In 1994 I wrote a script for a twenty eight minute video. To produce the video it cost me $10,000. The video generated over $120,000,000.00 in revenue. Yes, that’s millions. Approximately 20% of that went directly into my pocket.
If you are a writer, blogger, podcaster or producer you need to read this article.If you haven’t figured it out already, I wrote an infomercial. Before you scoff, before you dismiss me and skip this article let me ask you a question. If you knew that people would pay you based on their level of enjoyment of your content would you survive the cut? The more they liked you the more they paid. The less they liked you to less they paid. What if they hated you and you had to pay them? That is the cold, hard truth of how the world really functions.I must admit, I have a very unfair advantage. I am a hypnotist. Not just any hypnotist. The media calls me the greatest hypnotist of all time. I know how the mind operates and I know what causes a person to do what they do. I not only hypnotized my wife to fall in love with me I also hypnotized her to give drugless, painless birth to our two sons at home in the bath tub with no doctors present. When I write copy I hypnotize people to buy my products and when I speak I hypnotize people to run to the back of the room to invest in themselves and my programs.I am very up front and honest about it. My wife will tell you she knew I hypnotized her from the moment we met. She will tell you she’s glad I did. My fans and customers keep coming back for more because their lives have been made better by what I hypnotized them to buy. I hypnotize my son’s on a daily basis to adjust their behaviors so they can live a more full and joyful life. Everybody wins.
Media, whether terrestrial or digital is one of the most hypnotic forms of communication on the planet. With so many choices in media both online and off, it’s essential that you structure your content in a way that not only keeps your audience engaged it also must cause them to take a new action. Whether it’s buying your products or visiting your advertisers sites, or taking some new action.
When I created my infomercial “Passion, Profit and Power!” I knew that I wasn’t only competing with other infomercials. I knew I was competing with all other TV programming. I knew I was competing with print, radio, board games, and any other activity my consumer could choose. You see, the human condition is such that it will always choose the path of least resistance. That’s how people form habits that they know are horrible and still have such a hard time stopping.
All buying decisions are based first on emotion and then backed up with logic. A buying decision isn’t just the choice to make a purchase. A buying decision is any choice. Choosing to subscribe to your blog, choosing to recommend you to friends, choosing to come back again and again are all buying decisions.
If you adhere to a simple formula, you will dramatically increase both your audience and your revenue.
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I call the formula “E3”. Entertain, Educate, Empower.First Entertain. Funny means money. The highest paid television and movie actors are always comics. Laughter and the joy it brings are highly desirable experiences for most healthy people. When you can make someone laugh you will hold their attention. At the same time any emotional experience will engage people and keep them engaged since human beings are motion junkies. In my infomercial I showed clips of people walking on broken glass, breaking bricks with their bare hands, eating fire and getting hypnotized to do the most amazing things. I knew if I created a show that they would come back and watch again and again eventually they would buy from me.Second Educate. To be an authority you must establish competence. Give your audience useful knowledge that they can not only use, give them information that firmly positions you as an expert. If you don’t believe that your material is content rich enough, come see me, there’s a hypnotist for that.Thirdly Empower. If they are simply entertained and don’t take a new action then you are missing the mark. To create evangelical customers, fans and followers you must alter, add to and improve the quality of their lives. What’s the outcome? What’s the new habit or action? Did you empower them to change their lives, buy your product or spread your message to others? If so, grand slam, out of the park, home run.
I will be entertaining at NMX LIVE! on Saturday night at 8pm. My hypnotic show will have you laughing until you hurt and gasping in amazement. On Sunday at 4:30pm I will be keynoting and teaching you how to massively monetize your online content and more. Plus I am going to be giving away tens of thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. See you at NMX LIVE!
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