But often your customers, although ebullient about your product or service, aren’t able to express their enthusiasm very well in writing. So what do you do?

“Give them a little help,” says Clayton Makepeace, one of our featured speakers at Bootcamp yesterday. When they send in a ho-hum testimonial, give them a call or shoot them an e-mail. Ask them questions that will elicit specific, powerful statements worth quoting:

1. What was life like before you tried our product/service? (How bad was their breath? How bad was their financial situation? How little hair did they have?)

2. What stopped you from buying our product/service before, when you first heard of it? (Was it too expensive? Did your spouse say, “No way”?)

3. What was the ordering process like? (Was it easy to buy? How could it be improved?)

4. What’s your life like now? (You don’t just want to know the direct results of using your product/service. You want to know how it changed their life for the better.)

Ask these simple questions and you’ll get great testimonials. An added bonus: The personal contact will strengthen your bond with your best customers.

“Food for thought.”

“I love ETR and your new format.

“The short articles by Michael Masterson and some of his ‘half-baked’ ideas are wonderful, especially that he is somewhat of a contrarian to a few popular beliefs. He actually thinks about this stuff, investigates what’s going on, and writes about it. I’ll bet there’s quite a few folks out there, besides me, that agree with his comments.

“I don’t agree with everything he says in his articles, but they are still food for thought… alternative ideas, provoking, and worth reading.

Thank you sooo much for the inspiration. I’ve heard many wonderful comments, and not so long and drawn out as mine. But I want to put my two cents worth in, so here it is.

“I am grateful for everything you do. It means a lot to me… and is helping to build my confidence… in myself.”

Patricia del Valle

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90% of the Billionaires Living in America Weren’t Born Rich – They became rich because they had the “Billionaire Mindset.” This is the observation of Bob Cox. He’s a gifted success mentor. And he had the rare privilege of working with four of the richest men in the world. If you want to learn how billionaires really think just listen to Bob…

It takes time and effort to hire good people, but it’s well worth it. Here are the four most important things I’ve learned:

1. Make the commitment. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. You can’t expect to hire great people if you spend just a few hours working on it. I don’t like interviewing, so I have to resist the impulse to hire the first decent person who comes along.

2. Look for the right things. Intelligence is important. But I’d put it third on my list. The two most important things to look for are attitude and aptitude.

3. Flee flaws. Generally speaking, a job candidate is at his best during the interview. If something about him seems “wrong,” don’t ignore it — especially if it concerns qualities that are important for the job. I’ve found that the personal quirks that surface during an interview are like the tip of an iceberg. What you see is a very small part of what you will have to deal with later.

4. Don’t worry too much about specific experience. Yes, it’s good to know that the person you hire can do the technical work from day one. But on day seven or day 14, you’ll wish you had opted for the better, though perhaps untried and unproven, prospect.

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Are You Your Only Employee? – The need to hire superstar employees to help you run your business may seem far off if you’re just starting out. But Michael Masterson can help you get to that stage sooner than you think. In his Wall Street Journal bestseller, Ready, Fire, Aim, he’ll teach you how to make your business profitable within two years. At the same time, you’ll be building a strong foundation to keep your business growing year after year.

There is a good chance that about 20 percent of your customers are responsible for more than 80 percent of your profits.

Astonishingly, some businesses don’t know who their best customers are. They are aware that some people are buying a lot of their stuff. But they don’t keep a list of those people or make a special effort to sell to them.

Big mistake.

Your best customers have already spent a lot of money with you. But they will also be the ones who will spend the most money with you in the future — if you give them the chance.

So if you don’t know who your best customers are, find out right away.

And then market to them (a) more frequently, (b) more personally, and (c) with more expensive products.

They will reward you. That’s guaranteed.

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Chicken, Oranges, Eggs, Apples, Beef, Lettuce, Cereal Bars, Tuna, Peaches, Spinach, Pork, Strawberries…

You want to keep your family healthy. But if you feed these foods to your family because you think it’s GOOD for them, you’ve been horribly misled.

MaryEllen Tribby has produced a special report that reveals why the products you buy may not be as healthful as you think… and what you can do to regain control.

