Consumer Alert - JAJAH Charges Even When the Call is NOT Connected!

I love JAJAH (www.jajah.com) Internet phone service. You do not need to download anything and when you call, your physical phone rings which you pick up and start to talk.

JAJAH is very cheap, has great voice quality and also has many other useful features.

Top two I like:

1) You can have your one one-click-call phone book so that you do not need to enter the frequently-called numbers from scratch every time.

2) You can also save the shortcut of any call on your desk top, or send it to your cell phone so that you can initiate the call by just clicking the icon! Smart.

However, lately I have discovered a nasty feature:

You call someone. The phone rings and nobody picks it up. Or, your call cannot be connected for one reason or another.

Well, JAJAH still charges your account for it! The amount is not that much. Just nine cents. But still -- WHY?

I have written to JAJAH about this obvious software malfunction and haven't heard from them yet.

If you are using JAJAH, I'd also recommend you to do the same and get in touch with the company. If they hear from enough number of people perhaps they would correct it.

And if you are not yet a JAJAH member but consider becoming one, do so while being aware of this serious billing issue.

Tomboy -- UBUNTU's Great Note Pad

UBUNTU (the great-looking and totally free Linux operating system for your computer http://www.ubuntu.com/) comes with a very useful built-in notebook utility called TOMBOY. It is under Applications > Accessories.

TOMBOY is simple enough to use it over and over again for all kinds of quick notes and brainstorming. But it is also smart enough to LINK all your notes to one another, keep a good list of them, allow you to search through them, and even format them in enough ways to do the job.

For example, I have just created a series of notes about the E-books I'm planning to write within the next 6 months. So I have created a note for the general list (lower bottom in the screenshot) as well as separate notes for each e-book (see the one for Article Marketing on top-right).

Currently these notes include only a rough outline of the things I'd like to cover eventually. For example, if I need to go interview someone or read a book on a certain topic, I can create separate notes for them as well and LINK them to which ever spot I want.

UBUNTU made Tomboy links so easy. You just SELECT the text you want and then press Ctrl+L -- bingo! You have a NEW note not only titled as such but also automatically linked to your selected text in the ORIGINAL note.

What's more, when you change the TITLE of your note, the TEXT in the ORIGINAL note which is linked to this one also changes to preserve the paths. This way you do not need to worry about those pesky broken links when you change the titles of your notes. Good thinking!

UBUNTU... an amazing and very user-friendly free solution for all creatives around the world.

USPS: "Is The Correct English On Their Sign?"

I stopped by at the U.S. Post Office this morning and saw this big sign on the wall:

"Metered Mail Customers: IS THE CORRECT DATE ON YOUR METERED MAIL?"

This sentence would've been grammatically correct only if someone was asking if the "correct date" actually read "ON YOUR METERED MAIL".

An analogous sentence would be "Is the apple green?", or "Is the world round?"

I guess someone was trying to say:

1) "Metered Mail Customers: DO YOU HAVE THE CORRECT DATE ON YOUR METERED MAIL?"

or

2) "Metered Mail Customers: IS THE DATE ON YOUR METERED MAIL CORRECT?"

or

3) "Metered Mail Customers: DOES YOUR METERED MAIL HAVE THE CORRECT DATE?"

How did they find the only sentence combination that was not correct and display it prominently where everyone can see it?

I guess you need a governmental committee to achieve a feat like that.

Misplaced Modifier – Even WSJ Falls For It

“Misplaced modifier” is a frequently committed logical error that even the most prominent publications fall for occasionally. Here is an example:

“Ports are especially vulnerable to pesky animals like rabbits and deer because they offer large, fenced-in areas of dirt and grass.” (Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2007)

The sentence is malformed because it suggests that “pesky animals… offer large, fenced-in areas of dirt and grass” -- which of course is not true.

That unintended implication is created because the modifier clause “because they offer large, fenced-in areas of dirt and grass” is placed right after “pesky animals like rabbits and deer” instead of the “ports,” the true subject that needs the modification.

Solution?

Move the modifier clause right next to the subject of the sentence:

“Since they offer large, fenced-in areas of dirt and grass, ports are especially vulnerable to pesky animals like rabbits and deer.”

