Issue #2531
- WEALTHY: How mutual funds can clue you in to a market shift (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: It’s time to cut the carbs (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Ben Franklin on immortality
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The key to Ben’s success could be yours (John Forde)
- If American is your airline of choice… (Lori Allen)
- It’s Good to Know… 4 networking conversation tips
- Add “farrago” to your vocabulary
== Advertisement ==
What goes up AFTER gold prices rise?
Stocks have been hammered for the past 5 years – down 10% according to the S&P 500 index.
Gold, meanwhile, is up about 100% during that time.
What few Americans realize, however, is that there’s a unique gold investment, created and issued by the U.S. Treasury Dept., which skyrockets AFTER gold prices soar.
Last time conditions were this good, it went up 665%… and it’s beginning to soar again right now.
When Will It Be Safe to Go Back in the Water?
One question keeps coming up when I talk to my friends and family these days: “How will I know when it is safe to get back into the market?” There is one indicator that I am watching closely right now that I think will provide the answer: the mutual fund inflows and outflows.
Since late July, only one week has seen money flowing into equity mutual funds. All other weeks have seen outflows. The institutional money may be what everyone keeps an eye on, but individual investors control more money than most people think. Through retirement plans, more and more individuals have been invested in mutual funds, and right now these people are fleeing the market in droves.
My advice is to watch those mutual fund numbers. Once you see the outflows slow down, it will be safe to start buying stocks again. I wouldn’t wait for the inflows to start ramping up, though. When it comes to timing the market, the herd is usually late to the party.
[Ed. Note: You may want to be cautious with your investments right now... but you have to be ready to take action when the moment strikes. There are going to be some incredible opportunities out there, and market analyst Rick Pendergraft has put together an educational program that lays out the simple steps you need to take advantage of them. Not only do you get three months of Rick's best recommendations, you also learn how to make good investment choices yourself. Get the details here.]
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing.”
Benjamin Franklin
How Ben Franklin Learned to Write
By John Forde
Eight times, Ben Franklin crossed the Atlantic.
France, Spain, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany – he hit them all. And his fame reached even further. His ideas were talked about in Sweden, Russia, China, and North Africa, all during his lifetime.
It was Ben who discovered the Gulf Stream. He also invented swim fins, the odometer, and bifocals. And it was Ben who came up with Daylight Savings Time, as a joke for a Paris newspaper. (He never realized it would catch on.)
But for all his accomplishments, there’s one thread that’s common to all of them. The man could write like a dream.
His writing is what helped pass on his legacy as a founding father. It’s what made him one of the most persuasive diplomats in U.S. history. And it’s one of the main reasons we remember so much of what he did today.
“Either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing,” he once said. Well put. And he did both. Which is why I’m evoking the spirit of Ben Franklin in today’s article, so he can teach us what he learned.
See, before Ben became one of America’s best-known and most influential writers, he wasn’t much of a writer at all.
Or at least that’s what his father thought.
At one point, he scolded Ben for what he felt was the low quality of writing in letters written to a friend. The letters, he told Ben, “lacked eloquence.”
So Ben set out to make a change. He invented a precise system for teaching himself to write better, which you can find outlined in his famous autobiography.
Here’s how it works…
1. Role-Model Reading
Before Ben wrote, he read. Often and a lot. He’d pick out a piece of writing he admired and actually wanted to imitate, and study it, front to back. He made notes on the outline and structure of paragraphs. He memorized phrases. He noted the general themes in the piece. That taught him the style used by the authors he admired.
You can do this just by digging into the magazines and books you already like to read. Not reading them the way you once did, flipping the pages. But really reading. Study them for structure. How do they start? What’s common between one article or chapter and the next? And what’s not? Spend at least 30 minutes a day doing this. You’ll be shocked at how much better your writing will become.
2. Flattering by Imitation
This was one of Ben’s favorite tricks. I’m predicting it’s the one you’ll talk about one day when you’re teaching someone else how to write. It’s simple. Just take one of those pieces of writing you admire and copy it. Literally. By hand. Word for word. You’ll pick up nuances you didn’t notice when you were reading it. And, except for a sore elbow, it’ll give you a painless education.
Of course, Ben took this exercise even further: “I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try’d to compleat the papers again.”