In this free report, you’ll discover:

• 3 pesticides used illegally in scores of foods…

• Why following the USDA’s recommendation of eating 5 daily servings of fruits and veggies could be damaging your body…

• 13 foods that are chock-full of harmful chemicals…

• A sneaky trick Big Business plays to get you to buy products that AREN’T organic…

Plus, you’ll discover the best defense against pesticide abuse in the foods you and your family eat.

Take charge of your health and the health of your loved ones. It’s simpler than you think. Your first step is to read this free report.

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.”

We also talked about how conferences have benefited us personally. As attendees, we’ve met many talented people who gave us ideas we’ve used to great success. As expert speakers, we’ve been privileged to open minds to new careers and a new way of life.

We try to create those same opportunities at ETR’s conferences.

Our speakers don’t just give their presentations and rush to the airport. They hang out after hours. They answer questions. They ask you questions about your business and make suggestions. If you’ve been to an ETR Bootcamp, you know that our speakers and our staff are dedicated to making the event an enriching experience for every single attendee.

Bootcamp is in just a few weeks. It’s a great chance — maybe the best chance you will ever have — to get to the next level of financial success. If you’re serious about taking charge of your future, be there!

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How to Make Fast Profits From Your Own Internet Import Company for Just 48 Cents a Day – Starting in Less Than 24 Hours

Right now, corporate America is getting filthy rich off of you.  And they do it every time you shell out money for almost any item – large or small.   These profits come from the massive mark-ups on imports from places like China, where a widget may cost a buck or two, but sells for $19.95.

But now the tables have turned on the corporations – thanks to the Internet and our global economy. And you can be the one reaping windfall profits from the import business.  Best part:  You can easily run the entire business online, with no employees, no previous experience or knowledge, and with as little as $50 in start-up costs.

All you need to do is simply follow a proven, step-by-step plan that is handed to you with this turnkey system. Learn how you can get started right now!

Let me give you an example.

When I first got into the rental real estate business, I had no knowledge of how it works. But I did have a basic understanding of real estate, having bought and sold properties before.

So I did two things.

First, I bought some “how-to” books and spent, maybe, 40 hours studying them.

I zipped through them pretty quickly, because most of what they taught were fundamentals. And that’s not what I was looking for. I knew I would pick up the basics on my own, just by buying my first few properties.

I was looking for secrets — inside information that could get me into profitability faster. So, more important than studying the books, I talked to knowledgeable people — lots of them — who had made millions in real estate. (I spoke to one guy at a party who had reportedly made billions.)

That’s what I do whenever I am interested in a new business. I search out pros in the field and ask as many questions as they will tolerate. I am always probing for the same things:

• What are the most common mistakes I’m likely to make?
• What is the fastest and safest way to get started?

It took about three months of this sort of research before I felt “ready” to buy.

I bought three small houses in my town. All three seemed good on paper. In reality, they were a mixed bag. I made several big mistakes in assessing their value that I won’t make again. I also quickly learned things I’ll never forget about how to write a contract and how to screen rental applications.

What I gleaned from the books and conversations was enough to get me started. It helped me avoid the worst mistakes. It put me on the right path.

But what I learned from the experience of doing it was the good stuff — the true inside information that helped me eventually establish a decamillion-dollar portfolio.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: The most important knowledge about any business is invisible to outsiders. You can pick it up only when you are actively involved in the business on a day-to-day basis. You can’t know it any other way.

That kind of knowledge will determine your ultimate success — whether you keep going and become rich or stop at the starting gate and do no more.

Where are you with your great moneymaking idea? Are you “ready” to take action on it?

If not, take a few months to acquire the knowledge you need. Spend some money to educate yourself. But buy how-to books and programs only from people with proven success in the field, not from those who make money only by selling advice.

Then “fire”! The sooner you get going, the sooner you’ll succeed.

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The Closest You’ll Get to Effortless Weight Loss

Suppose you could drop all of your unwanted fat… I’m talking 10, 20, even 30 or more pounds… without going to the gym or forcing yourself to eat rice cakes and tofu burgers?

A new clinical study published in the medical journal Lipids in Health and Disease says it’s now possible.

The participants in this study lost an average of 28 pounds and 6 inches off their belly. And they didn’t change their diet or exercise habits one bit.

This just may be the most successful weight loss compound ever tested!

