| The secret to more enduring happiness is to do less for yourself and more for others. Happiness comes to you not when you are making yourself the center of your universe but when you forget yourself and look outside. This is a truth I learned late in life. And it is one I have to relearn almost every day. I "got it" 25 years ago when I took the Dale Carnegie course in winning friends and influencing people. One of our weekly tasks was to greet everyone we met with a big smile and a happy voice. This was contrary to my natural disposition. It took a good deal of effort to break out of my slope-shouldered attitude. But I forced myself, and it worked. Almost immediately, my employees began to perk up when I walked into the room. Not hunch down or run for cover as they had been doing. I got more feedback from them, too, and eventually more suggestions. Productivity flourished. I did the same thing at home. When I first broke out my happy hello, my children looked at me like I had grown an extra head. It was more difficult with my loved ones because I was under the mistaken impression that I had to be "honest" with them about my feelings. And since I was feeling worn out at the end of the day, that's what I was giving them. I still keep falling back to my default gloominess. But each time it happens, I tell myself, "Fake it until you make it." It's a lifelong effort, but very much worth it. Start to "practice happiness" with your immediate family. Smile. Say a happy hello. And sound like you mean it, even if you don't. When you are feeling especially downtrodden, remind yourself that your spouse and children, mother and father, aunts and uncles, and nieces and nephews were not brought into this world to listen to and/or solve your problems. That's your job. Resolve to spend less time complaining and more time listening. Hold your tongue when you feel like criticizing. And don't allow yourself to ever say anything that will deeply hurt anyone. As your grammar school teacher told you, you will only be hurting yourself. Make your friends happy too. Smile when you see them. Listen to their stories. Give them the advice they want and shut up when they don't want any. Become the person they turn to when the chips are down. Above all, be loyal. Be a reliable and steady resource for your business colleagues. Help them achieve their goals -- not because you want their loyalty but simply because you care about them and want them to succeed. Make this outward focus a part of your daily life. Do it purposefully and deliberately until it becomes second nature. You will know when this happens because you'll be feeling happy most of the time. ---------------------------------------------- Highly Recommended ---------------------------------------------------- Before You Risk Money Testing Your Marketing Plan in the Market... - Come to our Info-Marketing Bootcamp in November. Our crackerjack marketing experts will tell you what they think of your plans. They will help you fly right through the "trial and error" phase of starting a business. You'll leave knowing your plan is based on proven, moneymaking techniques. Read more... (The price of Bootcamp is going up tonight -- don't wait.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Advertising is, actually, a simple phenomenon in terms of economics. It is merely a substitute for a personal sales force -- an extension, if you will, of the merchant who cries aloud his wares." Rosser Reeves Last Time I Used This Sales Letter Formula, It Generated $5,402 -- and It Took Less Than an Hour to Put Together
By Roy Furr Last month, I spent less than one hour adapting a simple one-page sales letter to be e-mailed to 215 people who'd recently done business with one of my clients. The e-mail was simple. Basically, it said: "Thank you for your recent purchase. Now I'd like to give you preferential pricing on a product I think can bring you higher value." The results? $5,402 in quick sales. That's $25.13 for every person who received the e-mail. And that's just one of the times I've done this. Last December, I adapted the same letter for the same client's year-end e-mail. We sent it to all 2,376 customers who had done business with them in the past year. The result was a quick $11,719 in sales. A nice end-of-year boost. And now they're even including a version of this letter with every order shipped -- and getting calls and e-mails on an ongoing basis to take advantage of the offer. Actually, as I write this I almost hesitate to give it up. Because... This is like handing you my secret weapon! This easy-to-adapt, one-page, back-end sales letter is one of my secret weapons for creating instant cash infusions for businesses I work with. It's reliable, too. I've seen letters based on this formula generate similar results, both online and offline. (It works so well because it relies on human psychology and not some "trick.") And you can adapt it to your business in less than an hour, so you can start making sales right away. Here's my "instant cash infusion" formula... First, decide who to contact. Every business should track the people who have done business with them. (You do keep this information, don't you?) I'll have my client pull a list of the people they've done business with in the past one, two, three, six, or 12 months. Often, we'll just pull a subset -- say, recent respondents to a particular offer or group of offers. Next, decide what to offer. You have a couple options with this. First, your own back-end offer -- your higher-value, higher-priced offer for customers