‘Attention Span-less?’ – EWealth Report

Alan R. Bechtold has released the latest issue of EWealth Report. This featured article is titled “Attention Span-less?”. [EWealth Report]

Alan R. Bechtold has released the latest issue of EWealth Report.

Attention Span-less?

It seems the entire world is suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder. It’s harder and harder these days to capture ANYONE’s attention.

Holding anyone’s attention for more than two or three minutes is even tougher.

Pharmaceutical companies would have you believe the problem is a chemical imbalance. Although I doubt seriously the numbers who suffer from such a malady are as high as the medical community would like us to believe, I’m equally certain there are many unfortunate souls who do suffer the chemical imbalance identified as ADD.

It’s a tough disorder to properly diagnose and the treatments vary by individual. My heart goes out to anyone suffering from ADD, along with a sincere hope that the disorder is quickly tamed for anyone who must endure it.

However — what I’m talking about here is something truly insiduous that affects the REST of us. The ones who most definitely do NOT have a chemical imbalance tilting his or her head one way or the other. We suffer from something I’ll call an “information imbalance,” for want of a better term. Most people would use the term “information overload,” but that’s the CAUSE of the information imbalance. Information imbalance is the RESULT of that overload on our brains, leading us to behave — in many ways, much of the time — as if we suffer from clinical ADD.

Every day we’re bombarded with literally hundreds of different messages. All of them appear to be screaming at us for just a moment of our time, just a second of our attention. And, as our attention continues to become harder and harder to get — the screaming just gets louder.

This forces us to shut out things we might normally have looked at. We’re forced, due to this overload, to look the other way when, just a few years ago, we might have investigated further.

This forces us as marketers to stumble and fall more often than we ordinarily do.

It’s nothing new. In marketing, it’s always been a given that you must identify your prospects and give them what THEY want, not necessarily what you want to sell. But — you also have to give people what they’re ATTRACTED to, to capture their attention in the first place.

To HOLD someone’s attention these days is even harder. This is where the average person appears more like someone with ADD. After attracting someone’s attention today, you must almost literally hold that consumer’s face in your hands and speak slowly and clearly, to deliver the message you wanted to deliver in the first place and have any hope of that message actually being received and sinking in.

Sounds a LOT like ADD, doesn’t it?

As I said — this isn’t a medical problem. It’s the number of other messages constantly being received, overloading the minds of consumers everywhere. This is the source of what makes this problem occur in the first place.

I did a bit of research on this. I’ve found estimates that average consumers receive anywhere from 150 to 3,000 commercial messages PER DAY. I used to believe the 3,000 messages per day line myself, until I read the following post on a blog, from someone going by the name of “The Guru”:

“The Guru tends to go along with one of the best accepted estimates, that there are about 245 ad exposures daily, 108 from TV, 34 radio and 112 print. Others estimate 3000, 5000 or more. Even the 245 is “potential” and perhaps only half are real exposures. The higher estimates probably include all marketing exposure including being in the vicinity of product labels or actual products with trademarks visible, such as your car, computer, fax, phone, shirt, pencil, paper towel in the bathroom, etc. Just think, if we were really exposed to 3000 advertising messages per day, at an average of just 10 seconds apiece (accounting for radio :60’s and brief exposure to billboards), these exposures would consume 8.33 hours out of our 16 waking hours per day.”

After reading the above I must agree that the higher numbers we see bandied about are most likely gross exaggeration.

Still — even 150-250 message a day is a LOT to absorb for anyone. It muddles the brain and de-sensitizes the consumer, to the point that an ADD-like mental state steps in. This mental state is definitely hard to cut through.

A good example: my Big Profits TV show.

I launched this show about a year ago now — with plans to produce a 30-minute “episode” every month. Producing a 30-minute episode of an online TV show requires long hours, but I was willing to commit to it because I am thoroughly convinced that, in today’s overcrowded marketplace, video is definitely a great way to capture people’s attention.

I was right. But I made one gross miscalculation. I figured a 30-minute show would give me plenty of time to pile on the information AND work in a few commercials so I got paid for my efforts. But — I overestimated the amount of time ANYONE is now willing to invest, to sit and watch an online video.

Today, YouTube is all the rage. And I now believe it’s because they intentionally limit uploaded videos to a maximum of 10 minutes each. Five minutes seems to be better.

Shorter still is better still.

The results? I had THOUSANDS of people watching the TRAILER for each of the two episodes I laborously produced — but only a fraction of that number actually watched the show.

Of those who watched — only a fraction stayed around for most of the show!

I am still convinced that video is the ULTIMATE way to reach people these days — online or offline. But I am now equally convinced (you were right about this one, David!) that anything more than five minutes had better be hot, fast-moving and “clip-clip-clip” quick.

Even five minutes of video needs to be more than a talking head, more than a photo with voice-over.

So — the “new” Big Profits TV will Re-Launch this January. Each show will be TEN MINUTES MAXIMUM. Most likely closer to five minutes. And — each episode will be wide open and free to view, posted on the major video sharing sites.

The sad truth is that a show of this nature actually requires MORE work, and longer hours of editing to cut it all down to a rapid-fire five-minute video. But — this is what I’ll be doing.

