Test Your Copywriting Genius
Which is the better headline? “Tension Headache?” Or . . . “When Doctors Have Headaches, What Do They Do?” The answer, of course, is the second one. Why? Because it conveys not only an implied promise (I’ll cure your headache) but also proof that the promise can be delivered (because…
The Safest Place to Store Your Cash
“The safe way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.” – Frank McKinney Hubbard “You definitely need a cash position,” Porter Stansberry tells us. “And you need it to be immediate money. Not CDs, not gold. Your cash should be money…
How to Dramatically Increase Your E-Mail Marketing Revenues by Becoming Part of Your Prospect’s “E-Mail Inner Circle”
When you get 100 or 200 e-mail messages a day, just getting through them becomes a drain on your time and productivity. To protect themselves, many people simply delete e-mails from anyone they don’t know. They assume it is spam — or don’t want to risk a virus infection. So…
How to Get a Big Fat Raise
“When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?, ‘ I say, ‘Your salary.’ ” – Alfred Hitchcock My No. 1 son works for an L.A.-based business that does postproduction editing of movies. He’s…
The Magic of “Other People’s Money”
“When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: He hasn’t got any.” – George Bernard Shaw Have you ever had a great idea for a business but brushed it off as a crazy dream because you didn’t have enough money to get it started? Well, guess what?…
What Do You Do With a “Bad Apple” Employee?
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill If you have an employee with a bad attitude, what do you do? If he is a weak performer, the answer is easy: “Get rid of him right away. But what if he’s very good at what…
Should You Use Some of Your Home Equity to Launch Your Real-Estate Investing Career?
There’s a big difference between good and bad debt. Bad debt is money borrowed to buy “stuff” that rapidly depreciates in value. Good debt is money borrowed to buy assets that appreciate in value and produce income greater than the carrying cost of the debt. The perfect example of good…
How to Avoid the Three Biggest Stock Market Mistakes
“I measure what’s going on, and I adapt to it. I try to get my ego out of the way. The market is smarter than I am, so I bend.” – Martin Zweig I’m not an expert in stocks, but I have been involved with stock-market publications and stock-market gurus…
How to Avoid the Three Biggest Mistakes Stock-Market Investors Make
When dealing with stock-market gurus, I’ve met a lot of characters – some brilliant men without a trace of honesty and some honest men without a trace of intelligence.
The Awful Truth About Unsolicited Advice, Part II: How To Score Points With A Client (Or Potential Client) By Criticizing What He’s Doing
In her book “The 7th Sense”, Doris Wild Helmering makes a distinction between constructive criticism and “inappropriate” (petty, denigrating, and useless) criticism. According to Helmering, constructive criticism has three components: 1. There is a contract between the people involved. The person who is making the critical comment is involved…
The Awful Truth About Unsolicited Advice, Part I: A Big Mistake You Don’t Want To Make
The other day I got the following unsolicited e-mail from a Web designer: “I just visited your site to check your copywriting service. You have a very good portfolio, but one thing that your website lacks is powerful design that would reflect such quality service. It just happens that I…
Get Valuable Free Publicity
“News, news, news — that is what we want. You cannot beat news in a newspaper.” – Arthur Christiansen Years ago, when I was just starting out as a ballroom-dance instructor, there was an article about me in a major local newspaper. It was on the front cover of the…