I have never liked reality TV. Although I don’t deny it can be entertaining at times, there are several things about it that bother me. I don’t like the gossip, the backstabbing and the grandstanding antics that drive ratings through the roof. But what bothers me most is not so much what happens on the shows, but what happens to the viewers.
As a coach, I know that the crucial key to creating the life you want is taking action. Watching reality TV is a perfect example of how not to get what you want. Instead of stepping forward and engaging in life themselves, viewers live vicariously through the participants as they struggle to deal with challenging situations. It is easy and seductive to be part of the audience; to criticize and judge others who are taking action while you sit on your butt in the safety of your living room. Meanwhile, watching TV and talking about what happened on the show last night is not moving you any closer to your goals.
Perhaps I am feeling sensitive because of my own age. I will be 57 years old in a few months and recently several acquaintances younger than me have died of natural causes. Suddenly I am feeling a sense of time urgency as never before. Things are going well but I still have more to do and more to give. I have not created the life of my dreams yet.
Think about Michael Jackson. He was only 50 years old and although you may argue that he did not die of “natural causes”, his time is over. One thing you can say for him is that he did not play safe. He took action and shared the best and the worst of himself with the world. He played full-on while millions of armchair critics sat back passing judgment. How many of them accomplished anything worthwhile or even broke a sweat working to reach their potential the way Michael did?
I was recently reading “The Think Big Manifesto” by Michael Port and he reinforces this point with an excerpt from a speech delivered by Teddy Roosevelt in 1920: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Life is short and there is much to be done. Celebrate failure - at least you tried! The biggest and most seductive trap of all is to live your life as part of the audience; to feel smug and superior as you watch, judge and criticize others while doing nothing to achieve your own goals. So the next time you catch yourself playing the role of critic, identify something you want in your life and do something - anything - that will move you towards it. Yes, it is risky to take action. But a greater risk is to do nothing and let life pass you by. And the most annoying and useless thing you can do is spend your time talking and complaining about others while you do nothing to create the life you say you want.
Andrew Barber-Starkey is a Master Certified Coach residing in Vancouver, Canada. His coaching program, the ProCoach Success System, is designed for entrepreneurs, small-business owners, self-employed and commissioned sales people who want to double their income while simultaneously doubling their time off within 3 years.
Jonathan’s note: I met Andrew recently and was very impressed with what he’s doing. I now receive his newsletter, and I found this issue so relevant that I requested permission to post it here. I hope you find it useful.
I used to get a lot of little projects done for me on Scriptlance.com - things like header design and other little graphics projects.
However, recently I thought I’d start using some people from a popular forum I participate in.
Only problem is, most times they require the money up front before they start work. I can see the sense in that, from their perspective. For that matter, I do the same when I’m charging out my services. (well, 50%).
Unfortunately, on about 3 separate projects that I’ve now used that system (paypal, pay up front) I’ve yet to receive a satisfactory result. I get an initial burst of activity and some sort of deliverable, which inevitable requires modification.
Then the modification process starts to drag out; communications become slower and slower with more days in between responses.
Admittedly, part of the problem is on my end as well, as I should be prompt in my communication and stay on their case.
So what’s the lesson to be learned here?
Use some form of escrow whenever you’re dealing with someone online and the deliverable will come at a different time than the payment. Places like Escrow.com work well, I’m told.
The benefit is that the person you’re hiring knows they’re guaranteed their money, if they deliver. You know that you’re guaranteed delivery, or you don’t pay. Win-win.
The more I talk to people, the more I come across the mentality that article writing is hard. For me, the hard part is getting motivated to do it. The easy part is the actual writing process. Article writing doesn’t have to be hard; in fact it can be made very simple by having a system that you follow. A while ago I created a small course called the 10 Minute Article System, and today I’ve taken three article writing tips from it to share with you today.
Tip #1. Pick a Keyword
Good article marketing (on the internet) always revolves around keywords. Offline it doesn’t matter so much, but online you must focus on a keyword. So pick a keyword for each article to focus on, and be sure to mention it a few times in your article. That keyword essentially becomes the topic of your article. Make sure you use it 1-2 times per hundred words.
Tip #2. Think of Three Subpoints
Of all the article writing tips I can think of, this is perhaps one of the keys to saving the most time. Once you’ve got your keyword or topic, take one minute and think of three simple points you can make about that topic. Write them down. Now, when you go to create your article, all you have to do is write a couple sentences on each point and you’ve got most of your article complete! Add an intro sentence and a conclusion, and you’ve likely got a 300 word article.
Tip #3. Create a Catchy, Keyword Optimized Title
Titles are very important to the success of your articles. If you’re looking for article writing tips make sure you find some dealing with titles. For SEO purposes, you must include the keyword in the title. However, for the “catchy” factor, you often need to make it more than just the keyword. Try making it a short list, like with this article “3 Easy Article Writing Tips” for instance. Or, “3 Ways to Lose Fat Today.” You can also make it a question or a how-to statement. Have some fun with it!
If you’re looking for article writing tips, I’m guessing that you’re a conscientious marketer who is looking for ways to improve your article writing skills and ability. If these article writing tips have helped you, come checkout http://www.10minutearticles.com and learn how I was able to cut my article writing time from nearly an hour to less than 10 minutes!
