Anyway, I have decided that I will be updating this site regularly and with non-important stuff – aka my life and its magical events.  I will be running a new site about advertising and marketing, which I am in the process of coming up with a name for and all.  You can be sure that I will post all kinds of stuff once it is up and ready.

Lastly, I hope that everybody had a great Easter Holiday.  Thanks to all of those who came out over the weekend to The Rutledge.  Crushing Juliet will be in Memphis, TN playing a Cancer Benefit for a good friend of ours – we hope that you can ALL make it out and support this cause!

The Opposed

Hot Mess

Sad day in the music world as it became known that Jim Marshall, founder of Marshall Amplifiers, has died.  The exact cause or date has not been made available yet.  Marshall Amps has always been one of my favorite brands and I own several of them.  For more on Jim Marshall, check out MarshallAmps.com.  Rest in Peace.

In this post, I want to deal with some curiosity-creating title making for advertising.  While some of it is applicable to articles and stories, it is mostly based on writing ads.  Whether you are using a news paper classified or putting up an ad on Google, these are some steps you can take to getting your readers attention.

In reality, writing a title for an ad should be fairly simple.  Something short and sweet that gets attention.  Sounds easy enough.  There is actually a lot of psychology and thought that goes into good, creative title writing.  And like everything in life, there are some easy-to-follow, traditional methods that work time and time again.  (Also, there is always exceptions to the rules!)

Write for the simple minded

I am sure that you are incredibly intelligent and you can impress people with all kinds of uncommon, fancy words.  You are probably also incredibly creative.  I am also sure that you want to show off how smart you are to everyone.  After all, why stoop down to a less educated level and use simple, everyday words?

Well, you want to sell something, that’s why.

Forget how smart you are and how many awesome words you know.  In advertising, especially in print, you need to for the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method.  You have to write for your audience.  And if you didn’t know, a large majority of people rather have a tooth pulled than have to think.  Most of us are lazy.  The easier you make you ad title the more likely it is that I will read it.

Creativity vs Non-Creativity

As you can probably tell, you are going to run into a problem with creating something that grabs people attention, but is dumbed down for the lazy brains out there.  It is important to be creative, but you must balance the creativity with everyday-ativity.

I promised I would show some tips and general rule of thumb notions, if you will.  So, I will do that in a second, but it is important that you understand that the title is important.  I know, I know – I have only said that 200 times in the last three paragraphs, but it is a must.  Once you master the art of being simple – and trust me, it is difficult – then you can experiment with creativity and really find your own.

Create Curiosity and Get Readers

You want your title to create curiosity.  You also want your title to attract the right audience.  I am sure you can put a title like FREE BEER and catch the attention of 97% of the people who skim the page.  Unless you are offering free beer though, it really does you no good.  Sure, you may get 1,000,000 people to view (or web click) your awesome title, but when the ad is about selling the latest HDTV, it isn’t going to get you much interest – if any.  (Of course, you could offer up a free 6 pack beer with a purchase of the latest 42″ TV for the “Big Game” – but quit over analyzing and stay with me!)

There are many ways to catch peoples attention like promoting to their self interest, news, curiosity, etc. Give them something that helps them out, that is news, that creates curiosity, and is easy to read, and you got yourself a winning title.

If you are like me, you like examples.  You can take these examples and really apply them to anything.  Once you start reading some of these and learning the tricks of the trade, you will become more aware to how much this stuff is used all around you everyday – and you probably never noticed!

Tested Attention Grabbing Titles

“FREE” - who doesn’t love free?
“Free Secrets to a Healthier You!“

“IF YOU” - it’s really just rhetorical
“If You Enjoy Sleeping at Night, This Ad Brings You Good News!“

“CAN YOU” - well, can you?
“Can You Be Sure You Know What You are Really Eating?“

“INTRODUCING” - DUN, DUN, DUN
“Introducing the Only Car that Drives Itself!“

“WARNING” - this example is really popular to commissioned internet affiliate sellers
“Warning! Read This Article Before You Purchase Crushing Juliet’s CD!“

“LOOK” - what is more attention grabbing then being told to look?
“Look! You Can Buy This Awesome Thing for a Wholesale Price“

That is just a small list of the many tested and proven title starters you can use for creating ads titles that grab peoples attention and create enough curiosity to keep them reading.  There are tons more: would you, do you, presenting, finally, starting today, ending today, at last – you get the point.

Remember, this is just one method of attention grabbing titles focused on the pure curiosity of your future customer.  Of course, not everyone is curious enough to read more just because you wrote a good title, but you will easily TRIPLE the amount of people who will read your title by adding an attention getting, curiosity element.

