Top Achievers Get It Done

Tony Robbins Helps You To Find Your Potential

2006-07-17T18:42:00.000+01:00

Tony Robbins is probably the world's best known self-development coach and guru. So I'm pleased to be able to point you in the direction of TEDBLOG so you can get 20 minutes of Tony Robbins explaining how to find your true potential. He also asks the audience for a bit of interaction... Enjoy... And remember that every single superstar business person, athlete, chess grandmaster or straight A's student is learning all the time. That's what gives them the edge over everyone else! Listen and see whether Tony can teach you anything about yourself.

Do You Manage Multiple Projects Effectively?

2006-06-20T12:17:00.000+01:00

Multi-tasking is all about handling more than one project in a day.

Yet Dan Bobinski in Management Issues reveals some interesting and worrying information on multi-tasking.

He notes that Robert Croker, Ed.D., chair of the Human Resource Training and Development department at Idaho State University says,

"It's a common misconception is that a brain is like a computer. A computer is designed to multitask. A human brain is not designed to function optimally in a multitask environment."

Dan notes multi-tasking research in a related article on the Mangement Issues blog which show problems with multi-tasking.

Both the Journal of Experimental Psychology and science journal NeuroImage have published research that shows what happens as we multi-task.

It shows that the brain goes through several steps that take up time...

To quote further from Dan's article these include:

"a selection process for choosing a new activity,
turning off the mental rules needed to do the first task,
turning on the mental rules needed to do the second task,
orienting itself to the conditions currently surrounding the new task"

The thing that is of most concern is that the research shows that switching between tasks means they can take four times longer to finish. Due to the extra activity the brain has to go through.

From this it instantly becomes clear as to why interruptions are so difficult to handle, because we switch from work mode to conversation to work again. Put in a few of those in the working day and our brain activity is going to go through the roof along with our stress levels.

Bethlehem Steel And Charles Schwab

It also explains why the old Bethlehem Steel story is so vitally important to managing your projects.

Remember Charles Scwab told management consultant Ivy Lee to show him a way to get more things done and he would pay anything "within reason." Famously Ivy Lee simply gave Schwab one unused piece of paper and told him:

Each night take such a piece of paper
Note the most important things you have to do
Number them in order of their importance
When you get to work the next morning start at number one (the one you decided was most important) and continue with it until it's finished
When you've completed the most important task, start on number two and continue that until it's finished
Work on the most important task left on the list for the rest of the day
At the end of the day don't worry if you've not completed the whole list because using any other way would have been even more impossible
Make this your work habit every day
"Send me a check for what you think its worth."

As you're aware Schwab sent Lee $25,000. A fortune in the 1930's. That same technique is still taught by Time Management experts today.

Why Is It So Important?

So the reason this is so important is that it says focus on completing one thing at a time.

Exactly the same is true of managing multiple projects. Yes there can be some interruptions, like phone calls and emails.

The way I work is that I have two periods of time a day that I proactively make progress, issue and coaching phone calls so that I'm not (usually) interrupted by those.

I also turned off my regular email update. Sometimes it can be a pain when you're waiting for something but it's a small price to pay for a bit more control over what you're doing.

Focusing on the task in hand and completing it means that your brain is not constantly worrying over an unfinished task that's waiting to be finished.

Technorati Tags: Multi-tasking, Dan Bobinski, Management Issues, Journal of Experimental Psychology, NeuroImage, interruptions, gotta minute, Ivy Lee, Charles Schwab, Bethelem Steel, Time Management, coaching

How To Recruit A Super Star Sales Force

2006-06-12T18:20:00.000+01:00

Ted Nicholas, the author of "Magic Words That Sell" once said, "Marketing mistakes are by far the primary reason businesses do not survive. This includes companies which consider themselves direct marketers as well as those who do not" .

Of course Ted is quite right make mistakes in marketing and you ll end up paying through the nose for absolutely no results. Yet companies continually make mistakes in sales and seem to be lethargic in sorting it out.

If you don't sort your sales your revenue dries up, your company whithers and dies and your're left with nothing.

