Every single day, at least 1.6 million people love something, make a decision and click that big fat buy button!
…on SOMEONE ELSE’s blog.
…In the U.S alone.
Imagine the frictionless buying and selling happening across the entire globe, left and right as we stand alone watching in idle bewilderment!
How do they sell????
If only I knew…
I mean I did invest in the most expensive courses on selling, I put hours crafting blog posts using all those techniques. I used the tools popular bloggers recommended.
This post contains affiliate links.
Heads up! My all-time favorite blogging resource The Genius Bloggers Toolkit is live but only for this week. It is a huge bundle of carefully selected blogging tools and resources available to everyone at a hugely discounted price for a very limited amount of time once or twice every year. If you want to grab it now with the early bird bonus Cick this link before the bonus expires. Don’t forget to checkout my exclusive super cool bonus for you if you decide to sign up through my link. Details HERE.
… But the results, not so impressive!
(At best, a couple of sales here and there.)
As a side note, I have recently been on a mission to convince my sister to start her own blog. Her most solid argument so far been WHHY HER when even I haven’t made it full time with my own blog yet.
This made me think about what’s missing.
I happen to find out the answer in an old post I wrote, and then forgot about.
Here it is again.
I decided to learn the art of selling.
And tons of reading and observation surprised me (fair warning, the content ahead is not for complete beginners but do give it a read if you want to know the secret of selling without overwhelming yourself with mentions of any techy concepts which may not be relevant to your stage right now):
This Is NOT Why We Fail To Make Sales.
Some of the most common sense reasons why I thought people bought were not even how successful bloggers were making money.
Stuff people say like you:
- don’t offer an awesome product: Promoting an awesome product should be the unquestionable basis to start with, no doubt about that. I don’t mean to say that you shouldn’t promote an awesome product, but what I mean is that awesome varies from person to person. We often come across products we wouldn’t buy even for a dollar, but then you see the gazillion reviews on its sales page and you return wondering why people are praising it so much.
No?Look at this for example,
Look at this for example,
Pat Flynn makes six-figure income every month selling a product (Bluehost) that so many of us hate. But he and many others have truly found value in that product.
(Side note: Pat’s credibility isn’t under question here. He has been to Bluehost’s (the product he promotes and makes big money off of) headquarters in Utah and he witnessed how awesome they are. On the other hand, I have been with Siteground and while it was so fast and awesome for me and many others, I had my share of poor experiences there too. Things happen. Let’s move on…)
- don’t offer a killer bonus: Everybody loves a bonus but we humans are strange. Here’s the proof: During 2017’s promotion of The Genius Blogger’s Toolkit, every affiliate/referrer offered amazing bonus products… even services if you purchased the kit through their link. But guess who was on top of the leader-board for most sales made?
Someone who didn’t offer a bonus.
And I don’t think ALL the buyers were ignorant of others who were offering bonuses too. I’d buy from someone I love too.
- have less traffic: More traffic coming to my site could mean more random buyers but driving that much traffic would take in SO much of my/any mom blogger’s limited time.
And oddly enough, just last week I made a $79 on one affiliate product the day only 6 people visited this post. It’s because my post answered a burning question many ask and not getting thoroughly answered. (It cost me an additional $130 extra to answer that question too!)
- don’t go ‘zag’ when everyone’s going ‘zig’: You must have heard this advice. But being different for the sake of being different? I couldn’t accept this idea ever. And I think if this idea goes into naive hands, it can cause problems too.
I think our readers are not looking for change for the sake of change only.
They’re looking for better.
Better might, at times, mean change. But otherwise take a look at this:
Imagine when you finally crush this year’s goals and achieve everything you had written in your list? What else would you strive for there onward?
Something even better, or a ‘zag‘?
- don’t have a list: Ever wonder why email marketing is the best monetization method?
It’s because of the one-on-one connection it forms between us/the seller and the buyer. Tomorrow, if any newer medium of bonding does a better job (e.g. like they’re talking about FB messenger marketing these days, or could be something else), everyone will chase that.
