgiveness…
Too much?
I’m not talking about when someone cuts you off in traffic, I’m talking about when you argue with your best friend to the point of tears. I’m talking about when your husband says something incredibly insensitive. I’m talking about when your own mother heaps judgment upon you for a decision that was hard to make. Where does my faith come in during those instances that make me want to scream, and those conversations that make me want to throw the phone across the room? I love God and I believe in Jesus, but this person just pissed me off!!! How can I ever forgive them?
We must realize that these types of situations are orchestrated. The more we ask God for the blessings of character building (i.e. patience, strength, growth, stamina, a heart for people, etc.) God will start to send situations our way that will show us what our character is really made of. We don’t want to face that in some areas, our character needs a little work. 2 Peter 1: 5-7 states “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” Wait… I thought all I needed was faith and everything would be ok? Here, it clearly states that we will need additions to faith in order to end up loving our brothers and sisters in the end.
It’s ok to be mad
The bible shows plenty of instances when God was angry. The perfect, all knowing master of the universe from time to time became pissed off! How much more will we reach that point in our dealings with man? But the kicker here is that as imperfect human beings in an angry state, we are susceptible to the devil’s advances. If not rooted in love, instead of self-reflection, we can easily choose revenge instead of personal growth. Instead of forgiveness we can choose resentment. Feeling anger is ok, most of the time it’s an automatic reaction. But it is still just an emotion and actions/decisions should not be based on it. Ephesians 4:26-27 says “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” The more you internalize, the more you stew, the more you tell others about how awful your offender is, the more likely you are to carry that feeling over into the next day. Then the next week you’re plotting, then the next 6 months you’re defending. Pretty soon, 2 years later, you’re still not speaking to that person and you can’t even remember why. Whether or not the person was right, the physical and emotional energy to keep your resentment flowing hurts you more in the end than anyone else. If you’re so mad at that person, don’t give them your peace. Don’t allow them to steal your joy and good mood. If nothing else, let it go for the satisfaction of knowing that those who have angered you don’t get to control your emotional future.
The ugly truth
Sometimes we are the angriest at those who have told us the truth about ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, every person that says something hurtful to you is not speaking the truth. But if we’re honest with ourselves, there is a certain type of anger that rises up within us when we’re forced to look at ourselves in the mirror called truth. The slang term would be, salty. A recent burst of anger came out of me from what I felt was an accusation from a friend. Initially, I could care less if there was any truth in it… all I could focus on was the audacity of the person to say what they did, and how they did. But after replaying the conversation in my mind, I have to admit that what the person said was right, I just didn’t like hearing it. Ephesians 4:25 tell us “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” As angry as it may make us, we should make it a practice to receive the truth from others as it comes about. Someone pointing out a fault should not be grounds to dismiss them. Our faith gives us the ability to act maturely in Christ and self-reflect, even while angry. Better that we grow from situations where our flaws are revealed, than loose the lesson and let our characters suffer.
The act of letting go must be deliberate
It takes some strength to forgive, especially when you feel you’re right! It takes a great deal of effort to be the bigger person and turn the other cheek. I’m so glad Jesus is who He is, because I know I would be hesitant to die for a world that was against me. But He did it deliberately, knowing that His purpose was bigger than His emotions. In order to truly forgive someone, you must work at making sure that your feelings, actions and speech are in check. When someone offends me, it seems way easier to forgive than to forget. But it takes the strength of my will, and the supernatural power of God to heal my heart and adjust my disposition. It takes determination to move past pretending to be ok, and actually move on, leaving past feelings completely behind. It was always my urge to treat the offender differently after what I labeled an offense, so they’ll always have a inclination that I won’t tolerate being offended again. But God is growing me up in Him. As I actively take measures to calm down, self-reflect, pray, watch something funny or listen to something inspirational that puts me in a better mood, I’m deliberately letting go of my anger. I show God that I don’t want to harbor ill will and He backs me up by strengthening my heart.