Not a pretty picture is it?

Yet whilst most companies don't reach that stage they do allow poor sales staff to be recruited and used against their customers.

They waste the opportunities that marketing provides by using salespeople that have one, or more, of these traits:

Poor closers
Too aggressive
Passive order takers
Fear of phoning
Can't write to persuade
Can't present without being boring
Unable to build value in the service or product
Has poor follow-up skills
Can't get to top decision makers
Finds rejection difficult to handle
Poor time manager
Doesn't think strategically
Not self-disciplined

I've just written an article about how to recruit a sales super star. Part of it involves using a a 17 point Sales Super Star Self-assessment Form that I've designed and used in the battle for the best salesman.

If you'd like a copy of the article send me an email to latest at acornservice.com. If you'd like a copy of the form send an email to form at acornservice.com. In both cases replacing at with @.

Tags: sales, sales man, sales recruitment, sales superstar, www.acornservice.blogspot.com

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Can You Achieve By Relying On Others?

2006-03-22T18:34:00.000+00:00

R. Philip Hanes certainly believes you can. In fact he believes you can get anyone to do anything. I've written a review of his book "How To Get Anyone To Do Anything" for blogcritics and have also put a copy of it on my own blog Magic Marketing. Personally I found the Philip Hanes' writing warm, humorous and very helpful. See what you think. If you want to know more about the book check more Amazon reviews for it at How To Get Anyone To Do Anything.

How Do You Get The Business You Want?

2006-02-17T18:53:00.000+00:00

Coaching - different things to many people

.How do you differentiate yourself from the thousands of coaches that are floating around?

Ones that are trained through academy's, others that work from related experience and others from unrelated experience.

I came across a very interesting set of questions that helped me understand how to look at my coaching.

To get the same intriguing information replace coaching with your own service or product.

The questions were as follows:

What is the danger to your client if he doesn't hire you?
What is the danger to your client if he doesn't utilize you regularly?
What is the danger to your client if he uses a less qualified coach?
What is the danger to your client if they wait to hire you?

So as I sell myself as a business and marketing coach, I approached the questions with that in mind. I could equally well have used the word copywriter instead of coach. Below are the questions again and the answers that came straight off the top of my head. There are no rights or wrongs with this approach it's simply to highlight how you can sell yourself better.

A) What is the danger to your client if he doesn't hire you?

He's unlikely to ever find out tactics that can make his business much more profitable and if his competitors do he'll be overtaken and forced to sell up/move/bankrupt
He'll continue to work in the business and without work on the business he'll simply be busy, busy all the time. The result is that he'll be in a job rather than a business. That's why there's so many one man businesses around.
He'll have to work longer and longer hours simply to make the income he needs to maintain his families life style until eventually he loses his family because they never see him.
He'll become more and more desperate not knowing whether he's reinventing the wheel when it comes to marketing and actually doing it wrong. Thus throwing money at marketing without any hope that it will work.
His competitors will make much more profits than he can and their lifestyle will measurably improve and that will be a pressure on him from his family to have a life style like his competitors family.

To stay focused on continually improving his business and his marketing he needs a regular sounding board and someone who can offer advice if the plan deviates from the expected. If he doesn't he'll make ill considered decisions that will affect cashflow and ultimately the company.
If he has nobody to complain to without fear of reprisal about his company, or getting well intentioned but useless advice about his staff, his suppliers his customers he'll start to be bottling up emotions that will affect his relationships at work and home leading to divorce and possible loss of the company.
His attention can be diverted from the plans that are in place simply by working in the business. That could mean the plans fail and ultimately the company fails to grow and thrive.

He may continually try to use the ways that the inferior coach is suggesting to improve his business with the result he pays more money for ineffective advice and actions. Ultimately if he continues down this line he'll make the company bankrupt, or he'll lose out by never trusting a coach again.

If they wait they wont make the extra money they would have made. That extra money could be the difference between the company surviving and going under.
They may make decisions that with a coaches help could have been improved significantly and thus they could make the company bankrupt.

So like I say an interesting an useful exercise.

