Got Your Attention?
What captures your attention? A pretty face? A televised car chase? The smell of baking cookies wafting through the room? It doesn’t take much. And what holds your attention? That’s not so easy, is it? It takes something that has a more direct impact on your life. Satellite images of…
READ MOREThe Web Metric Nobody Tracks … and Everybody Should
There is an important Web metric that you should be tracking in your Internet marketing business — but probably aren’t. It is the “evaporation rate.” The evaporation rate measures how many names you lose from your subscriber list — by the week, month, or year. How do names evaporate from…
READ MOREThe only business start up strategy I recommend
When Mary Kay Ash retired from her job in 1963, she took her life savings, $5,000, and opened her own business. Boy did it pay off! Mary Kay Cosmetics is now a billion-dollar company. Or take Hugh Hefner. He financed Playboy with $8,000 in loans from 45 family members, friends,…
READ MOREThe butterfly effect
When I was in my thirties, I was urged to run for political office. I put together a campaign committee of about 12 enthusiastic supporters. And I started to get carried away with the idea of making a difference in my state. Then I called a politician I had worked…
READ MOREWhose Rules?
In matters of grammar and usage, it’s not always easy to know what’s correct. In France, a government-run Academy serves as the official authority. Here in America, no single authority has been appointed to give us definitive answers. We must consider various sources, sometimes conflicting, and make our own decisions.
READ MOREWho Is Elmer Wheeler… and How Can He Boost Your Response Rate?
The year was 1937… The Great Depression was still taking a heavy toll. Prices and profits were low… international trade was down by two-thirds… millions stood in line for jobs that didn’t exist. But not everyone was suffering. A young man by the name of Elmer Wheeler was paid $5,000…
READ MOREShould You Write a Book?
To promote herself and her business, JL wants to write a book. But she isn’t quite sure how to get her book into print. “It feels like getting a book published is challenging,” she writes. “Would it not be easier to self-publish?” Others have asked me the same question over…
READ MORETT Fat Loss Success Story of the Month – September 2009
Each month I like to give out at least one Platinum TT membership to the TT user who provides the best fat loss success story…and this month, one of our winners is Darren Oldfield from the UK. Darren wins a 1-Year Platinum TT membership, but more importantly, he has some…
READ MOREConstant change
David Carradine. Ed McMahon. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson. Billy Mays. Karl Malden. Steve McNair. The Grim Reaper is on a roll. What might the deaths of these high-profile people have in common with the likes of Gary Hart, Gary Condit, Jim McGreevey, Mark Sanford, and John Edwards, among others? Or…
READ MORELearn direct marketing now or perish
The other day I saw an ad one of my clients had posted on the Internet. The copy was weak. It lacked an “Aha!” idea. It was balanced on two rather than four legs. Its lead was wrongheaded, it had insufficient substantiation, and no social proof. I mentioned this to…
READ MOREWhy testimonials work so well
What do you do if your prospect knows nothing about you, as is often the case? How can you sway or “nudge” their thinking about your business, products, or services? You do it by including plenty of testimonials in your marketing materials. Testimonials overcome a prospect’s skepticism (“Who the heck…
READ MOREWords About Words
In this column, I routinely use words that describe aspects of language. But these terms are often misunderstood and confused. Here’s a brief guide, followed by a few tips to improve your writing.
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