Going through grows a testimony
This blog post is a perfect example that sometimes what we go through isn’t merely for our own benefit. God loves to work in the ripple effect. A lesson learned turns into a lesson taught. The wisdom that we gain from learning how to take angry feelings and turn them into glory to God isn’t something that is common sense… unless you’re Jesus. We learn how to deal with our anger, by being in situations that make us angry. We gather helpful ways to let go from hearing how other people did the same thing. God might have wanted to show others how best to deal with anger by allowing me to be angered! As a result, praise, honor and glory is filtered back to Him. 1Peter 3:15 says “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear…” God is the true healer. He is the tear dryer, and the hope giver. He is the one who we should run to when our feelings have been hurt and no one else seems to understand. It is because of Him that we can forgive our offender out of love. We honor God with our testimony, and He delights in our praise.
Being mad sucks. Even people who seem angry all the time aren’t happy. It might be somewhat comfortable to resort to anger instead of putting in the work needed to forgive and let go, but in the end, it takes a severe toll on your inner self. To grow from situations that make us angry, we should acknowledge how we feel, look at ourselves and deliberately act in ways that move us toward letting go of our anger so that we can help others do the same. God forgives us when we offend, and then welcomes us back with loving arms. We to should do so with our brothers and sisters, not just for them, but ultimately for ourselves.
Are You Trying to do it All Yourself?
Article from Marketplace Christianity written by Brad Harmon
One of the largest issues that small business owners face is transitioning from being self-employed to becoming a true business owner. It’s just you in the beginning so there’s nobody else to whom you can delegate. Once your business reaches a point where you can hire employees it still seems like you are doing most of the work. Sound familiar?
As we pick back up our 20 Entrepreneurial Lessons from Creation series, I couldn’t help but notice that God sets a good example for us by not doing all the work of Creation Himself. That’s right. God delegated out some of the work when it came to creating the heavens and the earth. Obviously, God didn’t really need our help; however, He included us in the process.
Set Up the Framework Then Delegate Out the Details
When God went about the work of Creation, He took care of the big items. He set the framework of life. He came up with the big ideas, and He personally named them. Look at what God took the time to name in the Creation account: Day and Night (Gen 1:5
), Heaven (Gen 1:8), the Earth and Seas (Gen 1:10).
In the Old Testament names had great significance. Naming a person, place, or anything else was not something that was done lightly. Isn’t it interesting then that God gave responsibility for naming all of His creatures to Adam?
19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.– Genesis 2:19-20
Adam also named Woman (Gen 2:23). Who’s idea was it to create Eve? Of course, God knew all along that He would create Adam a mate; however, is it possible that Adam pointed out this need to God? Did God go through this exercise with Adam to get him to buy into God’s plan for him?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but it’s a great model for us as business owners to follow as we start to bring on employees. Design the vision and major systems, then let your employees help you finish out the process. You may, like God, not really need their help to finish it; however, creating a sense of ownership and partnership will be worth it.
Read entire article at Marketplace Christianity.
The Spiritual Practice of Making Mistakes
Article from thehighcalling.org by J.B. Wood
My friend Howard recently completed a major feat: running a half-marathon, which is an impressive 13.1 miles.
As a formerly overweight kid in high school who could barely manage to jog a mile without collapsing, this was a huge accomplishment and a major milestone in the journey of Howard’s spiritual and personal growth.
But I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard that for the entire ten weeks leading up to this historic event, Howard’s pedometer had miscalculated the number of miles he was training. He thought he had built up to a regimen of thirteen miles, but in reality, he was only running eleven. The pedometer was off by two miles.
Only he didn’t find out until he was actually running the race.
So, picture it: there’s Howard at the starting line, all jittery and excited to finally be running with the big boys at his very first official race, this insane event that will drive his body beyond anything he has ever imagined possible, and the starting gun goes off.
Howard pushes off the pavement, merging with the massive crowd of elbows and sweat and pounding feet. He keeps up his confidence with positive self-talk, telling himself he has trained properly, he knows how to pace himself, he is prepared, he utilized the correct technology.
After a few minutes, Howard checks his trusty pedometer. Great! First mile down, just as he suspected. Except, where is the first mile marker? He looks up the road ahead, to his left, his right.
