Here we are – you and me – maximizing our brains and bank accounts in the throws of the online world.

You don’t know what I look like. Where I went to school. Whether I bite my nails to a nub – or if I have claws like Godzilla and just type on a really big keyboard.

The only way you get to know me is through my cleverly crafted words on the screen.

Speaking of cleverly crafted words, yesterday I received an e-mail from a customer, who in the e-mail called me a ‘guru.’ Yes me… the hot tamale sitting on the other side of the screen in Fruit of the Loom boxer shorts. (How’s that for an uber foxy image.)

I laughed to myself though. I’m no guru. Just a hard-working single siren, with a gaggle of intelligent girl children to support.

My customer thinks I’m a guru because of an image I’ve built online.

It’s not an image that everybody loves and admires. Sometimes I can get a bit ‘cheeky.’

But this is who I am in real life.

I’ve been cussing since pre-kindergarten, and writing with the goal of being a published author since I was eight. I’m happily prolific at both. 

I’m polite, and as sweet as sugar in a glass of iced tea. If your feet hurt, I’ll give you the Gucci loafers off my feet.

But I’ll also tell you to “sit-and-spin” if you cross me. This is MY business after all.

The people that other people remember tend to be cocky or super smart or drop dead gorgeous or smelly or they possess some strongly noticable trait.

What type of image are YOU putting forth to your online readers?

Are you putting forth an image to your online readers?

Or are you blending in with the background?

I was doing a consultation for a reader of mine last week. He just had an e-book ghostwritten for him, and couldn’t figure out why he didn’t get a single sale despite the 1,001 bullet points he’d included in the salesletter.

The biggest problem… the salesletter read like a freakin’ 2,000 page electrician repair manual. Strong technical performance. But it lacked human-ness. It had no personality.

No matter what you’re writing about, it’s vital that you interject your own va-va-va-voom into the equation.

Earlier this year there was a lot of brouhaha about an online marketing guide being sold at The Rich Jerk. Some folks didn’t like his peacock like behavior. Others loved it.

Regardless of your opinion, he got a lot of attention, and made a lot of money – hand over fist – because of his rich jerk attitude.

If you’re a Polyanna type in real life, then be the world’s sweetheart in your sales material. If you’re an angry lunatic, don’t hide behind a demure attitude. Be who you are.

In the end you’ll attract die hard fans who love you to death because you’re just like them.

And you’ll wake up every day with a smile on your face ready to work because you know you’re living an authentic life AND making money.

I realized a couple of years ago that I cannot possibly please every single potential buyer within my niche. Nor can I quell all the critics.

So I don’t try.

Instead I just continue being me. Selling how I want to sell. Saying what I want to say. Doing what I want to do.

And you know what?

My profits have only gotten bigger.

Be who you are and grow rich my friends,

Alexis Dawes

Here’s a crazy factoid about e-books being sold online.

The majority of my consultation clients are male.

Okay, that’s not the crazy part.

The funny thing is quite a few of them write e-books geared towards women, with a female pen name to boot. (Don’t ask me who they are, cause I don’t consult-and-tell.)

I just find it amusing that more women don’t pick up on certain topics. I guess we ladies don’t recognize the fruit bearing trees because we’re in the forest. Whereas men are able to conceptualize certain things with fresh eyes. Go figure!

However, there’s always one part where the guys get stumped. Not just 1 or 2 of them.

Almost ALL of them get bushwacked when it comes to writing a story in a salesletter that comes from a womans perspective.

Let me clarify… as you may have noticed, my last two posts talked about writing stories in salesletters. Stories that help the prospective buyer “click” with the seller.

My experience is that when the prospect feels like the two of you are on equal footing – that you fully understand their plight because you’ve been there – the sale is much easier to make.

When I wrote the salesletter for my extinct e-book “How To Get a Bank Account Even If You’re in the Chexsystem,” I told the true life tale of how I got put into Chexsystems because of a bad check that a new client gave me.

I got soooooo many e-mails from fellow Chexsystems victims that sympathized with my plight because they were in very similar situations.

I understood and expressed the same frustrations they had. They trusted me because of my openess and honesty. And they purchased from me. Constantly and consistently for almost 2 years.

(Unfortunately the banks that I referred them to ended up changing their rules, so I can no longer sell that report.)

But the big question for today is–

How do you write a story for an audience when you’ve never lived a particular situation?

The answer is so simple you’re going to think I’m hiding the good stuff for my paying customers. (Well actually I did save some of it, so you’re just gonna have to get Desperate Buyers Only for the whole enchilada.)

