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Keep It Short
Regardless of how you sell your product, some day you will have to write a sales letter or promotion. Or hire someone who does. When that time comes, forget what your English teachers taught you about paragraphs. If you write the way they taught you - with a topic sentence, three or more supporting details, and conclusions all wrapped up in one paragraph - you'll lose your prospective customer.
Long paragraphs look dense ... and hard to read. And if your copy looks hard to read, it will not get read. And there goes your sale.
Good sales paragraphs are short paragraphs. Try to keep them to no more than four lines (not sentences, but lines). They should never be longer than six lines. Break them at logical places so they make sense.
I learned the hidden power of short, crisp-looking paragraphs in the AWAI Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting. Click here to learn more about this informative program that can boost your sales in print ... and in person http://www.thewriterslife.com/ph/etrhr.
- Will Newman
"There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do."
- Freya Madeline Stark
Don't Let Post-Katrina Panic Sink Your Portfolio
There is only one way to treat your portfolio in the aftermath of a disaster like Hurricane Katrina.
Sit tight.
Unlike the damage to Louisiana and Mississippi, the damage to your portfolio should be nil. The stock market won't crash. It hardly ever does in the wake of unexpected and calamitous events.
Looking back at September 11, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Kennedy assassination, and the attack on Pearl Harbor, the market lost ground for an average of only five days, and began to recover after falling only 6%. It was trading at a new high an average of just 62 days later (14 days excluding Pearl Harbor).
The market actually went up in the days following Katrina's landfall, making the case that it's more impervious than ever.
- Andrew Gordon
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Today's Action Plan
Today's Action Plan is to not take any action at all - with your investments, that is. If you're feeling pressured by "experts" who are urging you to unload your stocks, heed Andrew's advice and sit tight ... at least for now.
Eat More Omega-3 Fats for a Healthier You
By Dr. Joseph Mercola
It is very likely that you are deficient in omega-3 fats. This is one of the most important nutritional deficiencies in this country, far more important than any vitamin or mineral deficiency.
Omega-3 fats are essential for your body. Hundreds of published studies show that optimal omega-3 levels can greatly improve your overall health, increase your energy, and help you retain mental function as you age. Omega-3s also reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, depression, and Alzheimer's disease - and they can be used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, digestive disorders, and a host of other diseases.
Deficiencies in this important nutrient have also been tied to many conditions, including:
- weight gain
- violence and other behavior disorders
- memory problems
- dyslexia and learning difficulty
- eczema
- allergies
The Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio
Along with omega-3, another essential fatty acid, omega-6, is also very important for your health. The difference is that while the diets of most Americans are lacking in omega-3, they are overloaded with omega-6.
One hundred years ago, the average American ate less than one pound of vegetable oils per year. Today, the average American eats more than 75 pounds of these polyunsaturated (omega-6) fats each year. While omega-6 fats are essential for life, when consumed in unnatural amounts they actually promote disease. It's similar to water. While you need it to stay alive, if you drink gallons of water in a short time it will kill you.
The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats is 1:1. Our ancestors evolved over millennia on this ratio. Today, though, our ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 averages from 20:1 to 50:1!
The reason for this highly skewed (see Word to the Wise, below) ratio? The primary sources of omega-6 are corn, soy, canola, safflower, and sunflower oils. All of these oils are overabundant in the typical American diet. (If you don't believe me, pick up just about any processed food and look at the label. One of these oils will be in the list of ingredients.)
Meanwhile, omega-3 is primarily found in flaxseed oil, walnut oil, and fish - items that are far less prevalent in most people's diets. Combine an overload of omega-6 with hardly any omega-3, and you get the dangerous 20:1 or 50:1 ratio that we see today.
How to Increase Your Omega-3 Fats for Optimal Health
By far, the best type of omega-3 fats are those found in fish. That's because the omega-3 in fish is high in two fatty acids that are crucial to human health: DHA and EPA. These two fatty acids are pivotal in preventing heart disease, cancer, and many other diseases.
