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Mainstream Media: Peddling Fear

Get Results: fear and drama equals pound
Get Results: fear and drama equals pound

The old saying, “NEWS SELLS” isn’t exactly accurate, rather fear and drama sell.

This is important to understand when thinking about the mainstream media (companies such as BBC, ITV, Sky), because they all need to justify their very existence by achieving high viewing stats, without which, they would lose funding such as sponsorships, advertising spend, TV licence and subscriber fees etc.

You could also include the tabloid press, who additionally, are also heavily biased towards their owners political agendas, are biased in their reporting and don’t try to pretend to be impartial or true to the full facts. However when writing this post I was mainly thinking about TV based mainstream media, however newspapers have the same commercial needs and employ many of the same tactics for keeping readers interested.

Keeping attention

So, how do they ensure they get these all important viewing figures? Well, simply presenting the news, the facts, just isn’t going to cut it. Facts are boring, they can be communicated in a matter of minutes. That won’t do, that won’t keep people viewing. The news, containing just the facts is a commodity after all, it is the same wherever it is communicated.

Sure there is some merit in uncovering a buried story and shining a light on it. But that’s hard, requires talented journalism, it takes work, time and detection skills, and such stories are hard to come by, at least sufficiently enough to fill the necessary air time.

On the other hand, drama and fear is easy, a emotive narrative can extend a news piece indefinitely. You have the facts, but you present them in such a way as to keep viewers attention. If you can tell the story more dramatically than anyone else, you’re onto a winner, you’ve differentiated yourself from the competition, the news is no longer a commodity.

How do you keep attention? You take a event, and you create a narrative around it, making it into a dramatic story. For this to work and for it to be dramatic enough you have add fear and uncertainty, that’s what make stories interesting.

Let’s use something current to illustrate the point, the recent general election;

The facts

  • Conservative party with leader Theresa May won the election,
  • Conservative party won with a greater share of votes than since Margaret Thatcher won power,
  • Conservative Party got almost as many seats as all the other parties combined,
  • But not quite as much as all the other parties combined, which means the Conservatives are a minority government (8 seats short of an overall majority), which could make it difficult getting policies passed in the house of commons,
  • If they could get agreement from another party (who hold more than 8 seats), this would allow them to have a combined majority, and make it much easier to get policies through the house of commons,
  • Labour party came second with less votes and less seats than the Conservatives. They could in theory hold office, if the Conservatives decided they could not, and relinquished power, but Labours situation would be even worse than that of the Conservatives , so would be very unlikely.

Conservative Party

  • Votes –  13,667,213
  • Seats – 318 (326 needed for overall majority)
  • Vote Share – 42.4%

Labour Party

  • Votes – 12,874,985
  • Seats – 262
  • Vote Share – 40.0%

The narrative

Now you create a narrative. Okay the Tory party won, but they were hoping for a majority and they didn’t get it,  expectations weren’t met, so this can be characterised as a defeat, no, a disaster of epic proportions.

You then get the other parties to give their view of the result, and because they lost, they will naturally want to deflect any attention and criticism away from their shortcomings, and will inevitably play along with the Tory’s election disaster narrative.

How can we develop the narrative to maximise fear, uncertainty and drama? We can speculate about the inevitable P.M.s resignation. Wow this could go on for weeks, and so it goes on.

Let’s just look at a couple of different possible narratives..

Theresa May and the Conservatives were hoping for a greater majority than they originally had, but it didn’t work out. She’s now going to find it more difficult getting policies through parliament and will need to recruit help from other parties. This is going to be much more difficult particularly if the other parties don’t agree with those policies.

This keeps true to the Facts, it doesn’t add emotive language, it doesn’t particular fire up emotion.

Mays plan to steamroller the opposition has failed disastrously. Her intention to force through a hard Brexit and get mandate to run the country have been firmly rejected. She has lost all credibility and can’t possibly survive the growing division within her own party. And with the Labour party ready to step in and form a government should a new election be necessary, it is only a matter of time before she is forced out.

This narrative is designed to evoke emotion and moves away from the facts and adds speculation into the mix (increases uncertainty and fear). If anything, this is rather underplaying the media narrative, but you can see the difference between these two possible narratives.

Protect yourself

Well it’s creative, it’s clever but it’s also manipulative, it’s fear mongering. It upsets, divides and causes pain and suffering in viewers who believe the BS. More scary than that, it also influences the actual events themselves. Political parties often react to what the media is saying, and position themselves to restrict the publicity damage.

Mainstream TV channels such as the BBC aren’t as obviously biased as the tabloid press, although I’m sure they are at times, when it serves them. They will more generally take any position that provides the greatest dramatic effect. They have done it to the Labour party and Corbyn in particular. They don’t discriminate in that way, their main agenda is simply to keep eyeballs on their channel, fear and drama works.

Don’t let the media fool you. To protect against this callous media manipulation….