Now that you know how to capture peoples curiosity, you need how to lure you readers into you article or ad.  What good is a title if there is nothing interesting to back it up?  None.  I will get to that in a future post as well as some more title tips and tricks used by all of the big companies to “prey” on the unexpected customer.

The plain and simple point of a headline is: capture the readers attention and motivate them to keep reading. 

Do this and a large majority of the selling battle is over.  If you have a good title, a good ad, and a good product, you will make the sell.  One more quick tip on the subject, all the customer cares about what is in it for them, so be sure you appeal to the benefits of whatever you are advertising in your title as well!

If you’ve found this post helpful or entertaining, please donate to show your support.

In this short post, I just wanted to quickly touch on a few cool things that are happening:

Happy Expressions.  This is a new clothing and apparel line that I am currently working on.  The website isn’t finished yet, but I do have some products up and ready for sale via the Happy Expressions Facebook page.  Definitely check it out!  I got a special going on that includes a free wrist band with t shirt purchase as well as FREE SHIPPING.  (Also, bands and other people looking to sell their merch and products via Facebook, I suggest you check out Payvment.)

 Crushing Juliet.  The band is back and in full swing again.  We have been booking up shows and recently snagged an awesome sponsorship by Xzavier.  They make an amazing line of shirts and have some really awesome designs.  And, it is about that time for them to be putting out their next all new line of shirts!  We have some other great things in the works, like new music, but I am limited as to what I can say.

Here are some upcoming dates we recently confirmed:

APRIL 7 – THE RUTLEDGE IN NASHVILLE, TN
APRIL 20 – HARD ROCK CAFE IN MEMPHIS, TN
MAY 4 – THE WAREHOUSE IN CLARKSVILLE, TN
JUNE 9 – THE NICK IN BIRMINGHAM, AL
JUNE 23 – NEWBY’S IN MEMPHIS, TN
JULY 21 -HARD ROCK CAFE IN NASHVILLE, TN

Be sure you download the album, available on iTunes and anywhere on the web, if you haven’t gotten a chance.  Also, don’t forget to Like Us on Facebook.

For sponsorship information and to learn how you can gain a large audience through Crushing Juliet, please email info at crushingjuliet.com.  For booking, email booking at crushingjuliet.com.

But wait… there’s more!

Throughout the process of relocating, I have thought up some pretty awesome ideas to write up about.  Including a review of Comcast customer service – which will be a fun, fun one to write about!  I also jotted down some marketing topics to talk about and some of the recent things that I have dealt with.  I will give away my Cash back, no wait in line Walmart secret as well in the upcoming week.  You definitely do not want to miss out on that.

For today, I simply leave you with this:

Some goals are big,
Some goals are small,
Some goals are hard,
Some goals aren’t at all.

Would you like to be more successful at achieving and accomplishing goals?  Hopefully, you do and what I am about to share with you will help you do just that!  There is one little thing that you can do that will completely change you “goal accomplishing” life.  And the best part – it is easy!

Write down your goals!

That is it.  That is the million dollar secret.  You can read every book in the entire world on accomplishing goals and they will all have that one factor in common.  Usually, it is the very first thing mentioned in the book or any writing.  Do it and you will see a huge change.  Why? Well, it is really a psychology thing.  I am sure that you are really intelligent and can keep up with every thought in your head that you have ever had, but you aren’t constantly reminded of every single thought all the time.  When you write down your goals you have something to look at and you have something to cross off.  You have a feeling of accomplishment when you go to a list and cross of the one thing you set out to do – trust me.

Many people will even go a further step when they are focusing on a primary goal that they are trying to accomplish.  That step is simply a picture.  A picture can be a huge motivator.  For example, I want a 1970 Stingray Corvette.  Do you know what I have hanging on my wall directly above my computer?  That’s right, a picture of a Corvette.  Now every time I want to spend money on something completely pointless, I can look up and say “No, I want that, not this.”

The beauty in this method is that you can use it for anything.  If you want to lose weight, find a picture (a model or an old picture of yourself that you wanna get back) and post it on your fridge.  Every time you go to get some late night ice cream, you will have second thoughts.  It really can work with anything.

So, let me get back to the real point of this post, write down your goals! You can write down long term goals and short term goals.  Every list of goals should have primary goals and second goals.  Primary goals should always outweigh the secondary goals.  I mean, if you can accomplish one primary goal, you should feel better than if you accomplished all of your secondary goals.  Maybe you want a house, a car, a yearly vacation, a new job, a new body, or whatever.  These are all goals and how important they are in your life should determine what priority you place on them.

How to write down your goals

There are many ways to write down your goals.  I strongly suggest that you actually hand write them  There is just something about actually writing something and then being able to go back and actually cross it out.  You can look back and see what all you have accomplished and what you need to sit down and focus on.  It is like a hidden boost for your ego when you see what all you have actually done.  It could be that you are accomplishing a lot more then you think that you are… or not nearly as much.  Either way, it will open your eyes and change your life.

You can buy a dry erase board and write out your list of weekly goals.  If you want to get something done in a week, write it on the board.  Make a Primary List and a Secondary List.   They should be something actually accomplish-able.  Do not write down stuff that you cannot realistically accomplish – this will make things worse for you than they already are!  Also, I wouldn’t recommend more than two to three primary goals a week and remember, one primary goal will leave you feeling more accomplished than all of your secondary goals being completed.  Now, it doesn’t have to be a dry erase board, but they are easily accessible, visible, and cheap.  A simple notebook or piece of paper will work just find – or a picture!

You should also keep a notebook or sheet of paper with long term goals.  Once you have a goal like “In 3 years, I want to buy a house.” then you can make smaller goals and task that will lead up to you being able to do just that.  If you have a plan, you can get more done even if it is not an extremely detailed planned.

You should also have life goals. They kind of fit in with your long term goals, but span over your entire life.  Maybe you want to make a difference in some aspect of the world whether it is feeding the poor, helping children or animals, contributing to world piece, or, although I don’t recommend it, being the person to die with the most material possessions.  Whatever that goal is, you should cater everything else to help you accomplish that.  After all, you only get one chance.

This post could really continue on for days and we could dive into great detail about every aspect of accomplish goals and writing them out, but we won’t.  At least, not today.  I believe in living positively and not sitting by idly, so I will have plenty more to say on goals and getting things done – trust me.

Remember, the list are to help you get things done and to make you feel better about what you are doing.  You shouldn’t look back at a list and see all the things you didn’t accomplish because there isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done.  You will not accomplish everything.  Look at your list and see what you actually accomplished.  It will definitely change your process and how you get things done.

If you’ve found this post helpful or entertaining, please donate to show your support.

Pre-order the game and gain access to the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club which allows you to download awesome in-game items. To pre-order please click here.

If you haven’t checked out the original Borderlands game, I highly recommend you do that. You can click here to pick it up for $29.99.

Borderlands 2 is a hybrid First-Person Shooter, RPG game focused on over-the-top co-op play, and set in the open-world game environment of the planet Pandora. The second game in the game series, Borderlands 2 raises the ‘loot and shoot’ action of the original game with an even larger and more detailed world to explore, an updated gun system, a new cast of characters and character classes, and integration of storyline with action.

Borderlands 2, sequel to the critically acclaimed and best selling role-playing-shooter hybrid, once again delivers its unique flavor, characters and addictive nonstop collaborative loot-shoot gameplay. As in the original game, Borderlands 2 features an openworld game environment, but this time around the world players experience is larger and packed with more depth at all levels. The game features an all-new cast of characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons, and equipment that come together in a carefully crafted and connected story. Make new friends, arm them to the teeth and fight alongside them on a relentless quest for revenge and redemption through the undiscovered and unpredictable living world of Pandora.

•  All-New Characters and Classes – Choose from all new characters and classes including the Gunzerker, who can dual-wield any two weapons in the game. Dual machine guns? Cool. Dual rocket launchers? Of course. Dual sniper rifles? sure, if that’s your thing.

•  Play Online with Friends – Share your adventures with friends both online and via LAN through a seamless system enabling you to drop in and drop out of a campaign without ever having to restart the game.

•  World Connected Story – Left for dead in the frozen tundra of Pandora, begin your quest of revenge and redemption as the story drives you closer to the Hyperion Corporation and its evil founder, handsome Jack.

•  New Badass Gun System – Millions upon millions of possible weapons means tons of new and innovative ways to engage foes on Pandora. Fire, electricity, corrosive acid, and more will all be at your disposal.

•  87 Bazillion…Everything – It’s not just guns on Pandora, you will lust after procedurally generated shields, grenades, alien artifacts, class mods and much, much more.

• Brand-new Environments – From the arctic tundra, through the dangerous grasslands, past the mysterious corrosive caverns to beyond, discover more of the unpredictable world of Pandora at every turn.

• Brand-new Enemies – Hulking, gorilla-like Bullymongs, vicious predatory stalkers and the hyperion mechanical army, run by handsome Jack, are just some of the new enemies you will face.

CLICK HERE to pre-order Borderlands 2 for $59.99 and get a special $10 promotional credit on Amazon.com – LIMITED TIME ONLY!