Click here to find out how you can join the “newly slim and trim” crowd…

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They are probably eating up limited and valuable resources that could be better used elsewhere.

Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino’s Pizza, tells a story about the early days in his first pizzeria:

“One night, most of my employees didn’t show up, and I didn’t know whether to open or not. Someone said, ‘Why don’t you just cut out the six-inch pizzas?’ We had five sizes, but most of our business was the smallest, the six-inch. It took just as long to make as the big one and just as much time to deliver but cost less.

“I decided we would try that,” said Monaghan.

“We never got busy that night, and yet we made 50 percent more money than we ever had. The next night I cut out the nine-inch pizza, and all the bills caught up. I learned then that keeping things simple could be more profitable.”

You should continuously be asking yourself two questions:

1. How do I increase my business’s most profitable activities?
2. Is it really worth it to maintain the low-margin activities?

The answer to the second question, by the way, is “No!”

Cut your losers short and let your winners run. Make “survival of the fittest” your credo.

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Early to Rise’s $500,000+ Gamble

We’re betting on your success at our Information Marketing Bootcamp this November. In fact, “we’ll see you and we’ll raise you”!

You see, we’ve put the 12 gurus we’ve invited “on the spot.” If you don’t learn from them how you could make at least your first $10,000 in revenue with your online business by May 2010… we’re going to give you back your entrance fee AND give you another $1,000 for your trouble.

Check out all the details on your “sure thing” here.

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Not that I pay much attention to such things, mind you.

My professional life revolves around marketing trends. And there again, my advanced age means I’ve seen many promotional styles over the years.

But through it all, the principles of creating effective sales copy pretty much stayed the same. And for one simple reason:

Our prospective customers weren’t changing much.

In 1975, for example, my average 65-year-old prospect had been born in 1910. In ‘85, I was writing primarily to folks who’d been born in 1920. In ‘95, my average prospect had been born in 1930.

All of these prospects had common values. They all had memories of the Great Depression… World War II… and of gathering around a flickering black-and-white television for Ozzie and Harriet and Father Knows Best.

Their Weltanschauung was formed at a time when a man’s word was his bond and good character meant everything.

They were raised by their parents to revere the government… trust the family doctor… respect their employers… believe what the media told them. And also to assume that most of the advertising they saw and heard was true.

It was for these generations that the great advertising masters created their legendary ads. And it was from these generations that the masters learned what worked best before passing it on to us in their classic books.

Now, these generations are being gradually replaced.

Oh, what a difference a single generation can make!

Today’s 65-year-old prospect was born in 1942. Way too young to remember World War II, let alone the Great Depression.

More important, he turned 18 in 1960. And he acquired his skills as a consumer smack-dab in the middle of the “Question Authority” era of the 60s and early 70s. Vietnam and Watergate produced the most cynical generation America had ever seen.

What’s more, that generation did an excellent job of passing its skepticism on to its children. Those hyper-cynical “Generation Xers” are now your 26- to 47-year-old prospects.

Meanwhile, two additional sea changes have been giving our prospects even greater reasons to distrust anything they see, hear, or read. Including our ads.

The first one began with the appearance of The National Enquirer, packed with stories of alien encounters and other such horsepucky.

Soon, other publishers figured out they could get rich by appealing to our baser instincts. And tons of “me-too” tabloids — featuring stories of the lurid and bizarre — began springing up like crazy.

Finally, the national media figured it out too — and started spending less time covering news that matters.

They became obsessed with Joey Buttafuoko, Lorena Bobbit, Monica Lewinsky, the status of Britney Spears’s underwear — and, of course, UFOs.

Now, I ask you. Can you imagine the venerable Walter Cronkite reporting on such things?

Neither can our prospects.

And now, while the once-respected media have been busy debauching themselves, a second sea change has taken place. The Internet — an even less responsible medium — has taken center stage.

Since people can pretty much say whatever they want on the ‘Net — whether it’s true or not — many do.

And so, for consumers whose IQ is larger than their shoe size, online advertising claims are taken with a grain of salt.

What does all this mean to you?

Well, for one thing…

Everything you think you know about marketing is becoming obsolete.

