- WEALTHY: 3 steps to making money in any market (Don Hauptman)
- HEALTHY: An exercise-induced chemical that can help you stay slim (Jonny Bowden)
- WISE: Ronald Reagan on the difference between a recession and a depression
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Why Seth Godin thinks you should start a business right now
- The value of repetition (John Carlton)
- It’s Fun to Know… about Honda’s failed marketing ploy
- Add “desideratum” to your vocabulary
== Highly Recommended ==
“Economic Rescue Plan” Now Available for ETR Readers
It’s enough to make you wonder…
Why is it that there seems to be no end to the bailouts and economic rescue plans for Wall Street and the Fortune 500…
But what about you? Where’s YOUR bailout? When the heck is someone going to give YOU an economic rescue plan?
Well, actually, the good news is… someone’s going to do it right now. Here’s the deal…
Here at Early to Rise, we’ve rounded-up three of the absolutely most BRILLIANT experts in self-reliance that we know… and arranged for them to talk with you in a complimentary urgent teleconference series.
They’re going to be explaining how they’ve built their OWN “recession-proof” businesses. And they’re going to tell you how YOU can do it too.
The first call is this Thursday, and I think you should be on it. Because taking care of your own financial future is what this is really all about now.
Join Alex Mandossian, Rich Schefren and Buck Rizvi where they’re going to be showing you how THEY took control of their lives… and how you can do the same.
Register here – and then make sure you listen to the call on Thursday.
”Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.”
Ronald Reagan
Can You Recession-Proof Your Income?
By Don Hauptman
It’s scary. Today’s financial crisis threatens the livelihood of almost everyone – whether you have a full-time job, are self-employed, or own a business.
Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself. Here’s one strategy.
For more than 30 years, I was a freelance advertising copywriter. Although writing generated most of my income, I simultaneously had several lucrative sidelines…
- Public speaking: I spoke at industry conferences, professional seminars, trade lunches, and similar events.
- Corporate training: I taught and coached at client companies, helping staffers sharpen their copywriting and marketing skills.
- Consulting: I showed publishers how to get better results from their direct-mail campaigns.
- Critiquing: I evaluated companies’ advertising and suggested ways it could be improved.
For each assignment – and most didn’t require a lot of time – I charged between $2,000 and $10,000.
But I’m far from alone. Many other people, in numerous fields, have successfully made this transition…
A career counselor became a consultant and corporate trainer. A psychotherapist morphed into a wildly popular speaker at business gatherings. A travel writer gives travel-writing seminars. A book editor critiques manuscripts for authors, and is so busy that he has a waiting list. An employee quit his job, turned his former employer into his first client, and wound up making twice his previous salary – for one-fourth the time.
Consider a friend of mine. For a while, he was well compensated by a major airline – for teaching its mechanics how to write better! Who would have guessed?
Whatever work you do, you have knowledge and experience that are of potential value to others. You may be able to communicate it – and make money in the process.
How does this help in the current painful climate? Diversifying the skills and services you offer gives you an “insurance policy” of sorts against a recessionary economy.
This is the subject of The Versatile Freelancer, my new e-book. I researched and wrote it this year, during a period of economic gloom, unemployment, bank failures, foreclosures, plunging stock indexes, and fears of recession. Yet all the professionals I interviewed told me that their practices were unaffected and that they were doing as well as ever, or even better! Many attributed that happy situation to their versatility: Their services and specialties include some or all of those cited above.
Why does career diversification protect you? The answer is simple.
You can boast a wider portfolio of skills and services. You have not just one source of revenue, but “multiple streams of income.” If one declines, another can take its place.
And there are more reasons. During tough periods, companies trim their staffs or don’t hire as they normally would. An outside consultant or trainer, a one-time project, a lower-priced service – these can be attractive options. You’re also in an ideal position to promote yourself by speaking at business conferences and other industry events. When people are desperate, they’re eager to hear solutions.
The experience of one veteran copywriter I know confirms all of these points. She told me that her primary work keeps her busy in prosperous periods, while consulting and critiquing assignments pick up in bad times such as those we’re experiencing now.
You say you don’t have terrific public speaking abilities? No problem. To do these things, you don’t need to be a spellbinding speaker. I’m not, yet my presentations were always well received. How come? What’s most important is the quality of the content you deliver.
How do you begin? Try this three-step procedure. For best results, do it in writing.
1. Take an inventory of your background, experience, skills, achievements. Do you have a track record of proven accomplishments – for instance, increasing profits, cutting costs, solving problems, coming up with innovative ideas?
2. Determine who might pay you for that knowledge. Consider companies or organizations where you have contacts, or others you can research. As my example of the airline-mechanic writing tutor demonstrates, hidden opportunities lurk in the most surprising places. Think creatively.
3. Match your expertise to the market’s needs and approach your targets. Submit a proposal. If you know the appropriate executives, you have an edge. Cold calls are more challenging, but not impossible.
Of course, limits exist. According to a Wall Street Journal article, no industry or profession is 100 percent recession-proof. But expanding the range of skills and services you provide may come as close as possible to the perfect strategy for protecting yourself in all types of economic climates.
