Blog Family,

I confess. From time to time, I watch QVC. I said it. But you have to hear me out before condemning me as an outcast to know that I was doing market research for you. While 

watching a sale for pediatric posturepedic pillows,  it hit me.

The lessons to be learned from QVC are invaluable.

What is QVC?

QVC is one of the largest multimedia retailers in the world, and broadcast live 24 hours a day, 364 days of the year. This is the live show that sells the products constructed by the worlds entrepreneurs in a quick hitting, in your face, shop at home style.

According to their website, QVC is a wholly owned subsidiary 

of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Interactive Group. Trades under the Nasdaq as LINTA. QVC was founded in 1986 by Joesph Segal. In it’s first full fiscal year of business, QVC’s revenues exceeded $122 million. This is outstanding and was a record in American business history for sales of a new public company.

Additional information on the QVC website reveals the company received more than 181 million phone calls last in the United States alone, shipped 166 million units worldwide. Net sales for 2007 was more than $7 billion and they reach more than 166 million cable and satellite homes worldwide.

What does QVC have to do with Entrepreneurs?

I think it is safe to say that QVC has a winning business model and is doing a lot of things the right way. Therefore, I thought that maybe as entrepreneurs and bloggers, we could gleam some insight from QVC that has made them so successful and apply it to our individual businesses.

QVC sales the products of entrepreneurs like you in real time. There tactics and influencers have been effective enough to drive the kind of numbers that they are reporting. Maybe there is something to learn from this phenomenon known as QVC for each of our businesses.

Marketing Lessons from QVC

1) Prominent Product Positioning. Although they are only limited to your television screen, the QVC administrators have mastered art of prominently placing their products on the screen to maximize visibility and give the potential buyers an idea of how big the product is they are viewing and how it is used. This is done by showing the product next to common items in the home or someones hand to give an idea of size. And they are always demonstrating the use of the products as well as giving suggestions on how it can be used by the end buyers.

2) Repetition of your message and selling points. Repetition seems to be one of the key strategies that QVC employs to move their products. And moving their products is their specialty. Watching the show on pillows, they sold over 52,000 units while I was watching the show. Simply amazing! And one of the key points I noticed during this segment was how many times and variety of different ways they repeated the product name and unique selling points. The lesson for you is to make your offering visible and repeat the benefits as often as you can without driving the customer or readers crazy. The point is you have to get your message into their minds so they can realize this is something they need. This can only be done through repetition.

3) Urgency. I love the way QVC uses urgency to convert sales. Yes, they spokes person does let you know that this is a limited time only offer. But the subtle way they do it is the best….with the clock. They will have a countdown clock in the corner of screen letting the viewers know that this product will only be available for the next 5 minutes, so they better act now. Another way they utilize this tactic is by saying there is is only 1,000 of these units available and they show how many are left in stock. Again, emphasizing the urgency the viewer needs to use to get one of these great deals. In your business, maybe you could have time sensitive dates for your readers or customers to act on to take advantage of your offerings.

4) Appeal to Desire to Belong. I had trouble naming this, but it works. The point I am trying to illustrate is they use of “everyone else is doing it, so you should as well” tactic utilized by the QVC. Example, on the screen they would flash how many orders have been sold. As mentioned above, during the sale of the pillows they kept flashing the number of sales they have made. This was done for urgency because they said only so many units would be sold, but also to let people know that others have found this to be a great buy. Sometimes as entrepreneurs and bloggers, we utilize this tactic in the form of testimonials, which QVC does as well with live callers that are buying the products. They allow the presenters to interview them after making a purchase. The viewer identifies with the buyer and thinks maybe this will be a good deal for them as well. The desire to belong is great in a many of our markets, so consider using this tool at your disposal as well.

5) Show Savings. Regardless of the market and especially today, people are looking for a savings. You should not allow the consumers to calculate the savings they will benefit from buying your product or service. QVC does this with the side bar on the screen where they will show the retail price of an item, the marked down price, and the difference is the saving. In addition, they will have specials if someone bought two items, then they would get the second one for $5 off. Instead of just letting this savings slide, they would highlight that and encourage the buyers to get two in order to save more money. The more they buy, the more they save. It is a great way to get your potential buyers one step closer to making a purchase with you.