It certainly gives you the ammunition you need when people ask why they should use you.

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Copywriting Posts - My Top 5 Favourites

2006-01-31T09:39:00.000+00:00

Happy Blogday to The Power Packed Business Growth Blog!

Yes I've been posting to this blog for just a shade over 12 months.

As I always enjoy writing I've tried to post every work day.

So I've looked back at the blog over the last 12 months and reviewed the posts I particularly liked.

So this is my top 5 copywriting posts... let me know what you think.

Gary Halbert Spills Some Of Those Copywriting Secrets

10 Tips To Make All Our Email Lives Better

Copywriting Compels or Repels - Which One Does Yours Do?

Why We Have Three Monkey Brains And How It Helps In Direct Mail

How To Get Copy and Headlines Written

Enjoy!

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Can 3,600 Consumers Be Wrong About What Is Important In An Ad?

2006-01-24T19:11:00.000+00:00

Consumers reckon text wins over pictures in an advert!

The Guerrilla Consulting Blog has this to say...

"In a study of 3,600 consumers, researchers concluded that to get people to notice an ad, text was twice as important as pictures."

I'm not quite sure how they can be sure that text really is twice as important.

But, it's something I've been saying for a long, long time.

That said an appropriate picture still helps by supporting the copy. But it must be appropriate.

In the end the copy sells you on the service, or product. For a start it tells you how to get it. Pretty important in my book!

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10 Tips To Make All Our Email Lives Better

2006-01-19T18:55:00.000+00:00

Email's a pain in the proverbial. Yet it's also a great tool.

I've been using email for more years than I can remember. Certainly well over 20.

I've been burnt by most bad aspects at one time or another. And again it's got me out of a few holes where I've had to prove to managers with "bad" memories what I said and backed up with an email.

This article (which I believe is quite old as it quotes a prediction for 1999) makes a number of interesting points about email.

It said

"But like any valuable communications tool people often don't understand how to use it properly or quickly find ways to abuse it's use. E-mail is so much a part of our business life that the Electronic Messaging Association estimates that more than 94 million users will send over 5.5 trillion e-mail messages in 1999."

Interestingly a later prediction from a different web site notes that in 2000 8.2 billion emails were sent every day and that the prediction was that this would rise to 26.1 billion per day by 2005. And this excludes bulk email.

And Vnunet.com notes that more than one million new spam emails were sent on just one day on the 25th March 2004.

So we haven't quite reached the doom laden prediction in the nineties. But we still manage to fall foul of a lack of etiquette

Email No Nos

Don't instantly type in a response because you're annoyed. If you send it the chances are it will upset someone and possibly damage your career!
Don't use emoticons or things like "<grin>" you just don't know how that sort of thing is received in a business communication. I can vouch for seriously upsetting some people for putting "<grin>" in some emails to them. The intention was to be friendly but the opposite happened and they felt they were being talked down to.
If you're not willing for your email to be read out to everyone in a large concert hall filled with all your friends and relatives and others don't send it. Because people have the ability to forward your mail to their friends, who have their own friends... You see where this is going don't you?
Also remember your features can soften much of what you say when you're talking to someone. Even when you're on the phone. You don't have that luxury by email and an email can be read as being nasty, bullying, aggressive and unfriendly simply because other people perceive what you've written differently to your intention
If you intention was to be aggressive and bad tempered. Don't. Remember email rage, like road rage can be over the most trivial things yet can alter two people's lives and relationship for ever.
Don't try to justify sending large amounts of email to prospect lists you've bought with no clue as to whether they are your target market. That's just spam. Spam is insulting, annoying and just adds up to the hassle factor for people you're sending it to.
Check that before you send it you've added any attachments you wrote about.
Note that if you do send attachments beware that people may simply delete the email and nothing will get read.
Do not, I repeat do not, simply reply to an email and copy someone else on that reply. The reason is that you may have been having an email conversation that the new person shouldn't know about. I've received several over the years and have found the conversations interesting, and sometimes useful too!
Do not use an enormously long signature. People are used to between 2 to 5 lines. Anymore and they're just going to ignore it anyway.

