Issue# 2724
- WEALTHY: Before you invest, consider this… (Michael Masterson)
- HEALTHY: Are you headed for a health disaster? (Melanie Segala)
- WISE: Ben Franklin on security
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Web marketing has matured… have you? (Clayton Makepeace)
- * Don’t be among those who misuse this word (Don Hauptman)
- It’s Fun to Know… about desktops vs. laptops
- Add “solecism” to your vocabulary
* Highly Recommended *
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How to Avoid the 3 Biggest Mistakes Stock Market Investors Make
I’m not an expert in stocks, but I have been involved with stock market publications and stock market gurus for more than 25 years. During that time, I’ve met a lot of characters – some brilliant men without a trace of honesty and some honest men without a trace of intelligence.
I’ve seen investors (including myself) swindled, bamboozled, conned, and just plain charmed.
I’ve seen a lot. And though I have never attempted to figure out the stock market or how to get the better of it, I now have an idea of what works and what doesn’t.
Three caveats, in particular, have come to make sense to me:
1. Don’t put too much money in any one recommendation. By limiting each investment, you’ll never get hurt so badly that you won’t be able to keep going.
2. Never invest in something just because you like the story behind it. A story, by its very nature, is meant to dramatize, not to inform.
3. Don’t leave money in an investment after it turns south. I have many good investment-expert friends who will tell me I’m wrong about this one – but in my experience, when a business starts to fail it will almost always continue in that direction. When it comes to investing in your own business, you know enough about it that you might be able to do something extraordinary to turn things around. But when it comes to other people’s businesses… their success or failure is completely out of your control.
[Ed. Note: One last thing to keep in mind when deciding where and how to invest: Most so-called "Wall Street" experts usually don't know a solid investment from a hole in the ground. Now's your chance to declare your financial independence from the stream of Wall Street mis-advice and gloom and doom. Set yourself free by taking 5 minutes to read our free report here.]
“Distrust and caution are the parents of security.”
Benjamin Franklin
The Food Labeling Scam
Are food manufacturers and government officials so callous that they are actually using children as guinea pigs when it comes to food labeling?
Apparently so, according to the Chicago Tribune’s 2008 investigative report on hidden allergens in popular food products. Hidden food allergens are part of the reason that an estimated 30,000 Americans are rushed to the emergency room each year and another 150 die – most of them children.
The issue was brought to light when three-year-old Patrick Pridemore ate Wellshire Kids’ Dinosaur Shapes Chicken Bites and began having trouble breathing. His mother jabbed his leg with an epi needle and rushed him to the hospital, where, thankfully, he recovered.
Patrick has a severe allergy to wheat, and the packaging label said the product was “gluten-free” (containing no wheat, rye, or barley proteins). Mrs. Pridemore meticulously scrutinizes labels to ensure that Patrick is not exposed to gluten.
Amazingly, when she contacted Wellshire and the USDA to report Patrick’s health crisis, neither organization would test the product to confirm the presence of gluten. The Tribune then sent the chicken bites to a leading food allergy lab on two separate occasions, and both times gluten was found. But this was still not enough for the manufacturer to recall or relabel the product. Whole Foods was the only retail outlet to remove the chicken bites and two other suspected Wellshire products from its stores.
The logical question to ask now is who’s accountable for accurate food labeling? And the shocking answer is no one. Government regulators allow food companies to police themselves when it comes to package labeling and recalls. And while larger manufacturers are more diligent about testing their products for allergens, smaller companies often do no testing, or very little, because it is not required.
When products are recalled, both the manufacturer and the FDA are often lax when it comes to issuing statements and press releases to the public. And when a press release is issued, it’s often watered down to the point where the true health risks are obscured.
Even worse, the Tribune report found that nearly 50 percent of the allergy-related food recalls in the past 10 years were not disclosed to consumers – and 2,800 products were recalled.
So, where does that leave the 11 million adults and children in the U.S. who have food and digestive allergies? For all intents and purposes, pretty much fending for themselves.
And that’s where the ELL Foundation comes in. ELL (Eat, Learn, Live) is a non-profit organization that advocates for more complete and accurate food allergen labeling. Currently, it may be the best resource for consumers who depend on accurate food labeling to prevent severe allergic reactions.
If you log on to their website, you’ll find a list of current FDA recalls. You’ll also be able to check their database of food allergy incidents reported by members. This is important, because the incidents may have been ignored by the manufacturer – meaning high-risk products are still on store shelves.
ELL encourages consumers “to share their mislabeling experiences by submitting a report through its website,” which is then shared with the public. (Your personal information is protected.) They also provide information on the steps to take if you have had an allergic reaction to a mislabeled food – including how to file a complaint with the FDA and the manufacturer. And if you want to have an ingredient analysis done on the suspected product allergen, ELL provides contact information for the University of Nebraska’s Food Allergy Research & Resource Program (FARRP). The service is free if an allergic reaction occurred because of a mislabeled food.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 3 million American children under the age of 18 have a food or digestive allergy – and that number is growing at an alarming rate. From the Tribune’s report, we know that we can’t sit back and wait for food manufacturers and the FDA to protect them from life-threatening allergic reactions due to mislabeling. What we can do as private citizens is get involved by helping one another avoid health disasters on websites such as ELL’s.
[Ed. Note: To keep yourself - and your loved ones - healthy, you need to stay up-to-date on the latest health breakthroughs. Now you can get an expert perspective on what's going on in the world of health for FREE. Sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter right here.]
