- WEALTHY: Out of the country, out of your comfort zone (Andrew Gordon)
- HEALTHY: A bandwagon you should jump on (Dr. Al Sears)
- WISE: Pat Riley on motivation
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The "Big Idea" behind my next book (Michael Masterson)
- Common problems to watch for on your business website (David Cross)
- It’s Good to Know… about copywriting
- Add "troglodyte" to your vocabulary
Get Business Ideas That No One Else Thinks Of
"I want to start my own business, but I don’t know what to sell."
It’s something we hear all the time here at Early to Rise. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to find your own market niche…
Let’s say, for example, you’re interested in selling nutritional supplements, but you’ve done the research and found a ton of competition out there. What to do?
Make your product unique. Come up with a formulation that has a combination of ingredients not found in the other supplements. Now you’ve got something no one is offering.
"EnerMaxx is the only supplement featuring both niaflavin and ribosome, so you’ll have more energy AND longer endurance."
You can find at least 100 more powerful methods for developing product ideas in ETR’s Direct Marketing University program. If radically increasing your income with a successful home business sounds appealing to you, read more about it here…
If You Need a Map, Don’t Invest
By Andrew M. Gordon
What’s wrong with owning a condo in London or an office building in Berlin? While you can finally invest in overseas real estate the easy way – through new global REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) like the Franklin Global Real Estate Fund and the Northern Global Real Estate Index Fund (NGREX) – the question is, should you?
The answer is: Why not? If, that is, you don’t mind investing blind. You probably have a good sense of real estate in the U.S. – that the market is overheated in Miami and San Diego but not in your neighborhood. But your instincts will almost certainly desert you when it comes to the real estate market in London and Berlin. Do you have any idea if you’re at the beginning, middle, or end of an uptrend in prices in those two cities?
Yes, you could trust your fund manager … but before you do, keep in mind that, at the beginning of 2006, a Merrill Lynch survey showed that fund managers were betting against sectors that wound up doing great (like telecom and utilities) and betting heavily on the wrong sectors (like tech).
When investing in funds – especially when they cover a market you’re not completely familiar with – you should take the same approach as you should when investing in individual stocks: Invest in something you know about and/or can mindfully track. But if you find international real estate (or another sector) irresistible, then you must go the extra mile in researching the experience of the fund managers. Their track records should be as irresistible as the sectors they cover.
[Ed. Note: Andrew Gordon, ETR's financial expert, is the editor of our new investment service, INCOME. Each month, he uncovers specific stocks that promise safety (first and foremost), along with much higher-than-average profit potential.]
"A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning."
- Pat Riley
Pushing Past Ennui: How Marcella and I Improved My Book Idea
By Michael Masterson
Yesterday, I had a meeting with Marcella to discuss one of several book ideas I’m working on. She had agreed to help me do the research for it.
The meeting started off badly, because it was my fourth meeting of the day and I was down on energy and unmotivated. Marcella was fired up and ready to go – but the peppier she got, the lower I sank in my seat.
I realized that if I allowed myself to give in to my ennui, only she would know. And because Marcella is a resilient person and seems to like working with me, she probably would be willing to cut me some slack.
It was tempting.
But if I let my gray mood overtake us, the meeting would have been a waste of time for both of us. I had to do something. So I decided I would simply confess to her how I felt.
I told her that although I’d felt sure I knew exactly what I wanted to write about when we first met, now I was confused.
Marcella said, "Would you like to leave the book discussion for another day?"
"You bet," I thought. But I forced myself to say "No."
Then I explained why I was confused.
My original idea was to write a book that would contain everything important that I had ever learned about marketing. Meanwhile, my book publisher, John Wiley, always wants me to write a book that could be a mainstream best-seller.
Marcella and I agreed that my original plan to create a sort of Michael Masterson encyclopedia of bits and pieces of marketing ideas was neither conducive to becoming a best-seller nor in the best interests of the reader.
"Do you think we can ‘reinvent’ the idea for the book in the 30 minutes we have left?" I asked.
