How Long Can You Concentrate?
Imagine this: You’re sitting in front of your computer, working on a project. Perhaps it’s a book, an e-mail, or an article. Or you’re doing research.
READ MOREThe 7 Steps of a Failed Product Launch
These are the seven steps of a failed product launch:
READ MOREADHD: The Cure Is in Plain Sight
Well-meaning parents and teachers rely on psycho-stimulant drugs to deal with children who might otherwise be unmanageable. But perhaps the cause and the cure of ADHD can be found at the dinner table and in the school cafeteria.
READ MOREWhat’s In a Name?
Personalized mailings were all the rage in direct marketing… back in 1975. They continue to be a staple today, online as well as off, based on the idea that no sound is sweeter than that of your own name. Given my one or two experiences with hand-shaking, name-abusing car salesman over the years, I beg to differ. (”John, what can we do to get you behind the wheel of this beauty today… John?”)
READ MOREHow to Eliminate the Word FAIL From Your Vocabulary
Do you ever wonder why some people succeed at almost every challenge they take on, while others never seem to be able to get out of the starting blocks? There are four major reasons why people FAIL – and they very neatly spell out the word itself.
READ MOREThe Fatal Flaw in “Winning” Deals
Years ago, I spent several months backpacking around Guatemala. As my Spanish improved, I enjoyed going to markets to bargain for Mayan souvenirs or fresh fruit. My goal was to pay the same price as a local. I was having fun playing this little game until my new Australian friend witnessed me in action, bargaining for a beautiful hammock. As I was walking away because the vendor wouldn’t lower her price a little more, my friend said, “You realize that you are getting all worked up over what is about 10 cents. At home, you would pay 50 times that much for a hammock like that, so this is a great deal.”
READ MOREIt All Starts With Traffic
If you’re getting 20 leads a week now from AdWords, it’s hard to imagine what 200 leads a week would look like. From your current perspective, it would probably look just like 20, except 10 times more. But when volume and velocity and quality of traffic increase, lots of things change. Big time.
READ MOREThe Simplicity Imperative
Much of what you read in ETR is directed at helping you earn more money and achieve financial independence. But what many people mistake for wealth is pure junk: the oversized plasma TV, the 2010 Ferrari, the custom-built estate home.
READ MOREWonder Cure or Marketing Noose?
It’s finally here – the wonder cure that Americans have been waiting for. It’s called acai. Whether you are a member of The Fat Cow Hall of Fame, being ravaged by high blood sugar, or being overcome with cancer, you’re being told that acai is your key to optimal health and longevity. If you believe this, the Oprah and Dr. Oz marketing noose is already around your neck.
READ MOREIs Your Copy a Welcome Interruption?
When we marketers and copywriters approach a prospect with a direct-mail piece, an e-mail blast, a print ad – or any other kind of sales promotion, for that matter – we are interrupting his life. The simple act of putting sales copy before a prospect brings him to a fork in his road – forcing him to make a decision to either (1) read or (2) not read our message. And every time his eye moves from one sentence to the next… from one paragraph to the next… or from one page to the next… he reaches yet another fork in the road – and gets to decide whether he’s going to keep reading our message or abandon it.
READ MOREThe Power of Negative Visualization
When Norman Vincent Peale wrote The Power of Positive Thinking 60 years ago, he received a stack of rejection slips from publishers. Dejected, he threw the manuscript into the trash, forbidding his wife to remove it. She didn’t. The next day, however, she took the manuscript, still inside the wastebasket, to a publisher who accepted it. The book became a foundation of the human potential movement, selling more than 20 million copies in 47 languages.
READ MOREWhy China Can’t Save Us
De-coupling lives again, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Remember when it made the rounds over a year ago? The idea was that even if the U.S. economy caught pneumonia, the rest of the world would at worst get a bad cough. It was argued that Europe and China were much less reliant on the U.S. economy than ever before. And China, with its massive import needs, would also keep economies from Brazil to Australia humming.
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