Yesterday’s blog post, It’s Not the Niche – It’s You, gave several obvious reasons why prospects don’t buy from you.

Today I’d like to go a little below skin level, to reveal 4 relatively unobvious reasons.

1) They don’t understand the value in what you’re offering.
Recently I watched a documentary about the guy who started K-Tel.

I don’t know if K-Tel is a worldwide operation, but I know the commercials/infomercials used to play in heavy rotation in the US during the late 70’s-early 80s.

They sold all kinds of little BS gadgets that you thought you needed, and never ended up using.

Like the Patty Presser. You put in balls of ground beef, and the Patty Presser smooshed them into round hamburger shapes, one on top of the other. Then you’d take your newly formed hamburger log and freeze it.

The Patty Presser was a novelty item. The viewer understood just how this item could make their life easier.

They saw it being used over and over in the commercial. And the announcer would explain in an excited tone about how wonderful the Patty Presser was.

That’s how K-Tel Corporation sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of these types of gadgets.

They were able to emotionally pull the viewer in. You always felt like, “I’ve GOT to have that thing NOW!”

Why is it that your readers shouldn’t be without your ebook?

How is it going to make their lives easier?

It’s not all about piling on 50 different bonus items.

You have to convey why they can’t live without the words in your ebook.

If you cannot do that, you’re basically up the creek without a paddle.

2) Your pitch reads like everybody else’s pitch.
Okay so I know I’m gonna chap some hides here, but you know what really drives me crazy?

When I’m reading a salesletter for an ebook, and I run across the old faithful catchphrase “You can order this ebook even if it’s 3am.”

Clickbank sellers use this phrase to death. Your competitors probably use it. At least one of them.

For those of you who currently use this phrase, your assignment for today is to re-write that statement. Yeah. Seriously. Re-write it.

Other words do work. Big words. Little words. The English langauage is deliciously varied. It’s okay to click over to Thesaurus.com and choose some alternatives.

The problem with over-emulation is that your prospects end up viewing your site like it’s a medium sized goldfish mixed in with 50 other medium sized goldfish all swimming in the same direction.

If everybody is using the exact same words, the prospect begins making a decision based on things like price. If you’re not offering the lowest price, you’re screwed. If your web site looks less professional than your competitors, you’re screwed.

When you write a salesletter, you want your prospect so enthralled with the words you say, that they buy from you even if your price isn’t the lowest, or your web site isn’t the prettiest.

That’s the power you want to yield.

And it doesn’t happen when everyone is attempting to automate their way to success.

It’s really vital that you add your own spin. And that’s the truth.

3) Your topic has a limited number of seekers.
One customer e-mailed me saying that he was only getting an average of 1 order a day.

He was pretty disappointed by the low sales number, and wanted my advice on what he should do to get like 5 orders a day.

I have to admit I probably rained on his parade, when I told him “Nothing.”

His topic didn’t center around something the general public knew about. It was based on a subject for a very small segment of the population.

Think of it as an ebook for people who want to move to Iceland. Very limited appeal.

The truth is that not every topic is going to yield dozens of orders a day.

If you’ve got a target audience of 100K, you might only get 500-1,000 orders total. 

That’s not bad. But it is a reality that more ebook writers have to come to terms with.

4) You’re on the tailend of a big trend.
Right now if you’re gonna write about a topic like Google Adwords, then you better be saying something pretty damn spectacular.

Because the last thing the world needs is another primer on how to write a great Adwords advertisement.

Why? Because Adwords is at a ‘critical mass’ stage right now.

It has been around long enough that the people who need to know about, already know about it. There’s nothing new about Adwords anymore.

The novelty is gone. And it’s now an entrenched part of our business life.

I don’t like coming in to a topic when the fanfare has died down. It’s easier to make your money when it has just begun.

But if you are going to entrench yourself into critical mass waters, just be sure you add some new and improved twists to the equation.

Look at the unobvious and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

I was giving a consultation to a DBO reader a couple of days.

And the reader begins to tell me about an unprofitable site that he’d been running.

While he was barely making peanuts, another seller in the same niche was making some insane amount of money. Insane like over $10,000, but under $50,000 a month. (And no… it’s not internet marketing related.)

So said reader surveyed his newsletter subscribers (40-70 year old women) to find out why they weren’t buying from him.

“We don’t have any money!” they exclaimed.

“I’m on social security – fixed income…” said one reader.

“My husband is ill, and I can barely afford to buy his medicine,” said another.

According to a survey he conducted, nobody could afford to buy from said reader.

And yet, a fellow competitor was raking in the cash. Hmmmm.

What did I tell said reader?

Well here’s my experience.

I’ve sold information to readers who were in some pretty horrible financial situations.

Sick husbands… lost jobs… bankruptcy… fixed incomes… hospital bills… car repo’s… I’ve heard it all.

Yeah, the EXACT same excuses that my reader heard from his subscribers.

Only thing is, I hear those excuses AFTER they purchase from me.

I’m talking about people who had to borrow a friend or family members credit card or PayPal account, or wait 2 weeks to mail me a money order. No BS dire financial straights.

And it was during that experience I discovered that every niche has the potential to be profitable.

Sure, there are some poor older women out there. There are poor folks everywhere. I was poor for a long time.

But let’s look at the flip side.

There’s this great big retirement community in Florida for active older adults called The Villages. Think of it as a Disneyworld for seniors.

According to 2000 cenus info, the median age at The Villages is 66.3. The median household income, $42,542. 52.4% of the residents are women.

These silver foxes have tricked out golf carts – (think MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” meets golf cart granny). They’ve got big ass custom homes, with specially designed driveways. Two luxury cars in the garage. Landscaping that rivals the front of any luxury hotel. And there are like 20 banks in the community alone. Banks don’t come a runnin’ unless there’s gold in the hills.

If you’re not making any money it’s because YOU haven’t hit upon the sweet spot yet, not because people don’t have money.

People say they don’t have any money because (A) it’s a convenient excuse, or (B) they don’t want what you’re selling. For the most part.

Sometimes people really are extremely broke. And sometimes they’ll be subscribers to your newsletter or readers of your blog.

But what are the odds that every broke person on earth ends up visiting your site? If you said “very slim,” then you see my point.

If the customer isn’t nibbling, maybe it’s because you’re selling a product that they have already. Or your copy is dull. Or your product is dull. Maybe your site design is ugly.

Maybe your information is too generic. I mean just because it’s new and interesting to you doesn’t mean it’s new to the people who you want to buy from you.

Either way, it’s not them. It’s you.

Rework your plan and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

Whenever I finish writing the first draft of a salesletter or an ebook, I always start my re-write by reading the piece out loud.

When I first began using this well worn writers trick, it was like a “Why-the-heck-didn’t-I-start-doing-this-sooner?” kind of moment.

But let me tell you the big problem I have with this tactic…

Before I go through my work I’ve gotta read like 10 bedtime stories. Then I gotta talk to my mom, so we can discuss her diet for an hour. Then my cousin calls and we swap what-we-did-today stories. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget the telephone consultations I do with DBO readers.

By the time I’m ready to read my material out loud, I’m tired of talking!

Alas, there is a solution.

ReadPlease is a piece of Windows software that reads your computerized text out loud.

You can choose from Mary, Mike or Sam, and adjust the voice speed. That’s the free version.

The $60 version offers a few more bells and whistles like fast forwarding and rewind. Text highlights while your work is being read. And the ability to start anywhere within the document.

I think novice writers will find that hearing their work spoken out loud will help improve their work a lot faster.

Come to think of it, seasoned pro’s will discover the same.

Keep your mouth shut and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes