Students Of Success

I have been in the ad game for a long, long time. I have trained hundreds of writers, and I’ve been responsible for moving of millions £ & $ in product worldwide. Here are just a few tips that I hope will help you do a better job, and make a bigger name for yourself.

One.

Whatever copy job you are working on – brochure, mailer, sales letter, press ad, website – always include a headline. A pertinent headline. A selling headline.

This headline will be, or should be, powerful enough or intriguing enough to draw your target into the compass of the body copy. If it can do that, you are on a winner.

To put it simply, your headline should be a snapshot of your sales message – a précis of your offer or promise. In other words, a headline that says: Buy this product and get this benefit.

Two.

Always remember, people don’t buy products, they buy the benefits of owning those products. A man doesn’t buy a sportscar because it is precision engineered or aesthetically designed. He buys it because of the ego-boost it gives him. It shows the world that he has made it.

Likewise, a woman doesn’t by a cocktail dress by Camille of Paris simply because of the cut or the exquisite stitching. She buys it for the cachet that is attached to the label. She would probably look as good in a dress from a High Street department store, but she wouldn’t feel as good. And that’s the benefit.

Three.

Around 30% of all copy headlines are both useless and irrelevant. The worst of them often take the form of puns or are re-workings of current film titles or song titles. Puns are fine if they are appropriate, which they seldom are. And the writer who tries to demonstrate how cool he is by working his product message into a film or song title is usually doing a lot for the sales of movie tickets and CDs, but very little for his client.

The moral is this. State your sales proposition cleverly, wittily, stridently or emotively, but never ever employ a device simply because it’s the easy thing to do. If you can’t be original, at least be positive.

Four.

If it doesn’t quack, it ain’t a duck. And if your copy doesn’t make some kind of selling proposition, it isn’t advertising – it’s an announcement. So many writers these days fail to understand that copy is nothing more than salesmanship in print. They play with words for the sake of playing with words. They lose sight of the fact that they should be trying to sell something. Thus, copy must use the psychology of the salesman; and it must say, right up front: Here’s what’s in it for you.

Five.

Always be a little circumspect about experts who try to tell you how to write better copy. And that includes me.

Patrick Quinn is a copywriter, with 40 years’ experience of the advertising business in London, Miami, Dublin and Edinburgh.

Over the years, he has helped win for his clients just about every advertising award worth winning.

His published books include:

The Secrets of Successful Copywriting
The Secrets of Successful Low Budget Advertising
The Secrets of Successful Exhibitions
Word Power 1-2 & 3
He also publishes AdBriefing, a free on-line newsletter.
http://www.adbriefing.com

It was not too long ago that email mailboxes were so full of junk mail and spam that they threatened to render electronic communication useless. When you opened up your email you were bombarded with poorly written advertisements for $ex, V!agra, and tons of other intentionally misspelled products, designed to evade any spam blocking devices. Those interested in consumer protection knew the ultimate goal, to eliminate and block spam, but as soon as they created a product designed to do just that, the spammers evaded their efforts by getting more creative. That is, until modern anti spam software was developed. Antispam software comes in a variety of forms, with the obvious ultimate intent of stopping unwanted emails from reaching you.

Blacklist

One of the primary anti spam methods is known as blacklisting. This software identifies the IP address of the spam sender, and then communicates with the Internet Service Provider of the sender and instructs the ISP to block mail from that IP address to your email account. In theory this is a fool proof solution. The reality, however, is that there is a lot of money to be made in spamming, so forcing a spammer to switch his IP address frequently is not too high a price to pay to evade blocking. That said, this practice does, over time, start to close down doors to spammers and all but eliminates amateur spammers who do not have the capability to frequently switch IPs.

Spam Votes

Many individuals who frequently use their email accounts will be familiar with this device. Spam voting software works through the participation of users. When you receive email you have the option of classifying it as spam, usually by pushing a button which says, unsurprisingly, ‘spam’. Once enough people classify a piece of mail or an IP as spam it falls in trust until ultimately it becomes completely blocked from addresses.

Profiling

Profiling involves learning the common characteristics of spammers and spam mail. It is software that looks for things like bugs, invalid message ID’s and other traits and uses these characteristics to evaluate incoming pieces of mail. Each piece of mail is then given a score depending upon how it fares against these criteria. The user is then given the option of how high or how low to set the bar with regard to which emails are let in. This method has been shown to be immensely effective against amateur spammers and many professional spammers. However, it relies upon a ready team of professionals to identify new traits used by spammers and to incorporate those traits into the profiling algorithms.

