What is the key to success?

February 15, 2008 by
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Bill Cosby is purported to have said, ""I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Have you found that to be true? I have. I’ll give you a recent example.

I just launched a new website, PassiveIncomeForLawyers.com. Passive income is a hot topic and in a very short period of time, the site got a large number of visits and subscribers. Several attorneys have already joined me in the program. I’ve heard from many others who have said nice things about the program itself and about the way it is presented. The feedback has been very positive. Of course you usually don’t hear from people who don’t like something. They usually just quietly go away. But I did get the following email from one attorney:

"Please take me off of your miserable site. At first I thought you were legitimated, now we are getting the mass marketing crap. Passive income my ass! You wouldn’t know passive income if it hit you in the face. And what’s with the long winded motley fool type advertising site. Un professional. Get lost."

I didn’t reply, I simply removed him from the subscription list, and deleted his email. But then I got to thinking about what could be learned from his response and I retrieved the email. After all, this is not just anybody; according to his email signature, this individual is a partner in a firm of at least five lawyers. I presume he is influential. He may or may not be interested in something I offer, but I’d like to think he would reject the offer, not the person (me). But not only is he not a fan, he was so angry, he took the time to embarrass himself with this email.

From a marketing perspective, what should I do? He was turned off (to say the least) by the sales-y copy on my web page, although I have to wonder why he filled out the form to subscribe if he was so offended. Should I assume that others would be, too, and change it? Should I try to please the ones who don’t like what he calls "long winded motley fool type advertising," even though most people find it acceptable and the site is successful? The Motley Fool folks seem to be doing okay.

But if I create something that is less of what he does not like and it dramatically reduces the number of subscribers, I haven’t done myself any good, have I? So no, I shouldn’t try to please everyone. That truly is a formula for failure, and it’s an important marketing lesson.

Marketing is about metrics. You do something, measure the results, and compare those results to something else. It’s called testing, and it’s crucial to the success and profitability of any marketing campaign. So, I will create other versions of the web page and compare the results to the ones produced by the current one. Whichever version produces the highest percentage of conversions (subscribers) will become the "control," against which I will continue to test, seeking to best that control. But one does this to improve results, not in an effort to please anyone, let alone everyone.

You can’t please everyone anyway, and you’ll only hurt yourself if you try. So, as you design your marketing messages, intelligently consider the ethical standards of your bar association and your own sense of propriety, and perhaps the concerns of your spouse or partners, but beyond that, do what works best, and what works best is what brings in the most results.

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Filed Under: Copywriting, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Wealth, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With:

Do you know what “passive income” is?

January 28, 2008 by
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A friend of mine by the name of Brian used to be a real estate agent. He told me a story about a very successful business mentor of his who once asked him if he knew what “passive income” was. Brian said he did. “Well, do you have any?” he asked. When Brian said he did not, the mentor said, “Then I don’t think you know what it is, because if you did, you would crash through walls to get some.”

He went on to explain it this way:

“When you sell a house, you get paid a commission, right? And then you move onto the next deal. If you don’t sell a house, you don’t get paid. You’re only as good as your last deal. Now, what would you rather have, $5,000 when you sell a house or $50 every time someone opened or closed a door? That’s passive income.”

I once explained passive income to a lawyer this way: “Think about what you currently earn in your practice and imagine that you were paid that amount but you didn’t have to show up for work.”

What would it mean to you if you had enough passive income coming in so that you never had to work again? If you had money AND the time to enjoy it?

If there was a way to accomplish that, would you want to know about it?

(Keep reading. . .)

Very few people have passive income. Athletes, entertainers, artists, writers, are usually cited as examples. Some attorneys achieve passive income by taking a percentage of their client’s business venture or intellectual property. But most attorneys (and I was no exception when I was practicing) earn linear income.

Linear income means there is a direct correlation between your personal services and your compensation. It doesn’t matter whether you bill hourly, flat rate, or contingency, what you get still depends (mostly) on what you do.

When you have employees, you have leverage, and that provides a semblance of passive income. Someone else does the work, you bill the client at a higher rate, and you profit from the difference. But it’s not true passive income because you still have to supervise those employees and you are responsible for the work they do.

If your firm is big enough that you don’t have to do that, if you can stay home and the practice runs without you, then you have true passive income. But then you probably wouldn’t be reading this.

What if there was another way to generate passive income? What if, in the next few years, you could create a six-figure passive income and it didn’t interfere with your current practice or job?

And what if I told you that a lot of attorneys have already done it?

Including me.

It’s true. In just a few years, working part time, I created a six-figure passive income that continues to pay me today. The money comes in month after month, year after year, and I don’t have to work for it.

Now you know I’m telling you this for a reason. I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. I’ve just launched a new web site that will tell you exactly what I did to create this passive income, and, more importantly, how you can do it too.

Here’s the site: http://attorneymarketing.com/legal-plans

Take a look and let me know what you like best.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Wealth Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,