KJ, like many of my subscribers these days, wants to get into Internet marketing. But she feels frustrated and unable to move forward.
“Where should I begin?” KJ asked in her e-mail. “What was your tipping point to online success?”
My answer: “The tipping point in Internet marketing success is to stop reading about it and stop talking about it and actually start DOING it.” (more…)
I learned a lovely word today: MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is an irrelevant interest grabber — a story whose purpose is to draw attention to itself and away from something else.
It comes from a plot device invented by Alfred Hitchcock. He borrowed it from a shaggy-dog story that goes something like this:
A couple, riding in an English train, notice a tall man carrying a large, odd-looking package. They ask him what it contains. Instead of telling them to mind their own business, he says, “A MacGuffin.” (more…)
Profiled in The Wall Street Journal the other day: A single mother, hit hard by the recession. She can barely keep a roof over her family’s head. Her salary was cut by 60 percent. And buying even the basics is a struggle. A story we’ve heard again and again.
“How sad,” I thought to myself, as I read the article. “How can somebody possibly be expected to live on … $150,000 a year? Wait! What?”
That’s right. This woman, a Hollywood realtor, is bitching about making more than 95 percent of Americans. (more…)
When a customer says “no” to your sales pitch, ask him why. (more…)
In my reading, I frequently encounter misused and confused words. Here are five recent sightings, most from major newspapers:
The writer means faint praise — not very much. A feint is a deceptive or diversionary action. (more…)
If you are too hungry when you sit down to a meal, you will probably overeat and end up feeling way too full. Try this: Drink two full glasses of water 15 minutes before you eat.
I tried it recently and found that I ate considerably less. You wouldn’t think the water could have that much of an effect. But it does!
We seek it here, we seek it there. We seek happiness everywhere.
Yet it eludes us. All of our activities — our pursuit of fame and fortune, our quest for meaningful relationships, our drive to build or change things — are directed searches for this ephemeral state. We get there, but we can never heave a lasting sigh of relief because the feeling is gone almost immediately. (more…)
When you are going to be interviewed for a job, try to be the last one they see.
Studies show, and my experience confirms, that the people who do best in multiple interviews are those who are first or last. And that’s regardless of how good they actually are. (more…)
In most businesses, the 80/20 rule applies to just about everything — including the question “Which customers contribute most to our bottom line?”
There is a good chance that about 20 percent of your customers are responsible for more than 80 percent of your profits. (more…)
Sharks are said to be the most efficient eating machines on the planet. They are perfectly equipped to hunt and kill. The shape of their bodies… the way they propel themselves through the water… the sensitivity of their hearing and smell… and the construction of their jaws. (more…)
Angst (ENGK-stuh) — from the German — is a feeling of dread or anxiety.
Example (as used by Dr. Srikumar Rao today): “If happiness is our nature, why do we not experience it more often? Why are our lives filled with angst and sorrow?”
Our sales were hurting. Every one of our distributors was selling three to five times more of our competitor’s cheaper, inferior air ionizers than ours.
It seemed that consumers decided at the shelf that all ionizers are pretty much the same. So why should they spend 67 percent more on ours? (more…)
Having trouble falling — and staying — asleep? The culprit may be additives in your food. Aspartame, MSG, artificial coloring, nitrates, and even soy contain “excitotoxins.”These chemicals can alter brain chemistry and lead to insomnia. (more…)
When writing or reviewing long marketing copy, you’ve got to get to the point where you find yourself thinking, “Yes! This is good! This is really, really good!”
I call it the Eureka Moment. (more…)
Products — the most successful products — meet urgent needs and solve important problems.
But what solves today’s problem won’t necessarily solve tomorrow’s. We must constantly refine and reinvent to make our products “new.” (more…)
MaryEllen and I were sitting in my office the other day, discussing our upcoming joint speech at ETR’s Info-Marketing Bootcamp.
We talked about how smart it is for a business to host conferences. As we say in our book Changing the Channel, it can teach you a great deal about your customers that you can’t get from surveys or marketing statistics. It is a must, in fact, for any business that “wants to know its customers on a face-to-face basis.” (more…)
To asseverate (uh-SEV-uh-rate) — from the Latin for “spoken in earnest” — is to emphatically declare. (more…)
It’s a serious mistake to allow yourself to get caught up in the “what-if” and “how-to” trap before taking action. The reality is that no one can ever hope to know all the problems in advance, let alone all the solutions. (more…)
I’ve been starting businesses for 30 years. And after taking a look at those that failed right away, those that lingered and then failed, those that puttered along, and those that soared, I have come to the conclusion that to be successful, you need a “ready-fire-aim” approach. (more…)
What do you do when you see a cow in a ditch?
Well, first, you get it out. Next, you figure out how it got there in the first place. Then, you make darn sure it doesn’t fall into the ditch again. (more…)
As a teenager, I had the impulses of a junkyard dog. If someone looked at me the “wrong” way, I started barking. This resulted in many scraps — most of them with bigger and more skillful fighters. I managed to “win” a great many of them, however, because I was able to tap into something inside me that fueled my aggression. (more…)
As I explain in today’s essay, you can learn a lot about wealth building and success from your average junkie. Don’t believe me? Some of these guys make as much as $900 a day. What’s your typical payday? (more…)
JSN was one of the best negotiators I ever worked with.
How did he do it? He took the time to prepare for every business meeting.
He thought out what he wanted to accomplish during the meeting. He considered every possible obstacle that might come up, and figured out how he would respond, jotting down notes on an index card. (more…)
If you want to increase profits, trim low-profit-margin items from your product line.
They are probably eating up limited and valuable resources that could be better used elsewhere. (more…)
There’s nothing wrong with feeling tired. It’s your body’s way of telling you “Give me some rest.”
But staying tired — week after week — is a health problem, one you don’t have to live with and shouldn’t.
If you have been feeling tired for a while, answer these three questions: (more…)
A degenerate (dih-JEN-uh-rit) — from the Latin for “to decline” — is a person who has lost the moral and ethical qualities considered to be normal or desirable. (more…)
In marketing copy, “need to know” info is the facts your prospect has to hear to help him make the decision to buy your product.
But it’s often the “want to know” info that has more pulling power. By that I’m talking about things your prospect has an emotional interest in. (more…)
ETR reader Kendra Pearsall is eager to find a mentor and/or business partner. But she works at home, alone. “How do I find someone to work with?” she asks.
Kendra, there are plenty of ways to do it. The most important thing to know is this: Don’t look for a “forever” business partner like you would look for a spouse. Look, instead, for people you can partner with for specific projects — people who have expertise in areas where you are weak. (more…)