Who Else Needs to Improve Their Persuasive Writing Skills?

Have you ever wondered how you can make more sales from your Squidoo lenses? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. So when I saw the email last week from Alice Seba of Contentrix about her Persuasive Writing class, it occurred to me that improving my persuasive skills just might be the solution I've been looking for.

I've followed Alice online for years and I know that she really knows her stuff. And at just $27 for a multi-session live webinar course with tons of valuable handouts included, who could pass that up? Well, today was the first session and I've come to this conclusion: Alice should charge more for her classes. :) Seriously, 90+ minutes for just the first session, plus all the handouts, plus live critiques of several students' websites, I've gotten my money's worth already - and we have four more live training sessions to go!

Since I love to share valuable information with fellow lensmasters and other writers, I figured I'd better start getting the word out about this class, called Persuasive Writing and Getting Your Audience to Do What You Want.

It's okay that you missed the first session - not everyone can attend live, so Alice recorded it and it's already available, along with her notes, the chat transcript, and more, in the class's membership area. The rest of the sessions will be recorded, too, and the price of admission includes lifetime access.

Did I mention that all this will set you back just 27 bucks and that Alice is still taking students?

With the holiday shopping season coming up fast plus the new, easy-to-use product review lens format on Squidoo, this is the perfect time to fine-tune your persuasive writing skills. And of course you can use the skills you learn on your own website or blog and everywhere else you write, too.

So, who's going to join me in the next session? Read all about it and sign up right here.

Putting Myself On The Line

Is this a perfect Squidoo lens?

What do you think?  Visit the link and chime in.

I can take it.

How Not to be Overly Commercial on Your Lenses: My Recommended Read of the Day

When you make lenses promoting a product or your business, you really need a balance of not too little, not too much, but just the right amount of commercial or promotional material.

Tom Maybrier explains this in more detail today in his SquidooHQ lensmaking tip, Creating Great Content for your Business or Product.  It's an excellent post that answers a lot of questions that you might have about how commercial is too commercial when you're making product review or business lenses.

Newbies on Squidoo often make the mistake of including too many bolded business links in their lenses and not enough original content.  Even veterans can fall into that bad practice. My recommended read of the day is a great explanation of how to avoid this and what to do instead to make your commercial lens turn out balanced just right.

After you've read it, I hope you'll leave Tom a comment then come back here and let me know what you learned.

Cyber Monday Shopping Recommendations

Just saw this post from Kimberly on SquidooHQ in which she mentions Cyber Monday.   That triggered an idea.

To help people who happen to land on my profile page find some good holiday shopping lenses, I edited my profile to feature links to a few of my popular product reviews.  These are lenses that don't necessarily show up on page one of the list of all my lenses.  They're pages that feature popular gift items that people might be looking for on  Cyber Monday and, really, from now until Christmas.

While in general I recommend a good, brief, personal bio - and that's all - on the profile page, this might be a time to make an exception.  We'll see how it works out.

What do you think?  Good idea?  Bad?  Let me know in a comment below.

Sales Lenses vs Product Review Lenses: What's the Difference and Why Should You Care?

I really like today's SquidBlog post, written by Robin about Brenda's recommendation of Katinka's lens about her favorite office chair.  But enough name dropping.  Let me get to the point.

Robin points out that to create a good, well-written "sales" lens, don't think sales.  Think product recommendation.

What do you as a consumer want to learn from a product review or recommendation?  You probably want to know a lot about the product, including details and specs, but you probably also want to know how a real person feels about that product.  I know that I am far more comfortable shopping based on personal recommendations than from "facts" that oftentimes sound as if they've been translated from a foreign language by a computer.

I agree with Brenda and Robin.  Katinka did a fabulous job presenting the product in her lens, covering both the technical aspects and the psychological or emotional aspects in a way that not only makes for a quality lens but is very likely to convert readers to customers.  Read the blog post, then visit the lens if you're interested in learning how to write a product recommendation or review lens that people will actually want to read.

Expose Yourself On Amazon.com

If you're an e-business owner then you're probably looking for traffic. Have you considered exposing yourself and your business on Amazon.com?

If you're an Amazon seller or shopper you've probably noticed customer reviews on many of the items for sale there. Have you written any reviews? If you've purchased an item from Amazon you've probably received an email from the company asking you to leave a review and rate the product. Actually, you don't have to have even purchased an item from Amazon to leave a review. Many people who buy items elsewhere and either love or hate them add their product reviews on the Amazon website. Have you?

If you haven't, you're missing out on some great exposure. But before you head to your favorite products, look for the "Your Account" link at the top right of any Amazon.com page. From there, scroll down to "Personalization" where you'll find a "Your Public Profile" link. On that page you can add your nickname, upload a picture, talk a little bit about yourself, and even leave a link to your website. It's that last part you should get excited about. Include the link you want people to see first, your home page link, blog link, or even your Squidoo profile page link.

Once you've completed and saved your profile, start writing product reviews, maybe a couple a day. Be honest by reviewing based on first-hand knowledge of books or appliances or shoes or computers or golf clubs or gadgets you've actually used and, preferably, own. Be specific in your reviews in order to make them useful for shoppers evaluating items for purchase; those same people will rate your review as useful or not and the most useful reviews rise to the top and are more likely to be read.

There's no guarantee that someone will click through on your name in the review to look at your profile, but as a shopper I know that I've done so and I would expect someone, sometime, to click through on my name as well.

By contributing to the Amazon shopping community with product reviews, you may end up exposing yourself and your business to your next biggest customer.

Good idea? I think so. What do you think?

P.S. Use good keywords in your reviews. You do know that product reviews show up in search engines, right?