To promote herself and her business, JL wants to write a book. But she isn’t quite sure how to get her book into print. “It feels like getting a book published is challenging,” she writes. “Would it not be easier to self-publish?” Others have asked me the same question over the years. “What’s better?” an [...]
By Early To Rise | Wed, Sep 30, 2009
An inherent (in-HERE-unt) quality, attribute, or characteristic is one that is permanent — inseparably attached or connected. The word is derived from the Latin for “to stick.” Example (as used by Bob Bly today): “Self-publishing is not inherently better than traditional publishing. Nor is the reverse true.” ————————————————————————————————————————— We want your feedback! Let us know your thoughts on [...]
By Robert Ringer | Tue, Sep 29, 2009
David Carradine. Ed McMahon. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson. Billy Mays. Karl Malden. Steve McNair. The Grim Reaper is on a roll. What might the deaths of these high-profile people have in common with the likes of Gary Hart, Gary Condit, Jim McGreevey, Mark Sanford, and John Edwards, among others? Or how about Lyndon Johnson, Spiro Agnew, and [...]
By Early To Rise | Tue, Sep 29, 2009
Limelight was an early type of lighting used to illuminate a stage. The light was created by using a flame to heat a cylinder of lime to incandescence, and then intensifying the light with a lens. These days, we use the word metaphorically to mean the center of attention. Example (as used by Robert Ringer today): [...]
By Michael Masterson | Mon, Sep 28, 2009
The other day I saw an ad one of my clients had posted on the Internet. The copy was weak. It lacked an “Aha!” idea. It was balanced on two rather than four legs. Its lead was wrongheaded, it had insufficient substantiation, and no social proof. I mentioned this to my client’s marketing exec. “I agree. It’s not [...]
By Early To Rise | Mon, Sep 28, 2009
A whippersnapper (WIP-er-snap-per) — a colloquialism that can be traced back to 17th century England — is someone who is young, impertinent, and presumptuous, with an excess of ambition. Example (as used by Michael Masterson today): “Those young whippersnappers don’t know the fundamentals. And what they don’t know, they can’t teach.” ————————————————————————————————————————— We want your feedback! Let us [...]
By David Cross | Fri, Sep 25, 2009
What do you do if your prospect knows nothing about you, as is often the case? How can you sway or “nudge” their thinking about your business, products, or services? You do it by including plenty of testimonials in your marketing materials. Testimonials overcome a prospect’s skepticism (“Who the heck are you? And why [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Sep 25, 2009
In this column, I routinely use words that describe aspects of language. But these terms are often misunderstood and confused. Here’s a brief guide, followed by a few tips to improve your writing.
By Alexander Green | Thu, Sep 24, 2009
According to Dr. Jon D. Miller, Director of the Center for Biomedical Communications, the number of scientifically literate adults in the U.S. has doubled over the past 20 years. The bad news? That only gets us up to 20 percent. Only 48 percent of Americans know that humans didn’t live at the same time as [...]
By Don Hauptman | Thu, Sep 24, 2009
Mistakes can be a good thing. They teach us what to avoid. The trick, though, is to learn by observing others make them. With that goal in mind, here’s another roundup of misspellings, misunderstandings, and other misuses — all found via Internet search, but equally frequent in print: “I just find it as ridiculous [...]
By Bob Bly | Wed, Sep 30, 2009
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