Where is it?
Where? Where? Where????
An excruciating two-tenths of a mile later, he finally sees the first mile marker. It does not synch up with what his pedometer says. And then it dawns on Howard: he hasn’t trained properly at all.
He does a quick calculation in his head: .2 miles x 13 miles = 2.6 extra miles. He has never actually run 13 miles in his life!
This is what we might call a Defining Moment.
Howard could have panicked, shut down, and puked all over the side of the road.
He could have said “forget it,” blamed the technology and bashed his lousy pedometer into smithereens on the pavement.
He could have told himself he was really an incompetent idiot who didn’t deserve to run the race with all those other well-trained, better-looking, and legitimate runners.
Three Differences Between Managers and Leaders
Article from blogs.hbr.org by Vineet Nayar
A young manager accosted me the other day. “I’ve been reading all about leadership, have implemented several ideas, and think I’m doing a good job at leading my team. How will I know when I’ve crossed over from being a manager to a leader?” he wanted to know.
I didn’t have a ready answer and it’s a complicated issue, so we decided to talk the next day. I thought long and hard, and came up with three tests that will help you decide if you’ve made the shift from managing people to leading them.
Counting value vs Creating value. You’re probably counting value, not adding it, if you’re managing people. Only managers count value; some even reduce value by disabling those who add value. If a diamond cutter is asked to report every 15 minutes how many stones he has cut, by distracting him, his boss is subtracting value.
By contrast, leaders focuses on creating value, saying: “I’d like you to handle A while I deal with B.” He or she generates value over and above that which the team creates, and is as much a value-creator as his or her followers are. Leading by example and leading by enabling people are the hallmarks of action-based leadership.
Circles of influence vs Circles of power. Just as managers have subordinates and leaders have followers, managers create circles of power while leaders create circles of influence.
The (Not-So-Secret) Secret to Turning Your Website Traffic into Paying Customers
Article from coppyblogger.com by Demian Farnworth
We all do it … daydream about our website finally breaking through … getting the attention it deserves … and actually allowing us to earn a living onour terms.
Sometimes we see a glimmer of this dream coming true with a steady rise of subscribers, a flood of comments with each article, or a rush of traffic from a successful guest blog post.
When this happens we hold our breath and wonder: “Maybe this could happen to me. Maybe my ship is finally coming in and I could earn an honest living from my website.”
And I don’t care who you are. Writer. Podcaster. Business coach. Web designer. Real estate agent. Handbag designer. In one way or another, you are a content creator interested in online marketing … and dreaming of turning your hard work into cash.
But there’s just one problem.
People don’t naturally volunteer to hand you money. Especially online, where the prevailing paradigm is “Everything Is Free,” and people are smothered with information.
To convert traffic to customers you have to start with a compelling and trustworthy offer. But just throwing up a button on your home page won’t get the job done.
See, successful online content marketers have known for quite some time (this is the not-so-secret part) that it’s ridiculous to spend the blood, sweat, and tears creating an amazing product and then just drop it on their home page for promotion …
Instead, they use the proven landing page.
Why landing pages work so wellThe single and solitary goal of a landing page is to overcome the “paradox of choice” dilemma that emerges when people are given multiple options … resulting in a decision NOT to choose at all (read: your sales are dead in the water).
And because of this single-minded focus on selling, landing pages convert infinitely higher, whether you are promoting an ebook, membership site, or any other product (digital or not).
Landing pages align the right message with the right audience at the right time … with the cleanest page possible … and a headline that appeals to a narrow segment of your audience …
Overcoming the swift, brutal attention filters we’ve developed due to information overload and poorly matched promises. Even the fonts, colors, and visual graphics of a landing page are tailored to the exact audience and action you desire.
It’s really a powerful, essential tool if you want online success.
August 8, 2013
3 Ways to Get What You Want by Giving People What They Want
Article from Copy Blogger written by Demian Farnsworth
We all long for something.
Love that will last.
The ability to influence people.
Scenic vacations.
Financial, political, or psychological independence.
