If you want to make money online you need to sell something.

In order to make sales, you have to understand what motivates people to buy. Once you’ve mastered this you can generate mountains of cash.

This Book Will Teach You To Write Better by Neville Medhora walks you through all the basics of copywriting.

Neville is a successful copywriter and entrepreneur who has helped launch numerous multi-million dollar businesses including AppSumo and House Of Rave.

He is also the creator of Kopywriting Kourse, one of the most successful persuasive writing programs in the world.

Joining Kopywriting Kourse costs you about $200. A copy of This Book Will Teach You To Write Better goes for less than four bucks and you’ll still learn all the same fundamentals.

By the time you’ve finished the book you will know:

• How To Research Your Market
• How To Grab Readers’ Attention
• How To Write Gripping Headlines
• How To Format Your Text For Maximum Sales Impact

You’ll also get some “plug and play” templates that you can use to quickly craft your own sales letters.

While there is a lot of great stuff in this book, I want to briefly tell you about the most important benefits This Book Will Teach You To Write Better has to offer:

Outsell All Your Competitors

The average blog only generates a measly three dollars a day. This has nothing to do with traffic (my tiny website netted $90 off 200 visitors the other day), or SEO, or web design. Most websites fail to make money because the owners don’t know the first thing about sales.

Ranking well in Google and having a pretty site means nothing if your content is boring. 30 Days To X looks like broiled dog anus and it still outperforms every “flashy-but-boring” website.

Additionally, knowing how to sell is like having your own license to print money. Even newbie copywriters can often make $20 to $30 an hour just from understanding the basics of sales.

This Book Will Teach You To Write Better takes about two hours to read and will teach you everything you need to know about selling. By the time you’re done, you’ll know more about sales than 90% of the population.

How Mediocre Writers Can Still Make Lots Of Money Online

I am not a particularly good writer. Despite this, I still make good money from writing articles and sales letters.

Why?

Because I can write in a fun and conversational style. “Casual Copy,” as Neville calls it, is what sells products. Contrary to what your English professors may have said, people don’t like it when they have to read rigid and “academic” articles.

Learning how to write in a fun and laid back style is important. But it is something most writers never do!

Weirdly enough, the majority of writers try to talk down to their audience. Instead of being friendly or treating readers as equals, they purposely try to show how superior they are to their fans.

Treating your readers like lowly peasants, unworthy of being in your presence is a great way to kill your readership. Don’t do this!

Once you learn to treat your readers like friends you’ll see a huge surge in both traffic and profits.

Closing Thoughts

(I Used A Template From This Book Will Teach You To Write Better To Write This Article)

This Book Will Teach You To Write Better is a book that I read, enjoyed, and know that you can benefit greatly from. If you’re new to sales, are just starting your own website, or want a quick refresher on creating killer content, this book is for you.

You can sit down with this book, get a ton of great writing ideas, and use what you’ve learned to whip up a successful sales letter within minutes.

Order On Amazon

P.S. Recently I’ve been doing lots of book reviews to practice my public speaking skills. You’ll start seeing more traditional “how to” articles on here in about a week. I promise.

Do you ever feel like you are overwhelmed with work?

Most people do. Especially around the holidays. If you are a student, you are swamped with final exams and semester tests. If you work for yourself, you’ve got all kinds of end of the year tasks to wrap up. And if you’re an employee, your boss is probably issuing you as many assignments as he can before Christmas.

Time Management by Brian Tracy is a concise guide that can help you plow through your work and free up your schedule. As the book’s title indicates, you’ll learn all about managing your time and becoming more efficient as you pursue your goals.

Here are three key lessons from the book that you can start using now. They’ll help you immensely:

You Are Never “Too Busy”

Everyone has the same 24 hours in their day. No one gets more time than anyone else.

So why are some people able to get a lot done, while others struggle to complete basic tasks?

Most people fail to be use their time wisely because they are oblivious to all the opportunities surrounding them. If you feel like you are too busy to get something done, “make time” by waking up an hour earlier. This simple change will give you an extra seven hours a week to tackle your goals. You can get a lot done with that amount of time.

(Look For Ways To Invest In Yourself)

Read a book while you eat lunch. Put a pull-up bar in your house and use it every time you walk past. There are a thousand ways to free up your scheduled and do the things you want to do.

Most Of Your Day Is Spent On Pointless Activities

How often do you look at your phone? Mindlessly text girls? Browse social media?

The average person checks their phone 150 times per day, watches 28 hours of television every week, and browses Facebook for 40 minutes each afternoon. If you feel like you can’t get anything done, look at where your time is going.