  1. Understand the underlying facts. Make your own informed judgments based on these only,
  2. Screen out the media noise based on assumptions, speculation and prediction,
  3. Be aware of the emotive language used (designed to maximise viewer fear),
  4. Understand the motivations of all the characters employed, such as the interviewees (opponents, and allies) and of course that of the actual media channel you are watching and their representatives. After all they are the ones with the most to benefit from your fear.

For more about the acquisition of knowledge.

Improving Knowledge to Get Results

50 Success Quotes

Get Results: success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get
Get Results: success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get

Quotes can be a great motivator. Good ones can help to inspire us to take action, and change perspective on how we look at upcoming challenges.

Words really matter, because they can unlock something in our psyche. Use quotes to move you towards your goal, towards your SUCCESS.

Here are some of my favourite success / get results quotes…

“If you focus on success, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get success”.

“Tears will get you sympathy, taking focused action will get you results”. – M. Turner

“If you want something you’ve never had, then you’ve got to do something you’ve never done”.

“Don’t be upset by the results you didn’t get, with the work you didn’t do”.

“You don’t always get what you wish for, you get what you work for”.

“Forget strategy, get results”.

“Success just beyond fear and underestimation of goals, use motivation and prioritised productivity to get you there”. – M. Turner

“Don’t make excuses, make results.”

“Excuses are useless, results are priceless”.

“If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results”. George S. Patton

“Accept the challenges, so that you feel the exhilaration of victory”. – General George Patton

“Effectiveness is best measured by results over time”. – Richard Tyler

“Live for something rather than die for nothing”.

“Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway”. Dr Robert Anthony

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity”. George S. Patton

“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom” – George S. Patton

“Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps”. – David Lloyd George

“Do something today that your future self will  thank you for”.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep”. – Scott Adams

“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”

“You’ll never find the right person, if you never let go of the wrong one”.

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try”.

“No matter how you feel… Get up, dress up, show up and never give up”.

“If you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don’t you’ll find an excuse”.

“Don’t be ashamed of your story, it will inspire others”.

“Limit only exists in the mind”.

“If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money cant’ buy”.

“You can have success or excuses, not both”.

“Get out of your own way”.

“No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done”.

“Nothing worth having comes easily”.

“Children usually do not blame themselves for getting lost”. – Anna Freud

“The only bad workout is the one that didn’t happen”.

“When you feel like quitting, think about why you started”.

“Small changes can make a big difference”.

“We reap what we sow…choose what you nourish carefully”.

“While you are still waiting to find an easy way (or perfect time), someone esle is already getting results, because they decided making progress is more important than making excuses. ”

“Make big changes in small steps”.

“It’s not the load that break you down, it’s the way you carry it.” Lou Holtz

“I feel like i’m too busy writing history to read it.”

“Purpose is the reason you journey. Passion is the fire that lights your way”.

“Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” – Wayne Huizenga.

“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” – Dwayne Johnson

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” –  Bill Bradley

“There is simply no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success.” –  Heather Bresch

“Success is a journey, not a destination.” –  Ben Sweetland

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.” –  Jim Rohn

“If you believe it will work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you believe it won’t you will see obstacles.” – Wayne Dyer

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pele

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

“Success comes from over-delivering on customers expectations. There are more than 50 quotes in this article.” – M. Turner

Check out more about MOTIVATION here.

10 Secrets To Success

Finding Motivation: The Ingredients of Motivation

Self Improvement: Sources of Information

Get Results: do something for your future self
Get Results: do something for your future self

Self-improvement or self-development as it’s often referred to is a major driver of mankind. We all strive to be better, smarter, more successful, fitter, slimmer etc.

Society pushes us to be “more than we are“, and we do our best to follow that recommendation. We read books, take classes, follow role models, try to find mentors, all with the goal of being better tomorrow than we are today.

As a results self-improvement and self-development is big business, the net worth of this industry is estimated to be around $11 billion and growing at over 5% per year.

I’m a firm believer in education, because it allows us to have a greater appreciation of the world around us, and to operate more knowledgeably in the niches we choose to make a living.

Reading books or articles is only the first step, putting what we’ve learned into action is the next, and without doubt the most important part of the success equation. Without taking action, the knowledge acquisition stage is wasted, and with it our greatest resource, time.

This website is here to provide resources for getting results, covering:

All of these are key components in GETTING RESULTS in all aspects of life. So take some time to check through the articles provided on this site. There are lots of self-development focused articles, check them out here, even better than that, sign up for our newsletter for unique content, not available on the site, as email allows us to provide more tailor-made information and solutions.

Also check out the books and links below. I have personally read all of the books listed here, and would recommend them as good sources of information, you can check out the reviews at Amazon for a second, third and forth opinion if you like, but they all provide a good read, or a good listening experience, if you prefer audio books.

Improve Wealth: Recommended Information Sources

Blogs/ Websites

Check out our Wealth guide

Wealth Book Recommends

Get Results: rich dad poor dad
Get Results: rich dad poor dad

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki.

Rich Dad Poor Dad, the #1 Personal Finance book of all time, tells the story of Robert Kiyosaki and his two dads–his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad–and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.


Get Results: richest man in babylon
Get Results: richest man in babylon

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason.