who liked doing business with you once and, thus, have a strong predilection to do business with you again. Or, if you haven't had a chance to put together a back-end offer, look for another business that has a product that would be of value to your customers. Then arrange to promote that product to your customers in exchange for a percentage of the profits. Now, create your promotion. This is really simple. In fact, I'm going to give you the exact template I use. Before I do that, though, let me just mention that this letter should look as personal as possible. It should look a lot like a memo from you or one of your employees who the customer already has a relationship with. If it's an e-mail, make it plain text or designed in HTML to look like plain text. If it's printed, put it on plain "memo" paper and not on letterhead. Okay. Here's my template. E-mail subject line or line at the top of the print letter (in bold, normal-sized font): RE: Your [Month] [Company Name] purchase Body of the e-mail or letter: Dear [Name], Thank you for your order [last month]. Your business is appreciated! Now I have something for you. [Write a single sentence here explaining that you have an exclusive "past purchaser" offer that you're extending to them because of their previous order.] Here's how it'll work ... [Describe the exclusive offer in 2-3 sentences.] [Then compare the exclusive offer to the regular offer in 1-2 sentences.] Here's what to do next ... [Explain how to take the next step -- how to place the order or how to contact you so you can move the sales process forward.] [Place a time limit on the offer.] I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, [Name]
[Title]
[Company Name]
[Phone]
[E-mail] P.S. If you don't yet know what [name of back-end offer] is, in my opinion [explain what makes the offer unique and why they should respond immediately]. [Give the top 1-3 benefits your customer will receive by responding to the offer.] [Explain how to get more information on the offer if they're not sure what it is.] Please reply immediately to take advantage of this offer. Once you've adapted this template to your business (it shouldn't take long -- certainly less than an hour), send it out. Inquiries and orders should start immediately. Presto! Instant cash infusion. Now let's do this on autopilot! Once you've done this a couple of times and proven its worth to your business, you can set it up to happen automatically. Your technical team can set up e-mails that go out at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, every two months) after an order is placed. Your website shopping cart system may even have this feature built in. This will add another dimension of profitability to your business -- and you won't even have to think about it. How else could you use a sales letter like this? It's one of the most gratifying experiences in business -- writing a letter, sending it out to potential customers, and getting money in return. And it works not only for back-end offers but also to: - Get new customers
- Convert past inquiries into orders
- Sell a new product to your past customers
- Generate sales leads
- Persuade others to do almost anything!
And the interesting thing is that all successful sales letters -- no matter what their purpose -- have the same basic "structure of persuasion" that can be learned and applied to each new situation. By learning that underlying structure, you can set yourself up to generate extra cash for your business anytime you want. Say you want to buy a new vehicle or have to pay off an unexpected tax bill -- you can just write one or two letters and "pull the cash out of thin air." P.S. AWAI's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting reveals the methods A-level copywriters use to write the most profitable sales letters being used today. Early To Rise's Michael Masterson, as well as master copywriters Don Mahoney, Bob Bly, and others, walk you through the secret structure of letters that have generated millions of dollars in sales. ----------------------------------------------Highly Recommended --------------------------------------------------- Why You Don't Need To Be an Author to Have a Bestselling Book A Florida martial arts expert "found" a dusty old book. Then he turned it into estimated sales of over $20,000 in one month. With another book, he's pulled in $332,252. A 30-something Internet marketer used the same formula to dig up his own bestseller. The little-known art book he found made $19,453 in just 3 weeks. Those books weren't first editions. They weren't famous. They weren't wildly popular. Best of all? These hidden treasure troves don't have to cost you a penny.
You could unearth the next bestseller. Find out how right here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do You Think Managing Is a Waste of Time?
By Michael Masterson
According to most "serial business builders," bad hiring and firing decisions are among the most serious mistakes entrepreneurs make. These include:
1. Not spending the time and energy to recruit the very best employees
2. Not paying close enough attention to an executive's performance
3. Waiting too long to fire someone
Think about the people who report to you. How would you rate them? Good? Very good? Excellent? Are they better than you at what they do? Can you think of anyone who could do the job better?
You can effectively manage only six or seven people. So when you think about it, your primary job is very doable. You have to find, train, monitor, and inspire no more than six or seven people.