And — yes — Jack, my ever-popular donkey mascot, will still play an important role in the show. He’s been working on his speech and now it’s tough to get him to shut up — so I expect you’ll also enjoy his new opinion segment on each episode.

I’m just hoping the attorneys will be able to mitigate any damages Jack brings about with his ascerbic wit. He’s awfully sharp for a donkey!

The point is — video is king. Online or offline. Now it’s easier than ever to get videos online and get traffic as a result. But — you MUST make your videos INTERESTING. And they need to be catchy and fun or alarming — something to make the skimmers take notice.

Keep them under two minutes if possible — and drive people FROM the video on YouTube and other video sharing sites to a landing page with MORE VIDEO that CONTINUES the one that brought them there.

This is SO POWERFUL. Of all the people I see reporting huge success with video online, very very few do more than post videos on YouTube that drive people to a Website that’s little more than a long-winded sales page.

Think about this for a moment. You capture someone’s attention at YouTube. They’re obviously there to watch videos and saw yours. They watch it and you did a great job, because they also decide to visit the URL you implanted into the video. When they visit your site, they’re greeted with — a huge, LONG page full of TEXT.

Talk about a major disconnect!

I’ll admit — there are plenty of people who need the kind of details you can only provide in a lengthy, detailed sales letter. But I would venture a guess that the vast majority of people coming from a video sharing site would be MUCH more likely to actually READ all or part of your sales letter if, first, they got to watch ANOTHER video, directly related to the one that got them to visit in the first place.

Doesn’t this make perfect sense?

Yet, I see very few otherwise extremely sharp marketers using online video today following this pattern.

Don’t be one of them! For EVERY online promotional video project that you undertake, generate TWO videos — one for the video sharing sites, to draw people in, and one for the landing page the first video promotes. Make the video on the landing page CONTINUE the “conversation” started by the video you posted on the video sharing sites.

Then you’ll be able to get a LOT of traffic to your site — and you’ll enjoy tremendous response rates from those who do visit.

After all — the whole point here is SELLING. Traffic that doesn’t buy anything doesn’t pay for the groceries and isn’t worth doing anything to attract.

This week’s edition comes to you PACKED TO THE RAFTERS with gifts and goodies.

First there’s Mark Hendricks’ phenomenally successful 12 Days of Christmas online giveaway. Mark literally invented the whole concept of the online giveaway, paving the way for the hundreds of giveaways and “fire sales” we now see all the time online.

Because Mark’s is the original, it’s one you should definitely check out, even if you normally don’t visit this sort of event. Even if you do participate in them regularly, and you’re feeling a bit overloaded with goodies and gifts.

THIS year, Mark’s added a new twist (he keeps doing that, always maintaining a freshness with his giveaway that few others could ever replicate). This year, he’s requiring that all contributors to his giveaway offer something original, not offered elsewhere. That means you won’t find any rehashed PLR products or duplicated gifts you saw in any of the other giveaways up to now during Mark’s special promotion.

The price is right. You’ll get a huge batch of no-cost goodies and gifts by simply signing up. Grab what you want and leave the rest. It won’t cost you a dime, so why not?

Here’s where you can get signed up. Mark will then notify you of all the new giftbags he’s posting every few days throughout the month of December:

http://www.sysop.com/alan_recommends/14

Finally, there’s Jeff Gardner’s excellent, brand new Millionaire In Training program. This is a system that Jeff’s created where he teaches you, step-by-step, how to follow Jeff and recreate the same system he used to generate more than $1 million in sales every year, year after year, in the home business opportunity market.

Jeff’s releasing this program for the first time ever — and he’s got a bunch of great gifts you can grab, just for checking out the site about the program.

NOTE: These are gifts from Jeff. NOT bonuses you only get after paying. There is no cost or ogligation!

Jeff’s giving away something pretty cool – with no strings attached. It’s a new 20-page newsletter he’s just written called: “The True Story of How a Frustrated and Confused ‘Opportunity Seeker’ Found the Secret to Making Real Money – And How You Can Do It, Too.”

Jeff asked me NOT to hype this up. He’s pretty shy — and he doesn’t want a lot of attention. But, you’ve got to read his story in the pdf newsletter. In this newsletter, he explains how something finally “clicked” – and how, in one “Ah-Ha” moment, everything turned around for him.

Soon, he started making a part-time income for himself. Then $5,000 a month. Then $10,000. Then $20,000. On his site, he even shows a quick 3-minute video that shows how he made over $100,000 last month. and over $477,000 at the beginning of the year. (He even shows one Monday where he made over $68,000 in sales.)

You can check out that video on his site at:

http://m391.infusionsoft.com/go/GM1049/abechtold

There are no strings. No catches. In fact, Jeff’s not selling anything. He’s just offering the free newsletter on his blog for anyone to download. He hopes you’ll notice, later, the release of his new program. But that’s all. And there really is no obligation so definitely go check this one out.

I’d recommend it even if there WAS an obligation!

I’ll see you next week!

Alan R. Bechtold

President/CEO BBS

Press Service, Inc.

EWealth Report

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Alan Bechtold for granting permission to reprint the latest ‘EWealth Report’..