Issue #2472

• WEALTHY: How the financial sector is like a falling crystal vase (Rick Pendergraft)
• HEALTHY: Shake more antioxidants onto your meals(Kelley Herring)
• WISE: George Clason on acquiring money

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• 3 ways to get a low-cost moneymaker off the ground (Paul Lawrence)
• Do you commit any of these common pronunciation errors? (Don Hauptman)
• It’s Good to Know… about beating the weather
• Add “appellation” to your vocabulary

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The Easiest Way to Become a Member of the Millionaires Club

Just a few decades ago, becoming a millionaire was a pipe dream… A goal only a select few could reach.

But now… even though “millionaire” still means incredible wealth, freedom, and opportunity…

It’s a goal that’s well within your reach.

In fact, the number of millionaires grows by leaps and bounds every year. A survey by TNS Financial services found that there are nearly 10 million millionaire households in the U.S. alone.

There are six major ways to become a member of the Millionaires Club:

• Make it big by investing in stocks
• Win the lottery
• Inherit your wealth from a rich uncle
• Become a real estate investing mogul

The stock market these days? Not very promising.

Gambling or inheritance? You might as well wait for lightning to strike twice.

Real estate? Not a bad option, but for a variety of reasons it’s simply not right for everybody.

But there’s another way that IS very promising… where you CAN have a high probability of success … and that you can build around something that you enjoy.

• Start your own online business

In fact, according to an AmEx-Harrison survey, half of all millionaires made their money by running their own business.

Discover how you can start your own business… and be making $1.2 million by the end of 2009.

Investing and Crystal Vases

By Rick Pendergraft

A few months ago, my wife and I celebrated our 15th anniversary. Over the years, I have tried to stick to the traditional gifts for anniversaries. For year 15, that means crystal.

I had decided that I would get her a crystal vase and fill it with 15 roses, one for each year of tolerating me. I went to a local store and found a vase I liked as soon as I walked in the door. But rather than settling for the first one I came across, I wanted to look at some others.

I saw a second vase that I liked, and I went to pull it off the shelf to look at it more closely. Little did I know that this vase was in two parts, a top and a base. When I slid the vase forward, the base part fell and headed for the ground. I reacted by sticking out my foot and letting the base (a very heavy base) land safely on my foot. Whew, no shattered crystal! What a relief. However, now my big toe hurt like hell.

As I put the vase back on the shelf, I looked at the price. Only $50. I had just risked getting a broken toe to save a $50 vase? What was I thinking?

What does this have to do with investing?

The financial sector is like that falling crystal vase. It is very fragile and falling toward a very hard floor. Investing in financial stocks right now would be similar to what I did that day… with three possible outcomes: it hits the floor and shatters, it lands on your foot and breaks your toe, or you get lucky and no damage is done.

Three possible outcomes. Two of them are bad and the other requires luck. This is not the way I invest. And it shouldn’t be the way you do it either.

[Ed. Note: Keep your money safe during these shaky times by making smart investment choices. Companies with strong fundamentals are best equipped to withstand major market changes. But don't be afraid of fluctuations in the market. These movements can offer you the perfect opportunity to profit. Learn more with investment expert Rick Pendergraft's KISS System.]

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“Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern its acquisition.”

George Clason

The Secret to Selling the Rights to Products

By Paul Lawrence

Obtaining and selling the rights to products can be very profitable for entrepreneurs, even those with little or no capital.

As I mentioned in a previous ETR article, securing product rights is a painless process. And in most cases, once you have those rights, you’ll make a deal with a larger company that has the resources to mass-market it. Your payoff comes in the form of an upfront fee or a share in the back-end profits.

I receive checks every quarter for thousands of dollars as a result of having made deals like these. And today, I want to share with you a secret on how to approach larger companies and convince them to buy the rights you’ve obtained - whether it’s for a health product, an information product, or anything else.

Many people own the rights to great products or ideas, but are unsuccessful at marketing them. A big part of the problem is that executives at big, successful companies are constantly barraged by product rights holders who are trying to make deals with them.

To break through that clutter and get those executives to sit up and take notice, take these three steps:

1. Catch their attention.

If you use a letter or e-mail to get to the decision-maker you’re trying to reach, your attention-getter will be your headline. If you intend to contact him in person, it will be the first sentence you say. Whatever method you use, you must have a powerful grabber that will make him want to take action and buy the rights to your product.

When marketing the rights to a natural supplement formula for men, I sent an e-mail to one company with something like this in the subject line: “This supplement will enlarge your bank account.” Since I expect to earn a six-figure payment in royalties from that particular deal, it’s obvious this attention-getter worked.

2. Show them how to promote your product.

Don’t just write a couple of paragraphs saying that your product is sure to sell like hotcakes. You need to convince the decision-maker that your product can be marketed effectively.

Show him exactly how to do it. Create some promotional literature for the product, including sample ads, Web pages, and/or direct-mail copy. Give him a marketing plan that the company can put into action and quickly start seeing profits pour in.

3. Have the actual product or a prototype in your possession.

A young man I know had a great idea for a breakthrough technology for computer games. The executive he met with loved it. Then he said, “Let me try it out and see how it works.”

The deal soured when my friend admitted that all he had was a computer program that illustrated how it could be done.

If you don’t actually have the product, the best you can hope for is that your prospect will ask you to get in touch with him when you do. But that’s a long way from making a deal. If you expect to close a deal on the spot, you need to have the goods.

You may be thinking, “Why would a big company need me? Surely they can develop their own products to market.”

Well, what they want is what anyone in their position wants: a potential money machine handed to them on a silver platter. If you can provide the full package - the product as well as some good marketing ideas for it - you will get very serious consideration… and maybe your first “Getting Rich With Rights” deal.