Finally an extra tip:

11. Never send an email without a subject line. Firstly because it stands a great danger of being deleted. Secondly the person who receives it has no incentive to open it even though they have to find out what it's about. Why should they bother? Look at your subject line as the headline for your email. It should attract and intrigue so that the recipient wants to open it.

So use email the right way because you stand more chance of being read. And use marketing the right way because you stand more chance of selling!

Technorati : Copywriting, PR, better email, do what is right, marketing Del.icio.us : Copywriting, PR, better email, do what is right, marketing Ice Rocket : Copywriting, PR, better email, do what is right, marketing Flickr : Copywriting, PR, better email, do what is right, marketing Buzznet : Copywriting, PR, better email, do what is right, marketing 43 Things : Copywriting, PR, better email, do what is right, marketing

When You Go To Business Network Meetings What Should You Do?

2006-01-16T18:37:00.000+00:00

Business networking or social networking is an important part of getting yourself known in business circles. Networking covers networking events and business networking through internet sites such as LinkedIn.com, Ecademy.com. and Ryze.com.

When it comes to career management that's all about networking too as The Guardian's tongue in cheek article tells us.

When it comes to the normal business networking the sooner you get involved the sooner you become accepted as a "proper" businessman.

But what do you need to do and what should you expect from it?

Networking happens when a group of business people meet up to talk and to see whether they can help each other at all.

In the time I've been networking I've found the following three step process reasonably reliable:

On Your Marks: Prepare To Network

2) Think about your aim for being at a networking meeting:

1) First get some good looking business cards that spell out your business.

Don't "just print" some business cards on your own inkjet/laser
Don't cross out phone number/emails/names/addresses on existing cards, to save money
Check that it's clear what your business does/offers
Make sure you use both sides of the card
Provide an offer on the card
Make sure you've phone/fax/mobile/email/web site
Don't use oversize cards - I can't read them with my card reader!

2) Think about your aim for your networking event:

Is it to simply get your face known?
Is it to make contact with someone from a specific firm?
Is it to help someone else at the meeting?
Is it to speak at a meeting?

3) Finally, make sure you take a pen and enough business cards with you

Get Set, GO: Network

Now go the event.

Get yourself a drink to hold in your hand if you tend to fidget
Get there early if you're a bit nervous - that way you can talk to one or two people as they arrive and before everyone else turns up.
Get a friend to go with you if you're very nervous

Don't be intimidated by a group of people in earnest discussion. Check whether they're open to other people joining them. You'll see their body language is partially open and if you stop near by they may well pause and give you the opportunity to enter the conversation.

Remember everyone is there for the same purpose. To pickup more business. Yes we may go to chat but we all still have an eye on possible business.

When you speak to people ask about whether this event has helped them. At the same time ask about other networking opportunities they may know about.

Also remember who you speak. That's so that if someone else you speak to has a problem that someone you've spoken to can sort out you can give your new contact their details.

How do you do that? By taking and giving out business cards. If you promise to help someone write exactly what you promised on their business card so that you can follow up.

At the end of the meeting you should have a pile of business cards.

The Finishing Line: Prepare to Follow-up

When you get back to base enter your new contacts details into a follow-up system. The most basic is probably an Excel spreadsheet. I'd recommend using a card scanner if you intend going to lots of meetings. It helps in the sheer work of entering card details.

As you enter the cards make sure you also note down on your to-do list every promise or action you made and any made by the contacts you made.

Should you follow-up with every single person you met during the meeting?

No.

The reason is that the people you spoke to may have no interest, or use, for your product or service.

BUT the people that they know who are outside the networking meetings you've attended may. If so and if they're consistent networkers they're likely to remember your details and let people know about you.

Also networking is all about allowing people to see what sort of business person you are. How do you handle yourself, are you consistent in your message, do you deliver on your promises.

There are times in networking when you CAN sell your product or services and you'll recognise that time. But don't do what many rookie business networkers do: desperately push business cards and/or leaflets into the hands of everyone at the event as though simply pushing information onto people will help their business.