THE SUCCESS SECRETS OF THE ANCIENTS–AN ASSURED ROAD TO HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY
Countless readers have been helped by the famous -Babylonian parables, – hailed as the greatest of all inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning, and personal wealth. In language as simple as that found in the Bible, these fascinating and informative stories set you on a sure path to prosperity and its accompanying joys. Acclaimed as a modern-day classic, this celebrated bestseller offers an understanding of–and a solution to–your personal financial problems that will guide you through a lifetime.


Get Results: unshakeable
Get Results: unshakeable

Unshakeable by Tony Robbins.

Market corrections are as constant as seasons are in nature. There have been 30 such corrections in the past 30 years, yet there’s never been an action plan for how not only to survive, but thrive through each change in the stock market.
Building upon the principles in Money: Master the Game, Robbins offers the reader specific steps they can implement to protect their investments while maximizing their wealth. It’s a detailed guide designed for investors, articulated in the common-sense, practical manner that the millions of loyal Robbins fans and students have come to expect and rely upon.

Few have navigated the turbulence of the stock market as adeptly and successfully as Tony Robbins. His proven, consistent success over decades makes him singularly qualified to help investors (both seasoned and first-timers alike) preserve and add to their investments.


Get Results: think and grow rich
Get Results: think and grow rich

The Success Classics Collection: Think and Grow Rich and the Science of Getting Rich (Capstone Classics)

Looking for wealth and success? Discover the money–making secrets of Americas millionaires of the 1930s as compiled by Napoleon Hill and distilled into a thirteen step programme to personal success in the 1937 classic Think and Grow Rich. To further prove that the formula for making money is ageless, The Success Classics Collection also includes the 100–year edition of The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles which explains how to attract wealth, overcome emotional barriers, and apply foolproof methods to bring financial success into your life.


Business: Recommended Information Sources

Blogs/ Websites

Check out our Business Guide

Business Book Recommends

Get Results: the one thing book cover
Get Results: the one thing book cover

The One Thing by Gary Keller

In The ONE Thing, you’ll learn to cut through the clutter, achieve better results in less time
build momentum toward your goal, dial down the stress, overcome that overwhelmed feeling
revive your energy, stay on track, master what matters to you

The ONE Thing is the New York Times bestseller which delivers extraordinary results in every area of your life-work, personal, family, and spiritual.

It is one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It focuses you on the important business priorities, and is a real practical business essential.


Get Results: 4 hour work week
Get Results: 4 hour work week

The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss


Improve Marketing: Recommended Information Sources

Blogs/ Websites

Check out our Marketing guide

Marketing Book Recommends

Get Results: purple cow book cover
Get Results: purple cow book cover

Purple Cow by Seth Godin.

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.

What do Apple, Starbucks, Dyson and Pret a Manger have in common? How do they achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and-true brands to gasp their last? The old checklist of P’s used by marketers – Pricing, Promotion, Publicity – aren’t working anymore. The golden age of advertising is over. It’s time to add a new P – the Purple Cow.

Purple Cow is a great thought provoker. Seth is a firm believer that future business success depends on businesses moving from ordinary and becoming extraordinary. Buy the book or audio versions below.


Get Results: made to stick
Get Results: made to stick

Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath


Improve Spirituality: Recommended Information Sources

Blogs/ Websites

Check out our Spirituality guide

Spirituality Book Recommends

Get Results: a new earth
Get Results: a new earth

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth will be a cornerstone for personal spirituality and self-improvement for years to come, leading readers to a new levels of consciousness and inner peace. Taking off from the introspective work The Power of Now, which is a number one bestseller and has sold millions of copies worldwide, Tolle provides the spiritual framework for people to move beyond themselves in order to make this world a better, more spiritually evolved place to live. Shattering modern ideas of ego and entitlement, self and society, Tolle lifts the veil of fear that has hung over humanity during this new millennium, and shines an illuminating light that leads to happiness and health that every reader can follow.


Get Results: the power of now
Get Results: the power of now

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle’s book describes the experience of heightened consciousness that radically transformed his life – and shows how by living in the moment we can also reach a higher state of being where we can find joy and peace and where problems do not exist.


For more self improvement articles on this site click here.
I’ve listed some of the articles below..

Being Wrong

Emotions Cloud Rational Decision Making

Achievement and Fulfilment: Getting The Balance Right

Using Or Being Used By FEAR

We Can’t All Be Right But We Could All Be Wrong

We Can’t All Be Right But We Could All Be Wrong

Listen To Intuition

Get Results: Motivation requires...being tuned into intuition
Get Results: Motivation requires…being tuned into intuition

What is intuition?

Intuition, otherwise known as gut feeling, or sixth sense, is a feeling either of unease, or alignment, about someone or something. It is a method of communicate for the subconscious, which is in possession of much more information and memory than is available at a conscious level.

Why is it important?

The subconscious, absorbs much more data than the conscious, holding much of that information in store, until it’s needed. So having a way to access this information is very useful and intuition is a direct link to it.

What can go wrong?

