Posted by:
Daniel Levis
January 13, 2010
Issue #841
Dear Web Business-Builder,
Over the holidays I did a little informal survey of my subscribers, asking, “What’s the most influential book you’d ever read?”
75 of my readers responded with a list of 63 titles. And I proceeded to read the top 12 by number of mention.
For any of you interested in gaining additional insights into your file, I highly recommend this little exercise.
Here is the list of books my readers deemed most influential:
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
- Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
- The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles
- Influence, The Psychology Of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
- Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale
- Winning Through Intimidation by Robert Ringer
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsh
(more…)
Posted by:
Daniel Levis
January 6, 2010
Issue #836
Dear Web Business-Builder,
Earlier today, my wife and I enjoyed our first brisk walk of the new year through the thousand acre expanse of Sugar Maple bush near our property.
As we crunched over Styrofoam-like snow, skins stinging in the sub-zero air, she punctuated our pace with a rather innocent sounding question.
“Now that it’s 2010,” she said, “Do you think people will refer to the new year as ‘two thousand and ten’ or just, ‘twenty ten’?”
And I thought for a minute. “Well, the standard for 2009 seems to have been ‘two thousand and nine’. So force of habit would imply ‘two thousand and ten’.”
“Yes”, she says, “But how long will it be before a few people realize they can save two whole syllables by abbreviating it to ‘twenty ten’. It’s a brand new breath-saving opportunity you know. You’ve never heard anyone say ‘Twenty nine’ for 2009, have you? Just doesn’t work. And besides, ‘Twenty ten’ has a much better ring to it, don’t you think?” Just then I tripped over an errant root sticking up through the snow and that was the end of the discussion.
But later, when we got home and I sat down to write this article I couldn’t help but wonder: So what if they do? So what if a few people economize by saying ‘twenty ten’.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
December 30, 2009
Issue #831
OK, so you probably know the guy on the left has a bag of copywriting tricks so deep you could fall in and suffocate… but what in the heck’s honest Abe doing in the picture?
Glad you asked …
As you may or may not know, Lincoln was one hell of a writer.
In fact, he wrote one of the most famous and revered pieces of “copy” of all time: The Gettysburg Address.
For a few moments, let’s imagine it’s November 19th, 1863 …
The weather is cool. There are clouds in the sky. Around noon, we arrive at the scene of the great Gettysburg battlefield to dedicate a cemetery.
And to honor the dead …
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
December 23, 2009
Issue #826
In this article:
- The real reason your prospects whip out their plastic and BUY NOW!
- The silent connection that bonds you to your prospects …
- What you must do with your landing pages to turn visitors into buyers …
- How your own self-image is both your secret copywriting weapon, and your marketing Achilles heel …
- How to supercharge your creativity, making your writing time infinitely more productive …
- And more!
Dear Web Business-Builder,
Why do your prospects buy from you?
I often ask my consulting clients this very question. And the first answers I get usually look something like this:
- Because we’re the most affordable
- Because we offer the best service
- Because our product offers the best value
- Because we have a superior reputation in the marketplace
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
December 16, 2009
Issue #821
Dear Web Business-Builder,
Back in the early 90s when I was selling telecom related stuff, cold calling was a great way to get new business.
This was the dawn of telecom deregulation here in Canada. And generating appointments over the telephone was literally like shooting fish in a barrel. Any idiot with a little epidermal density could do it.
But as time went on … the market became increasingly sophisticated and saturated. And many sales reps started crashing and burning.
I made a point of listening to them on the phone and casually questioning them about what they were doing. And it was easy to see why they were struggling.
The market had changed. And they hadn’t. They were still delivering the same old one-size-fits-all sales pitch to anybody who’d listen.
And by dumb luck, should a prospect betray even the slightest flicker of interest, BAM, the rep would be all over them like a dirty shirt, pushing for an appointment — ready to make a mad dash across town to meet with them. These reps seemed oblivious to a simple concept I call — selling from strength.
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