Believe me it won't and it will damage your credibility. So go out and have a great time. Opportunities are bountiful.

networking help, career networking, networking event, social networking, Linkedin

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How To Keep Your Projects On Track

2006-01-01T21:22:00.000+00:00

Any achiever knows that they're only moving forward and growing whilst they create and deliver new projects

So if you can create and deliver more projects you're going to achieve more.

Simple, don't you think?

It is, and it isn't.

It's simple because the concept is not rocket science.

It's more complex because your busy, busy life can get in the way.

Things can deflect you from your goals.

And there's something you can do to reduce the number of deflections you get. So you stay on the right path for longer.

That means you're moving forward and delivering your projects.

What is it?

FOCUS...

But more than focus. You need a strategic goal to aim for. Without one you'll never know you've drifted off course.

Once you have the strategic goal you focus on it and it gets done.

Because it's strategic it moves you forward.

One of my strategic goals is "to be proactive in educating myself in marketing, business growth and personal development (see my previous post)."

That goal was written down about 10 years ago.

Has it helped me deliver more for myself? - YES!

Of course I attend seminars.

Of course I get and read books.

Of course I listen to CDs and watch DVDS.

I also ensure that the material I use is focused on my strategic goals too.

One of my goals is to know as much as possible about sales and marketing, including advertising and PR. To that end I've used the Achiever's Edge CD a month programme.

I've used it for nearly 8 years.

Why have I kept subscribed for nearly 8 years?

Because it's been informative, it's linked to my strategic goals and it's been a great form of motivation too.

It's worth checking the programme out as Peter Thompson (who runs it) is still offering a great set of downloads for less than a cup of coffee for starting a subscription. Amazingly you can then unsubscribe and still keep the great downloads. I've blogged about the download content before.

So start the New Year with a resolution to educate yourself more go to the Achiever's Edge web site and sign-up now. You'll be pleased you did.

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How To Get More Traffic

2005-12-14T19:54:00.000+00:00

The most recent Gary Halbert Letter gives you the name of a lady who can buy you space amazingly cheaply for a half page ad.

But the most interesting point is in Gary Halbert's previous letterwhere he shows an ad that he's placing in newspapers for the next few weeks.

The interesting point he makes in both letters is that an ad where you have space to address customer concerns is much better than a Google Adwords Ad. Because in the newsprint Ad you can use something like 1,000 words whereas in a Google ad you're limited to about 17 characters to intrigue and attract your customer.

Think about it...

What is going to get more customers, who know exactly what it is they're buying?

The answer of course is any ad that explains the offer and answers any questions. Which is the space ad.

I recommend that you bookmark Gary Halbert's site. It's a really great lesson in writing captivating, arresting copy. It also gives you a benchmark to judge other copywriters by!

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How You Can Get Some Free Copywriting Help as a Christmas Gift

2005-12-02T11:15:00.000+00:00

Ok This is Christmas Time, Mistletoe and Wine (and in case you didn't realise I am a Cliff Richard fan!).

I've already offered a Christmas gift to all my current and past coachees.

But I thought it would be nice to offer a gift to my regular blog readers too - I know you're there. Why am I doing this?

Firstly I'm a coach because I love helping people. Secondly if the answer I give you really hits the spot for you you're going to be more likely to think of me for your next copywriting project. Finally giving stuff away is fun and I may learn from questions you ask me.

I'll probably answer some of the interesting ones in this blog over the next few days (name and identifying information changed of course) - if you think that would be useful.

Anyway, as my gift to you I thought I'd give you, if you're one of the first 20 to email me (web at acornservice.com), the opportunity to ask me absolutely any copywriting question you like. That question can be about any of:

Direct mail letter, brochure, postcard or leaflet critique
Powerpoint presentation critique
Website critique
Help on headlines
brochure format
letter format
letter content
importance of the PS
creating powerful offers
writing your own book, or blog or web site
why articles are so powerful business promoters
emails and autoresponders.
anything else writing related Whatever the question.

Like I say in the last bulltet if it involves writing in any shape ask me and I'll answer it and if I can't I'll point you at some good resources to give you a hand.