Less anxiety.
Stunning creative achievements.
Organizational excellence.
Relief from the sting of rejection.
World-class athletic performance.
Retaliation for when we are wronged.
Invitations to the most popular parties.
A savings account that never runs out.
An impossibly broken family finally reunited.
Recognition for your hard work.
A Cosmopolitan body.
Marketing that actually works hinges on connecting your product to one of these mass desires.
When that is done — when you’ve convinced people that you can satisfy their longings (the deeper, the better) — then people will not only fall in love with and buy your products, they will become unstoppable evangelists as well.
Let me show you how to get there …
1. Choose the most powerful desire
Every mass desire has three components.
Degree of urgency, intensity, or demand to be satisfied: Finding a cure for bad breath is not as urgent a matter as not being able to breathe. So an asthmatic’s desire for an inhaler is going to be stronger than a playboy’s desire for a breath mint. Same is true for curing a migraine versus just a minor headache. The greater the degree of urgency, intensity, or demand you can channel into your product … the stronger the desire.
Duration: Products with a high degree of staying power, repetition, andinability to be satisfied will perform better than products with lower degrees. Basically anything that plays with your pleasure and pain levels. Cigarettes fit this category (mostly because they are addicting): they are hard to quit, you want one right after another, and you need stronger ones to satisfy that original desire. You also don’t need cigarettes. You do, however, need water. Three days without it and you’d die. But that doesn’t apply to most of us in the western world. Now water-bottling brands must compete on taste, design, or story.
Scope: How many people share this desire? For instance, how many men will pay to have premium hygiene products sent to their home? Birchbox for Menis hoping it’s enough. Apple bet big on the iPod — and cleaned house. Dean Kamen bet big on the Segway PT — and lost. Channeling mass desire doesn’t require that the general population love your product … just massive enough to be profitable.
Here’s the bottom line in this step: your product should appeal to all of these components … but only one fulfillment of mass desire can dominate in the end. Only one can sit in your headline. Only one is the key to unlock the full profit potential of your ad.
Which desire you choose is the most important step. Get it wrong, and even the greatest copy won’t matter. Get it right, however, and the world can beat a path to your door.
Read entire article on Copy Blogger.
Online Outsourcing Services Give Small Businesses New Options For Getting Things Done
Article from Small Biz Technology written by Stephanie Faris
The days of keeping a personal assistant on hand to pick up your dry cleaning or schedule your meetings are long gone. With automation, business owners now craft their own correspondence and make their own phone calls, often from the car on the way to a meeting.
As you look at your calendar at the beginning of each day, chances are you see tasks that merit a higher level of priority than others. Those meetings with clients and service providers can make a big difference in growing your business, but without someone to do those daily, more tedious activities, your business will eventually suffer.
Luckily, technology has made it easy to outsource some of those tasks, freeing up your time to focus on the more important items on your to-do list. Below are a few tasks you can outsource to online providers at minimal cost to your bottom line and the outsourcing tools that will help you.
Errands
Don’t have time to run by the grocery store? Need someone to pick up a gift for your wife? TaskRabbit connects busy people with pre-screened help locally. The site features more than 10,000 TaskRabbits nationwide who can handle a wide variety of tasks. You can also check reviews of previous customers to determine whether a TaskRabbit is the right person to handle your task.
Recently, TaskRabbit launched its business solutions site. Noting that some customers were using the site to locate temporary workers, the site decided to honor this need by providing background-screened temp workers who can be interviewed via live chat. Currently, the site is specializing in providing workers who can handle administrative tasks such as data entry and customer service. It’s a great way for a business to either find a fill-in worker for staff vacations or to try out a new worker before committing to long-time employment.
Professional Tasks
Need a business proposal for a big meeting with an investor? Want to pay an expert to craft a list of sales leads? Elance is one of several outsourcing tools that give you the opportunity to post your job and choose from a variety of proposals. With a membership of more than 500,000 businesses and two million freelancers, Elance is revolutionizing the way businesses handle projects. Instead of hiring a full-time web developer, you now have the option to pay a talented designer to design your website, providing updates as needed. Need content for that site? Don’t worry. One of Elance’s 10,000+ workers can do the job for you.