Or

“Ports that offer large, fenced-in areas of dirt and grass are especially vulnerable to pesky animals like rabbits and deer.”

Both would work. Case closed. Confusion prevented.

Google Page Creator - “Small Design Stuff” Leads to Frustration

Google has a not-so-bad web site design and hosting service called Google Page Creator. And it's FREE!

I've been using this free service since April 2006 for my own web site www.writer111.com

That is of course not its original URL but I have directed my own domain name to point at http://writer111.googlepages.com/ which is the real URL.

For web sites that do not need frequent updating this service is just great.

But it has one small design flaw that I'm surprised Google's really smart engineers and design team still have not discovered it.

When you are in Gmail, there is no easy way to get back to your Google Page Creator.

Almost every Google service imaginable is one easy click away from Gmail EXCEPT the “Pages” and I have no idea why.

For example, when you are looking at your Gmail main page, you see both a number of links up on the top of your page and also additional links on your drop down list under “more”.

But NONE of those links include “Pages”.

So how do you get to your web site design module if you are in Gmail?

First, you navigate BACK to www.google.com (by clicking the WEB link on top) while you are still signed in to your Gmail account, which then takes you to your main standard Google page.

There, you will notice the all-important MY ACCOUNT link on upper right.

When you click on MY ACCOUNT, that's where you will see the PAGE CREATOR link listed and NOWHERE ELSE.

Click that and voila! you'll be in your web site design module.

Why Google cannot include the PAGE CREATOR link either in the Gmail page top links or inside the “more” drop-down list is a mystery. But the first time you try to go from Gmail to “Page Creator” you will discover what a navigational feat it is. And the more you take that annoying detour, the more you realize how such very simple design flaws end up creating a totally frustrating user experience.

Small things... take care of the “small stuff” and the “larger stuff” will automatically take care of itself.

Know Thyself, and while you are at it...

"If you know yourself and your enemy, you will not fear battle.

"If you know yourself but not your enemy, you will lose a battle for every one that you win.

"If you do not know yourself and do not know your enemy, you will never see victory."

~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Watch Out for That Pen Name

Pen names are a long-honored tradition in Western literature. Sydney Porter wrote under the pen name “O. Henry.” Samuel Langhorne Clemens became famous as “Mark Twain.”

But you have to watch out these days if you are writing under a pseudonym. Especially if Hollywood is interested in your work.

Exhibit A -- A writer named "JT Leroy" catapults to stardom in 2000 with his explosive autobiography “Sarah,” the story of a kid growing up as the son of a West Virginia hooker turning tricks in truck stops.

It gets better – Soon JT Leroy is writing for the New York Times and Vanity Fair and calling the likes of Winona Ryder an Madonna his “friends.”

And better – In 2003, Antidote International Films Inc. (which produced movies like “Laurel Canyon” and “Thirteen”) options “Sarah” for $15,000 with the intention of turning it into a movie. The option is renewed next year for the same amount.

Then, the sky caves in – New York Times discloses that “JT Leroy” is nothing more than a pen name for Laura Albert, a mother and a little-known young novelist from Brooklyn Heights.

Result – Antidote wants all its money back since they made a contract with “JT Leroy” but Leroy does not exist.

Big mess. The case is still in court.

UPDATE (6/23/07)

Jury: novel bought by company fraudulent

By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press WriterSat Jun 23, 4:57 AM ET

To writer Laura Albert, her alter ego was a psychological necessity, but to jurors, the fictitious male prostitute JT LeRoy was a fraud. A Manhattan jury decided Friday that Albert had defrauded a production company that bought the movie rights to an autobiographical novel marketed as being based on LeRoy's life.

The federal jury, after a short deliberation, awarded $116,500 to Antidote International Films Inc.

The Art of Great Headlines

Writing great headlines is a true art. Some people I suspect are born with the knack of whipping up drop-dead perfect headlines at the drop of a hat. But then, to some extent, writing good headlines can be taught and learned as well.

Here is one time-tested venerable principle: make sure that your verb is somehow organically related to the core character, the main characteristics of the subject of the sentence, but it should be used in a DIFFERENT context.