Take a look at how you spend your time. How much of it is by yourself, working at your desk? If the answer is "most," you are probably not doing your primary job very well. If you spend 10 hours a day at work, at least half of that should be spent:
- Looking for better people
- Paying attention to what your key people are doing
- Educating them
- Rewarding them
- Firing them, if necessary
Every great person you hire will make your life immensely easier and your business more profitable. Invest in finding and grooming great people and you will never regret it. Speaking of making yourself happier and your life easier, there are serious health benefits to both of these good habits. A recent study, for example, has confirmed that stress and anger can be linked to heart disease. The researchers looked at 150 married couples. None of them had ever been diagnosed with heart disease. Each couple was asked to choose an issue that caused conflict in their marriage (money, children, etc.). And they were videotaped discussing it privately. When the tapes were reviewed, the researchers scored what they said to each other. Specifically, they were looking for hostility, as well as statements that were submissive or domineering. Each participant was given two CT scans to measure the amount of plaque in their arteries. One was given before the videotaped session and one two days later. What the researchers discovered was that when couples argued, they increased their risk of heart disease. But there was a difference between the two sexes: * For the women, hostility was the stress trigger. When the wife exhibited hostility, the follow-up CT scan showed a significant increase in her plaque build-up. When both husband and wife were hostile, that increase was even greater. * For the men, controlling behavior was the trigger. When either partner made controlling statements, the follow-up scan showed an increase in the husband's plaque. The lesson: Conflict may be unavoidable in any relationship. But if you stay civil in your "discussions" you'll be much better off. Depending on your product and your target audience, using improper English in your sales copy may make it work better. The trick is to really know your prospect. Actually picture him or her in your head. Then pretend you're having chat with that person while you write. A "conversation" with a retired Midwestern farmer, for example, will be much more informal than one with an established businessman. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You're my inspiration." "Hey, kids! I love the new look! It has that 'open' feeling versus the 'cluttered' look. I look forward to seeing what other 'freshness' you all will come up with. "I'm excited because ETR keeps me focused on how to make money and how to keep it! This year, I'm devoted to keeping up with my ETR newsletters and focusing more on my goals and dreams for this year and the next! "Keep doing what you're doing. You're my inspiration to keep going."
Janet Jennings
Dayton, OH ---------------------------------------------- Highly Recommended --------------------------------------------------- Fire Your Cellphone Company - A recent study has found that Americans pay an average of $500 more per year on cellphone service than Europeans. We pay more. And we deal with old technology and shoddy service. But with Ka-Ching Editor Matthew Adams's help, you could save as much as $1,500 a year. All you have to do is switch to a certain provider. No signing up for a new plan. No contracts. No extra fees. Read more... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Language Perfectionist: More Literary Devices
By Don Hauptman In a previous column, I discussed figures of speech that writers and speakers employ as rhetorical flourishes. The list is long, so here's a second take. For some reason, perhaps because of their classical roots, many begin with the letter A.
anacoluthon (an-uh-kuh-LOO-thon) -- A departure from normal grammatical structure or sequence. Example: "Either you go ... but we'll see." antiphrasis (an-TIF-ruh-sis) -- The use of a word to mean its opposite. Example: referring to an enemy as "my friend." This is more commonly called irony or sarcasm. apophasis (uh-POF-uh-sis) -- Claiming not to know what to say. Example: when someone receiving an award protests, "I'm at a loss for words." Or slyly announcing that one will not address a subject. Example: "I won't even mention my opponent's prison record." The former is also called aporia and the latter paralipsis. aposiopesis (ap-uh-sy-uh-PEE-sis) -- An abrupt break in mid-sentence, where the speaker leads up to a word or phrase and then doesn't utter it. Example: "Stop right now or I'll ...." asyndeton (uh-SIN-dih-ton) -- Omitting the conjunctions that would normally be required. A famous example: Julius Caesar's "I came, I saw, I conquered." [Ed Note: For more than three decades, Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant. He is author of The Versatile Freelancer, an e-book published by AWAI that shows writers and other creative professionals how to diversify their careers into speaking, consulting, training, and critiquing.] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We want your feedback! Let us know your thoughts on today's issue. Email us at: AskETR@ETRFeedback.com | 
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