A month or so ago I ranted about a certain marketer that sent out an email with a negative, misleading subject line. Apparently there were a fair number of other people out there who felt like I did, as I saw this topic discussed elsewhere as well.
Yesterday I received not one, but two emails (from big name guru’s) with the subject “Bad News…”
Immediately they both started off with “well, this isn’t really bad news” or: “the bad news is that I’m taking my offer down”
How bad is that?
One of them kindly went on to explain that he’d recently heard from some other guru that the most opened subject line was “bad news” so he was going to try it out.
Of course his email had absolutely NOTHING to do with bad news, of any sort. Even if you’re taking your offer down, does that really qualify as bad news?
The underlying issue in question here is what really ticks me off. The guy who explained why he was using the bad news gimmick said that people respond to negatives. That’s why the news is always negative.
There’s a sensationalism that is hard to beat, that’s for sure.
But is putting “bad news” in your subject line really going to make more sales? Sure, it might get your email opened, but will it sell? There’s a thing called framing your customer - putting them in a frame of mind to buy.
Personally, yeah, I’ll probably open an email that says “bad news” but I’m also probably going to be ticked off once I realize I’ve been mislead and that they’re trying a cheap trick on me to increase their open rate, of all things.
The same holds true for all those PPC ads you see “Product XYZ Sucks!” then you go through and they’re trying to sell Product XYZ. Huh? Anyone think that through?
So take it a step further - now you know what your absolute best performing (for open rate, anyways) subject line is. Are you going to use that on every email? That’s gonna get old REALLY fast. Are you going to put a negative spin on every email subject line, then flip flop to roses and daisies and buy now inside?
On a deeper, moral level, should we be buying into the “negativity works” mindset? Seems rather Machiavellian to me. I know it works, but so do positive messages. That’s been proven over and over.
Let me ask you this - long term, who do you want to be known as to your customers, or “herd” as Dan Kennedy likes to call them. A negative manipulator, or a positive, uplifting bringer of good things?
Can bait and switch be a long term strategy? I doubt it.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you feel strongly about this, or is it just me? Is it ethical to market like this? Is it not even a question of ethics for you, and it’s totally fine, or perhaps something else?
Leave a comment and let us know.
EDIT: Apparently since I wrote this, the owner of nearly every list I’m on has come across this same information, and this morning alone I received 3 more “Bad news” subject lines… on top of another half dozen in the previous week. Seriously - is this stuff working? Leave a comment and tell us about it!
Ever wondered how your marketing strategy could benefit from spaghetti sauce? If you have, please imagine me giving you a very strange look right now.
If not, at least we’re starting on the same page here. The other day I came across a video on YouTube (if the suspense is killing you already, it’s at the end of this post) that talks about the $600 million lesson learned by Prego. Yes, that’s $600 million.
Now what lesson can we as internet marketers and product owners learn from the food industry?
It’s a phrase you’ve heard before - the riches are in the niches. However, I’m going to suggest putting a new spin on the riches in niches approach. Typically when I’ve heard that used, it is in the context of picking a market to go into. Pick one that is specialized enough, appear relevant enough, and there’s money to be made.
But what if you’ve already got a product? Let’s say for the sake of argument that you’ve got an ebook that teaches business owners how to use the power of email marketing to their advantage. Ok, so you’ve picked a niche.
But have you? Can you specialize further? How about specializing for restaurant owners? How about going even deeper and specializing in cafe style restaurants? Could you then go even further and specialize for sushi cafe’s? I think you’re starting to see that you can really drill down very deep when you’re picking a niche.
However, everything I’ve said so far is fairly common, right?
Ok, so you’ve got this ebook, but now why not use if for multiple niches, instead of just one? Chances are, 98% of it is going to be the exact same, no matter what business you’re in. Did you know that humans share 98% of the same DNA as chimpanzees? That doesn’t mean anything about whether or not we’re related; it merely shows the amazing commonality of the basic systems required for life. I’ve heard we share 60% of our DNA with bananas.
The fact is, regardless of your business, it takes the same set of steps to install an autoresponder form on your website. Likewise, setting up the autoresponder is going to follow the same sequence.
So now if you take the 2% of your ebook and customize it, specifically for sushi cafe owners, all of a sudden your book goes from being just one of the ones on the shelf to being the only book that shouts out their name, right off the shelf. By the very topic of the book you’ve identified your target market. If you owned a sushi shop, and you were looking for this information, which ebook would you buy? The one that is generalized, or the one that is specialized to your exact requirements? I think the answer is clear.
So what’s stopping you from creating a dozen of these ebooks? 98% of their DNA will remain exactly the same, and the 2% will be customized to a particular niche. You can now be super-relevant to a dozen niches, instead of somewhat relevant to many. Create one for electricians, fence builders, auto repair shops, sushi cafes, clothing stores, car washes, etc!
Do you see the power of this?
While that thought is percolating through your head, take a few minutes and watch this video clip. I’d love to hear your comments on it afterward.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Malcolm Gladwell.
What is one takeaway you got from this movie? How can you apply it to your business? Please leave a comment and let us know!
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