* Highly
Recommended *
The
Billionaire Way
I
would recommend "The
Billionaire Way" program to anyone who is
contemplating a new enterprise or business start-up, or is
already in business for themselves. It enabled me to look at
my life, attributes, and habits in a refreshing new way. I
was delighted to discover that I too have a number of the traits
and qualities that many who are successful in business possess,
which I hadn't realized. I am very excited to apply the principles
that were presented in the program to my new business ventures.
A
tremendous benefit was to be able to talk with the author of
the program, Bob Cox, about my own business strategies and
ideas. Bob spent an hour on the phone with me after I finished
the program, and his personal insights and suggestions were
very helpful and inspiring.
I
know that I will often refer back to the information provided
in "The
Billionaire Way"
-
Catherine McNeil, Monte Vista, Colorado
ETR
Bootcamp Insider Report: Is Your EBook Secure?
By
Suzanne Richardson
Reporting from Delray Beach, Florida
Wednesday
morning, Derek Gehl explained to Bootcamp attendees that selling
an ebook is one of the best ways to make money online.
This
may come as no big surprise to you. For one thing, an ebook
costs very little to produce. For another, it costs nothing
to store. And it costs next to nothing to deliver to your customers.
So any money you make on it is almost pure profit.
But
you may not know that your ebook is vulnerable. Derek revealed
that he had to find this out the hard way. Back in the 1990s,
ebooks basically came as a PDF. Derek sold a PDF ebook that
had a password protection. And Derek made good money selling
those ebooks.
Until
the day he got an email from a customer that said, “Hey
Derek, check out this website.”
Derek
headed over to the site – and there was his ebook. The
site owner had removed Derek’s name in favor of his own,
and he was giving Derek’s book away for FREE.
Just
think of all those customers Derek was losing!
With
only a password protecting access to the ebook, people could
pass the book around, share it with friends and colleagues,
and duplicate it at will.
As
technology has advanced, we’ve been able to solve this
problem. There are all sorts of products on the market that
you can use to protect your ebook from predators. (Derek even
sells such a program himself – eBook Pro.)
But
whatever method you use to protect your product, you do need
to protect it. Derek recommends that you consider adding the
following features to your book to protect yourself and secure
your earnings.
Make
sure you have the ability to:
- Deactivate
any ebook anywhere in the world at any time. This protects
you in case customers are trying to copy it or post it on
their sites.
- Control
customers’ options to print or export the ebooks, so
people can’t Xerox a hundred copies and sell the hard
copies
- Decide
which personal info users need to give you to register. Derek
suggests asking for email addresses, full names, home or
business address, phone number, a username, and the registrant’s
company. Then you can limit the number of times each registrant
downloads the ebook. Three times should be plenty – a
copy for the home, office, and laptop computers.
Once
you have these protective elements in place, you can feel safe
selling your ebook and knowing your profits are secure.
But
be careful about what you decide to protect and not protect. After
speaking with ETR’s Internet Marketing Director Patrick
Coffey, it turns out there are some cases where you DON’T
need protection.
You
just need to determine the goal of releasing your ebook. If
your goal is to acquire new customers and leads, customers
passing the ebook around is a good thing. Just make sure you
include plenty of links inside the ebook, so readers can find
their way back to your site.
Of
course, if the goal of your ebook is to make money, then you
may want to make sure that it is well-protected.
[Ed.
Note: Want to hear more of Derek’s essentials to running
a business online? Keep watching ETR and we’ll tell you
when the recordings of the Bootcamp are available.]
"Publicity,
publicity, publicity is the greatest moral factor and force
in our public life."
-
Joseph Pulitzer
The
Press Release: a One-Page Letter That Could Change Your
Life
By
Paul Lawrence
JB
was worried. He'd just begun a new business hosting live entertainment
events at a local club. His first opening night was less than
a week away, and he needed at least 150 paying customers to
break even. He had only 12 reservations.
He
didn't know what to do. He'd already spent $800 on some display
ads and he'd put notices in the "what's happening around
town" calendars of various publications.
But
then JB came up with an idea that brought in over 300 paying
customers that first night ... and put $3,000 in his pocket.
What
he did was send out a publicity release to a major local metropolitan
newspaper. The paper's entertainment editor found it interesting
enough to write about, and his story was printed on the morning
of JB's opening night.
It
was nothing short of bedlam after that. JB's phone kept ringing
off the hook.
