| Nothing but fun stuff for me to do today -- putting the finishing touches on the Christmas village, wrapping presents, listening to Christmas music, eating, drinking, spending time with the family. I hope you are having as good a day. Tomorrow -- for those of us who celebrate Christmas -- is a time for giving and receiving presents. It's also the perfect time to reflect on and be thankful for some of the gifts we may have taken for granted -- the things that really matter in life. So find an hour to be alone. And think about those things. Recognize how lucky you are to have them and how quickly they can be taken from you. You can have an amazingly bountiful life. No one and nothing can prevent that. The greatest gifts are available to you now and will always be open to you. This moment. And this one. And this one too. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Increase Your Wealth by Managing Risk Like the Pros Do You can't take all the risk out of investing. But you can take much of it away. More important, you can remove the worst aspects of risk -- those that cause fear and result in bad investment decisions. ETR'S own Charles Newcastle has developed a quick and simple four-step "risk removal" system that could bring you 132%+ gains in a matter of weeks.
"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." Paul J. Meyer How to Write Better Marketing Copy Faster
By John Forde
Regardless of what kind of writing you do, says a study from the National Writing Project of Louisiana, three key components seem to have the biggest influence on how creatively productive you'll be. What are those components? 1. A Consistent Working Environment Almost all the writers in the study had a designated "place" where they did their best writing. Simply being there gave them focus. I concur. I can write almost anywhere -- but I prefer dark, quiet spaces. I travel a lot, but have a designated spot in each of the five locations I typically find myself in during a given year. I also need certain "supplies" to get going. A long yellow legal pad or a tablet of French graph paper. Black Bic pens. My ever-present MacBook Pro. Environment includes sound, of course. Personally, I work best with dead quiet. Sometimes with music. But anything with lyrics is poison. I know many other writers who agree. Classical or jazz. Bach's cello suites or the Goldberg Variations. Chopin etudes. Beethoven's piano sonatas. "Kind of Blue" or "Some Day My Prince Will Come" by Miles Davis. Old Coltrane (but not the crazier, more recent stuff). (Caveat: I know at least one brilliant copywriter who keeps the TV droning on in the background! I couldn't do it. But it works for him.) 2. A Set Time for Working If you're a freelance copywriter, working outside of an office environment, this might be a hard truth to face. Yet, almost all the writers in the study said they wrote better if they did so at a certain time, the same time, every single day -- especially in the morning. I know, I know. I sympathize with anyone who says they prefer to work at night. I used to prefer it myself. But having young kids who didn't understand why Dad wouldn't come away from the computer changed that. And for the better. Not only am I much more productive when I get good work done early, I'm happier too. And, yes, all the best copywriters I know also get started early. And not just early, but by working on their biggest projects first. No e-mails. No phone calls. Serious writing first, trivial stuff later. (Remember when there was no e-mail? Can you imagine wasting two hours a day faxing back and forth with your buddies? Of course you can't. Well, just because e-mail is more automatic doesn't mean it's any better for you.) And as long as we're talking about time, the intelligent use of deadlines deserves a mention. Even daily deadlines. It's the pressure -- the end goal -- that makes us work more quickly. Consider the famous Eugene Schwarz story. Every day, to get himself started, he'd set his egg timer to 33.33 minutes. Then he'd sit down to write copy for 33.33 minutes, even if it just meant staring at the blank page until beads of blood formed on his forehead. 3. Rituals That Boost Confidence This last influence on the creative productivity of the participants in the Louisiana study -- their behavior rituals -- was critical. Unfortunately, it was also ambiguous. In fact, some of the rituals the writers had didn't seem to have anything to do with writing at all. Sharpening pencils. Wearing a lucky sweater. Using a certain coffee mug. The researchers theorized that the consistency of such rituals bred confidence, and helped melt away potential "writer's block" anxiety. That may be true. What seems just as true is that some rituals manage to mildly distract your senses so your subconscious can get to work. Walking, for example, seems to work for many copywriters. When they're feeling around for an idea, they fast-track it by filling up their mind with information about what they hope to sell... and then step outside for a stroll. If not that, they take a drive. Or a shower. A Bonus Tip You say you've tried all that and it doesn't seem to help? Try re-working your diet. A recent issue of Science reports that a single protein in the brain -- SCN -- controls your "master clock," making you feel awake or tired, hot or cold, bleary or focused, etc. And just two days of tinkering with the eating schedules of lab rats threw off the SCN balance in their little brains. Eating a light, protein-centric breakfast can help you stay focused on anything. Lunch, on the other hand, should be light or even skipped. A lot of people claim they can think better on an empty stomach (yours truly included). And, Finally, a Bunch of Tips to Jumpstart Your Copywriting Process... Ready? Write out ideas on index cards. Talk ideas into a tape recorder. Sketch out the pages of your promo, even before writing a single word. Copy a strong lead paragraph two or three times. Go to bed early tonight. Study the outline behind your last great promo. Start re-reading your pile of research from top to bottom. Good luck! [Ed. Note: For more tips on jumpstarting your writing process, check out the world's premier copywriting program from American Writers & Artists Inc. In their Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting, you'll discover the secrets behind one of the biggest, most lucrative, and least well-known industries in the world. And the lessons you learn can be applied to any type of writing. And be sure to sign up for John Forde's weekly Copywriter's Roundtable. It's one of the longest running e-letters for marketers and copywriters (online since 2001)... and it's free. You can sign up here, where you'll also get a free report: http://copywritersroundtable.com.] -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- The Simple Six-Figure Marketing Strategy Paul Lawrence spent less than $100 to start his first small business. He used just one marketing strategy to go after prospects. Soon he had so many customers... he hired an employee to do the actual work. He focused on getting new accounts. And he used his marketing strategy again. Almost instantly, he was grossing $4,000 a month. The people he sold the business to (so he could finish college) used the same marketing strategy. They are making $100,000 a year. Find out what it is...
I love Christmas time -- even the parts of it that are tawdry and blatantly commercial. Christmas may commemorate the birth of Christ, but it has a longstanding tradition in America and much of the rest of the world that has nothing directly to do with that. Christmas is about love and sharing. And the fun of it is in the customs we observe to experience that love. The lights and the store windows and the mad shopping and, yes, the Christmas trees. It's about celebrating our blessings. Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and even atheists have a right to do that. So let's include everyone -- all our friends and neighbors -- in the Christmas game. -----------------------------------------------------Advertisement----------------------------------------------------- The Closest You'll Get to Effortless Weight Loss Suppose you could drop all your unwanted fat... I'm talking 10, 20, even 30 or more pounds... without going to the gym or forcing yourself to live on rice cakes and tofu burgers? A new clinical study published in the medical journal Lipids in Health and Disease says it's now possible -- with what may be the most successful weight-loss compound ever tested! The participants in this study lost an average of 28 pounds and 6 inches off their belly. And they didn't change their diet or exercise habits one bit. Click here to find out how you can join the "newly slim and trim" crowd...
According to the book Did You Ever Wonder… by Jeff Rovin, "Xmas" comes from the Greek word for "Christ," which is "Xristos." The shortened form of the word "Christmas" became popular in Europe in the 1500s. Today, we see it a lot, especially in ads. (Maybe because it has the same number of letters as "sale"?)
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Today's Words That Work: Tawdry Tawdry (TAW-dree) -- short for St. Audrey lace -- means gaudy; tastelessly showy and cheap. Example (as used by Michael Masterson today): "I love Christmas time -- even the parts of it that are tawdry and blatantly commercial."
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