Your brain is also highly dependent on DHA. Low DHA levels have been linked to depression, schizophrenia, memory loss, and a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's. Inadequate intake of omega-3 fats in pregnant women has also been linked to premature birth, low birth weight, and to lower IQ and hyperactivity in children.
While you can get omega-3 from plant sources like flaxseeds, it exists in plants as the fatty acid ALA. Your body must convert the ALA into DHA and EPA - but the conversion rate is actually very small. You would have to eat large amounts of plant sources of omega-3 to get even close to the amounts of DHA and EPA that you can get with fish.
Most fish, though - even farm-raised fish - are polluted with mercury, PCBs, and other toxins. Sadly, these toxins make eating the fish more of a detriment than a benefit to your health. It would be better for you to supplement daily with a high-quality brand of fish oil or cod liver oil. (What's the difference? Cod liver oil contains vitamin D; fish oil does not.) These oils are purified and therefore do not pose the health risks of polluted fish.
Once you increase your omega-3 by taking a high-quality fish oil or cod liver oil, it's essential that you cut back on your omega-6 intake. This means limiting the amount of vegetable oils in your diet, not only in their pure form but also in the many, many processed foods (potato chips, baked goods, salad dressings, margarine, shortening, etc.) that contain them. Acceptable healthy oils include high-quality extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and organic butter ... or, better yet, grass-fed organic butter.
Only then will your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio begin to balance out and approach the healthy 1:1 ratio of our ancestors.
To sum things up, you can easily start down the road to better health by following this two-step plan:
1. Most Americans, young and old, are highly deficient in omega-3. One of the best things you can do for yourself and your children is to routinely consume fish oil in warm months and cod liver oil in cool months (to get the added vitamin D when your sun exposure is low). My favorite high-quality brand is Carlson's, available in most health food stores or through my website www.mercola.com.
2. You should cut out or reduce the oils and foods high in omega-6 fats from your diet, as most Americans get far too many of them. This includes corn, sunflower, soy, canola and safflower oil, margarine, vegetable oil, and shortening.
[Ed. Note: Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder/director of The Optimal Wellness Center. His website, www.mercola.com, is the most popular natural health website in the world, with 495,000 subscribers to his free health e-newsletter and 10 million page views per month.
Dr. Mercola will be one of the featured speakers during the "health track" of ETR's upcoming Wealth-Building Conference. For information about the Conference and all the scheduled speakers, Click here.]
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How Many of These Questions Do You Ask?
Too often - in the rush to get our own work done - we forget to talk to employees after they've finished their initial orientation. This is bad, because we miss the chance to find out ways to make our business work better - for our customers, our employees, and ourselves.
Here are some good questions to ask new employees 60 to 90 days after they've started:
- How does your job compare to the way it was presented to you when you were hired?
- How does it feel compared to what you expected?
- How helpful have your colleagues been in getting you oriented? What could have been done better?
- What is the best thing you like about working for us?
- What is the most troubling/confusing/annoying thing?
- Can you think of anything that our business could profitably learn from any of your past employers?
- Do you have any friends or colleagues who would be a good addition to our team?
- Michael Masterson
Make It About Your Prospect - Not You
Yesterday, in Message #1525, I told you what I learned from Michael Masterson about using testimonials in sales copy. He explained that testimonial-driven promotions rarely work, because they're "all about you and your product ... and not about the prospect."
I was reminded of this lesson once again just a few minutes ago when I came across this from Jay Abraham's 9 Pillars Program.
"Once you have a profile of your most likely buyer, the next step is to develop a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that will appeal to that customer. Be sure to focus your USP on that appeal - as opposed to what you think is your greatest accomplishment, or what appeals to you."
- Charlie Byrne
Word to the Wise: Skew
Something that is "skewed" (SKYOOD) is distorted. The word is derived from the Middle English "skewen" ("to escape, run sideways").
Example (as used by Dr. Mercola today): "Today, our ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 averages from 20:1 to 50:1! The reason for this highly skewed ratio? [Polyunsaturated] oils are overabundant in the typical American diet."