It’s easy to mistake the noise created from THOUGHT and THINKING to be INTUITION, it is not. THOUGHTS are largely driven from a FEAR based perspective. If we were coming at this from a spirituality point of view, we would say thinking is EGO based.

So the feeling of unease you might sense, in taking a particular action, might actually be due to fearful THOUGHT, rather than a more enlightened warning from INTUITION.

The difficulty comes from distinguishing the two, from one another.

Telling the difference between INTUITION and FEAR

Fear is the default perspective of the Ego, of THOUGHT and THINKING. It’s all about self preservation from this view point. Most of negative feelings you experience will come from this type of fear. Many irrational fears can be found here, such as the fear of public speaking, or the fear of venturing out of your comfort zone. These fears are not life threatening as such, but they might result in a negative physiological reaction, when you start to think about actually doing them, in the same way as if your very life were under threat.

Intuition on the other hand, is not driven by fear, but is more of an awareness of something feeling right or feeling wrong. It’s noticing the expression on someone’s face, not being completely in sync with what is coming out of their mouth for instance. It’s a sense that something is out of place, or, on the flip side, is safe to pursue.

Intuition comes from the accumulation of years of the subconscious absorbing many subtle and not so subtle things that the conscious filters out, so that we can function more efficiently on our day to day activities. But these things are noticed by the subconscious and this noticing builds up over time. It is only when something is out of place that many of us become aware of intuition, operating in the background of our consciousness.

Intuition also works in a positive way too, when things just feel right and everything seems to be in alignment.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book, “Blink”, says intuition is easy to ignore, due to its subtlety, which is why people often fail to recognize it. On the other hand, fear is much more effective at attracting our attention, by screaming what it wants us to do or not do.

Intuition is a feeling that comes from life experience via sense perceptions, using all of the senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing), and subsequently utilises much more of the brain. On the other hand, fear simply activates the Amygdala as a neural shortcut, and that leads to a racing heart, energised by fearful thoughts.

Fear is activated for many levels of importance, it’s energised by imagination and self story-telling. Intuition on the other hand, generally only comes into consciousness for the important moments of life and is much more experience based in nature, and certainly not prone to such imagination and story-telling fantasies.

The feeling you get from intuition is usually a sense of peace and alignment, whereas fear can keep nagging at you, even when you know you’ve made the right decision, playing the devils advocate, continually questioning your choices.

Intuition can be for and against taking action. Fear is usually only against action in preference to maintaining the status quo, resisting change and  uncertainty, and doing nothing new or challenging.

What is the best way forward?

Learn to quieten the mind, to think less intensely and be less driven by irrational fears.

Back feelings up with rational decision-making techniques and tools like the decision matrix to add a second check to your decision making process.

Improve your self-awareness, by observing your own behaviour and habitual thought patterns, so that you can spot how and when your fears are activated.

Improve your clarity of purpose to help intuition. By knowing where you want to go, and having clear goals, you will better navigate your journey.

For more articles about INTUITION, click here.

Check out our Motivational guide.

Shift Perspective to Improve Motivation

Get Results: shift perspective
Get Results: shift perspective

I recently stumbled on the article below, by Erick Diaz, about using a shift of perspective to improve motivation and subsequently productivity.

Eric imagines being his 80 year old self observing his present day self and what he might think about how he is making use of his time today, from the perspective of someone with less TIME available to him.

This highlights how precious time is, but is only truly treasured when we have less of it available to us, when it is too late. Time is precious, we should make the most of it while we have it, because it’s a finite resource, that once used up, can’t be recouped.

I think it’s a great strategy for SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE, which is one of the building blocks for increasing motivation, you can check out the full article below. by following the link.

What is the most clever life hack you’ve learned? by Erick Diaz https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-clever-life-hack-youve-learned/answer/Erick-Diaz-16?share=c8aa8aab&srid=uFZGf

Also check out our MOTIVATION GUIDE.

Being Wrong

Get Results: self awareness
Get Results: self awareness

How do you feel about the possibility of being wrong?

It is considered to be a very bad thing by most people, resulting in feelings of dread, embarrassment, emptiness, sadness and a sense of loss for time and effort, which may have been wasted. We really don’t want to be proven wrong, do we?

We’re right until we know we’re wrong

The trouble is we feel we are right (even though we might actually be wrong) until the point we REALISE we’re wrong. A good analogy for this is the Looney tunes cartoon where the coyote chases the road runner off the end of a cliff, and is okay, even though he’s running in mid air, until he realises there’s nothing under his feet, only then does he fall.

We misunderstand the signs around us more than we care to admit, yet we do what we can to avoid thinking about the possibility of being wrong.

We grow to believe we see the world as it really is, we are certain it is so, but this is dangerous. When we ATTACH to the idea of needing to be right, this prevents us accepting any possibility of being wrong.

Dealing with disagreement

In the face of disagreement, we are convinced that those who disagree are ignorant of the full facts, and when they are furnished with them, they will agree with our view.

If others have the same facts as us, but still disagree, then we resort to thinking them to be morons and idiots, who lack the necessary education to grasp the true reality.