Advice and Services
Whether you’re in need of legal advice or want to pay someone to do your next PowerPoint presentation, Fiverr is a great service for finding affordable talent. While the site is now far from the original “everything for five dollars” concept–more than half of all tasks sell for more than five dollars–the cost of each project is straightforward. Many workers offer “add on” work, where the buyer can choose additional services at a higher cost.
Read entire article at Small Biz Technology.
Reading the Bible on a Tight Schedule
Article from Bible Gateway written by Jonathan Petersen
Even before the sun casts a shadow, the baby is crying and you’ve started your day. As your other kids awake, you feed and dress them while you’re getting ready yourself. The clock is relentless. Rushing out the door to daycare and then your job, you barely have time to nourish your physical body let alone your soul. That’s when you drive down guilt-trip lane.
Your pastor, your parents, your friends, your church small group tell you to read the Bible, study the Bible, even dissect the Bible. But who has time? The crush of each digital second hastens us with the tyranny of the urgent. Keep looking forward because the freight train of deadlines and responsibility is hurtling your way.
In our series of Bible Gateway 20th anniversary reflections, we’re exploring what it means to realistically engage the Bible in our hectic world. We all know the Bible is important to read—the most important book of all; underscored by it remaining at the number one top of the bestseller charts year after decade after century after millennia. It’s God’s Word to us, after all. And yet, once we bring it home from the store, somehow we keep neglecting it. “We’ll get to it… later.”
I speak from experience. My college days came with the commitment to read 12 chapters of the Bible a day: six in the morning; six at night. That soon became six chapters total. Then only three chapters just before bed. Sleep had a way of subduing my reading fervor and I quickly gave up. Through the years my approach is best described as “start/stop feast/famine.”
But we all have the same 1,440 minutes (86,400 hastening seconds) in a day to work with. Why do some people accomplish the impossible in that amount of time and others can’t even get out of bed? The answer: We do what we want to do. It’s that simple. We want to eat. We want to sleep. Nothing (at least for long) can keep us from these physiological basics. So it’s merely a matter of choosing to put the Bible’s “daily bread” intake on the same intransigent level as those essentials. Once you decide that, the rest is simply scheduling.
An initial approach to incorporating the Bible into your life’s routine and rhythm is to intentionally not make it an arduous task. The following are some ideas I’ve used in my own life to help keep the Bible front and center.
Read entire article on Bible Gateway.
Friendship, Business & The Line
By Valerie Thompson
I have been fortunate enough to be blessed with friends who are go-getters. Some are also entrepreneurs like myself and some work multiple jobs. All are smart, quick and funny… I have a great group of people that I can honestly say are my friends. But sometimes, the same blessings that friends bring can turn into feeling like a curse!
Don’t get me wrong, friendship is important. It is essential in fact, because we all need support from someone we consider an equal. Your mother will always tell you you’re doing a good job, your hair looks nice, and you’ll be sure to get the bank loan… after all, you’re their baby! But a good friend will keep it real with you and provide support and collaboration. Even so, those blessing sometimes come with a curse attached. From personal experience, here are some of the things learned from the business of friendship.
Blessing: Business savvy friends encourage collaboration
Friends can be a wonderful resource when it comes to bringing great minds together. If you’re friends with someone, you probably already have a lot in common: same level of intelligence, same interests, even the same aspirations. When this happens, many friends choose to go into business together or work on projects side by side, joining their expertise for the greater good. After all, two heads are better than one right?
Curse: Friendship can be used as an excuse
But what happens when because of friendship, you’re putting in a greater share of the work, or making up excuses to clients as to why your project isn’t finished on time due to your partner’s tardiness. What happens when a friend shows up late to a meeting and figures you’ll understand because… well, that’s what a friend does. What if you find yourself in the position of being too lenient or too harsh because you feel your friend will be ok with it?
Solution: Establish ground rules.