For now, if email does it best, I get we need to work on that. But…
What if you and I stop thinking about more subscribers and keep our eyes on more bonding?
Each of the above points CAN and DO help drive more sales but I observed they weren’t the biggest and best things to focus on for more sales.
People Won’t Buy Unless You…
Earn TRUST, earn TRUST, earn TRUST. Then you can worry about the rest.
Seth Godin
Let’s dig a bit deeper into trust from our blogging perspective.
The Base For A Purchase
You must have come across funnels or paths to making sales. Here’s one for example:
Optin freebie —> Welcome email series —> value info email —> value + soft sell —> Hard sell
It may be a perfect step by step guide to ‘what you should do‘ to make sales.
You’ll also find info on ‘how you should do‘ each of these.
Not to mention, these are very important steps for making sales.
But consider for a minute what actually pushes the buyer to move through each of these steps:
… to cross every step, by default she gives herself a good reason/answer for why should I do this?
Could you lay a path that helps build genuine trust so the buyer can jump from one step to the next faster and with more confidence?
Stephen M. R Covey in his book ‘The Speed of Trust‘ does just so.
He talks about trust-building tools and an environment you CAN use to ‘build, restore and extend’ the trust needed to run any successful body – a blog, a business and also relationships.
On my blog, wherever I saw these tools at work (by default or conscious effort), people bought from me.
And wherever I fell short, I saw otherwise results too!
Here’s just a glimpse of some tools you can also use for building trust.
-
Trust Tool #1: Credibility
Covey Jr. claims credibility or believe-ability the base for sustainable trust. Sounds simple, yes? But if I ask myself, can I say my reader sees me as credible?
Not really…
Good news though, here are four things we work on to fix this.
- Integrity: You gotta walk your talk.
Ruth Soukup of the Elite Blog Academy is a great example of people strong enough to align their practices with their core beliefs. If she teaches her students to push their way forward past fears, i.e. ‘do it scared‘, you’ll also find her bringing forward new products every now and then. People trust her because they can see her teachings are the exact systems she uses.
Like her Product Launch Playbook. The entire book uses demonstrations down to the exact emails she sends to her lists in real life.
I know because I’m her student and I don’t get paid to recommend her.
- Intent: You should play win-win.
You take care of the deepest concerns of your audience.
No one does it better than Rosemarie from the Busy Budgeter.
Last year, I already owned a copy of The Product Launch Playbook by EBA. But during its relaunch, which included additional bonuses too, Rosemarie, being an EBA alumni promoted this product with another bonus of hers to her email list. She invited everyone to ask her any questions about it too. So I emailed her to ask if I should buy the book again to claim all the awesome bonuses. Here’s what she replied within one minute…
‘Leave it!’
This answer cost her loss of one awesome potential sale. But guess what she earned?
My absolute trust and a 100% recommendation for anything she’ll ever promote or recommend.
- Capability: You should have the skills for what you’re teaching to your audience. It could be acquired through experience or research and in-depth study.
You could up your skills or write for an audience with a lower skill-set than yours.
Darren Rowse who worked as a janitor and learned his craft for building a successful online blog biz is a great example. His blog is a universe of bloggy knowledge.
Update: some people say you can use a blog to share your journey to success too. But we can’t deny the fact that an expert is an expert. And even we, the not-there-yet ones are also aiming for that anyway.
- Results: You need to show proof.
Michelle Schroeder does it so well on her blog. Her numbers speak for her. If you want to buy her affiliate marketing course, the following stats will convince you:
- her monthly blog income reports which exceed 100k
- her income from affiliate marketing alone which is above 50k/mo. and,
- the sales her affiliate marketing course alone brings in which is 20-80k/mo
-
Trust Tool #2: Consistent Behavior
In this section of his book, Covey shares 13 behaviors that are common to all high trust leaders but at the heart of all these principles is the idea of behaving consistently.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself for developing consistent behavior for your blog.
Do I:
- Post consistently? Persistence or the lack of it will make or break your game. It’s my number one struggle and the more I overcome this, I see more people getting accustomed to my content and when they know you, they feel comfortable with your recommendations too.