When we know others to be smart and they still disagree with us, we think they may be withholding something from us, for their own gain.

All these are psychological coping strategies, to keep us from admitting we might actually be the ones who are wrong.

Culture teaches us to be right

Culture has conditioned us into thinking that people who failed when we were growing up in school, were the class dim-wits and drop outs, we have learned that lesson so well that we carry the fear of being wrong with us into our adult lives and subsequently spend all our time avoiding the possibility. We believe getting something wrong means there’s something wrong with us.

We’re missing something

We overlook the role INTERPRETATION plays in shaping our perceptions, which explains why different people might take different meanings from the same event.

This however is what feeds creativity and makes mankind so interesting and diverse. If we all saw the world in the same way, we would lose much of what makes us, us.

Be prepared to stand outside the need to be right all the time, accept we are probably wrong a lot of the time and that’s okay. For instance, we might have thought in our school days that we would marry our childhood sweetheart or be flying around with jet packs strapped to our backs as adults, but life just doesn’t turn out the way we thought it would.

Check out this Ted Talk lecture by Kathryn Schulz, it’s the inspiration for this article and well worth a watch.

What Does Spirituality Have To Do With Real Life?

Get Results: awakening
Get Results: Awakening: free from identification with htought

Do you believe that spirituality is nothing to do with REAL LIFE?

Well, let me ask, what do you think are the important aspects of real life?

Maybe you would reply that having a good job, earning enough money to pay your mortgage and bills, having good relationships with friends and family, doing things you enjoy and dealing with problems, are what constitute real life.

Would you agree, that all these important aspects of life are determined and affected by the DECISIONS you make?

For instance decisions determine where you live, what career or job you choose to do, where you travel to, who you choose as your friends and how you deal with problems. And is it not the case that these decisions are influenced, largely, by your BELIEFS and VALUES?

So where do your beliefs and values come from?

They are generally LEARNED through SOCIAL CONDITIONING: life experiences, upbringing, culture, religion, society, media, government, friends and family.

Beliefs and values are nothing more than rigid THOUGHT PATTERNS that you hold to be THE TRUTH, or at least your truth

THOUGHTS are notoriously fear based, because we see ourselves as fragile, fleeting, and isolated from the world around us. Many people believe they have one life and when that life ends, it’s over. We believe we come into this world alone and leave it alone. This makes us cling onto life with fearful desperation. This fear and feeling of isolation forces us to be self-seeking, and driven by self-preservation and self-gain.

We psychologically ATTACH to things to make us feel WE ARE MORE, we believe the more we HAVE, the more we ARE. The more we are the further from BEING NOTHING we are.

Spirituality points to the fact that this feeling of isolation is a lie. That over indulging in THINKING, forces us out of the moment that life unfolds and into the abstraction of past and future and into the arms of fear.

Let me ask you a question, if you weren’t full of fear, what would you be doing? or put another way, if it were guaranteed that you could not fail, what would you do?

If the answer to this question is different from your current reality, than you can be sure fear is holding you back. The only way out of this fear is to seek a spiritual path.

Spirituality is about understanding we are not just part of the whole, WE ARE THE WHOLE, form and the formless that allows form to be.

So to answer the original question…

What does spirituality have to do with real life?

The answer is that spirituality is the path to a less fearful real life.

Check out our spiritual guide for more.

Save Money on PPC: Right Message at the Right Time

Get Results: right message right time
Get Results: right message right time

I thought I’d cover a subject that isn’t discussed openly and honestly much, but which needs careful consideration when working out a marketing strategy particularly with regards to Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing where getting it wrong is going to cost you big time, and that’s the subject of matching visitor intent with your sales funnel. We’re talking here about delivering the right message at the right time.

When I first got started with running an internet business I found it difficult to script a focused message, mainly because I didn’t consider the visitor’s journey. What I mean by journey is the state of mind the visitor is in when they arrive on a website. Are they just browsing,  researching, or looking to make a purchase? I figured if I could understand where the visitor was psychologically at that very moment, I could fashion a message just for them, and encourage them through the sales funnel without them needing to leave my site. I identified a number of stages, which I found very useful in building a marketing strategy around, and I still use it to this day. These stages include

#1 – Goal orientated search – better to optimise for SEO rather than driving traffic via PPC for this type of search

#2- Category orientated search – better to optimise for SEO rather than driving traffic via PPC for this type of search

#3- Product orientated search – perfect for PPC campaigns

#4- Brand orientated search – perfect for PPC campaigns

#5- Browsing – better to optimise for SEO rather than driving traffic via PPC for this type of search

Lets look at each of these stages in more detail:

#1 – Goal orientated search

An example of a goal orientated search would be “losing weight”, or “Getting fit”, or “making money online”

This is the broadest type of search and is designed to get general knowledge about a particular subject. For instance losing weight could be achieved by going on a diet or exercising, so “losing weight” is a more general search type then a “diet” based search would be.

A person that already knows what they would have to do to lose weight wouldn’t need to carry out a goal search in this instance, instead moving to #2 category search. So although each stage is sequential, not everyone needs to go through every stage, it all depends on their existing knowledge about the subject.