The biggest factor of any imbalance in this area (google “Facebook Founders”) is that the ground rules for friendship and business were not firmly established and followed. There should be rules created and agreed upon by both parties as to how you will conduct business together. If being late with deadlines or appointments is not acceptable to you, say so upfront what you will and will not tolerate. If your friend feels that you taking private calls during business meetings is unprofessional, make sure these situations are thought about and discussed before starting to work together. Don’t be afraid to express how you feel because you think you’ll hurt their feelings, no matter the subject. After all, if they’re your friend… they’ll understand.
Blessing: Friends can provide much needed supportNothing will cheer you up when you’re frustrated or depressed more than a good friend who can make you laugh. One who will tell you about all of your good qualities and will be a champion for your next endeavor. A good friend can pump you up for an important meeting and be just as excited as you are when you land the big contract. That means a lot to an entrepreneur who may not have a staff to cheer them on. This is an important quality in a friend, someone who will share your joy and pain in the good times and the bad.
Curse: Friends can blur business and personal
Friends can also know so much about you that they feel they can think for you. They can take a business situation and blur it with your personal past. Sometimes they can wind up discouraging you with what was supposed to be a motivating speech by bringing up previous mistakes, relationships and failed attempts. Worst-case scenario, they could call another mutual friend of yours and discuss what was supposed to be a private conversation or tell others incorrect information based on opinion.
Solution:Be objective
When this happens, it’s important to realize that a good friend is only trying to help. Consider their point of view and chew on it. If you’ve analyzed it and still don’t agree… once you’ve talked about it and made your feelings known, make the conscious decision not to let it bother you. Pray about it. Seek God, and let Him lead you to your next steps. Even good friends make mistakes, and if you just so happen to be the friend that has done so, you’ll want forgiveness too.
Blessing: Friends can be your biggest advertisers
A good friend will let everyone who is need of your product/service know that you are in business! They will have a heart to want to see your organization succeed and they’ll do more than just talk the talk! They want a stack of your business cards and they’ll drive traffic to your website. They will be the first in line to try your product, read your book or visit your store. Nothing beats good old fashion word of mouth referrals, and a good friend will stop at nothing to get the word out about you.
Curse: Friends can play tit for tat
This type of behavior can also turn into a service that one day comes with a tab. When friends send referrals your way, it should be out of the goodness of their heart. But, when they feel entitled to favors, discounts or the like because of their effort, it can lead to a blow up. I have to admit, when a friend of mine gets a new job that has anything to do with retail, my first question is “how much of a discount do you get?” But, I have had to stop myself from doing that because that expectation isn’t always welcome. I must always remember to be the friend I want to have. When work comes my way, I want to be compensated fairly, and anyone that you call your friend deserves the same.
Solution: Be upfront
Again, do not assume that unspoken rules apply. Talk about the exchange for referrals, the expectation of payment or terms of transactions. You might want to give your friend a break on price, a faster turnaround or set up a referral program to encourage compensation for those who bring business your way. But if you don’t… make it known so that no one is left confused.
Blessing: Friends can tell it to you straight
Don’t you hate it when you come home from work only to find that you had broccoli stuck in your teeth since lunch, and no one told you? I can’t stand that!!! I always think to myself, I can handle the truth, just tell me! A good friend will tell you the truth. No matter how excited, lost, frustrated or expectant you are about anything, if your friend cares about you and knows something that you don’t or can’t see, they will set you straight, to your face. That’s the beauty of friendship. That person loves you enough for you to be informed and not left to look foolish due to ignorance or misinterpretation.
Curse: Friends can become offended when you’re honest
The door swings both ways here. If your friend is only true if they’re honest with you, that means that you being a good friend has a lot to do with your honesty. I have some friends who love to dish out the truth, but have a hard time swallowing it when it comes to their affairs. A good friendship doesn’t buckle under the weight of the truth. On the contrary, it flourishes because truth brings freedom. There is liberty in being able to make decisions and conclusions based on the facts. When a friend becomes upset at the truth (and the “truth” can include your true feelings) it can become awkward to share things with them moving forward. You don’t want to have to walk on eggshells with someone that you’re used to sharing things with.
