The Success Magnets with Cara Lumen

How to Organize Your Content so it Practically Writes Itself

I once wrote a play. Well actually I wrote a lot of scenes and found myself laying them out all over my bed trying to sort them in some sort of sequence. (This was before computers). It was the only way I could take what had emerged from my imagination and make any sense out of it.

Of course, now I know better. Even now if simply start writing content as I get inspired, I find it much, much harder to organize than if I had a plan in the first place. Being able to see the overview of what you are going to create is actually a talent, but it is also a skill you can learn. Here's my method.

Find your core message

Why are you writing this? What one point do you wish to make above all else? I'll use the example of a book I'm working on now. It's "How to Write Magnetic Sales Pages." My purpose is to create a ebook/workbook that helps people pull their ideas and phrases from their subconscious and put it into a specific structure in order to create a compelling sales page. That makes sense. This core message is the clothes line that will go from beginning to end upon which I will hang my points, one chapter "clothes pin" at a time.

Find your beginner's mind

Who are you writing to? How much do they know? What foundational material do you have to include in order to orient them to your content? I'm beginning my book with information on why people buy. That makes sense. We're writing sales pages to get people to purchase so understanding that process is an invaluable foundation upon which to build.

Build your path

Lay out your stepping stones. What do they need to know next? What after that? These are your chapter headings. Don't worry about the name for them, just get the idea. In my case, I need for people to get very clear about the purpose of their sales page so I have organized my chapters and exercises to help them make internal decisions that will affect their content. It takes them step-by-step to a finished product.

Choose your equipment

What "tools" will your readers need in order to reach the conclusion you are taking them toward? Again, in my example, it's fairly easy to see. We have to talk about the mechanics of creating content – headlines, subheads, keywords, the circular paragraph, etc. Fill your reader's toolkit before you move on.

The key question

Now comes the magic organizer. Imagine that you have just mapped out a nature walk. You have posted signs along the path to mark the places you will stop and discuss with your students the scene before them. Why did you choose one viewing point rather than another? You have to know exactly what you want them to learn. The most powerful phrase you can ask yourself is "Students leave with an understanding of…." If you place that question at the beginning of every chapter heading you have created and answer it, your content will practically write itself.

The first time I created a Table of Contents for the Magnetic Sales Page book I found that on one chapter heading, when put in the line "Students leave with an understanding of…." I had to answer it with "I have no clue." Needless to say I rearranged that particular point.

This key question is a powerful measuring stick for making certain your content is heard and understood.

Review your overview From your work so far, create your table of contents and look it over for a logical sequence. Do you need to move the chapter on one topic higher up? Have you answered a question in another place? Do chapters need to be combined? Remember your beginner's mind and build your case one logical sequential step at a time. Look at your core "clothesline" theme. Look at the "garment" chapters you have hung on that line. If you have made your point, if you know what your students will leave with an understanding of… start writing.

Are they students or readers? We all want to be heard. We don't write unless we want to communicate. Whether it is fiction, a how to book or a sales page, we want our content to be understood, So of course, we want to make our point. For me a reader can be a casual observer. A student, on the other hand, really wants to "get it." That's why I use "Students leave with an understanding of…" and let my content write itself.

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps pro-active entrepreneurs translate their passion into a profitable presence on the internet. As a content strategist she guides you to copy that compels and sells. Her own information products are noted for their clarity and richness. Through The Magnetic Marketing Method she offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development. Find more articles like this in The Success Magnets Emagazine at www.caralumen.com

How to use testimonials to handle objections

There will always be objections raised in the selling process. What if…I can't…maybe… An objection means they don't have enough information. It's that simple.

Now it's one thing to be in conversation and hear an objection voiced, you can immediately begin to determine what they are thinking and ask questions to identify and clarify their objections. But what do you do when you are writing a landing page and are essentially having a conversation with yourself?

You have to anticipate.

Make the "what if's" part of your content

When you do your homework to identify the problems of your target market, also write down some of the perceived objections that might be raised. If you have had conversations with friends that represent your target market, be certain to explore their possible objections. Put yourself in the shoes your target market. Is the objection money, time, fear, lack of information, lack of need?