Bayesian Filtering

The most promising spam blocking software follows no rules. Rather, it constantly learns new techniques to fight spam by scanning the mail you’ve read and comparing it to the mail that you have rejected. This highly sophisticated software uses the data that it gleans from thousands of users to identify which items are spam and which are not. It then has the capability to adjust its standards to your particular preferences. Over time, it becomes adept at sending you only the emails that you want, and blocking the emails that you do not.

Sara Anderwahl recommends that you visit http://www.barracudanetworks.com for more information on anti spam software.

The day started out fine. I slept well and woke at 4:30 to email a fellow author who’s ghostwriting a book on The Power of Positive Thinking. I’d promised a few examples of my own philosophy. You know, the kind of stuff that is infused with optimism and oozes rhapsodic enthusiasm?

The email was more of a treatise on coping mechanisms, or “How to be happy when the world around you crumbles.” I recommend “taking pleasure in the little things” and cited some examples that have helped me in the past, such as soaking in the sunrise or absorbing the winter beauty of a wheat field glistening with ice. If all else fails, I list the things for which I should be thankful, such as: “At least I’m not laying in a ditch in Iraq like our poor, brave soldiers,” or “I’m not riddled with cancer.”

I know. It sounds downright naive. I’ve been called a male “Pollyanna,” before. But heck, it gets me through those tough times and… it actually works!

After writing, I showered, made my lunch, kissed my grandsons goodbye, and slipped into my parka. I fumbled around for my car keys. They were missing! I shrugged, decided to solve the mystery later, and grabbed the spare set. I ventured out into blackness of the early morning and headed for the car. The lights didn’t come on when I opened the door. A sinking feeling settled in my gut. There were my keys, dangling in the ignition, turned to the “ACC” position!

Daughter #3, home from college for Thanksgiving, retrieved something from the van and apparently turned on the key for some mysterious reason. There they’d remained over the long weekend.

I rummaged around the barn and found a set of cables. Next, I ran back to the car, grabbed a spare key for my mother-in-law’s car, and nosed it into position. In the pitch dark, I felt around for the hood release on my van. Where was that darned lever? I couldn’t find it. I grabbed the flashlight that had been smugly waiting for such an emergency in its holder since last Christmas, and searched again. There was NO latch!

Against every fiber in my being, I admitted that I needed to read the blasted manual. I found it after scrabbling around in the glove compartment. The print was tiny – I needed my cheapo drugstore reading glasses. I keep a pair on my bedside table and at work. I sighed, then remembered a rogue pair that was tucked inside my jacket pocket from my last book signing.

For the next five minutes, I flipped through the deceptive “easy owner’s guide” until I finally found a diagram of the car. There was a hood release, but it looked like it was on the seat bottom. I got on my knees again and searched. I pushed and prodded and pulled everything in sight. I scrutinized the diagram again with fingers covered in grease. Wait a minute! Did I read the diagram wrong? Maybe it’s on the lower left side near the gas tank lever! I dropped to my knees again. There it was, hidden around the corner so that I had to crane my neck inside the car to actually see it.

Good for deterring car thieves; bad for stupid new van owners.

The hood was up. I hooked up one side of the batteries. Red to positive, black to negative. The cables wouldn’t stretch from battery to battery. I needed another measly inch. I sighed, got in the other car, backed it up, and nosed it in closer. So close, that my riotous rose bush caught me each time I squeezed past it. Finally, it was done. The van roared to life.

But alas, it wasn’t over.

Breathe. Just breathe.

The radio flashed the word, “Code” and the clock was blank. A faint memory tickled in my brain… the security system! The salesman gave me a card with a code on it. Where had I stashed it? There it was, in my wallet. The only problem was, I couldn’t read the fine print. I patted my pocket for my glasses. They weren’t there. No, they were stuck on my peanut butter toast. I cleaned them off, reset the code, and headed to work.

I grumbled. Then the sun started to rise. The sun kissed the undersides of clouds that glowed gold, gray, and lavender on the horizon. As I drove north, the rays reached higher, splitting the pale pink fingers of dawn.

I started to feel good again, optimistic about the day, and actually looked forward to reconnecting with my colleagues at work. Then I spied the railroad crossing. I was already late for work, and prayed that I’d get across without having to stop.

The lights flashed and the guardrails came down. I put the car in park and laughed at myself. Out loud. It was a belly laugh. And it felt great.

Ah, the power of positive thinking.

Now, how do I reset that infernal dash clock?

