Posted by:
Julie McManus
May 30, 2008
Issue #429
Dear Business Builder,
Every day I open the morning paper with anticipation. I think I’ve mentioned in the past I’m a voracious newspaper reader … one of a dying breed.
But, it seems I’ve also turned into a bit of a bad economic news junkie. Perhaps it has to do with my many years working for a perma-bear financial newsletter publisher.
In a sad twist of fate, when you work for someone advising people in a bear market … every bit of bad economic news is in fact good news for business.
I can’t get enough of this information … even though it depresses the crap out of me. It’s like a car wreck and I can’t look away. It’s not as if I’m actually happy about this news or how it’s affecting the lives of many Americans … including many people I know.
It’s just I find it fascinating … how much further can the dollar actually fall? How much further will housing values decline (mine included)? Will we ever return to a time of easy credit … and which banks will actually make it out of the crisis? And don’t get me started on the price of oil … does what goes up, ever really come back down … not bloody likely!
So, you can imagine my (sick) delight when an e-mail hit my inbox with the subject line: Online retail Growth is Slowing. Oh my gosh, more bad news to feed my crazy obsession.
So bracing myself for the worst, I opened the e-mail expecting a tragic harbinger for the future of Internet marketing.
It actually turned out to be good news for my beloved industry.
In fact, according to eMarketer™, although consumers are actually spending less, this will create more of a hardship for retail stores than for online retail outlets.
This is simply because the core of online buyers are more affluent and tend to ride out economic downturns better than lower- and middle-income consumers. eMarketer™ estimates that US retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will reach $146 billion in 2008, up a whopping 14.3% over 2007.
But they do warn that we should expect to see the overall growth of online sales decline over the next few years. It’s just an inevitable sign of the maturation of the online retail channel … but certainly not cause for panic.
In fact eMarketer™ cites several reasons to be optimistic about the future of Internet retailing. Let me tell you about one of them …
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Posted by:
Charlie Byrne
May 29, 2008
Issue #428
“I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it, and one is the feeling that I haven’t just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.” – William F. Buckley (1925-2008)
Right now, there’s no better business in the world than information publishing.
Whether you are marketing e-books, newsletters, or any other electronically distributed product, the advantages over most other businesses are enormous …
There’s no inventory or warehouses. No spoilage. With the Internet, distribution is virtually free. You can work from practically anywhere, anytime. Because of near-zero overhead, profit margins can range from very good to incredible.
There’s just one problem.
You can’t really be successful selling information.
We’ve said it before in Early to Rise (ETR). These days, no one needs more information. What people are looking for is advice … expert guidance … trusted opinions.
Just think about today’s most popular media personalities. The days of solemn "fact-reciting" talking heads such as Walter Cronkite and Harry Reasoner are long gone. The new stars are brash and opinionated. Howard Stern … Rush Limbaugh … Chris Matthews … Jim Cramer … Anderson Cooper … Keith Olbermann … Bill O’Reilly … and on and on.
In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman explains how the data collection of straight journalism has been largely outsourced to low-paid stringers. The value is added later, when it’s filtered and interpreted in "opinion and analysis" pieces.
So here’s a thought. Maybe instead of Information Publishing, we should start calling what we do Idea Publishing! Because when you give people advice and ideas, they’ll listen … and pay for the privilege.
Rodale Inc. reported revenue of $632 million last year, primarily from marketing dozens of advice publications such as Prevention, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Organic Gardening, Runner’s World, and others. Agora Inc. had sales of over $300 million in 2007 through newsletter publishing. And thousands of individual publishing entrepreneurs on the Web today are pulling in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
So let’s say you’re interested in getting into this field. (And why wouldn’t you be?)
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
May 28, 2008
Issue #427
Dear Web Business Builder,
In last week’s edition of Web Marketing Advisor I revealed some advanced concepts for bonding buyer to seller through the hero’s journey.
In a nutshell, the hero’s journey is a shared story of discovery:
- The seller wants something and is having trouble getting it.
- The object of the seller’s desire is the same as the buyer’s. Therefore the buyer identifies with the seller.
- The seller embarks on a quest to overcome obstacles that stand in his way.
- A great struggle ensues.
- The seller prevails and is transformed through the realization of his desire.