She was more than agreeable to give it a try.
We talked about reverse-engineering success and about best-sellers in particular. We had each done a little thinking about this on our own, and agreed that one of the secrets to writing a really good book that sells well (think of The Tipping Point or Freakonomics) is to focus on one unifying theme that ties together several smaller but compelling ideas into a single big-feeling argument.
I told her I’d toyed with the idea of narrowing my subject so I could write a deeper, more thoughtful book – but narrow it to what? How could we do that? We looked over the outline I’d written:
- The Cultural Power of Reciprocity: How to Use It in Advertising
- Selling Products With Big, Compelling Ideas
- Trapping Prospects With Engaging, Emotionally Useful Stories
- Seeing Beyond Benefits to Deeper Benefits
- Taking Advantage of the Customer’s Desire to Be Consistent
- Using the Awesome Psychological Impact of Scarcity
What could be a unifying theme?
Without going into the back and forth, I am happy to report that we managed to arrive at one "Big Idea" that unified all the marketing concepts in my outline and had the kind of power you need to drive any good project forward.
Here’s the idea…
There are two types of buying – commodity buying and binge buying. In Africa, where people are very poor, commodity buying represents 95 percent of what they do. In America, where even poor people are rich by African standards, binge buying represents 95 percent of the market.
My book would be about how binge buying works, culturally and psychologically, and how anyone in business – from the assistant graphic artist to the marketing director to the CEO – can dramatically accelerate sales and improve business by exploiting these principles.
The imagination of the binge buyer is fed by fantasy and desire. Since it is thus fed, it can never be satisfied. This creates an opportunity and a responsibility for the intelligent businessperson. If you feed the fantasy responsibly (i.e., with the right fuel in the right quantities), you can have a much better customer and a customer for life. If you opt for junk fuel, you will lose your customer and you won’t know why.
This is, admittedly, a very abstract idea. But it was enough to get me excited and bring back the energy that had seeped out of me.
Marcella went away from the meeting with some good direction for her research, and I left it with a motivating book idea that still felt good this morning. (Always a good thing. Marketing ideas are like romantic opportunities: The light of the next day often transforms sirens into troglodytes.)
The experience proved, once again, that you can indeed make lemonade out of lemons if you are willing to keep on squeezing.
[Ed. Note: In April, Michael Masterson will lead 25 to 50 ambitious businesspeople through an elite 5-day program that can help dramatically increase the profitability of their businesses. Learn how you can be a part of this exclusive group and take your business to the next level here.]
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Bella Vista, AK
Rebroadcast: Secrets of a Real Estate Day Trader
Don’t miss this one-time rebroadcast of our personal interview with real estate investing master Steve Cook.
Steve Cook specializes in real estate “Day Trades” – transactions you can complete from the comfort of your own home. He’ll be explaining how to do your own day trades that result in average profits of $20,000 – often in a single day – without ever having to touch the keys of the property. The best part? These day trades are low risk and require no cash.
We have reserved a limited number of lines for this teleseminar, please sign up now to guarantee your spot.
Kam Weiler
Contributing Editor, Main Street Millionaire
Internet Marketing Tip: How Many Times Can I Say "User Friendly"?
By David Cross
I was out in the back of beyond today (we’re in the throes of buying a farm), and I had to connect to the Internet to send an urgent e-mail. So I went to Starbucks to use the T-Mobile Hotspot.
What followed was 10 minutes of frustration … and I’m an experienced Internet user.
I filled in the online form and clicked "submit." Then I had to select how many days I wanted access to the Hotspot. (It’s $9.99 for 24 hours.) I completed the form again, but the previous step erased my password. So I had to re-enter that information. Only then did I discover that the username I had selected was already taken. If I didn’t have to connect, I would have given up.
This is an important lesson to remember when working with a website developer to create your business website.
Always thoroughly test every possible scenario. Keep the customer in mind … and keep it simple. Anything that your site developer says is "obvious" should be avoided like the plague! Unless your customers have the same expertise as the developer (unlikely), it will be a problem for them.