So have a Happy Christmas and get that email to me now. Don't forget, given the time available I'm answering the first 20 copy-related questions I get.

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How Self-Development Moves You To Expert Status

2005-11-28T16:36:00.000+00:00

I've already blogged about "The One Thing" in my Power Packed Business blog (What One Thing).

But when I thought more on the subject...

The "One Thing" for achiever's is their own education. And more than that.

Top achiever's differentiate themselves from others by continually educating themselves. Not just absorbing information like a sponge and never doing anything with it.

They use the information they get. They apply it and they check whether it works for them. If it does they incorporate it. If not they say NEXT.

The interesting thing is that as you learn from different sources and use and test ways of doing things at first you're copying.

But then something "clicks" into place and you synthesise ways of doing things that build on the the things you already know.

Once you start to create your own way of working and can prove it's working you've reached the state of expert.

That's why I love the Achiever's Edge. It's fed my need to develop myself further, faster. And it's delivered the goods.

I've been so impressed with the secrets you learn from the people who actually Achieve. Achievers ranging from Richard Bandler, Sir John Harvey-Jones, through to (and not at all the least) Paul Daniels. Interviews with the entrepreneurs that set-up/shaped "The Coffee Republic", "Jungle.com" and "Harry Ramsden".

Check out Achiever's Edge yourself because Peter Thompson the gentleman who runs the audio programme is offering you some wonderful MP3 recordings and a couple of ebooks for £1.00 if you sign up for his programme. But you can cancel the programme once signed up and still keep everything you've got with Peter's blessing.

By the way I got fed up being Peter's evangelist amongst my coachees, friends and relatives that I signed up as an affiliate, so I do get a little something if you sign up!

PS The Achiever's Edge may not be your cup of tea because it's aimed at people who are want to do more with their life and in one, or more areas of their life. If you're happy where you are that's great. In which case congratulations it's wonderful to be happy.

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Make Your Blog Visible With The Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites

2005-11-18T11:32:00.000+00:00

Robin Good's Exhaustive List of Directory and RSS Sites

Now this site I really like.

Robin seems to have made it a life's work to check through the Internet for sites where you can let people know about your blog.

It's without doubt the best blog resource I've found for a while.

Some of the links are dead, but usually Robin tells you if they are.

I'm currently up to site number 102 and I've not come to the end yet!

Also some of the sites are pure news sites so my blog wouldn't fit with them.

But...

In general it's great.

Another great aspect is that Robin offers an email facility where you can get each new site added to the directory as it's added.

It's on my favourites list and I've subscribed!

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What One Thing Do You Want From A Business Growth Web Site?

2005-11-15T17:30:00.000+00:00

If you want your business to make serious cash you need a great marketing strategy.

Notice I didn't say you need great marketing tactics.

That's because without a strategy you'll just try tactic after tactic until you hit on one that seems to work. But what if the next tactic you would've tried could have doubled your income?

Simply by churning through trying lots of different marketing tactics that's what you're in danger of doing. That's one of the reasons Jay Abraham says you shouldn't just market like everyone else in your industry if you want better results.

So...

The strategy needs to look at your goals for your business then build in the tactics that you believe will achieve them.

And maybe you'll need to change some tactics as you go on. But as you've a strategy your marketing changes will be within your overall strategy. So you wont badly affect another part of your marketing approach.

Within my overall strategy one of my tactics was to have a web site where I would add to the content on a regular basis.

Unfortunately my choice of web development tool (it uses frames) meant that the site was difficult to make search engine friendly. So I've just not updated it. Instead I've decided to completely redevelop it using Dreamweaver.

I'm currently considering what things would be most useful for people looking for information and help on a business growth and marketing web site.

If you've any ideas email me, or comment, and I'll think about them and see if I can include them.

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Google Analytics

2005-11-15T12:53:00.000+00:00

As a marketer you know how impressed I am with a Visitor Tracking service I use called Stat Counter?

I've found it gives very interesting, and useful marketing data.

I've now discovered that Google has moved into this same arena.

So I'm trying them head to head.

