Norman Freeman On What They Call
"Internet Marketing"

Good morning everyone. Norman here.
Norman is a guy-name, here in Germany too.
Why I am telling you this? Read on.

I have been thinking about what really sells for a long time now.
I don’t mean “what sells” from a product view or what kind of service is in demand at the moment. I am talking about measurability.

So what makes your launch, your product, your list, your blog and your life a success?

For products and marketing, you would say something like: Distribution (list, promotion-partnerships, ads), Copy, features, benefits…

So have you ever thought about if one of those big guys that crank out 197$+ products every other month to lists (via JVs) of 300.000+ subscribers would be able to sell a product without any salesletter? Or, would someone not knows in the “IM niche” at all - like me - (yet ;o) be able to covert the same product with the same salescopy and the same list with the same conversion rate?

Well, I think not. Authority and influence are my favourite words of the day.
If Mike Filsaime (or any other of those guys) tells his list about a product, it’s not only about the story, the copy and the product. It has much to do with authority. And INFLUENCE!

I don’t know how to measure it yet, but maybe James Brausch is willing to help out. He is the only one I would trust in this whole marketing-circus to get an analytical product together to measure emotional variables in sales-processes.

Anyway, one measurable variable just proved itself: Influence.
Proven by the same guy btw: James Brausch.

He - what I appreciate very much - named my blog on his.
No particular incident to do so, he did it just because he likes my blog (way of writing?). That’s what he says.

But unfortunately there was one thing that caused a tail of actions been taken by different people. It was a tail that, from my view, was kicked off by the power of (unintended) influence.

To name it:
I had a header-graphic on my blog that showed me with long hair (and a business-suit btw!) like I had it grown for years. (Yes, I like Indie-Rock-Music!)
Somehow that picture seemed to look a little un-male (or at least not 100% male) to James.
Although he did not mean to be rude I am sure, he wrote about his concerns in this blog entry. Now think what happened?

1. (I am happy about this!)
I got some list-subscribers who were actively referred by James to my blog.

Sidenote: You can tell I was not only surprised but honored to be “featured” in James’ blog, since he (you might have recognized he is the ONLY blog I recommend yet!) writes a solid analytic style I like very much.
Also he seems to be way outside the “net of slaveristic freedom” (more about that later) which most “IM gurus” (I HATE the word guru…) decided to belong to.

2. (I am not sure about this one)
I got about 5-10 comments on my blog that made fun about me looking like a girl or both in my header graphic.

Sidenote: This does not sidetrack or hurt me. I have a wife, a kid and a wonderful life. I just tell you this for a reason: Influence! Read on.

Though some of those comments were not that nice, I can understand why they occured. Honestly, I think 90% of the IM-product customers seem to be like that.

Here’s the catch if you move your brain in this niche of wannabe Gialdinis:
You are influenced. Anywhere. Anywhen. Anytime.
Keep that in mind!

So I think if some of those commentators would have not read James Brausch’s post before they came to my blog, they wouldn’t have even thought about me being a man or a woman.
They just had it in mind after reading James’ post.
In fact, some of them might even have visited my blog for just THAT reason: To see my header graphic. I changed it atm, but will maybe change it back later. In fact, I changed it now because one of those people seemed to be so persistent with his (her?) thoughts about my gender that I finally changed the pic.

So what can you learn from this?
I would say two things:

First, BE AWARE that you are influenced every second of your life! You can not change that, but you can mix it with some SELF-THINKING!

Second, you COULD use the power of influence in your salesletter, ads etc. but that’s another post.

To sum it up:
Thanks, James! I was very surprised opening up your blog after watching your “How to create a newsletter from a remote Island” videos and found MY NAME on there. I not only appreciate that, but it also gives me some confidence to continue my way.
Hope to chat with you one day.

Yours,

NorMAN

The Original post by James Brausch (I honestly don’t know how this trackback technique works yet…):
http://www.jamesbrausch.com/wp-trackback.php?p=397

http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=397