Common problems to watch for on your website include giving people too many product choices, making users provide personal details before finding out that their username was already taken, and not providing customers with the shipping charge for an order early on in the ordering process.
To make sure your site is user friendly, get some "regular people" – people just like your customers – to try it out and inform you of any problems or frustrations they encounter.
[Ed. Note: David Cross is Senior Internet Consultant to Agora Publishing in Baltimore. To learn more about the strategies and techniques that Agora and other of David’s clients have put into practice, please visit here.]
Get Your Omega-3s From Natural Sources
By Al Sears, MD
On a recent trip to the grocery store, I noticed a tub of margarine with the label "Now with added omega-3s!" Whenever a new trend hits the market, companies everywhere try to capitalize on it. In this case, it’s a bandwagon you’ll want to jump on yourself.
You’ve heard about the heart, brain, and joint benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. Getting enough in your diet is critical, because without them your risks of heart disease and cancer skyrocket. But getting omega-3s from a product as processed and unnatural as margarine is wrong on many levels.
First, no one knows what happens when omega-3s are isolated from their natural sources. I doubt very much that they have the same disease-fighting benefits. Second, processed foods are still an untested experiment – regardless of the nutrient you try to add.
Margarine is a tub full of chemicals, put together in a lab. Despite what the label says, it will never be natural. The same is true for many of the other products that are now claiming to have added omega-3s, like breakfast cereals and processed cheeses.
For the real benefits of omega-3s, go to the original sources. Fish and nuts are good places to start. Whole-food supplements like cod liver oil are ideal. They’re effective and affordable. What’s more, they’re natural. And natural means they have been tested by evolution.
You can easily add nuts to your lunch salad or grab a handful as a snack. Walnuts are particularly good sources of omega-3s. For an even more potent natural mix of omega-3s, take five grams (one tablespoon) of cod liver oil daily. Make sure you get a brand tested to be free of mercury and PCBs.
[Ed. Note: For information on Dr. Sears' Label cod liver oil, click HERE.]
It’s Good to Know: About Copywriting
If you’re looking for a job … if you want to switch careers … or if you’d like to add a second stream of income to your bank balance … consider developing one of the most financially valued skills out there: copywriting.
Copywriting was recently named one of the top five "in-demand" professions for 2007 by staffing specialist Robert Half International. They found that "60 percent of advertising and marketing executives who plan to hire new employees said they’ll be adding copywriters."
From their report: "Demand for skilled copywriters is rising as more companies require compelling content for Web-based initiatives and print advertising."
(Source: American Writers & Artists Inc.)
Start Making Money Today
Interested in getting a nice little side-business going on the Internet? Or maybe even from your living-room table?
But you don’t have too much money, you don’t have too much time, and you’re not exactly Bill Gates when it comes to technology. Sound familiar?
A lot of people are in the same boat. The good news is that ETR has heard you. And now we’ve done something about it…
We’ve asked our colleague Marc Charles to be on the lookout for profit opportunities that can be run from a kitchen table, your desktop or out on the road.
Criteria? They’ve got to be inexpensive, easy to start, and still have great income potential, but without a lot of red tape.
They say when you’re first getting your feet wet with a side-business, the most important dollar to make is the first one. Well, Marc is an expert at taking beginning entrepreneurs and showing you how to make that first buck. He knows, because he’s done it dozens of times for himself, his family and his friends.
If you’ve been dreaming about starting your own business … now you can get started for about the price of 2 lattes.
And get this – you could be making money literally just hours from now. Imagine the feeling of finally getting a side business launched – TODAY!
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Troglodyte
A "troglodyte" (TROG-luh-dite) – from the Latin name for a primitive group of cave dwellers – is a person who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary, out of date, or brutish.
Example (as I used it today): "Marketing ideas are like romantic opportunities: The light of the next day often transforms sirens into troglodytes."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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