That means each post I do on my blog will show up on my Stat Counter account and also, hopefully, on my Google Analytics account.

Potentially Google may be better as you can analyse traffic over each hour of the day to see peaks and troughs.

I'll let you know how they compare...watch this blog!

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Do You Waste $86,400 Every Day?

2005-11-14T11:34:00.000+00:00

Craig Arthur writes a great article here about what would we do if we had a bank account that was always credited with $86,400 each morning. Then anything that was left in the account at night was removed, leaving a zero balance.

For money read time, or actually the number of minutes in each day.

It really brings home the words, "seize the day".

It makes you aware of your own limited time on this earth.

For the more resilent among you there is a spreadsheet you can construct that shows you how much time you have.

You make each column equivalent to one day. You assume you live, say 70 years. Then you allocate that (70 times 365, and 366 in a leap year) number of columns.

You colour in the colums you've already spent, so if you thirty that equals 30 times 365 (and 366 in a leap year) number of columns.

In the rows you put in the relationships you have and colour in their duration. Particularly for children's time at home with you.

Put in your holidays, put in your must do for work stuff, your must do for the family.

It brings home exactly how little time we have doesn't it?

I don't highlight this to be morbid but to urge you to make each day as packed as you can. Not packed with work and rushing but with the things that are important, family, relationships and your own health.

Top achiever's can still achieve, just be careful to realise the cost.

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Blogs Don't Help You To Market Anything

2005-11-11T14:50:00.000+00:00

Bob Bly - Professional copywriter and marketing communications expert.

Bob Bly has an interesting take on Blogs.

In his opinion they're pretty pointless.

To be fair you can see his point of view exactly . After all a lot of blogs are streams of consciousness, or online diaries of stuff. Which if gossip/soap opera is not your thing can be pretty mind numbing.

The other point is that people have to actively seek out your blog.

Yet a number of marketeer's use them - regularly.

So read Tina Abayomi-Paul's ebook all about why you should blog and remember she makes money from it.

I think what's really happening is the same discussion we all had when web sites really began.

"Why would anyone need a web site..."

"Sites don't make money..."

" They're just online catalogues..."

Remember?

Now we all know there are web sites, like eBay, Amazon and others that have cash pouring into them. Now it's a given that we all need a web site to sell from. I've got one. You've probably got one.

But blogs are more immediate. They're more personal. They change quicker than web sites can.

So get blogging your market is going to catch you up.

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How Work Is Broke And What You Can Do To Fix It

2005-11-09T17:54:00.000+00:00

Marc Orphant has contributed a very interesting, and useful, chapter to The More Space Project (Astronaut Projects).

It goes into why work is broken.

But even better Marc details exactly what they've done in his company to fix it.

He explains how they've fixed meetings, fixed email use (including the dreaded subject line: Re: FW: FW: FW: Regarding). They've even fixed presentations.

It's like I've always said Powerpoint is not the problem - it's peoples dependence on it as a crutch that's the problem.

Anyway Marc and company have taken bits from gurus and books and welded them into a way of working that is better than it was.

Worth reading just for the story about Bill at the beginning!

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Has Google Killed Reciprocal Links Stone Dead?

2005-11-09T09:45:00.000+00:00

This Search Engine Optimisation article is very interesting.

It's been written by someone who has tested exactly what is happening under Google's continuosly shifting search strategy.

So exactly what is happening?

The answer is that Google's strategy is killing off the importance of reciprocal links in a sites ranking. So if your site depends on these links for its rank it's going to slide down the listings.

In my opinion getting rid of this type of linking is a good thing. After all just linking for no good reason doesn't help your customer/prospect at all. Google recognises this and is doing it's best to restore a more level playing field for people who provide good content. Hurrah!

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Please Do NOT Read This Blog Entry

2005-11-05T17:30:00.000+00:00

The reason for the request in the title is that I'm trying a little experiment.

Debbie Jenkins from Lean Marketing in the UK said,

"I actually tried a headline out that simply said...
"Do Not Read This Ad..."
The response rate went up by almost 500% from the previous headline I used!"