You can download the Crushing Juliet album BROKEN CADILLAC anywhere you can download music.  You can also check us out on Rhapsody, Pandora, and many other streaming sites.  Check us out on Facebook!

Click Here to download Round & Round and the rest of Broken Cadillac by Crushing Juliet

Presently in the market, webmasters should be able to find numerous affordable web hosting companies. For the webmasters who want to significantly succeed with their website, it will also be necessary that they select the right one. Along with ensuring that a web hosting service is affordable webmasters also need to make sure that they will be provided with quality web hosting as well. A cheap web hosting solution will definitely prove to be worthless if the internet users are not even able to visit the website. Webmasters who want to ensure that they obtain quality hosting service from a web host who is offering reasonably priced plans, following are the things they should keep an eye out for.

Latency of the web hosting company

The latency of the web hosting company that they are considering to choose is the very first thing that webmasters should take notice of. When it comes to checking the ping times of a web hosting company, webmasters will be able to find numerous tools online that will prove to be helpful to them. What is really convenient about these tools is that webmasters will not have to pay anything to get them since they are available for free. The latency time of the web hosting company should in fact be checked from a variety of cities, especially if webmasters will be targeting any particular ones with a pay per click campaign. The conversion and click through time can be improved if the web host has high latency.

Web hosting company’s “uptime”

The uptime is the second thing that webmasters should be checking when they are looking for an affordable web hosting company. An ecommerce online store can be negatively impacted if the uptime percentage of a web host is very poor. If an ecommerce website constantly slows down, web shoppers will easily become frustrated and move on to another site. Webmasters can expect to furthermore customers if the server that the website is being hosted on goes down on a constant basis.

Quality software and management systems

Whether or not they will be provided with quality software is another thing that webmasters will have to determine when they are deciding which web host to select. When comes to facilitating the requirements of a website, it is important that webmasters ensure that they will be able to obtain various quality software from the web host. This will not only make the website easy to use for them but also the visitors of the website.

Good management systems such as Joomla, Mambo, etc. and a blogging platform such as WordPress should be essentially provided by web hosts. Quality SQL databases should also be provided by chosen web hosting. An ideal cPanel should also be offered by a website hosting company that is being chosen. With the right cPanel, developing and maintain a website can become a lot easier and simpler. Last but not least a shared server might not always be sufficient enough for certain webmasters and in that case it important to find out whether dedicated hosting at a cheaper price is being offered by the web host or not.

Even when considering an affordable web hosting company, keeping the mentioned factors mind can help you select the right one.  As I stated before, I use Godaddy and I know that right now you can save 20% on their 12-month hosting package – which is a great deal!  I wish it was around when I first got my hosting!

I hope that everyone who watched the game enjoyed it.  I was busy watching the commercials and not so much the game – oops!  I will get around to post a couple of clips on some of the better commercials in the next couple of days.  Be on the look out to see your favorites again!

What was your favorite moment of this year’s Super Bowl?  What was your favorite commercial?

CLICK HERE for 10% off orders of $100 or more on your New York Giants gear!

Why should you have a personal domain name?

Getting a personal domain name is very important especially if you are a blogger or are involved in online business. Yes, you can get a blogger with major hosts such as word press, but this is not the same as having your own. Keep in mind that your business is bound to grow in the future meaning more visitors and when this happens the company hosting your blog site is going to benefit. This is one reason why you may want to get your own domain name.

When you invest in a good domain name you can be sure that it is going to help you in the future. There are some people who have earned millions just by selling domain names while they invested just a few dollars to create it. If you do not invest in a personal domain name today you will buy it for millions in the future. This is why it is advisable to get your name before someone else does. You must subscribe yearly if you want to retain ownership of that domain name.

A personal domain name is easier to remember compared to one which is not personal. You can use a name that is easy for you and other people to remember and make it easy for those who want to communicate with you. This is very important if you are promoting your brand online. In addition to creating a memorable name, you can create a short domain name. You can minimize the number of characters used to make sure the name is easy to memorize and small enough to fit in your business card.

Having a domain name can give you an advantage over your competitors. The search engines will recognize you when people want to learn more about you. Imagine what can happen when an employer wants to know more about you and he is able to locate personal and academic details online. This can impress him and he may end up hiring you.

If you are still not convinced why you should have your own personal domain name then do it because it is cheap. There are some sites that provide a free domain name while others will require you to pay less than $15 annually. The cost is negligible considering the benefits of having one.  (My favorite is GODADDY!)

It is important to have your own domain name. This is something you cause to create awareness about your brand or business. The benefits of owning one are many. You will have control of the personal domain name and can decide whatever you want to do with it.