That is, he not only studied the original and copied it, he actually tried to reproduce its key themes from memory… in his own words.
Where he made mistakes, he’d fix them. But sometimes he found that just by rethinking the original ideas, he found ways to improve upon them. And this happened more and more often as he wrote.
Again, you can do the same thing. Take a few short magazine articles. Study them until you’ve soaked up the core ideas. Then, on a blank sheet of paper, try to write out the same ideas from memory, but in your own words. You’ll be surprised by what you remember. You’ll be even more surprised by the new ideas that pop into your head as you write.
3. Organizing a Mental Toolbox
The real power of a good solid piece of writing is the part you DON’T see – the underlying outline.
Ben saw that too.
He found, in his early rewrites of others’ works, that his thoughts got jumbled and confused. So he took his paragraphs and copied them on separate pieces of paper. Then he reassembled them in an order closer to the original outline.
You can take an outline from an article you like and use that to build a new article, even one about a completely unrelated idea. It’s amazing how facts and details come together when you have a structure to hang them on.
I do this all the time.
When I’m researching, my notes come at random. The more I research, the more the framework takes shape. When I understand the idea I’m writing about, I stop to sketch out the outline.
I actually have a program on my Mac that helps me do this – a feature in the Mac version of Microsoft Office called “Notebook Layout.” It looks exactly like a school notebook with tabbed pages. I type in my notes as they come. When I’m done, I drag and drop the tabs to reorganize the pieces according to my outline.
Having an outline in advance lets you focus on gathering up ideas and details freely, because you know you have a tool to help you sort them out and put everything into place.
If you don’t have a program to help you do this, try using a handwritten outline and index cards.
Ben Franklin put his writing self-improvement system to good use. In his lifetime, he wrote thousands of articles, letters, and persuasive pitches for his ideas. Some helped sell Franklin stoves. Others helped sell the leaders of Europe on supporting young America.
Mastering the printed word was the key to his success. It could be yours too.
[Ed. Note: Copywriting is just one skill you can master to help your business grow. Learn the ins and outs of copywriting, marketing, search engine optimization, and more from some of the best experts in the business (including John Forde, Bob Bly, and Charlie Byrne) with a membership in ETR's Internet Money Club. Learn the details here.
And to get John's wisdom and insights into copywriting (and much more), sign up for his free e-letter, Copywriter's Roundtable, at copywritersroundtable.com. Or send an e-mail to signup@jackforde.com. Get a free report about 15 deadly copy mistakes and how to avoid them when you sign up today.]
You Can Keep Your Current Job While You Quickly Transition Into Your New Business
How in the world do these money-making programs expect you to work tons of hours building up a new business while holding down your current job? Many just aren’t practical. But I’ve found a new program that is loaded with methods to get you into a new business while you are working at another job.
You can put in as little as 2 to 3 hours a week in your new business, and still bring in nice profits fairly quickly – often in just a week or two. And once your business is bringing in enough income, you can quit your current job and focus full-time on your new business. You get to choose which business to get into (there are 20 to choose from), there’s no limit on what you can make, and it is easier than ever to get started.
There is, however, a limit on how many people I am sharing this with. You’ll learn why when checking out all the exciting details here.
More Proof That Carbs Are Deadly for Your Weight
When I was in college, I remember going to a party at the home of four girls. While standing around in the kitchen, I realized they had almost as much cereal as the local convenience store. When I asked them about it, they said they often ate cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because they thought a high-carbohydrate diet would help them lose weight.
That notion was popular back in the 1990s, and, unfortunately, they had bought into it. However, every year more and more research (not to mention experience) shows it to be untrue.
In the latest study, from the journal Nutrition and Metabolism, 50 overweight adults were put into one of two groups. One group was given a moderate-carbohydrate, moderate-protein diet, and the other group was given a high-carbohydrate diet. Both groups ate 500 calories less than they needed to maintain their weight.
The moderate-carbohydrate, moderate-protein group ate 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight (approximately 112 grams of protein for a 154-pound person) and less than 170 grams of carbohydrate per day. The high-carbohydrate group ate only 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight (56 grams of protein for a 154-pound person) and less than 220 grams of carbohydrate per day.
