Issue #2409

• WEALTHY: Luxury is in the eye of the beholder (Suzanne Richardson)
• HEALTHY: The good and the bad of green tea (Craig Ballantyne)
• WISE: Bob Moawad on quality

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• 6 ways to get more customers with a common marketing tool (Bob Bly)
• The only way to invest in your future as a copywriter (Michael Masterson)
• It’s Good to Know… about the Internet Archive
• Add "welter" to your vocabulary

 == Highly Recommended ==

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Last week in Denver, we shared the “ETR / Agora Model” with 90 aspiring entrepreneurs.  One “visiting expert” I invited to sit in showed me how he’d generated $206,731.57 in sales in only three months –using only a SMALL PORTION of the full blueprint the attendees received. That was for a self-development product.  And just to prove the strategies can be repeated and made to work in any market niche – he then used them to increase sales for a currency trading product from $8,000 a month to $146,950 per month (that’s $1.7 million a year)…

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The Importance of Living Rich

By Suzanne Richardson

No matter how much you make, you can live just as well as a billionaire. If you realize that you can enjoy the finer things in life without breaking the bank, you’ll never want for anything.

But some people just don’t get it. Take a recent New York Times article about how the economic downturn is affecting millionaires: "Hairstylists and private jet rental companies say the wealthy are cutting back on luxuries like $350 highlights and $10,000-an-hour jet rentals. Even nutritionists and personal trainers notice a problem. The wealthy are eating more and gaining weight because of the stress."

Boo hoo. Sure, it would be upsetting for your income to dwindle from $8 million to $2 million or your net worth to drop from $20 million to $8 million. But come on – be serious here. If you’re freaking out because you have to cut back on your monthly trip to Milan… or you have to cancel your $200 weekly massage… you’ve lost touch with reality.

You can pay almost any price you want for the things you enjoy. But if you’re shelling out top dollar for food, clothing, and entertainment, you’re probably paying for prestige instead of quality.

The truth is, you don’t need to spend massive amounts of money to live well. As Michael Masterson points out, "If you buy things selectively and use them with care, you can enjoy a life as materially rich as Bill Gates on an income that wouldn’t get him through lunch."

Here are Michael’s directions for Living Rich – no matter how much you make: "The way you dress, the way you eat and drink… even the home you live in… can be as good as any billionaire’s. Spend time shopping. Buy very selectively. Limit your possessions. And take a half-hour a day to really appreciate the good things you have."

[Ed. Note: If you embrace the idea of Living Rich, you will never envy "the Joneses" or anyone else. And if you do so by not increasing your spending (at least, not by much) while increasing your income, you'll have plenty of money to spend on the things that really matter. You could be making more money a few weeks from now... Learn more here.]

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 "Quality begins on the inside… and then works its way out."

Bob Moawad

Marketing With Free Information

By Bob Bly

One of the easiest – and most effective – ways to generate more leads and orders from your marketing is to offer, as a bonus, a free special report.

But be careful: Your prospects already have too much to read and don’t really want a "report" per se. What they seek is valuable content that can help them solve a problem, do their job better, or make more money. If they think your free report can deliver some of that, they’ll respond to your e-mail or sales letter just to get their hands on it.

So how can you transform a ho-hum offer of yet another "free report" into a compelling free-content offer that sends your response rates soaring?

The most important factor determining the desirability of your free special report is the topic: Does it cover something your prospects need or want to know? Great topics for free special reports include tips, predictions, news, interpretations, analyses, case studies, and discussions of controversial issues.

Example: The publisher of a newsletter found that its most popular feature was the monthly "You Be the Judge" column, which summarized a court case and challenged the reader to guess the outcome. Subscription rates skyrocketed when he began offering a "Best of ‘You Be the Judge’" compilation as a bonus to new subscribers.

I’ve found that anything having to do with making money works well as a free information bonus.

Example: Another newsletter publisher found that when they offered a reprint of their annual industry salary survey as a bonus for new subscribers, orders for new subscriptions increased 25 percent.

Giving your free report an attractive or compelling title also helps boost response rates.

Example: During the Clinton years, American Spectator offered a special report titled something like "Inside the Clinton White House." (That may not be the exact title. It was years ago, and memory fades.)

Put a price in the upper-right corner of the front cover of each report that you intend to use as a premium. Then set up a "reports library" on your website where visitors can purchase the reports for that price. That way, when you give them away as free bonuses and specify the value, you can legitimately say: "This report sells for $29 on our website, but reply today and it’s yours free."

Here’s a gimmick that works well if you want to use the report in your marketing to build your image as a leader in your industry: Instead of using an 8-1/2" x 11" page size, make it digest size (5-1/2" x 8-1/2") and publish it as a small paperback book. Let’s say the report is tips about leadership. Print the title on the front cover in reverse – white letters on a black background – and call it "The Little Black Book of Leadership Secrets." ("Secrets" and "Little Black Book" create an aura of importance and exclusivity that will make people want the information.) Then, when you offer it free in your marketing, you can position your company as "The Folks Who ‘Wrote the Book’" on Topic X.

Since so many marketers offer free reports, you may stand out by offering free information via other media – e.g., audio CDs, videos, software, online tools.

Here’s a way to quickly and easily create that kind of premium: Promote a paid teleconference to your list and record it. Then duplicate it on audio CD and offer that as a bonus. If you charged $79 for the teleconference, you can legitimately say the CD has a value of $79. (That’s important, because the higher the perceived value of the free bonus, the greater the demand for it will be.)

One final tip: If you sell to the federal market, keep in mind that government employees are not allowed to accept free gifts worth more than $25. So the price on your free book or report aimed at them should be $24.97.