Every expert I read is saying this, Rosemarie, Ruth, Elna Cain, and Micheal Hyatt even made a study which showed how posting regularly skyrocketed traffic.
- Talk straight? Don’t go chasing difficult words, it’s not an English class where you have to make an artistic impression, your end goal should be making sense to your reader. Do they get you?
- Follow the golden rule? Which means treat others like you want to be treated. This is one of the reasons I don’t ever write negative reviews. (Also because I believe in good and bad karma). I’d rather discuss a better alternative than ripping one product down. Even if brutally honest reviews seem to build credibility (at the expensive of another’s reputation!)
One way to keep myself on track is to pretend to think like someone I absolutely adore regarding sweet behavior. I saw what I admired most when I read other blogs and it was ‘being sweet’. Then if I doubt something I write as mean or snarky, I ask myself, would Abby Lawson (the sweetest blogger!) have said such a thing? If no, then I skip it. (I’m still working on it though. ?)
- Clarify expectations? Go into your reader’s mind. See what they’re looking for. Don’t assume they’ll know because a thing is so popular everywhere else. Maybe your post is the first one they’re reading. If you can’t write about the basics, you could link to a better basics guide on the topic.
- Listen to my readers? Not just with the ears, but the eyes and heart. What topics do you see more and more people wanting to learn about, which pins are getting the most repins? Which posts are getting the most comments and shares? What are people asking in the comments of other bloggers? What are they discussing in the FB groups?
Recently I saw a ton of people on FB groups asking about which of the two affiliate marketing courses to buy. I knew this meant someone should have purchased both courses. But I made the investment, I dug through both and wrote a very comprehensive comparison. This post has brought me genuine appreciation by so many readers on social media that I feel makes me happier than the money I made with this post.
Trust Matters
You can learn more on trust matters e.g. trust taxes we unknowingly pay all the time, how to reduce them, how to build an environment of trust, using trust tools etc from the book The Speed Of Trust.
The more I work on being credible and forming a consistent behavior, the lesser salesy and spammy I feel. It should become like how we share best deals with our sisters and best friends. But more rewarding! *wink wink*
If there’s no trust, people will judge even the best things we do or say. But if they have trust, they’ll even ignore a silly mistake we may make. You see… trust matters!
Trust is such a fluffy word when we talk about aggressive business building systems but as I was going through this year’s The Genius Bloggers Toolkit I found this gem of a course ‘Bloggers’ Secrets’ by Brittany and Kelan. I never knew them before going through this course back when I got it through the BC stack. This course, is the only one that talks about bloggers’ real secrets, yes, the ‘soft stuff’ that build all the bones of any great success story, things like mindset, grit, motivation, support system, momentum, productivity etc. This course actually brought tears to my eyes. They knew me and my struggles from the inside. They actually pin pointed the specific areas I had been struggling with. There are other topics like funnels and money making strategies etc that I haven’t gone through but I’m sure they have good stuff in there too. If you buy the gbtk this year, don’t forget to go through this course before anything else. I so wanna show my sister I’m right! I can make this blog work so I’m going to go through this too.
Tell Me, What Convinced YOU To Buy From Someone Last Time?
What do YOU think drives sales faster?
Have you ever paused to notice and reverse engineered what convinced YOU to open up your wallet for someone?
Or what almost got you but you stopped right before you clicked the buy button? Let me know in the comments below.
If you stuck with me till the end, I feel you agree with me and you might want to share the thought with your like-minded friends and followers. This will also help me grow. Here’s a direct link to the pin for saving on Pinterest. If you do, thank you!
Thank you — this is useful information. I think consistency is key, and also consistently earning trust. It’s a long-game.
Absolutely, Melanie!
Very well written article with some awesome points. I especially liked how you put theory behind each of your points!
Glad you liked it, Marlena.<3
Wow!!! Incredible post!! Such amazing information! Thank you so much for sharing!
So glad you liked it, Emily. Thanks for stopping by. <3
You write beautifully… I will follow your post and read more next time , thanks for putting your heart into things.
Thank you so much, Selina. You made my day!