That
one little article suddenly opened up the floodgates. People
swarmed into the club.
Free
publicity can frequently garner an onslaught of business like
this that you'd never be able to get with paid advertising.
As I told you in Message
#1792, I've had articles published about my
small businesses that literally changed my life.
One
example: my small ballroom dance instruction business.
I
was barely getting by when I used some crafty public relations
techniques to secure a major article on the front page of the "Lifestyle" section
of a local newspaper. And, like JB, my phone instantly began
ringing off the hook.
I
went from being a starving dance instructor to a successful
businessman with a six-month waiting list over the course of
a couple of days. And I reinvested most of the cash I started
bringing in to marketing my business ... so I was able to maintain
my busy schedule once the initial response from the article
had subsided.
The
professional way to secure publicity is to create and submit
press releases to the media. But you must remember that these
people are bombarded by releases, so you have to make yours
stand out.
Here's
how to do it:
1.
Use the "Standard" Press Release Format
List
your name, company name, telephone, fax number, and e-mail
address in the top left corner. This makes it easy for the
editor to call you if he needs more information. (And it makes
it easy for him to include your contact information in the
piece he's going to publish about you, so his readers can reach
you directly. Which is exactly what you want.)
2.
Write a Strong Opening
Yes,
you'll need to get to the "who, what, when, and where" details
- but get the editor's attention first with a great lead.
Let's
say you sell medical insurance.
Here's
the kind of lead that WON'T get you noticed: "John Smith
Insurance has opened a new office at 1234 Main Street and will
be giving free consultations on January 1 between noon and
3 p.m."
Try
this instead: "Imagine that you're in terrible pain. You
dropped your medical insurance, because it was expensive and
seemed unnecessary. Now, you find out you need surgery - and
you don't have the cash for the prepayment your doctor requires.
What do you do?"
Then
you go on to explain how you can help prevent such a horrible
situation from ever arising, because you have all sorts of
affordable options, a variety of different payment plans, etc.
3.
Keep It Short and to the Point
Remember
that before you can get an editor to consider your story for
publication, you have to get him to read it.
Your
catchy lead will grab his attention. Now, keep him reading
by making your release easy on the eyes - with plenty of white
space ... short paragraphs ... short sentences. And do it all
in no more than one page.
4.
Include Photos
Any
editor will tell you that an article accompanied by a good
photograph has a much better shot at getting prominent placement.
Even a story about something fairly ordinary can run on the
front page of a newspaper thanks to a great photo. (This is
known as a picture-led story.)
The
trick is to come up with a very appealing photo that tells
the same story as the article you're trying to get published.
Let's
say you run a non-profit organization to find homes for abandoned
dogs. A good shot to submit with your release would be one
showing you cuddling a cute little puppy (not a headshot from
your days as a would-be actor).
No
matter what kind of business you're in, you can't afford not to
have a public relations program in place.
My
friend AM markets specialty sports videos via mail-order. When
I mentioned the idea of press releases to him, he doubted they
could work for him. But I persuaded him to give it a try, and
I helped him write his first one.
To
AM's surprise and pleasure, he snagged a full-page article
in a sports-related magazine ... and the results were tremendous.
The article cost him absolutely nothing, and generated a $12,500
profit in less than 30 days.
Today's
Action Plan: Give it a try. Write up a press release
for your product or service and send it out. If you do it
right, it could make as big a difference for you as it did
for me and JB and AM and thousands of other entrepreneurs.
[Ed.
Note: Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter, direct-mail
copywriter, and business author. He is also the creator of
the Quick
and Easy Microbusiness System, ETR's program
for starting a business for under $100. Learn
more of Paul's self-promotion ideas HERE.]
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Dear
Michael Masterson: "Some of your advice does not square
with my ambitions."
I
am a longtime subscriber to ETR, and I recently read Automatic
Wealth for Grads…and Anyone Else Just Starting Out.
It was a great read. But some of your advice does not seem
to square with my ambitions.
I
am on the track to become a lawyer. Lawyers who work for
corporations do not usually make sales. Usually, their position
is what you could classify as administrative. I'm not willing
to give up my dream. Do you have any suggestions for combining
being a lawyer with being a profit-maker for a corporation?