Aaron Paul Lazar lives in Upstate New York with his wife, three daughters, two grandsons, mother-in- law, dog, and four cats. After writing in the early morning hours, he works as an electrophotographic engineer at NexPress Solutions in Rochester, New York. Additional passions include gardening, preparing large family feasts, photography, cross-country skiing, playing a distinctly amateur level of piano, and spending “time” with the French Impressionists whenever possible.

Although he adored raising his three delightful daughters, Mr. Lazar finds grandfathering his “two little buddies” to be one of the finest experiences of his life.

Double Forte’, the first in the LeGarde series, was published in January 2005. Upstaged, number two, is now available for purchase. Mazurka, number three, is ready to go to press. With eight books under his belt, Mr. Lazar is currently working on the ninth book in the series.

It seems that not a week goes by without some headline racing across our TVs about internet fraud or theft. It’s never going to stop, but one of the best ways to protect ourselves from this modern menace is to develop and use effective passwords on all financially sensitive websites.

Numerous articles have been written addressing this issue, and many offer similar, and good, advice:

• Don’t choose a word found in the dictionary
• Add one or more numbers
• Use one or more capital letters
• Make it at least eight characters
• Add a symbol.

A password utilizing this criteria might look something like this: G8iwn2*B. Although this is a strong password, has no meaning and is therefore difficult to remember. So the question arises: how do we utilize the above criteria while creating something memorable and difficult to crack?

One of the interesting things about the English language is that a single sound can be spelled many ways. Take the long E sound, for example, as in see. It can be spelled e, ee, ea, ey, ei, i, ie. Or how about the SH sound, as in sheet. Try sh, s, ti, ci, si, ch. Here is how to incorporate this apparent flaw of English to create strong and memorable passwords.

First, choose a meaningful name, the shorter the better. Let’s say your maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Cox. We are going to take the letters of her name and spell them phonetically. C becomes See. O becomes Oh. X becomes Ex. So C-O-X becomes SeeOhEx. Do you see it? Say it out loud if you have having trouble.

If she was born in 1918, we can incorporate those numbers like this: 1See9Oh1Ex8. Perhaps your grandmother was rich, so we’ll add a dollar sign: 1See9Oh1Ex8$.

Another security tip is to change passwords periodically. Because the same sound can often be spelled several ways, the password above can morph to: 19SeaOaEks$18. Can you still see the C-O-X?

So now we have a password that:

• is not a word found in the dictionary
• uses more than number
• incorporates more than one capital letter
• is more than eight characters
• has a symbol
• and is meaningful!

More Tips For Success:

• Once you have formulated a possible password, open your word processing program and practice typing it. Your goal is for it to flow smoothly off your fingers so you no longer need to think about it.
• Spend time trying to get a mental picture of what your password looks like. Write it down and study it to help cement the image into your memory. Be sure to shred the paper later.
• Make sure you can easily sound out the phonetic parts and that the phonetic parts make sense to you.
• When entering passwords online, distinguish between high security sites and low security sites. Your online subscription to Amateur Boating Today does not require a complex password. Don’t use one for sites don’t need it.
• For a higher level of security, don’t use obvious words, such as your favorite pet, your child’s name, or your first name.
• Good word choices include short words from your family’s past. Some examples: your father’s first car (Ford becomes EfOhArDee); the name of the city where your cousin was born (Dover becomes DeOhVeEeAr); the first name of your mother’s best friend in high school (Gayle becomes JeeAyWyElEe). Choose something that still has meaning for you and is not so obscure that, after setting it up on a site, you later scratch your head and have to call tech-support. Don’t forget to add a significant number and symbol.
• If you have trouble with the phonetics of a particular word, either chose an easier word, or browse through a dictionary to help you find alternate spellings for particular sounds.

Good luck and happy passwording!

About the Author:

Jennifer A. Thieme, owner of Solid Rock Accounting Services, is a Certified QuickBooks Advisor and a Registered Tax Preparer. She has been in the bookkeeping and tax field for nine years. She considers the diagnosis and resolution of accounting-related problems her specialty. Her articles have appeard in the Intuit ProConnection Newsletter. Contact her via http://www.jenniferthieme.com with your accounting related questions.

One of the “tricks” I find most useful for hosting stress-free dinner parties is to make some of the recipes ahead. I find that too many last minute jobs can overwhelm me, so I plan ahead to eliminate as many as possible.

The more dishes you can prepare a day or some hours before guests ring your doorbell, the more you reduce your stress. Here are some reasons:

· You avoid a last minute crisis if preparation takes longer than you thought it would.

· If you like to cook, you’ll have the leisure to enjoy what you’re doing instead of feeling frantic about a deadline

· You have time to clean up after you cook.

· If there is a disaster, say you burn something, you have plenty of time to come up with an alternate plan.