- The buyer observes the path to attainment through the seller’s trial.
Down through the ages the hero’s journey has inspired man’s imagination. It has made men’s blood boil, driving them blindly into battle.
It has been a source of power and influence for politicians in times of peace. And has formed the bedrock of social control over people’s behavior throughout the millennia.
You’ve experienced it in bedtime stories and comic books … in church … on television … in novels … and at the movies. Everywhere you turn, it haunts you. The time, place and characters may change, but the structure remains the same: a chariot on which rides a hero with a thousand different faces. And the hero is YOU!
A Catalyst for ACTION …
Where sales copy is concerned, this remarkable story-form crystallizes the hopes, dreams and aspirations of your reader into a moment of confidence and clarity that becomes a catalyst for ACTION! Such is the source of its tremendous power to influence and persuade.
At the root of every great story there is a premise that rides subliminally under the narrative. A premise is like the moral of the story, which an author seeks to prove through the narrative.
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Posted by:
Troy White
May 27, 2008
Issue #426
Fellow Business Builder,
Never before has such foul language proved itself as a major business tool.
By now, I do hope you have heard of Gordon Ramsey, host of “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Hell’s Kitchen”.
If not, I would highly suggest watching the “Kitchen Nightmares” show sometime soon.
First, a WARNING: Thin-skinned folks need not tune in.
If you cannot handle foul language and incredibly abrasive personalities, do not watch Gordon’s show!
He is rude, loud, in-your-face, and LOVES swearing to get his point across (and everything is a point, so pretty well every sentence consists of swear words).
I am not going to go too much into Gordon’s past, but, rest assured, this ex-professional Scottish football player has a list of credentials that is long, and highly admirable.
He is now working on his 25th restaurant and many of them have multiple Michelin stars to their name (the most recognized and influential culinary ratings guide). He has multiple best selling cookbooks, 4 television shows and a DVD series, to name a few.
The story line behind a kitchen nightmare …
Gordon comes into restaurants that are almost ready to close their doors, for any one of multiple different reasons. He has 1 week to turn the business around and make it a success.
He is a no-bull guy and when he starts, there is no stopping him.
Why is this important to you?
Because Gordon’s formula for a 7-day business turnaround is one that each and every one of us should pay close attention to. If you are looking to increase your sales, the ideas below will help you see new ideas you have never thought of before. If you are struggling in your business or cash flow – go through each step below and reconstruct your business from the ground up.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
May 26, 2008
Issue #425
Dear Business-Builder,
What are you doing reading this?
You should be somewhere else — thanking a soldier, for instance.
I see — you’re a workaholic, too; right?
You’re focusing on ways to make a bundle so you can pay more taxes so Washington will take better care of our returning vets?
Oh — alrighty then, I salute you.
So here’s a fun little idea that has made me a bunch of money over the years …
Say you’re at the point where you have to write the ultimate headline for your new promotion.
So what do you do?
Well, most writers begin by writing something that contains the benefit the product offers.
Or maybe you decide to begin with a headline that’s dripping with intrigue and irony. A John Carlton “How a bald-headed barber saved my hair” kind of thing.
Or maybe you’re playing with one of the 42 other headline idea-starters I covered in those DVDs of the Power Marketing Summit you borrowed from a friend.
Here’s a thought — why not NOT do any of that?
Why not open your browser and search Google Images instead?
See, if there’s anything that’ll punch up the power of a headline, it’s a photograph that amplifies its emotional intensity.
Some time ago, for example, I decided to go to my rich old white male conservative investor prospects with a headline that read, “The DEMOCRATS are Coming!”
The deck copy of course, explained why that’s bad … and why reading the bookalog could save you from the plagues that are about to descend upon all of our houses: Higher taxes, bigger government, less privacy, more regulation, and of course, an economic and stock market catastrophe of Biblical proportions.
Still though, the copy just didn’t quite do it for me — and at first, I couldn’t figure out why.
Then, it struck me. My prospect isn’t afraid of “Democrats” — he’s terrified of specific liberals and their harebrained schemes for his life. Like Hillary. And Obama. And Howard Dean. And Teddy Kennedy. And Charlie Rangel.
So I jumped online and found images of each of these miscreants … added them to the headline … and — voila! — the headline came alive.
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