The majority of people fritter away their time on pointless activities.

You will never remember most of what you watched on TV or heard in a bar. But you will always regret every opportunity that you missed.

Ask yourself if the things you are doing have a meaningful impact. What is the long-term benefit?

When you start tracking your time, you realize which of your actions are and are not important.

Horsing Around Costs You At Least $20,000 Each Year

(This Project Took Less Than An Hour To Complete)

When you sleep in or loaf around, you are stealing opportunities from yourself.

Case in point:

Every day after work I would spend about an hour goofing off. I’d surf YouTube, play video games, or troll Twitter. While all these things are fun, they do not actually benefit me in a meaning way.

After reading Time Management, I decided to make a change. I took one hour a day that would have been spent on mindless entertainment and invested it in something more useful, freelance writing.

My new-found time was spent looking for writing jobs online that would pay at least $50 an hour. Although an extra $50 a day doesn’t sound like a lot, it adds up over time. In fact, here is how much extra I will earn from this one simple change:

$50 x 365 = $18,250

If you have a goal you are working towards, an extra hour a day might be the difference between success and failure.

Closing Thoughts

When you want to get more done, Brian Tracy’s Time Management can help. This is a very quick read and one that you can finish in a day or two. Despite the short length, I found it to be incredibly useful. And I think you will benefit a from it too.

Click Here To Order

P.S. Did you know that buying books is a tax write-off? You can order a book, use its information to make money, and then claim the title as a “business expense.”

Donald Trump is a multi-billionaire, real estate mogul, television superstar, and front-runner for the 2016 presidential candidacy.

If you watch the news or late night TV, you’ll hear that he’s a maniac and a monster. An angry buffoon who is worse than Hitler. Some pundits and journalists even encourage their audiences not to look into Trump, otherwise they might get triggered by his offensive attitude.

When reading Think Big And Kick Ass, you quickly realize that Donald Trump is a genius.

While Trump is loud, brash, and opinionated, he’s no fool. Everything he does is meticulously calculated to work in his favor. It’s a system that’s made him successful in every aspect of life.

(The Media Has Been Lying About Trump For Years)

This book lets you get inside Trump’s mind and see exactly how he operates. Although Think Big And Kick Ass clocks in at roughly 300 pages, and every paragraph contains useful insights, here are three of the most important skills you can master:

1. How To Think Like A Winner

As a young man, Donald Trump dreamed of making New York City great again. At the time, downtown Manhattan was a cesspool. Gangs of junkies roamed the streets and Times Square housed nothing but seedy porn theaters.

America’s flagship city was a filthy and disgusting embarrassment. All the experts and politicians assumed New York was finished. Destined to remain a rundown dump. But Trump believed he could restore Manhattan to its former glory.

Trump came to the city with no money and no connections. His company, the “Trump Organization,” consisted solely of him. Its main (and only) office: his tiny one bedroom apartment.

With nothing but a dream and raw enthusiasm, Trump set out rebuild New York. In less than two years Trump did the impossible. He gained control of a 62 million dollar property, and he did so with no money down.

Trump was so sure of his vision that no one even bothered to question him. Bankers and backers didn’t see twenty-some year old kid, they saw a man on a mission.

Most men have horribly poor mindsets. They are terrified of taking risks. Some even get overwhelmed by simple things like learning a new skill or talking to strangers. They have low self-esteem and can never see themselves as being successful.

While you should never be naively optimistic (more on that in a minute) you should value yourself. Being a crybaby or never stepping outside your comfort zone is no way to live. Instead of worrying about minor details or focusing on the negative, create a grand vision for yourself.

As Trump says: “If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.”

2. How To Get Rich By Giving

Most people fail because they are greedy. They try to game the system, con their clients, or cut corners. Additionally, the vast majority of people wrongly assume that you need to scam people in order to sell a product of make money.

While it may sound a little silly, or like classic self-help fluff, the money is in helping others. People are selfish creatures. Nobody is going to buy something if it doesn’t benefit them in some way.

Contrary to what news programs say, Trump’s money came from finding ways to help others.

In 1980 the City Of New York tried to restore the historic Wollman Rink, After six years of struggling to complete the project they were ready to give up. That’s when Trump stepped in.

Within three months Trump had the Wollman Rink finished. And he did it all without ever charging the city a dime.

(Wollman Rink)

Projects like this, allowed Trump to build up a lot of favors and a lot of good-will among New Yorkers. Whenever times were tough and other businesses were going under, Trump would survive. Even bankers and investors who hated him would usually cut Trump some slack once they realized that he was a good guy.