I've never actually tried a negative heading so that was the test. To see whether the negative heading produced more hits than my usual headings.

I'll let you know the result in a future post! So sign up if you're as intrigued as I was.

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www.aboveaverageadvertising.com

2005-09-26T10:55:00.000+01:00

"How to Develop Above Average Advertising" Just look at the advertising that's out there. It may be in prestigious magazines, high circulation newspapers, county wide radio or country-wide TV. But if it's ineffective advertising you wont get your sales. I've looked at specialist SME magazines, like "EN" or "Talking Business" or "Mind YOur Own Business" and cut out the adverts in there thinking to write to the business owners to suggest some things that would help them produce Ads that work. But I held back. Do you know why? The simple reason is that people settle. They settle for what they're getting. Yet they could get much more. Say the advert gets them 10 leads and 1 sale. Lets say that makes the ad break-even. They justify it by saying they're getting exposure. Who wants exposure. You want sales don't you? Wouldn't you prefer to run an Ad that get 15 leads and converts 2 or 30 leads and converts 5 to customers? Unless you look seriously at how you're producing and running Ads you're not making the most of the money you're sinking into them. Anyway. This blog really helps the busy business owner start to get to grips with writing Ads that work. It'll pay you to read it and apply some of the suggestions it gives. Plus I'd recommend signing up to The Achiever's Edge (I'm an affiliate so make a commission on it but that's not the reason to sign-up!). The reason is that Peter Thompson who runs it interviews some really great people on it and "The Wizard of Ads" is one of them. I'm not exactly sure when the interview is due to be 'aired' but it's a good one (actually it's split over 2 months). But the Achiever's Edge is actually very useful for marketing and sales generally as it's on a CD so you get to fill the dead time commuting with useful information for your business. Even my 11 year old has enjoyed listening to some of the interviews we've heard over the years! I've also written an article that explains more about branding and direct response advertising. To get a copy just leave me a comment and I'll send you a copy. If you advertise just be aware that unless you use direct response advertising you're letting your money pour down the drains.

Scott Ginsberg Name Tag Wearer Extrodinaire

2005-09-23T23:39:00.000+01:00

Scott has been wearing a name tag none-stop for almost 5 years. Great going. He also used to work for one of the hotels that's always touted as a world leader for customer service - the Ritz-Carlton. So he knows about customer service. I've been on his email list for a while and I really like his approach to making sure you're approachable. After all you want your staff to feel that they can come and talk to you. Surely you want your customers to talk to you too? You know telling you what they want and allowing you to resolve their issues for them? In particular Scott's article on th 9th September gives some great hints for those of us that network, under the helpful word "Here"!

KEYS TO BUSINESS SUCCESS

2005-09-23T15:09:00.001+01:00

The first thing to say is ... I hate flash. Trying to get into the humorcafe site was orrible because of flash, yuk. That said I loved the section titled "Keys To Business Success" on the blog. It goes into what you should be doing to make it look as though you're working really hard. I think I can include a few more... 1) Lets imagine you're at the drinks machine simply standing staring at the rubber plant next to it. Picture one of your execs starting to walk near you. Immediately adopt a seriously thoughful expression so they think you've just popped out of your chair to think through a seriously knotty problem. 2) When you're in your car switch your mobile to immediate answer so that it seems as though you're on calls all the way through your journey. 3) When you go to lunch take a manual with you and leave it open at an appropriately complex page, preferably with ridiculously complicated diagrams. Then if an exec wanders past look intently and say "aha" and they'll think you've worked so hard you've invented the cure for the common cold. 4) Interestingly I saw this one demonstrated: Prop your head in your hand, make sure your writing hand has a pen it it. Then go to sleep. From a distance and in fact quite close by it looks as though you're working. Particularly if you've a slight tremor as the pen moves like you're writing. Someone showed me a gentleman doing this and we stood right behind him and then looked right into his face and there he was fast asleep! We'd actually been talking quite loud directly behind him too. Talk about dedication.

KEYS TO BUSINESS SUCCESS

2005-09-23T15:09:00.000+01:00