6) Make Purchase Recommendations.  As mentioned in #5, QVC will make various packages that the buyers can choose from and illustrate the savings involved. This is a great idea, but don’t loss the other recommendation in there. The opportunity to tell your audience what they need. QVC was selling pillows in sets of two, but encourage the viewers to buy two sets of two pillows for the savings, their spouse, even the guest bedroom. If you can build your ethos, trust, with your audience, then they will believe you and take your council in purchase decisions.

7) Connect Features & Benefits to Buyer Needs. You are aware that QVC utilized spokespeople to promote the products during the individual segments. The people are not talking aimlessly about the products they are selling, but they strategically mentioning the features and benefits of each item and drawing a directly relationship to the needs of their buyers. As an example, the pillows were to provide great support for the users and this point was demonstrated by having someone lie on their pillow and a regular store bought pillow. Once this demonstration was made and you could clearly see the difference in the two pillows, the presenters spent a lot of time telling the viewers how and why this will benefit them and solve their needs. Everything from the quality of the pillow will save you money because you will buy less, to the better nights rest and refreshed feeling you will spring out of bed was covered. Your buyers will not buy if they don’t understand how your product will help them out specifically. Spend time driving that point home.

8 ) Easy, Visible Purchase Options. If you watch QVC, there is no doubt that you can find out how to purchase their goods. First of all, the spokesperson is going to mention how you can do this every so often, but it is also plastered all over the screen. They have the phone number visible (large) and the website clearly visible. They let their viewers know exactly how they can pay for the goods, by credit card, eCheck, PayPal, but not C.O.D. It is very important to never leave your potential buyers guessing. Every delay is a moment for them to turn away and entertain someone else’s offer. Don’t give them that chance, provide them the information they need to make a purchase decision.

The Monster Marketer that is QVC

Without a doubt, the people at QVC have mastered their business model and does very well with it. As entrepreneurs, we should not spend out time trying to talk down or bad about another business, but instead we must learn from their successes. Everyday QVC runs in most countries, take a few moments to watch their broadcast from time to time. You might find a bargain that is right up your alley, but I am certain you will feel the power of their marketing efforts, notice the tactics I mentioned, and more.

Now go into the world, find your markets, implement the marketing strategies of the QVC and dominate. These tactics can be used on your website, commercials (if you run them), flyers, during presentations, radio spots, news paper ads, and more. If you find any additional strategies they are using, be sure to share them with us here. We are all here to learn and grow from one another.

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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1) Askismet - This one is a no brainer because everyone hates spam on your blog. The wild thing is that you don’t really realize how much spam you get until you install this plugin and actually see what it catches. Amazing! Simply a must have for all blogs and bloggers, period. No link because Askismet comes on your blog automatically.

2) Comment Luv - If you have a desire of building a community on you blog, then Comment Luv is a must. This plugin encourages readers to participate by listing their most recent article post (most of the time) beneath their comment. It gives them a better chance of receiving traffic from their comments because their latest article may intrigue another reader enough for them to visit. Thus the increase in potential readers means an increase in comments for you. Besides, I think the Blogosphere basically expects you to have this plugin by now.

3) Keyword luv - This is basically an extension of the comment luv feature and allows your users to include keywords that relate to their site and hyperlink them back to their site. This is again great for community building blogs. But to be honest, I rarely use this feature when I am commenting because I am usually just trying to engage the blogger or get a link back to my site, so sometimes it appears to be a bit of over kill for me.

4) Related Post – If you ask me this is a must for all blogs. The related post plugin provides a list of post that might be similar to the one that the reader is reading. This is great because if the post was eye catching and enjoyable, the reader may want something similar to that one. This plugin gives that to them. You can put this plugin into your side bar or footer, but my favorite place for it is at the bottom of individual post, or on the Single.php page, usually. That is the optimal place for it because if a reader gets all the way through the post, then it may mean that they liked or was intrigued by it….maybe even enough to stay on your site to read something similar or related.

5) WP Print – This is a standard plugin that allows all of your readers to download and print your articles in a printable format. If you are taking the time to produce quality content, many of your readers are going to want to print them out to read later. Everyone doesn’t like to read on a computer screen believe it or not.