However as a marketer, it might be advisable to cater for each and every one of the stages so that you capture all knowledge levels and potential searches, and move them through the learning process. This will help position you to appear as an expert in the subject and allow the visitor to get to know your brand and build some trust in you because you are providing helpful information.

At this point I’d like to talk about “seeker behaviour” (seeker in this instance is the person carrying out the search)” and promiser behaviour”, which refers to you, the marketer.

Seeker behaviour

The seeker/searcher is researching all possible broad options, with little prior knowledge going into this phase and acting on the data gathered to focus on preferred options thereafter. It is the first stage of their research and data gathering and can vary in length depending on complexity of the subject.

Promiser behaviour

Content

In your role as promiser’s (marketer) you should look to show them a path they can follow (at least 4 steps) and take them through the steps to succeed in their goal.

You should show them the end result and make it believable, so make sure it’s not too fantastic and unbelievable. If the visitor doesn’t believe they can achieve it they will likely leave without trying.

Monetising

You can look to offer them a shortcut alternative that will save them time or effort either through an affiliate product or your own solution.

Traffic source

When acquiring traffic for this type of search you should look to optimise for SEO rather than driving traffic via PPC because this is an early search and is unlikely to yield a paying customer, until they have gathered more information.

#2 – Category orientated search

An example of a category search (if we stay with the “losing weight” example used previously) would be say “diets” or “exercise”. This is a deeper level of research than the “goal search” and uses the findings from that search as its basis.

Seeker behaviour

The seeker performs a broad category search focused on preferred course of action. Has knowledge of other options outside of the category but is more interested in this option i.e. diet preferred to exercise.

Promiser behaviour

Content

Offer the visitor a review article showing them the options and alternatives within category i.e. different types of diet available to the seeker.

Monetise

Have affiliate links to each of the options websites

Traffic source

When acquiring traffic for this type of search you should look to optimise for SEO rather than driving traffic via PPC because this is an early search and is unlikely to yield a paying customer, until they have gathered more information.

#3 – Product orientated search

For example this would be a particular diet such as X plan diet (I made the name up, I think!), or in the case of an exercise, yoga (specific products/actions to carry out the plan)

Seeker behaviour

Very focused search to find more about a single product i.e. X plan diet, and wants reassurance this is best for them

Promiser behaviour

Content

You can provide:

  • In-depth single product review
  • how to product guide
  • demo of products
  • opening the box demo video or inner workings demos

Show them why they should listen to what you have to say. Why you’re qualified (you have used and benefited from it, or you’re experienced in that field)

Give them the other options and alternatives open to them and why your solution is better than them. Include free or cheap alternative etc

Monetise

Have affiliate links within the articles taking them to sales page

Traffic source

Using PPC for this type of search is likely to provide a better return on investment than the previous two, simply because the initial research has been carried out and the visitor is closer to making a buying decision.

#4 – brand orientated search

For example with would be the actual product search

Seeker behaviour

The seeker has done enough research and is ready to buy a particular product of their choosing.

Promiser behaviour

Content and monetise

Use a direct link to products sales page. Make the sales process as easy as possible and remove friction and risk.

Traffic source

PPC is a good source of traffic for this type of search simply because there is likely to be less resistance at this point of the buying cycle, get in while the irons hots. You could have a jump page in between the advert the final sales page, but think about reducing the amount of friction (obsticles) you put in front of the visitor, as this will only act to discourage them.

#5 – Browsers

Seeker behaviour

The browsing stage isn’t really a final stage, it’s more likely a first stage in reality but in my mind I see it as separated from the other four stages which is why I’ve put it at the end. The seeker is not searching for anything, just killing time or being entertained moving aimlessly through the web.

Promiser behaviour

For this type of search you as a marketer need to grab attention, distract the seeker from there aimless time-wasting, and pull them into your sales funnel. The other 4 stages are about supplying a demand, however this stage is about creating one, so you have to align your message accordingly. Assuming you need to start from the basics, conveying a “lose weight live longer” message over a “enjoy the X plan diet” is more likely to capture their interest.

Final thoughts

Hopefully reading this article has helped you appreciate the value of understanding how aligning your message and content with that of the visitors journey and communicating the right message at the right time to add structure to your marketing strategy.  Always look to help the visitor not manipulate them, add value and make the internet a better place for us all.

P.S. Make sure you do your own research before embarking on any paid traffic activities. If you found the content useful and interesting please sign up for our newsletter and get notification of all our latest posts, as well as exclusive content.

Move your business online – How and Why

Get Results: internet icons
Get Results: internet icons

Well I thought I’d do a few articles about setting up websites and online businesses as well as online marketing, as support for my business and marketing guides. Online marketing and online business, isn’t what this website is about specifically, but I do believe it should be covered, as it is becoming increasingly more important to have an online presence, even if your business is predominantly carried out off-line.

Getting Started

So you’re a small business owner looking to move your business online or start a new business from scratch, but not sure where to start. You’ve heard of SEO and PPC, optimisation and opt-in forms but don’t really know what they mean and how to use them to make your business an online success.