· If you have prepared the dessert ahead, you don’t need to leave the table for a long stretch just when the conversation is getting really interesting.

Put your imagination to work for you! Try to imagine your way through the last minute jobs you will have to get dinner on the table, and reduce them to a minimum you feel comfortable with. It helps to think about what all those last minute jobs are: setting out the ice water pitcher, lighting the candles, putting items in serving dishes and getting the guests to the table.

By the way, many of these are jobs that your guests can do.

What is your level of tolerance for last minute jobs?
Now ask yourself what your level of tolerance is for last minute jobs? If it is low, then you should think about finding some recipes that absolutely minimize any last minute work. This is especially true if you are an inexperienced cook.

Some of the recipes I rely on are make-ahead, and some are just items that I can bring home from the store and put out in nice serving dishes.

Some cooks even make everything ahead. If you love stews, lasagna and casseroles, then you could do that too.

But I often prefer serving a delicious roast of lamb or beef or chicken as the special item on the menu. Luckily these dishes are ones you can put in the oven and leave to themselves while you do other things.

If you can add potatoes and vegetables to the roast while it cooks you have almost all of the advantages of make-ahead. Once you pop them in the oven beside the roast you can pretty well ignore them until they are cooked.

So I tend to focus on finding appetizers, salads, side dishes and desserts that I can make ahead, or set out straight from the store, or vegetables I can cook alongside a roast. Then I can concentrate on the last minute items like slicing a roast, making gravy, and getting things on the table.

Probably the most important category for me is appetizers. I find it too stressful to be fussing at cooking something while the doorbell is ringing. If you are hosting by yourself you may find the same.

So I try to have a repertoire of make-ahead or buy-ahead appetizer recipes that work for me. Often I serve more than one, since some of my guests like to stick to very light appetizers, and others enjoy heartier ones.

You can build your repertoire of make ahead recipes for your home dinner parties. I suggest you start with appetizers. If you want to see some of my favorites, just go to my the Make-Ahead Appetizers page on my website.

Enjoy minimizing your hosting stress and watching your guests’ eyes light up at the sight of your tasty, well presented appetizers.

About the Author

Joanie Williams has been enjoying giving home dinner parties with minimum stress for over 25 years. See how you can use make-ahead appetizers to reduce your stress and enjoy your own dinner parties. http://www.thedinnerpartyplanningsite.com/make-ahead-appetizers.html

How can I figure out how much to charge for my product or service? What is the highest salary (raise) I can ask for? Talking about money is a thorny issue. Everyone has opinions about it but those underlying concerns are:

-Did I set the price so high that no one will buy? (Is the salary I asked for so outrageous that they will hire someone else)

-Did I give them such a low price that they question my value or did I leave money on the table? (Is the salary I asked for so low that they wonder if I know what is going on in my field?)

This month I had three different experiences that involved pricing.

First my mother showed me a pair of shoes that she got through Medicare. (She is a diabetic and evidently Medicare will pay for one pair of shoes a year.) She told me she would never order them again. Why? Because the doctor charged Medicare $500 for the shoes and she thought that was far too much money. (She watches the government’s money like her own!)

Next a friend told me most of her colleagues were telling her to charge more for her services. She was adamant in her stance that no one was worth what they were telling her to charge. In fact her colleagues were in the same business and commanding the fee they were recommending to her.

Finally in the news once again one of the presidents of a large company here in the US (Exxon) was reported to have negotiated a huge retirement package.

Finding an appropriate price is not easy. There is a lot of psychology in pricing along with some mathematical computation. Sometimes people forget to think about the mathematical piece. The cost of delivering the product or service including the time of the deliverer is important. If you do compute your actual costs you can then add a percentage on top (margin) to give you your profit.

Seems simple but now you’ll need to see what others are providing. How does your product compare with those it competes with? This is the market research part of pricing. If you are negotiating salary for a job, you’ll want to know what others who do similar work get for that job.

Now here is where the psychological factors come in. Price something way above what the competitors charge and you could price yourself out of business – maybe or maybe not. Perhaps your product is like no other that it competes with. In my mother’s case maybe there is only one manufacturer of shoes for diabetics and each pair must be made individually to that person’s specifications? The price may in fact be justified.

Price something way below what the competitor’s charge and it is possible you will be very busy. If you haven’t done the cost analysis, you may find yourself losing money though. Another possibility is that potential customers may question your value. “Why are you so cheap?”