Business is a long-term game. If you aren’t willing to give back then you’re going to fail.

3. How To Defend Yourself Against Anyone

Reality is brutal. At some point someone will try to screw you over. They’ll threaten to file a frivolous lawsuit, buy fake negative reviews for a product you create, or jut make up slanderous nonsense about you.

In fact, all three of those have happened to me.

When these things happen you have two choices. You can let your attacker walk all over you, or you can hit them back even harder.

A few months ago I was threatened with a bogus lawsuit from a failed actor turned “Alpha Playboy.” At the time I’d just finished reading Donald Trumps The Art Of The Deal (another great book, but I like Think Big And Kick Ass more).

I decided to do what Trump would do and hit back even harder. I invited the guy to sue me, promising to issue discovery on him and have my lawyer go through all of his phone records (to find anything illegal and have this “Alpha Playboy” thrown in prison).

As soon as the guy realized I’d hit him back, and have him carted off to the crowbar hotel, he folded. Reading a five dollar paperback and applying what I learned saved me ten thousand bucks.

On top of the world being full of jerks, social media has created new dangers like hate mobs and public shaming.

Many of America’s most powerful and elite figures of collapsed at the first sign of trouble. Filmmaker Joss Whedon, businessman Mark Cuban, actor Jonah Hill, and scientist Matt Taylor are just a few of the men who folded.

Trump, on the other hand, never backs down. The man has faced an onslaught for years, being parodied in movies and mocked on virtually every late night television show. Yet he’s still standing and still swinging back.

To quote Winston Churchill: “Your options are dishonor or war. If you chose dishonor, you might still get war.”

Take some time and learn to defend yourself.

Closing Thoughts

Say what you will about Trump and his politics, but the man knows how to be successful. He’s made a fortune in business, headed popular reality TV shows, written several best-selling books, and is leading the race for the U.S. Presidency.

Trump gets more done in a year than most people can accomplish in a lifetime.

If you have any interest in business, goal setting, or protecting yourself from hate mobs and the media, you’ll love Think Big And Kick Ass.

Order From Amazon

P.S. While I had this post rough drafted a few days ago, Mike Cernovich published a great Trump post too. You should go check that out.

Public speaking can be scary. Even skilled presenters get nervous. However, talking to a crowd can be especially terrifying if you’re shy, lack confidence, or a little socially awkward.

Presentations is a short book that walks you through the basics of public speaking. While there are more in-depth titles out there, I found this to be a great introductory guide.

You’ll learn all the key ingredients for giving a stellar speech, without having to wade through any unnecessary details.

The book is around 100 pages and written like an instructional manual. Presentations is a stripped down how to guide that gives you the tools you need and nothing else.

Unlike many other public speaking products out there, which are often bogged down with personal stories and lengthy examples, Presentations is meant to be read in one sitting. It’s part of the Harvard Business Review’s 20-Minute Manager series, a collection of short titles that bring you up to speed on a topic as quickly as possible.

I read this book in two hours, took notes, and watched my public speaking abilities skyrocket.

Watch the short video below (it’s less than two minutes long) and compare the difference in how I talk. Both clips were recorded within one week of each other:

(“Presentations Before And After Video”)

If you have no public speaking skills, or struggle to communicate effectively, Presentations can help. I went from being a rambling mess to becoming decent speaker in a matter of hours.

How You Can Benefit From This Book

(I read this book while tanning at the pool)

At some point you are going to have to speak in public. You might have to give an oral report for class, or explain a concept for work. Presentations are even a big part of day-to-day life. You may have to give a best man speech at a wedding, or you might want to record a YouTube video or podcast for fun.

Whatever the event may be, speaking in public is unavoidable. If you have to do it anyway, you might as well learn to do it well.

Here are just a few of the overall benefits of public speaking:

• Audiovisual presentations (videos and PowerPoint) are more effective teaching tools than text heavy resources like articles, books, or blog posts.
• You can convey important ideas in a short amount of time.
• You are able to use vocal inflection to influence the listener.
• Services like YouTube and SoundCloud offer SEO bonuses when linked to websites.
• Easier to speak in crowded environments like nightclubs, house parties, and office meetings.
• You’ll be less nervous when you talk to strangers.

If you have information that you want to share, giving a presentation can help you to get your message out effectively. Even if you prefer writing, filming YouTube videos and producing podcasts can help you to rapidly build up an audience.

Public speaking is also a great sales tool. Seminars, video sales letters, and face-to-face selling all outperform print advertising and text-based landing pages.