Solution: Self examine
Even if you’re the friend who has become offended, the worst thing you can do is completely dismiss your friends words as false. Maybe they’re right. Maybe you’ve overlooked something or failed to consider their perspective. Sometimes we’re so entrenched in our daily lives/situations/relationships that we can’t see when something is off. The best thing to do before shifting blame is to stop and take a look at you first. If you are the one who has had to bring the hard truth to a friend who doesn’t want to hear it, be patient. Sometimes the truth hurts, and it can reveal things that that friend might not have wanted to face. Give the situation time and give your friend space if they want it. It’s much easier to come back together after time has passed and talk about this truth with a fresh mind, than to ride your high horse and demand that they believe you. A good friendship is worth the wait.
August 7, 2013
The (Not-So-Secret) Secret to Turning Your Website Traffic into Paying Customers
Article from Copyblogger by Demian Farnworth
We all do it … daydream about our website finally breaking through … getting the attention it deserves … and actually allowing us to earn a living on our terms.
Sometimes we see a glimmer of this dream coming true with a steady rise of subscribers, a flood of comments with each article, or a rush of traffic from a successful guest blog post.
When this happens we hold our breath and wonder: “Maybe this could happen to me. Maybe my ship is finally coming in and I could earn an honest living from my website.”
And I don’t care who you are. Writer. Podcaster. Business coach. Web designer. Real estate agent. Handbag designer. In one way or another, you are a content creator interested in online marketing … and dreaming of turning your hard work into cash.
But there’s just one problem.
People don’t naturally volunteer to hand you money. Especially online, where the prevailing paradigm is “Everything Is Free,” and people are smothered with information.
To convert traffic to customers you have to start with a compelling and trustworthy offer. But just throwing up a button on your home page won’t get the job done.
See, successful online content marketers have known for quite some time (this is the not-so-secret part) that it’s ridiculous to spend the blood, sweat, and tears creating an amazing product and then just drop it on their home page for promotion …
Instead, they use the proven landing page.
Why landing pages work so well
The single and solitary goal of a landing page is to overcome the “paradox of choice” dilemma that emerges when people are given multiple options … resulting in a decision NOT to choose at all (read: your sales are dead in the water).
And because of this single-minded focus on selling, landing pages convert infinitely higher, whether you are promoting an ebook, membership site, or any other product (digital or not).
Landing pages align the right message with the right audience at the right time … with the cleanest page possible … and a headline that appeals to a narrow segment of your audience …
Overcoming the swift, brutal attention filters we’ve developed due to information overload and poorly matched promises. Even the fonts, colors, and visual graphics of a landing page are tailored to the exact audience and action you desire.
It’s really a powerful, essential tool if you want online success.
How to create killer landing pages
So, if you are ready to learn how to start creating killer landing pages right away … and experience this type of success online … then here’s your chance. Grab our free 9-chapter ebook Landing Pages: Turn Traffic Into Money today.
In addition, to answer the tons of other questions that online publishers like you ask, we’ve built a training resource called MyCopyblogger.
When you register (at no charge) you’ll get instant access to nearly 100,000 words of proven marketing training in fourteen high-impact ebooks, plus our completely revamped 20-part Internet marketing course.
Take a quick look at what’s waiting for you in MyCopyblogger right now …
Copywriting 101: How to Craft Compelling Copy
How to Write Magnetic Headlines
How to Create Compelling Content that Ranks Well in Search Engines
Content Marketing: How to Build an Audience that Builds Your Business
The Business Case for Agile Content Marketing
A Content Marketing Strategy that Works
How to Create Content that ConvertsHow to Effectively Promote Your Content
Content Marketing Research: The Crucial First Step
How to Build Authority through Content and Google Authorship
Email Marketing: How to Push Send and Grow Your Business
Keyword Research for Web Writers and Content Producers
Landing Pages: How to Turn Traffic into Money
Inside these ebooks you’ll find the very same tactics, strategies, and processes that allowed us to build Copyblogger Media from a simple blog into a content-fueled software and training company with 100,000+ customers.
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