Michael
Watson
Mountainside, NJ
Dear
Michael,
You
are talking about my advice in Automatic
Wealth for Grads about how to become
a highly paid employee. I said that anyone interested in quickly
working his way up to the top of his business should:
- Come
in earlier than everyone else.
- Work
harder and smarter than everyone else.
- Become
known as the go-to person in the business.
- Learn
how the business markets and sells its products.
- Gravitate
toward the marketing and sales side of the business, even
if your expertise is administrative, operational, or professional.
I
don't see why you think this advice doesn't square with your
ambitions.
Let's
examine your situation.
You
are about to become a lawyer. You want to become wealthy. No
problem there. The question is, what kind of law do you want
to practice?
If
you want to be in-house counsel for a corporation, follow the
advice above exactly. Just because your primary responsibilities
will be legal doesn't mean you can't become knowledgeable about
the business side of your business. You should. It will help
you do your job better. It will help you help your company
make profits while minimizing legal risks. An attorney who
can do that is a very valuable employee.
If
you want to practice law for a firm - corporate law, tax law,
whatever - and you want to make a lot of money, then you will
definitely need to know how to market your firm's services.
There is no better, faster, and more secure way to become a
partner than to bring in lots of new clients.
You
may one day decide you prefer the business side of business
to the legal side. Lots of former lawyers I know have made
that transition. But you will be in a position to do so if
and only if you have mastered some of the sales and marketing
secrets of the business you get into.
So
here's what you need to do now ...
1. Decide
what kind of law you want to practice.
2. Work
hard to be very good at it.
3. In
your spare time, learn everything you can about sales and
marketing.
4. When
the opportunity arises to use that knowledge to help you
and/or your company increase sales and/or profits, take it.
-
Michael Masterson
The
Huge Difference Between Ordinary Table Salt and Sea Salt
By
Jon Herring
We
crave salt - and we need it to live. In fact, animals will
travel miles for a lick of salt to satisfy that need. Does
this mean salt's reputation for contributing to high blood
pressure, as well as heart and kidney disease, is not deserved?
Well ... yes and no.
The
salt you buy in a grocery store is as bad as you've been told.
Mass-market salt is dried at high temperatures, and its many
beneficial trace minerals are removed. The salt is then mixed
with iodine, bleaching agents, anti-caking agents, and even
dextrose (sugar) to remove the bitter chemical taste. What's
left is pure sodium chloride with as much as three percent
added chemicals.
Bottom
line: Ordinary table salt is not natural, it's not healthy,
and it should not be consumed.
But
that doesn't mean you shouldn't use salt - a reasonable quantity
of high-quality, unrefined, unprocessed, natural sea salt,
that is.
Not
all sea salt is "good" salt. Even the sea salt sold
in health food stores has usually been bleached and the minerals
removed. As always, read the label.
Just
for Fun: One-Liners
- Always
remember that you're unique ... just like everyone else.
- If
you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it
was probably worth it.
- Good
judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes
from bad judgment.
- A
closed mouth gathers no foot.
- No
matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it
too seriously.
* Highly
Recommended *
Start
Making Money Today
Interested
in getting a nice little side-business going on the Internet?
Or maybe even from your living-room table?
But
you don’t have too much money, you don’t have too
much time, and you’re not exactly Bill Gates when it
comes to technology. Sound familiar?
A
lot of people are in the same boat. The good news is that ETR
has heard you. And now we’ve done something about it...
We’ve
asked our colleague Marc Charles to be on the lookout for profit
opportunities that can be run from a kitchen table, your desktop
or out on the road.
Criteria?
They’ve got to be inexpensive, easy to start, and still
have great income potential, but without a lot of red tape.
They
say when you’re first getting your feet wet with a side-business,
the most important dollar to make is the first one. Well, Marc
is an expert at taking beginning entrepreneurs and showing
you how to make that first buck. He knows, because he's done
it dozens of times for himself, his family and his friends.
If
you've been dreaming about starting your own business ... now
you can get started for about the price of 2 lattes.
And
get this – you could be making money literally just hours
from now. Imagine the feeling of finally getting a side business
launched -TODAY!
Why
not go for it?
-
Patrick Coffey
Word
to the Wise: Confute
To "confute" (kun-FYOOT)
is to conclusively prove to be false. The word is derived from
the Latin for "to silence."
Example
(as used by Bertrand Russell): "Instinct, intuition, or
insight is what first leads to the beliefs which subsequent
reason confirms or confutes."