You want to beat them to the draw, so to speak, by addressing those objections in your sales page content. And what better way than to have someone else tell them what your product or service did for them.

Let testimonials handle the objections

"Although I've been a professional magazine writer for years, I didn't realize the incredible marketing potential of articles until I took Cara's class, Article Magnetism, How to Write Articles that Attract. Cara's class material was worth ten times the cost of the class and her vast experience helped point me in directions I would not have thought of on my own. If you want to learn the nuts and bolts of effective article marketing, Article Magnetism is the one class you can't afford to miss."

Nancy Hendrickson
www.CyberBookBuzz.com

Nancy identifies herself as a knowledgeable person, indicates her problem of not having realized the marketing potential of writing articles, and indicates the class raised her awareness and moved her to a new level. This well-crafted testimonial is only three sentences long and addresses value, benefits and results.

I've been interested in article marketing for nearly a year now but I felt stuck and hadn't done much with the information I'd received. In three weeks of Cara's class I've been inspired to write 7 articles and have brainstormed a list of 27 more article ideas to write about. She's really pulled this topic together for me so that I can write with confidence, ease, speed, organization and pleasure. I don't feel like I have to write an article anymore. I want to write an article!

Cara gets herself and her students right into the beat of this topic, with each and every session. No one is looking at their watch, multi-tasking or asking "where's the beef" in this content rich class. Her original (and really generous) bonus materials are great and her tips and resources are not the usual ones that everybody lists.

I really loved this course. Anyone who orders it will be richly rewarded.

Beth Borray
www.redpeony.com

This is actually a bit long and I could easily edit it but I include it because Beth speaks of her emotion, how stuck she felt and how relieved she was to actually want to write an article instead of feeling she had to. And she gives insights into the richness of the content and value of the course.

And I didn't have to say a thing. You sometimes don't have to do anything more than include the testimonial in your marketing material.

Use the parts and pieces

Some of my best testimonials come unsolicited in an email comment from people I interact with. First, I save them all in my "Acknowledgment" file so if I ever start feeling dumpy I can go look at the great things people see in me. But I also email them back and ask if I can use an excerpt as a testimonial and if so, how would they like their name and URL listed on my web site. Who can turn down an offer like that!

By asking for an excerpt I can take the short, juicy phrases out of a longer rambling testimonial and make a major point with just a few words. Don't hesitate to edit the testimonials that are offered.

Place the testimonials where they count

A good testimonial helps overcome objections so place them strategically on your sales page where an objection might come up in a conversation or the natural thought process might be "I'm not sure…"

You could even go so far as to have a sub heading "Not convinced? Read what Nancy has to say about this class." But more often setting the testimonial apart by indented italics or in a colored box is enough to help them stand out.

I'm not a fan of complete pages of testimonials. I don’t think many people go read them, but a short well-placed testimonial in a sales page can humanize you and your process.

Keep them colloquial

You want testimonials to be written as people speak, not as a slick, well-crafted advertisement. Keeping them colloquial makes them more believable. Testimonials are like a pat on the back, congratulations on a job well done, an expression of gratitude. Let others see how much your offerings are appreciated and more importantly, what they helped others achieve.

If you don't have them, ask for them

Here are the questions you’d like to see answered in a testimonial:

• Why they came to you in the first place
• What was decision that made them say "yes?"
• What happened?
• What was the result of the process?
• What the future will be because of this process

Use testimonials to convey your benefits and help you achieve credibility. Ask for feedback when you give a teleclass or a workshop and from your clients and ask for permission to use excerpts when you do. Sure, you can write leaders in your field for a testimonial but the voice of the person whose heart you touched will count for a lot more.

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps you focus your passion into profitable course of action. Through internet marketing, content strategy, signature product development and her own information products she helps pro-active entrepreneurs become Success Magnets. www.caralumen.com

The Single Biggest Mistake You Can Make On Your Web Site

We all do it. It is such a natural thing to do. We know how hard we worked and how excited we are with what we offer and we want to share it with everyone who comes to our web site.