Justification – that is what is necessary. In your sales pitch you will need to tell the potential buyer what makes your product so special. (Why you do charge so much or so little.) If my friend doesn’t really believe that she is worth more than she’ll have a hard time convincing others that she is. Clearly Presidents of large corporations have no problem with their sales pitch and are really good at convincing boards of directors to pay them huge sums.

“Whatever the market will bear” is often the philosophy you hear. It certainly must be the justification of the presidents and CEOs who get big salaries, bonuses and pensions. In my opinion the answer lies somewhere between my friend who doesn’t think she is worth that much and the big company pay outs. That is a place where the business owner gets what he/she is worth and the consumer gets the value he/she expects. For me there is also integrity involved in pricing not just what the market will bear.

Take Action

1. Assess your own work situation. Where are you undervaluing yourself? Write down a list of the benefits you offer to your customer (employer).

2. Check your competitors. What do they offer? How do they price their offer? Compare their offer to yours. How are they alike? What is unique about your offer? How do you tell your customers about that uniqueness?

3. Not unique? Why would your customers choose you instead of your competitors? If your uniqueness is price alone, you are on a slippery slope because there are always others ready to price below you.

About Alvah Parker

Alvah Parker is a Business and Career Coach as well as publisher of Parker’s Points, an email tip list and Road to Success, an ezine. To subscribe send an email to join-roadtosuccess@go.netatlantic.com.

Parker’s Value Program© enables clients to find a way to work that is more fulfilling and profitable. She is both a Practice Advisor and Coach to attorneys, managers, business owners, sole practioners, and people in transition. Alvah is found on the web at http://www.asparker.com She may also be reached at 781-598-0388.

All lawyers in New York are required to pass a bar exam that includes multiple-choice questions and essay questions. On passing the bar, one must apply to the Appellate Court to seek entry to the Bar and, after passing the interview with the Character and Fitness Committee, one can practice law in New York. It is essential for a New York-based lawyer to be familiar with the Disciplinary Rule of the Code of Professional Responsibility. According to the New York law, a lawyer who deliberately participates in or conducts false, perjured or fraudulent testimony is subject to Discipline Rule. Every lawyer has the duty to maintain the honor and integrity of his profession.

There are many lawyers in New York. Some lawyers specialize in a single type of law or in one particular category, whereas other lawyers handle a wide range of cases like personal injury cases, bankruptcy cases, real estate cases, insurance cases, family cases (adoption, divorce, alimony) and many more. It is the duty of a New York lawyer to represent his clients zealously, ethically and with due respect to the law. In a state like New York, it might be very difficult for a person to find a lawyer who is devoted to a client’s needs and works in an ethical and respectful manner. The easiest way to find a lawyer is to get a reference from family and friends, or search the Yellow Pages or an online directory, or contact the Bar Association of New York. As per the New York City Bar, if a person consults a lawyer because he or his family member is injured, there is no consultation fee.

According to a survey, the topmost law firms in New York are Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz, Cravath, Swaine and Moore, and Sullivan and Cromwell.

Anyone involved in an Internet-based home business will soon come
to recognize the importance of search engines as a vehicle to
attract potential customers.

Since the inception of Google in 1998, the popularity of using
search engines has increased dramatically. Nielsen NetRatings
reports that about 114.5 million Americans, or a whopping 39
percent of the US population, currently use search engines.

Through February of 2004, Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN ranked as the
two favorite spots on the Internet with 87.3 million and 86.2
million unique monthly visitors, respectively, according to
figures produced by Nielsen NetRatings.

Microsoft.com, ranked third, with 64.2 million visitors, but this
figure is somewhat misleading because this site attracts much of
its traffic by repairing flaws in the Windows operating system.
Google was the fourth most popular site with 60.8 million
visitors.

The market shares of MSN and Yahoo haven’t changed much in the
past three years while Google has emerged as a powerhouse without
spending much of anything on advertising. Google’s audience is
now approximately six times larger than it was in early 2001,
when it was the 26th most popular destination on the Internet.

As they vie for position, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft plan to
continue upgrading their services - healthy competition that can
only serve to improve the search experiences of Internet users in
the future.

According to comScore Networks, an estimated 3.5 billion online
searches are performed in the United States each month, making
searching the second most popular online activity, ranking behind
only e-mail.

In 2003, businesses spent an estimated $2 billion on advertising
related to searches and some knowledgeable sources expect the
search-related advertising market to triple during the next three
years.

There are various search engine formats including natural search,
pay for inclusion (PFI), pay per click (PPC), and hybrid
approaches which combine both PFI and PPC characteristics.
Because of the immense and growing popularity of search engines,
their effective utilization is the life blood of Internet-based
home businesses.

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Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and
coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.

Visit his website at Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.