6) Sociable – I love the sociable plugin because it allows your readers to spread the word about your great post anytime they want. Usually, you will find this plugin at the bottom of an article so when the reader makes their way through it they will be able to click a button and Digg, Propeller, Stumble, Redd it, Mixx and more your article to all of the best social book marking websites out there. And believe me, all of them are included in this plugin. You can mark a check box next to the ones that you want to utilize or not.

7) Tube Press – This is a great plugin for grabbing relevant YouTube videos and putting them into your blog. I use this plugin a lot when flipping websites as it ads great content, looks very professional, and does the job very well. Did I mention how simple it is to install? No, well, it is and you should be sure to check it out.

8 ) WordBay – Here is another simple plugin that I use on flip sites as well. It could be great for niche sites if you are into them as well. All that is require is you download the plugin, get a free ebay developers account, plugin your account number, and use the WordBay plugin to display relevant ebay auctions right inside your website. When a browser clicks on a listing, they are taking to the ebay website and if they make the purchase, you get the credit. Simple, easy way to cash in on the power of ebay.

9) AW Stats – Yes, everyone and their mother are using Google Analytics, but sometimes you might want some stats that are a little different and right there on your server. AW Stats give you that option. And you can use it as a check to see how accurate GA is from time to time. It is free, so check it out.

10) Contact (cforms) - How are you going to have a blog without a contact form? What if you readers want to contact you? After all, blogging is a contact sport. Download this plugin and you will be amazed how easy it is to implement a customized contact form into your website. There are so many websites out there that do not have a contact for that it is sickening, especially when it is so easy to get. It will take two minutes to put a form into your site and that is if you are being picky!

11) Google XML Site Map – Download this now! Don’t ask questions about what it is, just do it! If you have any desire at all to gain search engine rank positions, SERPs, then this is a must for search engine optimization. Google XML site map keeps the Big G, Google, updated on the site map of your website site. Very important plugin, even if you are not really into plugins.

12) My Page Order – This is a nifty little plugin that allows you to change the order of your web pages. Sometimes you might want more important pages to the left of your page navigation and this plugin will allow you to do that as well. Moving around the pages is so easy with this plugin that I highly recommend it if that is what you are looking for. This is great for personal blogs and interest blogs as well.

13) All in One SEO - Here is another plugin that you should just download right now. Don’t worry about it, just get it. Again, if search engine optimization is anywhere in your future, then you need this plugin. It is the best for updating your title and description tags automatically based on the nature of the content. You got to love that. You can customize further if you need, but this plugin really takes the work out of SEO work in my opinion. It goes into every blog I produce. Must have!

14) Head Space – Head space is another one of these SEO plugins that you can use. I have been using it less and less since really understanding the functions of All in One SEO, but it is another option as well for you to use when customizing the head section of your blogs.

15) Random Post – Random post is great for creating addition internal links within your website and even keeping the reading interesting for your readers as it will suggest random post that they may not have  ordinarily clicked in the first place. Typically, you will find the random post plug at the end of an article, enticing the reader to take another round through your material.

16) Subscribe to Comments - If your blog is about community building and your trying to encourage participation amongst your readers, then you have to take a moment to install this plugin as it will allow your readers to subscribe to comments and receive an email when someone else has said something on a post them might have interest. Again, great for building the community and keeping the participation going.

17) Ozh-Admin Drop Down Menus – This is a must have. You might be thinking drop down menus on a blog is no big deal, but this is drop down menus in the WP-Admin area for your internal use!!! I got hip to this plugin by Joe from ImWithJoe.com and have been addicted to it every since. There is no blogs that I own that don’t have this plugin into it because of how it will increase your work flow and time spent on a site. You might not understand now, but download this one and you will quickly  wonder how you ever got along with out it. Trust me on this one, I will never blog again without it.

18) WP Back Up – Got to back up your material. All it takes is one time to lose everything you have been working on to understand the importance of this plugin. The idea is to never experience that pain in the first place, so download this one now.

19) OIO Publisher - Ok, this plugin cost a little money to use, but if you are after advertisers on your website, then you got to have it. OIO manages the advertising for you and ensures that you are paid before ads are posted on your website, freeing you to move on to bigger and more important issues concerning your blog. Get the OIO publisher today.