But wait, what’s wrong with that picture.

People only want to know what’s in it for them

Isn’t that a bummer. All the why’s and wherefores of how we have created our business is not important to them. All they want to know is how it will solve their problem or make them feel better or do better or be more successful. And that’s exactly what we have to tell them on every page of our web site.

People want to know they will feel better after using your product or service

One of the most interesting aspects of marketing is to know that you are most successful when people feel good about the decision they make. They must be able to feel and imagine how different their life will be after they make the purchase. They must have a positive kinesthetic response to the idea of using your products or services.

Always make promises you can keep

What can you assure people will happen to improve their business or their life if they purchase from you? Will they make more money? If so, how much? Will they feel better? If so, how soon? Will they know more? If so, how much? You get the picture. Give them measurable results that they can expect from what you have to offer.

Emphasize your benefits

Keep the phrase “so that” handy as you write your benefit copy. Start with the list of the benefits you offer people. Then add “so that” to help further clarify the benefit. For instance:

“I help you write compelling copy so that you can convert more visitors on your web site.”

“I help you focus your services so that your target market can easily understand your offerings and want to purchase them.”

These might then turn into bullet points like
• Convert more visitors on your web site
• Earn greater profit by laser focusing your services

You see, the visitor doesn’t care how I might go about doing that for them, as in helping them write compelling copy or focusing their services, they want the bottom line, the end result. They want to know what’s in it for them.

When you finally do talk about yourself keep it relevant

After you have written about the benefits of your services and listed some of the features, which are the form your offering takes, then you can add your credentials for being the right person to deliver the results. Don’t go back to your early life, don’t go through your process of arriving at this business; speak instead of your unique skill or talent or training that is relevant for producing the results you are offering. Even when you write for your media page, keep your bio relevant to the subject you are an expert on.

It’s hard when we’ve put so much into it

I know this goes against every grain. We’ve worked so hard and studied so much and put our hearts into our offering. But we have to be satisfied that we know what it has meant to us. We have to focus on the other person, the visitor to our web site. It’s not about us, it’s about them. That’s how to have a successful web site.

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, specializes in internet content strategy. Through her Magnetic Marketing Method, she offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for the proactive entrepreneur. Subscribe to The Success Magnet Emagazine at www.caralumen.com

How Hiring a Web Content Strategist Can Save You Money

Ya gotta have a plan. You’ve gotta know where you are going and what you are going to find when you get there. It’s not enough to say “I want a web site.” You have to know exactly why you want a web site, who you are targeting, and what you want your web site to achieve for you. That’s why you hire a Web Content Strategist - that organizational and internet marketing specialist who can save you money by keeping you from making expensive mistakes.

Focus

As a Content Strategist, my most important role is to help my clients focus their business, specifically as it applies to how they want to put their web site to work for them. That’s why we start by defining the services page. It helps the client choose exactly what they want to offer and who they want to offer it to. This is the most important aspect of the work we do together. The majority of entrepreneurs have too many ideas and are trying to reach too large a target market. I help them focus their vision. I look for bundling and leveraging possibilities. I listen to their vision and help them tailor their choices to support it every step of the way.

Navigation

Creating a web site that is easy to navigate is vital. If people can’t easily find what they want, they will leave. My job as Content Strategist is to know all the best internet marketing options and help you select the navigation that most suits your products and services. Together we create a Site Map to guide us in the development of a profitable web presence.

Technical Tools

Because it is my area of expertise, I can anticipate what technical tools you need to put in your site at the very beginning - shopping cart, affiliate program, autoresponders, web host. Together we select the technical tools most suited to your personality, time, pocketbook, and inclination. I help you keep your eye on the future. And I help you think big.

Content Development

You have 7 seconds to capture their attention and you better get it right. That’s why a good Content Strategist will help you write the headlines, craft strong bullet points and organize the content of each sales page for the most profitable impact.

Product Development

A Content Strategist is full of creative ideas that can leverage what you already have, expand your thinking about what is possible, and give you concrete ideas to fill you marketing funnel with products that add to your expertise and credibility.