* Highly Recommended *
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How to Get 5 Times the Internet Revenues by Going Offline
Several months ago, one of my favorite clients asked me to create a Web-based promotion for a new investment advisory. But instead of beginning with a series of e-mails – or even a new Web page – I promptly sat down and wrote a 24-page DIRECT-MAIL package.
Once the long copy was finished, I knew the rest would be easy. I could simply excerpt sections of it, over and over again, to create a multi-step campaign…
STEP #1. Pick the low-hanging fruit – cheap.
A respectable chunk of my client’s customers love him to death and will buy just about any product he recommends. For these wonderful folks, I created an extremely simple, low-cost e-mail promotion that we sent out immediately.
STEP #2. Get fence-sitters to a “tipping point” website.
I used about half the long direct-mail copy I had written about the product to produce an “Urgent Special Report” that could be accessed via a little website we created online. And in week #2 of the campaign, we began sending e-mails to the client’s customers urging them to click a link in order to read the free report.
STEP #3. Exploit other low-cost or free media.
Then I simply took the 12 pages of copy from the little website I’d created… wrote a new headline and opening copy… turned it into a printed special report… and had it inserted in the next issue of my client’s print newsletter.
STEP #4. Show up where they least expect you to.
Two weeks after the newsletter insert hit our prospects’ mailboxes, we hit them again – with the full 24-page direct-mail package I had initially created to promote the product. This time, it was formatted as a free special report – a “thank you” bonus for loyal customers.
STEP #5. Get tenacious.
Two weeks after the 24-pager hit prospects’ mailboxes, we stuffed it into an envelope, added a one-page letter from my client asking “Why haven’t I heard from you?” and dropped it into the mail.
The combined effect of e-mail, the website, the inserts in the print newsletter, and two direct mailings had a multiplying effect on response.
When the dust had settled, our multi-channel marketing campaign had sold more than $5 million worth of subscriptions to the new service in just five weeks – about five times more than we would have sold through an e-mail promotion alone!
[Ed. Note: Yes, the Internet is ripe with opportunities for savvy marketers to make money. But as master copywriter Clayton Makepeace just proved, the Internet is only ONE channel for communicating with potential customers. If you're stuck using just one marketing method, you need to get your hands on the bestselling book on multi-channel marketing by MaryEllen Tribby and Michael Masterson, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business. It's a premier guide to beefing up your marketing efforts to bring in double, triple, even quadruple your current revenues. Get your copy now.
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The Language Perfectionist: A “Proverbial” Proviso
By Don Hauptman
One of my pet linguistic peeves is the frequent misuse of the adjective proverbial.
Consider this sentence, from a magazine profile of a government whistleblower: “When she grabs hold of something, she is like the proverbial dog with a bone in its teeth.”
But the expression the writer cites is not a proverb; it’s a simile.
A quick Internet search reveals that just about anything has been incorrectly labeled proverbial: “sitting on the fence,” “in the hot seat,” “throwing in one’s hat,” “getting hit by a beer truck,” and even “the first post on a blog.”
Some dictionaries have shamefully capitulated, sanctioning this solecism. The American Heritage Dictionary, for example, gives this as its third definition of proverbial:”Widely referred to, as if [emphasis added] the subject of a proverb; famous.”
As I’ve cautioned in this column, however, dictionaries are not always to be trusted. Many are descriptivist, meaning that they simply reflect how words are commonly used, instead of giving us guidance on how they should be used.
A proverb communicates a truth, principle, or moral lesson in a pointed and pithy style: “Out of sight, out of mind.” “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” And, of course, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
Whether adage, aphorism, apothegm, or axiom, a proverb contains a nugget of wisdom, expressed incisively and memorably. Thus, the word proverbial should be used only in reference to a genuine proverb.
So if you’re ever tempted to say something like “The report went astray, like the proverbial car keys,” ask yourself if what you’re referring to really is a proverb.
[Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book recently published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.]
It’s Fun to Know: Desktops vs. Laptops
A recent report from industry watcher iSuppli showed that overall computer sales are down 8 percent from last year. But when viewed separately, sales of laptops grew 10 percent over last year, while desktop sales dropped 23 percent.
This is simply the continuation of a longtime trend. Laptops currently account for 80 percent of computer sales in the United States.
(Source: Gizmodo)
* Highly Recommended *
Wealth Attraction Secrets That Can Turn You into Your Own ATM Machine
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You are good, just not great… frustrated you think if only you had that “missing ingredient” to put you over the top-put you into “The Show”, the MAJORS.
Then you get a phone call which changes your life. In fact, its so mind boggling that you think it’s a joke, that’s because it’s “The GREG MADDUX…” 4 Time Cy Young, 350 game winner and FUTURE HALL OF FAMER, Greg Maddux!
All Greg wants to do is personally coach you for 30 days and give you “his” inside secrets to executing three different pitches. Once he does- you are remarkably transformed into a major leaguer… just like that!
Or what if you’re a swimmer on your high-school swim team. You are up for a big tournament in 30 days… this is THE one you need to win to get that college scholarship!
Problem is, there’s LOTS of competition and you might not be good enough.
That is until your coach comes into practice with MICHAEL PHELPS, 8 time OLYMPIC GOLD WINNER Michael Phelps… and he personally coaches you for 30 days and gives you “the missing ingredient”, that will boost your endurance and speed 10x times to what it normally is. CHA-CHING college was just paid for!
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Word to the Wise: Solecism
“Solecism” – from the name of a city (Soloi) where a corrupt form of Greek was spoken – is a nonstandard or ungrammatical use of language.
Example (as used by Don Hauptman today): “A quick Internet search reveals that just about anything has been incorrectly labeled proverbial… . Some dictionaries have shamefully capitulated, sanctioning this solecism.”
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