The truth of the matter is that you have to research your buyer.

Now I know this is going to seem like a tedious concept for some of you Internet marketers. Like those of you who have articles and e-books ghostwritten, and don’t really research a market beyond the Overture, Google and KEI numbers. (And I say this with a loving smile, because I’ve been on both sides of the fence.)

But if you want to write a story that’s going to resonate as being true with your prospects, then you have to get your hands dirty in the research department.

At the very least you need to be able to answer the following questions:

• What frustrates them the most? What gives them pain? (In relation to your e-book topic.)
• Why does this thing frustrate them/give them pain? What parts of their lives are most affected?
• What parts of their lives would be enhanced once this problem is solved?

Part IV of this series will show you how to put the answers to these questions into story format.

Think and grow rich,

Alexis

Yesterday I offered a tip for writing emotional stories in your salesletter.

That main point being to relive the situation that you want to write about. Most important, get into the emotional aspect of the memory. Then allow that full memory to spill out on your paper (or computer screen).

But I was rushing when I wrote it. And as I hobbled up the street to get my daughter from swim class, I remembered one key component I should’ve mentioned.

When I do consultations for my Desperate Buyers Only readers, many of them ask me to review their salesletter. While most clearly understand the concept of telling the story, they don’t understand how much depth the story should have.

For example, I had one reader who was selling an e-report for women suffering from a specific condition. The reader had cured herself of the condition, and was telling her customers how she did it.

I won’t give you the exact copy as it was written on the web page, but it went something like this…

“Every day I would wake up to the same awful pain. Then one day my temperature shot up to 107 degrees, and my husband said enough is enough. He rushed me to the hospital.

From then on I decided that I was going to take control of my health. Up until that point the doctors said it was all in my head. And here I was in the hospital, burning up with a fever, moaning in pain.

That exact cure is presented in detail in _______________________”

What’s wrong here?

The writer has zoomed through the part where her prospects are supposed to identify with her.

When you are writing about a situation that you suffered through, it’s very important that you mention all the additional problems that were created. And if it’s a physical pain, then let your reader know just how awful the pain was.

Here’s what I would say…

“My once happy-go-lucky 6 year old began following my every footstep. The teachers sent a note home requesting a meeting with her dad and I. Apparently she went from A’s and B’s to almost all F’s in a matter of weeks.

I knew what it was, and it broke my heart.

The pain from the _______________ caused me to have frequent, uncontrolable crying spells when I was supposed to be cooking dinner or doing the laundry.

My baby was worried. She couldn’t concentrate.  _______________________ doesn’t just affect you, it affects the people you love the most.

I know I don’t have to tell you how difficult some days are. During my darkest period, I could barely exist. The pain was so unbearable at times that I thought my body was turning itself inside out.

Imagine the devil himself inside of your stomach, scraping and stabbing your insides with a searing hot pitchfork. Or a big rig truck running over your torso while doing 1 mile per hour.

I remember telling my doctor that this pain made labor seem like an all expense paid holiday on the French Riveria.

One day I woke up with a fever of 107 degrees. The only thing I remember from that day are the tears in my husbands eyes. It was obvious that he thought I was dying. From what he now tells me, I told him I was dying.

I don’t remember being rushed to the hospital. Or being given an emergency blood transfusion.

But I do remember waking up in the hospital from this living nightmare, and vowing that I would heal myself.

Living life this way was not really living life at all. I told myself that I had to get better. That I would get better. And no matter what the doctors said, I would do it on my own terms.

Nearly one year later I’m sitting here writing this message of hope to other __________________ sufferers out there.”

Whew… you see the difference?

The revised version offers a more vivid picture of what happens in a womans life when she suffers from ___________ .

I mentioned the hardship of the child because a mother – a good mother - never wants to see her child suffer because of something that she has done. That strikes a strong emotional heartstring.

Now look at how I describe said illness.

This isn’t your regular garden variety pain. This is turn your body inside out pain. This pain is nothing short of pure evil manifest.

And it’s these types of metaphorical descriptions that _________________ sufferers will identify with.

Okay so here’s the 1+1=2 message for today.

You must combine emotionally rich copy with detailed descriptions to create copy that prospects identify with, and are encouraged to buy from.

Tape that little sentence to your monitor so when you start slacking, you’ll remember what the goal is.

Anyway, I hope that’s clear enough, because I don’t know how else to elaborate without someone shelling out a quick $97 for the e-book version.  

Alexis Dawes