At the end of four months, the higher-protein diet group had lost more body fat (an average of 8.7 percent) than the high-carbohydrate group (an average of 5.7 percent). The higher-protein group also had greater reductions in triglycerides (an average of 34 percent as compared to 14 percent) and greater improvements in the good HDL cholesterol (an average of 5 percent as compared to 3 percent).
This study shows that you don’t need to make radical changes in your protein intake to get more fat loss and better blood lipid levels. Simply cut two slices of bread from your diet each day and substitute two 20-gram protein shakes.
[Ed. Note: Extending your life and living out your years in tip-top health is really a matter of making simple lifestyle choices - like cutting carbs and adding protein to your diet. For more easy-to-implement ideas about how to live longer and feel better, click here.
In addition to getting more protein, you can burn fat by following Craig's Turbulence Training exercise program.]
The American Airlines Platinum Challenge
By Lori Allen
Flying is not fun these days. Delays, grouchy fellow travelers and service staff – and their boorish behavior – make it uncomfortable and irritating. But who wants to shell out lots of cash to fly first-class? Or fly even more often to earn the perks that come with “elite” status? Well, by signing up for American Airlines’ Platinum Challenge, you can get immediately upgraded to Platinum status with just one flight.
American’s Platinum status means more bonus miles, no checked-bag fees, priority check-in, free admission to their Admiral’s Club airport lounges (international flights only), extra first-class upgrade credits, and priority boarding.
You won’t find the Platinum Challenge on American’s website. Here’s what to do:
1. Call American’s customer service line and ask to participate in the Platinum Challenge. You’ll have 90 days to accumulate 10,000 points.
2. Before you buy your next airline ticket, determine the number of miles you could fly on each leg of your flight. You can do that on the American Airlines website (www.aa.com), by doing a search under “Price & Schedule” and clicking on “flight details.”
3. After choosing the legs of your flight, click on “View Fare Rules and On-Time Flight Information” to figure out how many points those miles are worth.
• G, N, O, Q, S classes are discount fares, earning 0.5 points per mile.
• H, K, L, M, V, W are discount fares, but earn 1 point per mile.
• A, F, P, D, I, J, B, Y are premium fares, earning 1.5 points per mile.
If you’ve got more than one flight planned in a 90-day period (or one long international trip), consider American’s Platinum Challenge to get the upgraded status.
[Ed. Note: Sign up FREE for The Right Way to Travel e-letter - a 4-times-a-week dispatch - and get tons of insider secrets like this.]
It’s Good to Know: Networking Conversation Tips
Just about any event – whether a holiday cocktail party or industry conference – can be a major networking opportunity. Many partnerships and multimillion-dollar deals have started as impromptu and informal five-minute conversations. Here are four tips to help turn your small talk into something more:
• When describing yourself and your business, focus on details that could benefit the other person.
• Don’t talk their ear off. Give and take is essential to good conversation.
• Maintain eye contact. And try to smile only when it’s appropriate. (No non-stop grinning.)
• Don’t talk too fast, too quietly, or in a monotone. Remember you are communicating.
(Source: Entrepreneur.com)
== Highly Recommended ==
Are You OK With (Smaller) Online Profits That Automatically Flow Into Your Bank Account Every Month?
Seems like everyone’s going for broke and trying to earn a million their first year online. In the meantime, a handful of people are happy as clams with automatic income streams – usually a few thousand dollars – fattening up their bank accounts each month.
Of course, you can set up as many of these income streams you want. So if it’s more money you are after, then go for it! Best part: It only takes about an hour to set up and it’s easy to do. And then imagine yourself sitting back and watching the money roll in.
Sounds too easy, I know. But perhaps everyone is busy trying to make a killing online… and so they’ve overlooked this fast and easy way to make very nice (but not ridiculous) amounts of money. Why not take a peek today and see if this is right for you?
Word to the Wise: Farrago
A “farrago” (fuh-RAH-goh) – from the Latin for a mixed crop of feed grains – is a hodgepodge.
Example (as used by Virginia Heffernan in a New York Times review of The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell): “[Sarah Vowell] delivers a farrago of free-floating pedantry… having evidently made it her job to enlighten slacker Gen-Xers with a remedial history of our own nation.”
[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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