The advertising masters — Kennedy, Lasker, Hopkins, Collier, Schwab, Caples, Reeves, Ogilvy, and others — created their classic ads for a radically different audience.

It’s time to stop asking, “What did the masters say in their books?” and to begin asking, “What would they HAVE DONE if they had been presented with today’s prospects?”

As a marketer, overcoming your prospects’ skepticism is your greatest challenge.

The good news is, it can be done. Because though our prospects are radically different than their parents and grandparents, they have one thing in common with them:

They like to spend money.

The desire to feather our nests… purchase products that can make us richer or healthier… buy things that save us time, effort, or money… spend on things that assuage boredom or improve status… is every bit as powerful as it ever was.

Nevertheless, the way in which we deliver the message that our products can satisfy those desires must change.

Today, it’s all about developing a relationship with your prospect. It’s about building credibility and loyalty over time.

Marketers who do that are growing by leaps and bounds. Those who cling to the old models are losing ground.

Today’s prospect is likely to ignore sales communications that look like sales communications.

Instead, newsy leads that key on something they are already thinking about often work best.

Lower-key, value-added advertorials that reward prospects for reading by delivering useful information is leaving the high-energy language of the carnival barker in the dust.

It’s all about persuasion.

Falling back on the old ways and just throwing around a bunch of promises is easy.

Thinking is hard.

Climbing inside your prospect’s skin… fully understanding what he must first know before he’s likely to purchase your product… then presenting that information in a way that’s engaging, entertaining, and credible — and doing all that without having your sales copy sound like sales copy. That is the hardest kind of hard.

But it’s worth it.

A while ago, I wrote a series of friendly e-mails inviting prospects to attend a free teleseminar on international investing.

More than 5,000 people signed up. And the call delivered valuable, actionable advice to help investors profit in foreign stock markets.

It also sold somewhere north of $1.5 million in subscriptions in a matter of hours.

Meanwhile, we blasted an “obvious” USP-based promotion to prospects.

It barely registered on the response Richter scale.

Worth thinking about…

P.S. At Early to Rise’s Info-Marketing Bootcamp this November, I’ll be sharing even more insights about what is working in Internet marketing today — and what isn’t. I’ll reveal how to boost response and sales in today’s market. And I’ll tell you exactly how to avoid the mistakes that have been slowly killing so many online businesses in the past couple of years. Find out more about Bootcamp here.

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The Greatest Dirty Little Secret of the Internet

To make money on the Internet, you have to produce and sell lots of products.

But producing all those products can be expensive and time-consuming. And after all the work and investment, you could end up broke.

There is a very clever way to get around this problem. It’s being used by a few of today’s top Internet moneymakers. But they aren’t talking about it.

They don’t spend time (or money) on products that may or may not sell. Instead, they pluck moneymakers from a reservoir of pre-made products and sales promotions.

A martial arts expert from Florida turned this strategy into a small fortune. He estimates that one “pre-made product” made over $20,000 in one month. Another has gone on to pull in over $332,250.

Discover how he found these moneymakers … And learn how you could use this secret to make anywhere from a few hundred bucks a month to a few hundred thousand a year right here.

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Ready?

To start a business — any business — successfully, you must be able to do three things:

• Develop a product that people want to buy.
• Figure out how to sell it at a profit.
• Push yourself and everyone else on your start-up team to get the first two things done before you run out of money.

To make that happen, you must have three distinct personalities on your start-up team:

• A thinker
• A marketer
• A pusher

The thinker’s primary job is to come up with new ideas. He must understand the psychology of the market. He must know who your typical customer is, what he likes to buy and why.

The marketer’s primary job is to understand the mechanics of sales and marketing. He must know all the details — and pay attention to them.

The pusher’s primary job is to be pushy. He must be goal-oriented and willing to take on the responsibility of making the thinker and marketer do their jobs.

In an ideal world, every new business would be launched by three people: a thinker, a marketer, and a pusher.

But in most cases, new businesses are started by one or two people. And that means one person must do the work of two or three.

You might have a good marketer who is a so-so idea man and is trying to run the business himself. Or a talented product developer who partners with a good marketer but has no one to do the day-to-day pushing. I know of one business that has neither a good marketer nor a good idea person. It gets by — barely — but only because its CEO keeps pushing inexperienced people to make mostly mediocre efforts.

