Mar
1
Writing Content – Year Of Original Content
Filed Under Year Of Original Content, learning, marketing, resources, writing | Leave a Comment
OK, so I’m on my way with my goal of writing at least one piece of original content every day, for a year. And as I go I’ll be blogging about my experiences, trials, tribulations, techniques etc.
And this is the first of those blogs.
You might think that the biggest challenge is finding a topic each and every day for 365 days – and actually, it’s not a problem (lucky I’m not doing this in a leap year – that extra day could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back…!)
Actually, the problem is writing something relatively brief yet having something useful in it. This is a particular challenge for me – I can easily write 35,000 words, as I did for my Masters thesis, but struggled with the 10,000 word limit I was set for the thesis…
Until I came across 2 wonderfully simple techniques, courtesy of Patrick Hare, a wonderful mentor, sadly now departed…
The first is the 4-MAT system by Bernice McCarthy (see http://www.aboutlearning.com/) – simply put, and slightly adapted, the 4-MAT system challenges you to consider the WHY, WHAT, HOW and (WHAT) IF of the subject. This approach covers the major learning & thinking styles & preferences of almost everybody. This means that the impact of your writing will be larger for each person, and will affect more people too – better breadth & depth of impact. It doesn’t mean you have to split your article or presentation in to 4 separate sections, 1 for each of the 4 areas, though many do and it works well. If you give it a go you’ll soon get the hang of it and notice results almost immediately. And if you do give it a go you can also begin to adapt it to your own style and strengths…
And the sharp eyed amongst you will have spotted that the previous paragraph covers these 4 areas also… 4-MAT in practice, even for just a paragraph…
The other tip Patrick shared with me is to simply ask myself – or a subject matter expert – what are just 3 things to know about the subject at hand. For example, with 4-MAT, there are just 3 things you need to know in order to put it in to immediate practice:
- The first is that 4-MAT is a simple, powerful framework to help you quickly structure an article or presentation, no matter how big or small – you can even use it on each section in the article or presentation. This leads to a more effective outcome.
- The second thing to know about 4-MAT is that it only comprises 4 elements or questions to consider – WHAT, WHY, HOW and (WHAT) If.
- The third thing you need to know about 4-MAT is that you can consider each element in any depth – deep or shallow, and in any order. You don’t have to explicitly structure your work along the lines of the 4 elements, just so long as you cover all 4 elements – for maximum effect do so within the first 2 minutes of your presentation or the reader’s reading session.
And that’s it!
I came across the subject for my first piece of original content when I was bombarded recently by stack of stories about how everybody else seemed to be successful yet so many of my clients in the past had been frustrated by them.
Right, time I headed off to write the content for day 2 of my year of original content!
Mar
1
Why Reading Other People’s Success Stories Is A Bad Idea…
Filed Under Year Of Original Content, informed decision, mindset | Leave a Comment
I don’t know about you, but in all the years I’ve been observing the network marketing and internet marketing worlds I must have read thousands of stories about how the author was in dire straits just a few short months ago, and now is pulling down a gazillion dollars a day doing very little, and how easy it is for you to do the same.
Now I don’t know how many of these are totally true, or mostly true or even a total pack of lies. But I do know I’ve had different emotional reactions to them. I know from my conversations in recent months with many others in the industry, that I’m not alone in this observation.
There were times when I felt truly inspired – there are some wonderful stories out there, even if they’re not true. And stories like these made me reflect on my own situation and want to do something about it.
Yet in one sense reading these stories is a bad idea. Let me tell you how & why, and let you make your own mind up.
Personally I think there’s always something to be learned – just so long as I continue to make informed decisions – not always easy, as we’ll shortly see!
As you read their story, you begin to identify with the situation and the author, or at least bits of the story and perhaps a few characteristics of the author. Why? Because you recognise parts of your own history and self in there… And for the author, their salvation comes in the form of some actions built around some great system or method they came across, and you know what? YOU could also do this – none of the actions are particularly difficult or costly…
As you read on (and some of these really do go on… and on….) you find yourself feeling more and more compelled to sign up for what ever they’re offering, or at least, to find out more with their free report… And so you do – you might even think the $97/$67/$47/$27/$7 price they charge (or even $997!) is good value for money, and you reach for your credit card…
By the way, what is it with all these prices ending in ‘7’?!
But your decision will, according to recent research, be an emotional one, untempered by too much logic, despite you having the perfect logic for your actions… You can get the deeper details in several places, though for an easier read I point you to Robert Ciadini’s work…
Cialdini, a bit of a whiz on psychology and influence (he has letters after his name and everything, and writes accessible books… go see “Influence: Science & Practice” http://bit.ly/xM3Gf) suggests 6 ‘weapons of influence’. Once you’re familiar with them you’ll never look at a sales letter page the same way again… I hope!
Oh, the thing to note with all of this is that this influencing stuff happens at a deep level – you respond in these ways almost without thinking… powerful (and scary!) or what?
- Weapon #1 – reciprocation – you can get a whole bunch of freebies from the author, who has just seemingly told you how to change your life – so you reciprocate – by signing up…
- Weapon #2 – commitment & consistency – people tend to honour a commitment – you make a commitment when you sign up… so you probably do look at the video/free report etc
- Weapon #3 – social proof – people will do things they see others doing – the testimonials on the sites show people signing up and buying in… the conformity factor increases the liklihood that you too will sign up…
- Weapon #4 – authority – using authoritative phrasing & tones, citing testimonials as being from ‘experts’ or showing how the programme is just like (named) experts, some of whom you may even have heard of…
- Weapon #5 – liking – people are more easily persuaded by people they like – a heart-warming story, a familiar, welcoming style or writing/talking style (video/audio more prevalent now) – this is the “s/he’s one of us, so it must be OK…” effect…
- Weapon #6 – scarcity – limited seats/packs/being one of a few out of millions… or time limiting before price rises etc – sound familiar?
Now imagine the overall effect of 2 or more of these working together…! Yup, you’ll be VERY influenced to do buying/signing up etc.
A well-crafted sales page takes time, effort etc, and is effective, whether to system being sold is what what you need or not – and that’s my point..
And so you end up making an unbalanced decision – mostly emotional, with a little logic… but not enough I’d suggest…
But is it the right solution for YOU? How can you know without looking in to ‘this’ more, including the offering & your unique situation? What are your strengths? What time, money and energy can you invest in this offering you’ve just signed up for? What expectations do you subconsciously have and aren’t aware of, at least until you fail to meet them…? If you want to know where MLM depression/demotivation comes from, this last aspect is a BIG factor…
All of this together is why, in my humble opinion, reading too many of these stories is a bad idea. It doesn’t mean the story is ‘pants’, or the offering is ‘pants’ – it just might not be for you.
So before you decide, before you commit, just check back with yourself if this is the right thing for you to be doing now, and if it’s not, but you still want to do it, come up with an action plan to get you in position to take this forward when you ARE ready for it.
Happy story-reading!!
Cheers
Martin