Holding your Vision

A good Content Strategist holds your vision, even as you sink into the morass of words and ideas and details that are part of the creative process. She keeps you on target, makes certain you consistently address your niche, strengthens your copy, maintains the tone of the site, and makes certain the readers’ experience will lead to a high conversion rate.

A Content Strategist Saves You Money

When you and your Content Strategist complete your work together, your web site content is ready for your web designer. She has helped you focus your intention, constantly make crucial choices, and helped you create impactful and relevant content. In doing so, you have eliminated the unnecessary, the irrelevant, and the no-longer useful before you made the mistake of putting them into practice and then find it necessary and expensive to eliminate them. A Content Strategist is mentor, advisor, resource, cheerleader and friend. Investing in an experienced Content Strategist assures that you get the most from your investment as you create a profitable presence on the internet.

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller , is a content strategist who helps you distill your vision into a specific and profitable course of action. Her specialty is content development, internet marketing, and signature product development. Through her Magnetic Marketing Method, Cara offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for the pro-active entrepreneur. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

Mellowing Into Our Creative Genius

Every time I start to think it may be too late to achieve something exciting, someone reminds me of Colonel Sanders who started Kentucky Fried Chicken in his 80’s

But a recent article by David W. Galenson & Joshua Kotin that originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times, pointed out the difference in creative styles between those who did awesome things in their 20’s and those who developed over time—the Conceptual Innovators vs. the Experimental Innovators.

Young people are often “Conceptual Innovators. They get an inspired idea and often work it into a unique masterpiece. They have a tendency to be the rule breakers. Picasso created cubism at 25. Orson Wells made Citizen Kane at 25. Mozart wrote full symphonies in his teens and 20s. Conceptual Innovators are often driven by the need to express a new idea or particular emotions. The flash of insight comes and they follow their ideas and create a new concept.

But there is another way creativity emerges. It is the trial-and-error experimentation and contemplation that ultimately leads to a unique expression of the collected wisdom and life experience. These people are called “Experimental Innovators” and they seek to describe what they see and hear and understand. They examine the over-view based on their life experience and their personal quest for knowledge, and organize it into a unique and individualized offering.

The list is long of people whose quest for expression involved a long journey. Paul Cezanne was an experimental innovator. After failing to get into the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he left Paris feeling totally discouraged because he felt he could not compete with other young artists of his time. After years spent in contemplation and exploration, he finally came to understand what he wanted to do. He wanted to bring solidity to Impressionism. He was 30 years old at the time. Then he spent the next 30 years, primarily in seclusion, developing his unique style that ultimately influenced every important artist of the next generation.

It’s important to have a goal. It’s important to make a commitment to the problem you want to solve. It’s important to keep on learning and to examine your life experience as you formulate your personal philosophy.

Mark Twain wrote Tom Sawyer at 41 and Huckleberry Finn at 50

Robert Frost dropped out of both Dartmouth and Harvard, retreated to a rural environment, and published his most famous poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” at 49.

Frank Loyd Wright completed Fallingwater at 72 and worked on the Guggenheim Museum until his death at 91

At 63 Frost observed that young people have flashes of insight, but “it is later in the dark of life that you see forms, constellations. And it is the constellations that are philosophy.”

It is our unique philosophy that we can put into information products that will possibly change the lives of others. I think it’s important that we pass forward the wisdom we have accumulated over the years. If we share our successes and our less-than-successes and others will learn from them. We’ve come too far and know too much to allow ourselves to move into a sedentary existence as we age. Pick up your pen, get on that computer, go to that art class, take the creative writing course, write that e-book, lead that workshop, follow your passion, follow that dream you’ve been carrying in your heart all your life. Now is the time. Now is the time for you to step up to the plate and go to bat for what you have leaned and what you believe. Get active. Get creative. Rejoin that you have finally mellowed into your own creative genius.

Cara Lumen is a 74-year-old author, motivational and Internet strategy coach who helps experienced life travelers bring their wisdom and experience to greater service in the world. Through Your Second Wind Coaching Cara helps you leveraging your knowledge into a profitable information product that produces passive income. Her web site is www.caralumen.com