[Ed. Note: Don Hauptman writes ETR's Saturday column, "The Language Perfectionist." The above article was adapted from his just-published e-book The Versatile Freelancer: How Writers and Other Creative Professionals Can Generate More Income by Seizing New Opportunities in Critiquing, Consulting, Training, and Presenting. The book comes with a free bonus report and a 100 percent money-back guarantee of satisfaction. Order your copy without risk here.]
Is There Really a Money “Code” That Brings You Quick Profits?
Look, I’m no conspiracy-theorist… but yes, there is. “They” have been using it for years, and what I’ve discovered could be a sure-fire way to make fast profits time and again. See exactly what I’ve found by clicking here…
Worth Quoting: Seth Godin on the Right Time to Start a Business
“Whenever a business cycle starts to falter, the media start wringing their hands. Then big businesses do, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and soon everyone is keening.
“People and organizations that have no real financial stress start to pull back, ‘because it’s prudent.’ Now is not the time, they say.
“Growth is frightening for a lot of people. It brings change and the opportunity for public failure. So if the astrological signs aren’t right or the water is too cold or we’ve got a twinge in our elbow, we find an excuse. We decide to do it later, or not at all.
“What a shame. What a waste.
“Inc. magazine reports that a huge percentage of companies in this year’s Inc. 500 were founded within months of 9/11. Talk about uncertain times.
“But uncertain times, frozen liquidity, political change, and poor astrological forecasts (not to mention chicken entrails) all lead to less competition, more available talent, and a do-or-die attitude that causes real change to happen.
“If I wasn’t already running my own business, today is the day I’d start one.”
(Source: Seth Godin’s blog)
[Ed. Note: There's no better day than today. Come to ETR's 2008 Information Marketing Bootcamp this November... and come away with 12 ways to make between $1 million and $100 million with your own Internet business. Get all the details here.]
Quick Tip: Repeat What You Just Heard
By John Carlton
One of the fundamentals of becoming a great communicator is best explained in the classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People.
The most important skill in that book is listening… and then rephrasing what you just heard back to the other guy.
This proves that you listened… and processed what you heard. And it will astonish anyone you do it with… because nobody else is listening at all. They’re just waiting impatiently until they can interrupt to stress their point, regardless of what the other guy has said.
[Ed. Note: John Carlton is an expert copywriter, a pioneer in online marketing, and a teacher of killer sales copy - and he knows marketing inside and out. Discover how to get your hands on the kick-ass secrets of the world's smartest, happiest, and wealthiest marketers.
And be sure to read John's insights, tactics, and advice on copywriting and marketing at his blog.]
Obesity and the Brain: The Exercise Connection
For years, conventional wisdom has been that exercise helps control weight by simply burning calories. But it appears that it does much more than that.
Last year, Arthur Kramer, Ph.D., did some groundbreaking studies at the University of Illinois. His research found that merely 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise three to five times a week could increase the size of the brain. The mechanism? A powerful chemical called Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF). Harvard Professor of Psychiatry John Ratey, M.D., has called this substance “Miracle-Gro for the brain.”
According to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, BDNF may help regulate calorie intake. People with low levels of the chemical have a considerably greater risk of being overweight.
This new study isn’t the first time a connection between obesity and BDNF has been noted. In a 2007 study in Neuroscience, researchers removed the BDNF gene in two of the appetite-regulating areas of the brains of mice. They promptly became fat!
But genes aren’t destiny. Researchers were able to get the mice back to normal weight by restricting their food intake.
It’s always easier to eat less food if you aren’t too hungry. So why not boost levels of a natural compound – BDNF – that could help control your appetite in the first place? Especially when you can increase your BDNF levels so easily… with basic, everyday exercise.
[Ed. Note: Natural methods - including plain old exercise - can have a powerful effect on your health. For more natural ways to feel better and live longer, check out nutrition expert Jonny Bowden's book The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth.
To read more articles on healthy living in ETR's natural health e-letter, click here.]
It’s Fun to Know: Honda’s Failed Marketing Ploy
Honda finished engineering a musical road this month as part of an advertising campaign for the Civic. A quarter-mile stretch of road in northern LA plays “The Lone Ranger” theme every time someone drives over it.
But those who live near the road complain that it keeps them up at night. So, much to the relief of those folks, city officials plan to pave over it soon.
(Source: Associated Press)
== Highly Recommended ==
Are You Embarrassed of What You Do for a Living – or Just Tired of Doing It?
One woman was both, and while her “acquaintances” at a dinner party snickered and poked fun, she had the last laugh. In as little as two weeks she started a new business for less than $99, soon had to hire additional employees to handle the work, and now lives a life without money worries of any kind.
Here’s how you can do the same, even easier and faster than she did.
Word to the Wise: Desideratum
“Desideratum” – from the Latin – is something desired or considered necessary.
Example (as used by John Banville in the Irish Times): “No one in Berkeley – at least, no one I consorted with – thought art was for sissies, or that a pensionable job was the highest desideratum.”
[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.]
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I do enjoy reading it though at times I do not have enough time to go through the articles
ERT articles are wonderful,please keep on with the good work more grease to your elbows.thanks and God bless!
would you please help me get information on how to become a copywriter? thanks, manuel