Imperfectly balanced start-ups can succeed so long as all the people at the top recognize the work that needs to be done and work hard.

But don’t lose sight of the three essential jobs that need to be done and the different personalities those jobs require. Ignore them at your peril.

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The Relaxation Technique That Eases Stress in Seconds

You’re stuck in a boring meeting… a long line at the bank… or bumper-to-bumper traffic. Your blood pressure is rising.

But with one unconventional (and often misunderstood) technique, your frustration, anxiety, and stress simply slip away. You’ll feel peaceful, in control, and happy within seconds. Any time. Anywhere.

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Businesses are going bankrupt right and left. And those that aren’t tanking are seeing their profits diminish. This trend will probably continue. So if you are struggling to make profits and are hoping the economy is going to come roaring back, forget it.

Government bailouts are going to the big bankers and brokers who aided and abetted the Great Recession. Entrepreneurs, at best, will get a little lip service. But nobody is going to send you a check or send checks to your customers suggesting that they spend that money with you.

When your business starts foundering, procrastination is a mortal sin. At the first sign of diminished cash flow, you have to bring together your key people, share the numbers, and create a plan.

As CEO, you are the team leader. And the team’s first two goals should be to increase cash flow and cut expenses. (By the way, if you are not the CEO, this is a great opportunity for you to step up and become his right-hand man.)

Usually the best way to increase cash flow is to introduce new products and offers to your existing customer base. If you have been running a good business and have good relationships with your customers they will do their best to respond to special offers, if only to help you out.

Cutting expenses is emotionally challenging because it means discontinuing products you like, eliminating processes you have personally established, and, in some cases, firing perfectly good people. But for a business in trouble, it is essential. If you fail to do it, chances are you won’t be around next year.

Though cutting expenses may be difficult, your toughest job will be getting your marketing working again. And you can’t delegate this responsibility to anyone else.

You have to take charge of the marketing. That means really digging into it and using your experience to suggest changes you can test. It also means motivating your marketing team to implement those changes.

There are several important benefits you will enjoy the moment you take charge of the marketing.

For one thing, you will be able to stimulate new energy and enthusiasm in a team that may be demoralized. They’ve exhausted themselves trying to make the old tricks work. They’ll welcome any new ideas you may come up with.

Also — by putting yourself back into the front-end action — you will be able to see your business like you haven’t seen it in some time.

Furthermore, you’ll be able to get really close to your customers — to their beliefs, desires, and feelings about the products you are selling them. And that may give you the breakthrough idea you need.

I recently tested this with a client whose business was losing money in chunks. Some projects were still working reasonably well. Others were gushing losses. After several months of trying this and that, I convinced him to fire his top marketer and do the marketing himself. Three months later, what was looking like a million-dollar disaster had reversed itself and was making a healthy profit.

The bottom line: This is a bad time for small businesses. If your business is in trouble, don’t expect to be rescued by the government or the economy. The rescuing must be done by you.

You’re the boss. You get the big bucks. Roll up your sleeves and do the hard work. You’ll find the answers you need, and your business will be in the black again in no time.

What does this mean to you as an entrepreneur?

For one thing, it means that your goal is not to develop brand-new products. Instead, you must notice trends that are beginning and develop products that anticipate where those trends are going.

It also means that you must be humble. Innovation isn’t usually about genius. It is more often about trial and error. If you are always trying to come up with products that are completely different, you will likely have a very poor success record.

Imitation — knocking off your competitors’ products — doesn’t work. It is always too late. But noticing what products are starting to trend upward and then creating better versions of those products — that’s how you get the breakthroughs.

As we used to say in the 1960s, it’s all about evolution, not revolution.

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“The Cholesterol Theory of heart disease is quite possibly the largest cover-up in medical history,” says cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Dwight Lundell.

Get ready to discover:

• How an entire nation was lured into believing cholesterol causes heart disease, a theory that lacks scientific fact.

• How “no fat dieting” and “elimination of saturated fat” actually caused an epidemic of inflammation.

• Simple, powerful recommendations to help reduce the causes and effects of inflammation.

• PROOF that lowering inflammation is the most effective way to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.

It is time to stop the cholesterol madness.

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