Lastly, knowing how to engage a crowd is a great skill for parties. There’s nothing more rewarding than telling a great joke or story that makes everyone laugh.

Three Speaking Tips You Can Use Today

(People learn more from visual mediums, like YouTube, than from books or blog posts)

Even if you have no intention of buying this book, I wanted to share a few useful lessons that you can benefit from. Some of these may sound like common sense but, like I said earlier, this is a book on public speaking 101.

Great orators and master storytellers will probably know this advice already, but anyone new to public speaking is going to benefit greatly.

1. Write Down What You Want Your Presentation To Accomplish

Every presentation has a purpose. If you don’t have an end goal in mind, you’re just wasting everyone’s time.

Before doing anything else, take a pencil and paper and write: “I want .” This gives you a sense of purpose and a clear objective. Even a simple goal like “I want to tell my audience why Presentations is a great book” (what I wrote down before filming my review) is better than going in without a plan.

Silly as it may should, but a one sentence goal can make a huge difference in how your presentation turns out.

2. Connect With The Crowd

If you can’t get your audience to care about your cause, you’re going to struggle to keep them engaged. Whenever you’re presenting anything, be it information or a sales pitch, you need to get your audience involved in the action.

Tony Robbins has engages his audience by giving them activities to do. Comedians “work the crowd” and joke around with fans. Even talk show hosts interact with viewers by giving answering calls or reading Tweets on-air.

You can easily find a way to keep people invested. Even something as simple as asking a rhetorical question at the start of a video can capture your audience’s attention.

3. Issue A Call To Action

Every good presentation gets the audience to take some sort of action. Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have A Dream” speech promoted civil rights, George S. Patton’s speech to the Third Army got his troops fired up for war, and Billy Mays’ infomercials sold OxiClean.

Even mundane presentations, like office meetings, have something they want to accomplish. Be it sharing information, or teaching employees a new skill.

When you end your speeches your audience should know exactly what actions you want them to take. This could be buying a product, trying something you taught them, or even something as simple as subscribing to your podcast.

At the end of every presentation you give, provide your audience with instructions on something they should do.

Closing Thoughts

When you want to become a better public speaker as quickly as possible, Presentations can help. The book can be read in an hour or two, and you can use the information right away.

From reading this book and taking a few notes, my own speaking skills improved greatly. While I still have a lot of work to do, I did get noticeably better and learned how to focus what I was discussing.

If you’re a person who struggles as a speaker or has trouble “getting to the point” when they talk, the book can help you. I watched myself get better and you’ll be able to do the same.

Click Here To Order On Amazon

P.S. If you’re looking for a good free resource on public speaking, check out “How to Give a Stellar Presentation.” This is a free article published by the Harvard Business Review and gives you some pretty good tips on what you should, and shouldn’t, do during your presentations.

P.P.S. Generally I don’t like to write a lot of book reviews on this site. However, I’ve got a secret motive for posting a few of them this week. You’ll see what it is when Monday rolls around.

(“Presentations By Harvard Business Review” – Shot Immediately After Finishing The Book)

While I’m still not “great” at public speaking, I’ve definitely improved. For a guy with a speech impediment my presentation skills got considerably better within the span of a week.

If you can sell you’ll never have to worry about money. Even in hard times you’ll still turn a profit. You could always sell a service or whip up a simple product.

For example: When I wanted some extra money for a vacation, I made up flyers and offered to do kids’ homework for them. There was no input cost and all the money was pure profit.

Anyone who doesn’t know how to sell will always be financially dependent on someone else. They become reliant on a paycheck and consistent work. If there are layoffs or a merger, these people are doomed.

Joseph Sugarman marketed and owned JS&A, a mail-order company that sold space age technologies. During the 1960’s and 70’s his business was directly responsible for helping popularize electronic products like the digital watch and cordless phone. There’s a good chance your parents or grandparents bought one of their first computers or calculators through a JS&A sales letter he wrote.

Sugarman also created BluBlocker Sunglasses. His ads sold over 20 million pairs and many of his live QVC demonstrations would earn his business millions of dollars in a single afternoon. To this day marketers study and dissect ads that Sugarman created 30 or 40 years ago. That’s how powerful his marketing was.

(Click Here To See One Of Sugarman’s Famous Ads)

Triggers is a collection of Sugarman’s best sales secrets. When you want to double (or even triple) the number of people who buy your product, use his advice.

How It Works (And 3 Triggers You Can Start Using Today)

While the majority of Triggers explains a lot of the science behind selling, the last section tells you exactly how to implement what you’ve learned. There’s a series of worksheets designed to help you act on what you’ve read so that you can increase your own sales.