You can search Google or Youtube using terms like “make money online” and see what you get, but be warned you will spend hours, weeks, even months wading through the marketing spam and hype to find any nuggets of gold. The information’s out there you just have to know where to find it.

This websites a pretty good place to start as I’ve got a lot of information on the subject, having built up a vast resource over the years, as part of my own research. I am also tapped in to a great network of online experts who provide great insight, as well as keeping abreast of the latest developments, without the BS you usually get. I will digest the best bits and present them for your benefit, as part of my contribution towards marketing and business content for this website. I would also suggest checking out my business and marketing guides for more insight.

Well first off I would suggest you get yourself a website. I use WordPress for my businesses, because it’s free, and easy to use, being a content management system (CMS), which means you don’t need any coding skills to update the content, as you build it up. It’s supported by a large community of designers and coders, so is always improving and evolving, becoming better each year. You can download it here, and all you will need to do is upload it to a server of your choice. I have used a couple of different hosting platforms in the past:

  • Bluehost
  • Lfchosting

but there are a lot of others available, along with reviews.

If you don’t know, or can’t be bothered to learn it yourself, I will be glad to do it for you with my “done for you service”. Email me if you want more information about that. It’s not that difficult to do for yourself though to be honest. It’s a good idea to get yourself a business Facebook page set up, if you haven’t already done so, and again this is free and really easy to do. If you intend to create videos, a business Youtube channel is also a good idea, you can always embed the videos you create, in your webpages.

Word of Warning

Now, if you have yourself a Facebook page or Youtube channel you might not bother about getting yourself a website, instead using Facebook or Youtube as your internet home, but be wary about building your business based on a third party platform, because you are relying on them either not going away or changing the rules and taking your business from under your feet. Having your own website gives you control and makes you look more serious in the eyes of visitors, but they will cost that little bit more, in terms of hosting fees and domain name registration etc.

Primary Strategy

Now there are 2 major considerations at this point

  • Getting visitors to you website – otherwise known as getting TRAFFIC
  • Getting visitors to buy from you – converting visitors

Getting TRAFFIC

Your site is not much good to anyone, if nobody can find it. So getting visitors, or traffic as it’s better known, is key to your success and you have three main options:

SEO – (search engine optimisation) is a number of activities you can undertake to get your site listed on the major search engines like Google and Bing. The idea is to optimise your site so it gets indexed and ranked, hopefully on the first page of these major search engines. If you’re only listed on page 10 of search results, its very unlikely that anyone will search through 10 pages to find your site. So if you’re not on the first page you are going to get limited traffic volumes to your site. It’s free but takes time to get ranked, even with a well optimised site, it can still take a few months, if not more.

PPC – (pay per click advertising ). This is where you pay to have your website advertised on search engines advertising sections. Paying for traffic is faster than the free options, in fact you can have a presence on the first page of Google within 10 minutes of starting a campaign, which means you can be found by searchers almost immediately, but you are paying for this privaledge, so is costlier than free methods obviously. Costs per click can range from 20p to £10 and more depending on your niche or market, but generally speaking a click cost of £10 infers that there is more money to be made in such a niche, after all advertisers wouldn’t be prepared to pay so much if they weren’t making money out of it.

Social Media Channels – Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin, to bring people to your website is the third major option open to you. It does mean learning the best practices for doing so, which is beyond the scope of this article, we will however cover it in more detail in future posts.

Converting visitors

Converting visitors refers to converting them from being just visitors to customers, who are going to buy your product/service. I would recommend you get your site search engine friendly first then work on conversions as soon as possible. Simply because if your site converts visitors well you don’t need as much traffic for it to make money. Here’s an example to illustrate the point

  • If you get 100 visitors and make one sale at £100 that’s a 1% conversion rate
  • However if your site converts at 10% you would only need 10 people to make the same about of money.

Now I’m not saying you will ever get a 10% conversion rate, (in fact if you do please tell me how you did it) I am just using these figures as an easy-to-see illustration of the power of increasing your conversion rates.

Tools needed to get the job done

Now, how do we increase conversions? Well first, you need to have a focused squeeze landing page that is designed to get people to opt-in to your email list. The strategy here is based on the fact that it’s easier to get a person to give you their email address than it is to get them to buy from you, without them having heard of your brand before. It is often referred to as “selling the click”.

Once you have their email address, via your landing page, you need to send them a number of emails, providing useful information related to your product/business offering, such as tips and tricks, insight or a free sample for instance. This is aimed at building your prospects trust in you, without which, you’re unlikely to get them to buy anything.  At the end of the process, you will eventually pitch them an offer, which should be aimed at helping them in some way. Gary Vaynerchuk calls this process “jab jab jab, right hook”, meaning provide value (jab), provide value (jab), provide value (jab), then ask for a sale (right hook).

At the end of the email sequence a second landing page, a sales landing page should be used so that the prospect is encouraged to purchase your product.