[Ed. Note: Acquiring and then marketing the rights to products is a good way to start a business without much capital. Paul Lawrence reveals his detailed strategies for making money with this business opportunity in his "Getting Rich With Rights" program. Get the details here.]

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When Fresh Is NOT the Best

By Kelley Herring

If you’re adding herbs and spices to your meals, you’re doing yourself a big favor. Recent research shows that many herbs and spices pack more age-defying, disease-fighting nutrients than the foods we use them on. And today, I have a tip that will help you power up the flavor and boost the antioxidants in your meals nearly tenfold.

Use dried herbs!

The Oxygen Radical Absorbency Capacity (ORAC) score ranks foods on their ability to neutralize free radicals. As you probably know, blueberries are extremely rich in antioxidants, ranking 6,552 on the ORAC scale. But that doesn’t come close to the antioxidants found in common herbs like basil and oregano.

Let’s see how these herbs stack up:

ORAC Score of Oregano

• 13,970 (fresh) 
• 200,129 (dried)

ORAC Score of Basil

• 4,805 (fresh)
• 67,553 (dried)

While conventional wisdom says “fresh is always best,” here we see that dried is sometimes better.

Buy organic dried herbs and store them in opaque containers, away from light and heat. And replace your herbs every six months to get the most flavor and free-radical fighters out of your shaker.

[Ed. Note: Part of staying healthy is knowing which foods to eat - and which ones to avoid. Making good choices can help you live a long and healthy life. Find more simple ideas about how to feel better and live longer here.

And talk about a healthy food that tastes fantastic... nutrition expert Kelley Herring has developed a chocolate cake so rich and delicious that you won't believe it's good for you. Get your own slice here.]

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The Language Perfectionist: “I Now Pronounce You…”

By Don Hauptman

As a copywriter, I collaborated from time to time with a friend, a marketing consultant, and we worked as a team. On one occasion, we drove to another city to spend a day with a client - let’s call him Dave.

After the meeting, as we walked back to the car, I asked my colleague, “Did you notice the word that Dave mispronounced repeatedly?” My friend didn’t hesitate. “Lambaste,” he said. Dave had pronounced the second syllable, as many people mistakenly do, with a short A, to rhyme with “fast,” instead of correctly, with a long A, to rhyme with “taste.”

The incident slightly tarnished our opinion of this client. And if you don’t pronounce words properly, your own image and reputation could similarly suffer.

Charles Harrington Elster may be America’s leading expert on pronunciation. At my request, Charlie agreed to share “Elster’s Top 10 Pronunciation Pet Peeves” with you. He wants to make it clear, though, that the following aren’t necessarily listed in order of offensiveness!

1. One of the most frequent mispronunciations, even by presidents and TV personalities and others who should know better, is nuclear as NOO-kyuh-lur. Correct: NOO-klee-ur.

2. The word loath (meaning reluctant) is pronounced differently from loathe (hate). Loath rhymes with oath, while loathe rhymes with clothe.

3. Don’t stress the second syllable in affluent, affluence, and influence. The correct stress is on the first syllable: AF-loo-int, AF-loo-ints, IN-floo-ints.

4. It’s wrong to stress the “or” syllable in mayoral, pastoral, pectoral, and electoral. The correct pronunciations are MAY-ur-ul, PAS-tur-ul, PEK-tur-ul, and eh-LEK-tur-ul.

5. The words foliage and verbiage are pronounced not with two syllables but three. Correct: FOH-lee-ij, VUR-bee-ij.

6. A mispronunciation that’s particularly irritating to Charlie is coupon as KYOO-pahn. Correct: KOO-pahn.

7. In the words succinct, flaccid, and accessory, pronounce the “cc” as X or KS, not as S. Correct: suhk-SINGKT, FLAK-sid, ak-SES-uh-ree.

8. The second-syllable stress in preferable and formidable is not only wrong but pretentious. The stress should be on the first syllable. Correct: PREF-ur-uh-bul, FOR-mih-duh-bul.

9. In negotiate, controversial, and species, pronounce the “ti,” “si,” and “ci,” as SH, not S. Correct: nih-GOH-shee-ayt, kahn-truh-VER-shul, SPEE-sheez.

10. The word forte, meaning a skill or strong point, is commonly mispronounced as for-TAY. Correctly pronounced, it rhymes with port or short. But FOR-tay, with first-syllable stress, is now also acceptable.

Charles Harrington Elster is the author of the quintessential guide The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations. The current second edition paperback contains 200 new entries.  

[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book recently published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]

It’s Good to Know: Beating the Weather

Delayed flights waste time for the flyer, and time and money for the airline. Happily for both, a new computerized tool could get many weather-delayed flights off the ground.

A prototype used in New York last year cut delays by 2,300 hours and saved $7.5 million in operating costs. It’s called RAPT, the Route Availability Planning Tool, and was created by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Relying on satellite and radar systems, RAPT will help air traffic controllers make more-informed decisions as to whether or not a particular flight is advisable in bad weather.

[Ed. Note: Correction: In the 9/27 issue of Early to Rise we reported that RAPT, the Route Availability Planning Tool, will help airlines determine if flight is advisable in poor weather. We would like to note that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, not Michigan, deserves credit for the invention.] 

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Word to the Wise: Appellation

“Appellation” (ap-uh-LAY-shun) - from the Latin for “to name” - is a name, title, or designation.

Example (as used by Anita Shreve in Fortune’s Rocks): “For as long as Olympia can remember, her mother has been referred to, within her hearing and without, as an invalid - an appellation that does not seem to distress her mother and indeed appears to be one she herself cultivates.”

[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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