[Ed. Note: Now's your chance to discover the true secrets behind ETR / Agora's $300+ million success story. Our team of business-building experts has broken down the whole process into bite-sized chunks - so you can implement them TODAY and start seeing results pretty much immediately. For your shortcut to business success, click here.

Bob Bly is a copywriting master and the author of more than 70 books. For expert insights into the world of direct marketing, sign up for his free monthly newsletter, Direct Response Letter. Do so today and get over $100 in free bonuses.]

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==Highly Recommended==

Success Is Just 15 Minutes Away

If you don’t have an extra 15 minutes to devote to your success, then you might as well say goodbye to your dreams.

Be honest. 15 minutes a day is NOTHING. You fly through that much time chatting at the water cooler or skimming TV channels or flipping through that magazine on your desk.

But those little bits of time add up. Big time.

Just think what would happen if you devoted that time to working toward your dreams of building a business, running a marathon, learning a new language, or dropping 25 pounds.

Give us 15 minutes and we’ll get your butt into gear… 

- Charlie Byrne
Associate Publisher, Early to Rise

Dear ETR: "How do I find a mentor to read my copy?"

"I work for a franchise that places home health care workers. My boss has me prepping the first of four quarterly mailers. I haven’t been able to create any compelling marketing copy for the cover letter that will accompany our brochure.

"I’d love to get my boss to see the value in paying for me to take AWAI’s copywriting program. (It will be tough for me to pay for it myself.) Short of that, how do I find a mentor to read what I’ve come up with, critique it, and fix it?

"Note: I really appreciate your newsletter. Thanks for the support and ideas."

T. B.
Detroit, MI

Dear T.B.

My advice to you is to get another job.

If your boss says he can’t afford $39 a month to turn you into a marketing machine, he’s either crazy or flat broke. In either case, this is not a situation that holds a promising future for you.

I’m serious. Quit. Find a better job.

At the same time, invest in your future by educating yourself. The AWAI copywriting program is the best and most comprehensive in the world. There are other good ones. I’d recommend the programs put out by Bob Bly and Clayton Makepeace too. But because you have limited resources, stick with the one from AWAI.

In addition, there are plenty of good books on copywriting that you should read, including:

• Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz

• Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

• My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

• Method Marketing by Denny Hatch  

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini (This isn’t a copywriting book per se, but it does shed light on the psychological impulses of customers that you must understand as a copywriter.)

You can also sign up for two free e-letters: AWAI’s The Golden Thread and John Forde’s The Copywriter’s Roundtable.

Books and free e-letters will help, but you’ll never become a good copywriter unless you study under a master or take a program created by a master copywriter.

Meanwhile – like I said – get another job! Preferably one with a boss who will appreciate and nurture your ambition to become a first-rate copywriter.

- Michael Masterson

[Ed. Note: Send your questions to AskETR@ETRFeedback.com. Include your full name, your hometown and state, and the ETR team may answer you in an upcoming issue.]

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The Green Tea Scam

By Craig Ballantyne

Green tea is a healthy drink. It’s been shown to boost brain health, protect against Parkinson’s, increase metabolism, protect the prostate, and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. But, contrary to claims made in many ads making the rounds these days, it does NOT cause weight loss.

Researchers from Taiwan randomized 78 overweight women into two groups for a 12-week study. One group took green tea extract (491 mg catechins containing 302 mg of the powerful antioxidant EGCG), and the control group took a placebo.

The average reduction in weight in the green tea group was insignificant – only 0.3 percent (0.15 kg). About the same as it was in the placebo group. However, the green tea extract did improve the subjects’ health by reducing their LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, while increasing HDL ("good cholesterol"). The placebo group saw a reduction only in triglycerides.

So the bottom line is this. Green tea is healthy, but it doesn’t cause fat loss.

There’s no such thing as a magic pill for weight loss. So forget about trying to find an easy way out. Burning fat takes work. It requires planning. It requires following a proven, structured workout program. But if you put those structures in place, you will see results.

[Ed. Note: You won't get fit automatically. But once you have a system, you can melt away fat and get the lean body you've always wanted. Learn how you can feel better than you have in years.

Getting healthy is a lot easier when you have a team of health experts helping you out. Get free motivation and advice right here.]

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It’s Good to Know: The Internet Archive

The World Wide Web was a different place back in 1996. Having trouble remembering what your favorite website looked like back then? Check out the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine for a quick glimpse into the past. Simply visit archive.org and enter the site’s Web address in the search box. You’ll be able to see what the site’s homepage looked like from 1996 almost up to the present day.

Not sure what to look for? Check out how Early to Rise has evolved over the years.

Click to comment on this article.

== Highly Recommended ==

How to “Unscrew” Yourself from Life’s Little Frustrations (and the Big Ones, Too!)

When you get stuck in a royal mess – and we all do sometimes – here’s how to get out of it looking squeaky clean and grinning like a Cheshire cat…

Got a speeding ticket and afraid your insurance premiums are about to skyrocket?  Don’t sweat it.  I’ll show you the smartest way to legally beat the ticket – without hiring an expensive lawyer to plead your case.

Hate jury duty?  Let me show you how to escape it – even if the court clerk refuses to grant you an exemption.  Frustrated with airport waiting times due to tightened security?  I’ll reveal how to cut your airport waiting time in half!

Listen:  No matter which of life’s frustrations come your way, there are clever ways to easily get out of most of them.  I’m even willing to share them all with you – FREE!  Click here to learn why

Word to the Wise: Welter

A "welter" (WEL-ter) – from the Middle English for "to toss about" – is a confused jumble of things.

Example (as used by Emily Mitchell in a New York Times review of The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso): "From an original welter of experience, [Manguso] has carefully culled details that remain vivid."

[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.]

Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 5:35 am and is filed under Daily Issues .