20) Easy Pay Pal - If you wan to sell items on your blog, you might have found it impossible to link to PayPal with WordPress. Well this plugin does the trick for you.

However, since I have started this list, I discovered a way to make this happen without the use of a plugin. If you are interested in that, then check out this article I wrote entitled, How to Link to PayPal Payment from WordPress without a Plugin.

21) Feedburner Feedsmith - Feed burner Feedsmith is another way to integrate your feedburner and Rss material into your site and syndicated around the world. There is no need doing all of this typing if you are not going to make it as easy as possible for people to use it and enjoy it. Give this one a shot today.

22) Technorati Incoming Links – Technorati has become an important part of the blogging world. If it has taken over your life as well, then consider using the incoming link monitor to help determine how many links you are generating that is coming into your blog that Technorati will give you credit for.

23) Top Commentator Plugin – Community style blogs must have this plugin. It rewards people that communicate in your blog by commenting with a listing on the your site and a backlink to their blog. This back link is counted by Technorati and is a way to generate traffic to the commentors blog as well as encourages participation in your blog. It is a win-win for all parties involved.

24) Gd-Star Rating – Often times, your readers like to rate various comments and your blogging as well. GD star rating allows them to do this. If you are producing practical and useful articles, then you might want to allow your readership to rate your work, but if you are producing crap, then I would suggest that you spare your feelings cause your readers are going to be honest with you.

25) What’s your suggestion? - I like to hear from you. What plugins not on this list would you recommend for bloggers to use? Let’s continue the conversation and I will post some of them here.

Closing Comments

At the end of day, there are hundreds even thousands of useful plugins available for your to utilize. My suggestion would be to find the ones that are doing the most for you and the growth of your blog and try not to use them all. That is the think about the plugin market, there are so many, but too many on your blog will begin to slow it down. Keep this in mind when you are adding every plugin you find to your blog that you need to focus on the ones that will bring you the most benefit and get you closer to your goals. There is no prizes for using plugins, only prizes for using them effectively.

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Greetings Blog Family,

I wanted to take a quick moment to share something with you that I discovered and had been trying to figure out for some time now. How to link from your WordPress blog to a PayPal payment option?

Why would you want to do this?

If you are actually asking this question, then making money with your blogging efforts might not be your main focus. And that is fine, but there are people out there that are interested in doing such a thing. These individuals might want to sell goods, products, ebooks, ideas, consulting, or even accept donations through their blog, but Paypal doesn’t work the regular way with WordPress.

Why not just use a plugin or a landing page?

Cause I am tired of loading 500 plugins to my sites and using one less will help with my sanity. Ok, maybe it isn’t that bad, but using less plugins than necessary couldn’t hurt. Besides, this method is actually easier than using the plugins that are available.

As for landing pages, well that is another possibility, but it also creates extra work as well. You have create, design, layout, and tweak the landing page to make sure that the branding is consistent with your blog and then upload the PayPal html to make the link work. What a hassle when you can just link directly from your WordPress blog and have all the branding and everything in tact already.

How to link to WordPress to a PayPal Payment.

First of all, go to PayPal and follow these instructions.

1 – Log in to your PayPal account

2 – Click Merchant Services

3 – Click Buy Now Button, or whatever is necessary

4 – Customize your purchase experience

5 – Click on Create Button

6 – THIS IS THE CRUX OF THE MATTER - You will have two options, one with HTML code for Websites & the second for links in email. Even though you are linking from your website, you want to use the Email option, believe it or not.

This is where my problem was in the past because I wanted to use the code for Websites. However, the code for websites is a form and  you are not allowed to use these functions on WordPress. So, use the email link.

7 – Search for a PayPal button that you would like to use & upload to your WordPress blog

8 – Insert the PayPal button in the location you desire, switch to HTML view and create a link from that PayPal button to the email link that you generated from your PayPal account.

9 – Save and Publish!

10 - Smile because you just created a link to your PayPal payment from your WordPress blog and didn’t have to use a plugin or landing page.

Hope this tip is useful for you in the future. I know it is going to help me take my blogging, site flipping, and niche site building efforts to the next level by allowing me to link directly to my PayPal payment pages and not having to use plugins or landing pages.

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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