There are a number of landing page software providers who offer WordPress plugins, which add functionality to your WordPress website. I have used Thrive Landing page plugin for many campaigns I have run in the past, simply because it does everything I needed to do. With a simple drag and drop interface, you don’t need any coding skills to build effective layouts. It was less than $49 to buy, with no on going subscription charges, and also came with lots of educational videos to help you succeed, so is well worth the investment.

There are a number of email providers available, MailChimp offer a free service for smaller mailing lists and leads onto paid services as your list increases. It’s a great service, from my experience. Also check out Mailpoet, which is a free WordPress plugin, and works well.

I use Paypal to take payments over the internet and this is relatively easy to set up and insert the code within landing pages.

Summary

I’ve tried to outline the steps needed to get your website presence up and running, shying away from going in-depth too much and scaring you into thinking it’s just too hard.

If you want any specific questions answering please put them in the comments below and/or sign up for my newsletter.

I do provide a “Done for you service” which involves setting up an hosting account and getting WordPress installed, I’ll also add the necessary plugins mentioned above. Alternatively, have a go yourself if you’ve got the time and patience to learn.

Good luck with the new venture and hope I can provide lots of great, actionable information for you over the coming months.

How to make money from FREE content

Get results: add value
Get results: add value
Get Results: how to profit from providing free content
Get Results: how to profit from providing free content
  • The yellow writing highlights the traffic sources
  • The pink writing highlights the content
  • The light blue writing highlights the monetisation methods

The model above, highlights the ways of providing useful free content to your audience while also paying the bills. Having run a number of businesses off-line where you can’t afford to give things away, getting used to this online business model took some adjustment.

In a nut shell the idea is you provide information people want to read, listen to or watch, which genuinely helps them to solve some problem they have, or help them achieve something they want or need. You monetise on the back of this content with advertising banners, PPC adverts or affiliate links, so that when someone clicks through or buys the product, you get paid a commission as a reward for bringing in the traffic.

Getting Traffic

The better the content you provide the more people will want to share your content or talk about it on forums etc and the more people will come to your website. Increased traffic should mean you get more clicks on ads and links and enable you to make more money, at least in principle anyway.

Content considerations

The best method seems to be providing content such as “How to…” information and then having links to tools that help your audience get things done faster or with less hassle. Pat Flynn over at smartpassiveincome.com makes thousands of dollars per month by offering advice on how to make money online and then having an affiliate link to Bluehost so visitors can get a website hosted straight away. He then gets a commission from Bluehost for referring clients, get the idea?

PPC and Adwords

The easiest way to make money online is to get Google Adwords set up on your site and let them manage the ad delivery side of things by showing relevant ads to match your on-page content. Although this is the easiest method to set up you will need a lot of clicks to make any decent amount of money using it.

Affiliate Links

Affiliate links can provide a lucrative income if you can find a product that is relevant to your content. Many website owners build their entire site around a product or range of products with the sole purpose of making money off the affiliate links. Generally the visitor has to buy the product(s) after following the links for you to make any money, but with commissions often as high as 75% of the sale price you can quickly rack up some income if you have the right traffic, content and affiliate product alignment. Check out Clickbank for affiliate products you can sell as an affiliate. I have a number of affiliate accounts set up for products I believe will help my audience to get things done faster, with less hassle, or that will help them make more money.

Develop your own products

Probably the best method of making money is to sell your own products, so you make more, in terms of margin. However you do have to spend more time creating the products in the first place. Products could include digital information products such as Ebooks, and Video Educational systems, or you could hide content behind a pay gate as with membership sites and charge monthly subscriptions for access. If you have the know-how you could provide software solutions, or physical products via Ecommerce and drop shipping sites.

Getting traffic and converting

One of the hardest parts of any business is getting customers to buy from you, with websites it’s about getting as much of the “right” kind of traffic to your site and then getting them to either buy your product or click on the ad links or affiliate links. Paid methods of driving traffic to your site include PPC such as Google Adsense, which is the marketer’s side of the Adwords platform. You can even use affiliates to drive traffic to your site, or paid social media advertising. Free methods include SEO, blog networks, links from article sites, and link wheels although algorithmic changes by Google are rendering some of these methods ineffective or even damaging to your sites search engine ranking so do plenty of research before using any of them.

One thing you should be doing on your website is capturing email addresses using an opt-in form such as the one in the sidebar of this website and at the bottom of the post. This will help you to build a relationship with your visitors and further help them in their search for a solution to their problem. You can find out what they need, what problems they are trying to solve and tailor your products to achieve an effective result for them.

I like to go one further with regards to emails, I like to provide exclusive tailored content via emails, in such a manner that best serves subscribers. I can find out specific needs and add maximum value. Websites are great for general information, but people tend to struggle most when applying acquired knowledge to specific circumstances.

Only by solving problems and providing genuine solutions will you be able to build a sustainable, value-added business. There are many people on the internet looking to make a quick buck and game the system, avoid this and make the internet a better place.

If you would like to keep up-to-date when I publish new content please subscribe to my newsletter below or like my Facebook page (in the sidebar) and thanks for taking the time to read my content.

Check out my Business guide and marketing guide for more information.