Here are just three of the triggers I’ve implemented and found valuable:

1. Having Authority

There’s something you know that most people don’t. I have a website that reviews writing software like Scrivener. My expertise is that I’m an author with 40+ books who endorses it. Maybe you’re really good at sports, or know a second language, or majored in computer science. There’s some aspect of your life where yo have authority over a certain topic.

People want to buy from someone who will steer them down the right path. They don’t want advice from a nobody or armchair expert. Joseph Sugarman called this integrity. According to him, this had nothing to do with morals but was about whether or not you could deliver on your promises.

“Anybody can have integrity as long as they walk their talk. A criminal can have integrity. You don’t have to be honest or sincere.”

To illustrate this point, Sugarman told a story about a business woman who was mugged. A hardened criminal pulled a gun on her and said “your money or your life, choose wisely.” The man’s threat sounded so sincere that the woman didn’t even think twice about handing over her purse. Later, when she was filing her police report, she mentioned that the robber was a more convincing salesman than most of the people who worked in her office.

If people think that you’re a man of your word, they’ll listen to what you have to say and do what you tell them to do.

Side note: If you’ve been following Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, you’ll know that one of the things that makes him popular is his refusal to back down or change his stance. Sticking to his guns and having integrity has made him lead in every poll.

2. Address Your Faults Without Apologizing Or Hiding

Sugarman once ordered a shipment of air purifiers. When they came he was horrified to discover that the units all had ugly filters on top of them that looked like piles of steel wool. All the competitors had sleek-looking products and his looked like it was covered in carpet.

Rather than giving up, writing lies, or pretending that the purifiers weren’t ugly, Sugarman made their appearance central to his pitch. He titled the sales letter Miracle Fuzz and a good portion of the ad was dedicated to discussing how great the design was. Not only did people buy in droves, but they also loved the product and couldn’t stop raving about it. He addressed the elephant in the room and disarmed any criticisms before they could arise.

Around the same time a plane crash occurred. People died and many Americans became worried about flying. Rather than address the issue or clear the air about what happened, the airlines hired celebrities to write testimonials for them. The ad campaign flopped, people hated how hollow the response was, and air travel continued to suffer.

Very few people will every stand up for themselves and take care of the problem at hand. Even politicians and actors fold like lawn chairs at the first sign of trouble. When you stand up for something and turn the tables, you have full control over the situation.

3. Keep Your Audience Engaged

A salesman must engage his audience. If no one is willing to listen to you talk, or read your sales letters, why would they ever buy something from you? Most people are boring. As a result, they’re terrible at selling things.

When you only talk about yourself, you lose your audience’s interest. As the old saying goes: “People don’t listen, they just wait for their turn to talk.” Give your customer a chance to talk. Let them envision the product, tell them how they can benefit. If possible, give them a way to interact. Even something as simple as filling out a quiz or taking a test can boost sales tremendously.

When Sugarman wanted to sell a high-end computer through print advertisements, he created a genius way to get clients involved. Instead of sending them a regular ad, he gave them a challenge. In his sales letter there were several misspelled words. For every misspelling the reader found and circled, they got two dollars off their computer purchase.

People spent hours pouring over the sales letter, reading every single line as critically as possible. As they read more, and found more errors, their interest in the computer started to grow. Even readers who’d went into the ad with no interest in buying anything became so engaged and invested that they decided to order.

Make whatever you’re doing into an event. People will get so caught up in the action that they’ll buy without hesitation.

Closing Thoughts

There’s no skill more important than learning how to sell. Triggers walks you through 30 practical sales strategies that yield amazing results. Additionally, the worksheets and reference material in the back of this book makes it easy to implement what you’ve learned into your own projects.

Reading the book and doing the worksheets will boost your sales or increase your brand. Whether you’re publishing eBooks, running a brick-and-mortar store, affiliate marketing, or launching a blog, Triggers has plenty of great advice that can help.

Click Here To Order In Paperback

Click Here To Order For Kindle

P.S. Marketing books never format well when transferred to Kindle. This one is no exception. For whatever reason, all the book’s in-text examples appear at the end of each chapter. It’s kind of inconvenient, however the Kindle version is ¼ the price of its paperback counterpart.

P.P.S. If you read this book and enjoy it let me know. I have a pretty big Twitter following (around 1,500 people last time I checked) so you can shoot me a Tweet telling me what you thought of the book. I’ll share it with my audience and then you’ll get free site traffic and publicity towards your own website or brand.

(“Triggers By Joseph Sugarman Review” – Where I discuss additional sales tactics)