Take for example this great headline by the New York Times (June 13, 2007):

"Casinos Go All In To Draw Asians" ... Perfect!

"Going all in" is a poker term and represents a situation in which a player risks everything. The writer could have said "Casinos Pull All Stops To Draw Asians"... or "Casinos Risk It All To Draw Asians" but it would not be the same. It would not have the same punch and the same juice.

Here the action phrase "going all in" is perfectly related to the "casinos." It is also used not in its traditional context of poker but in a new context of marketing. That unexpected cognitive shift injects power to the expression while still closely keeping our attention riveted to the gambling framework.

Contrast this power headline with a very weak one used by the Wall Street Journal again (by sheer coincidence?) to open a gambling story in its June 13, 2007 issue:

"What Happens in Vegas, Goes to China" (hello?)

We of course know where this headline is coming from -- it's a cutesy word play on the Vegas marketing slogan "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas."

But to be aware of this "trick" is not enough to understand what the story is really about. What does it mean something "Going to China"? What is it that goes to China? It is not immediately clear.

For example, this lazy echo of a well-known slogan justifies us to wonder if "extramarital affairs" started in Vegas end up "in China" somehow? It misdirects our attention.

Then we read the accompanying subheader: "$2.2 Billion Casino Resort Is Part of New Push in Cotai To Lure Gamblers, Travelers"

O-kay... now we see what the header was talking about.

But if a header needs a subheader to be understood, then it is failing in its primary function of immediately communicating the core summary of the news story. Otherwise why open a story with a header at all?

More on this topic later on, with more practical tips for writing great headlines...

Screenwriting – Write Your Movie Backwards

Did you know that Dave Chase, the genius behind The Sopranos series, has visualized that shocking very last scene [screen going black for 10 seconds] a full three years ago? He carried that ending with him for three years. He must have realized the power of configuring his ending well in advance to settle the issue three years in advance.

Many successful movies would not add up to anything without their strong endings. Every scene is shaded and nuanced by the ending in one way or the other. As an art form with its own limitations, screenplays really are anchored by their last scenes.

Imagine, for example, the “Sixth Sense.” And think about its unexpected ending. Could any of the earlier scenes make any sense if the ending was different? Of course not.

Here is the “Ugur Akinci Method” (ahem!) of writing a screenplay without too much pain (“some pain” is unavoidable of course):

Here is the "Ugur Akinci Method" (ahem!) for writing a screenplay without too much pain ("some pain" is unavoidable of course):

1. First decide on what your ENDING will be.

2. Think your way backwards, all the way to the beginning of your script. Try to see the whole movie playing from beginning to the end in that little movie screen on the inside of your forehead.

3. Chop your story into 18 to 25 sequences.

4. Divide each sequence into 3 to 5 scenes.

5. Sit down and write the whole thing as quickly as possible from start to finish, without stopping for any reflection or self-criticism. The minute you stop and start "thinking" about it you will freeze forever and never get done.

6. Once you finish your 100 to 120 pages, you can re-write, edit and polish to your heart's content. Writing is rewriting. But "writing" -- and not the "rewriting" -- comes first.

Importance of Designing Simple Things Well

Good design is invisible. It works beautifully, seamlessly, does the job without a whimper.

Bad design, on the other hand, is everywhere! It sticks out like a pair of brown shoes under a black tux. It is in-your-face obvious.

The PT Cruiser that I have rented for the week made me realize once again how our daily lives get complicated for no other reason than bad design.

First, the window power buttons. Everyone who gets into a PT Cruiser searches for the window buttons in vain. Why? Because the designers of PT decided it would be a really “cute” idea to place all four window controls on the center of the dashboard!

So when you approach a gate toll and when you need to roll down your window in a hurry, don't panic. Just think about all the time and energy that went into an “innovation” that neither works nor is needed, and have some compassion.

Second, if you need to pop open your trunk lid from inside for easy loading and unloading of your grocery bags, forget about it. There is no pop-up button like you would have in 90% of all cars these days, that little and very useful button somewhere in the lower left side of the steering wheel.

You need to get down and insert your key into the trunk lock and open it manually every time you need to open your trunk. How's THAT for convenience?

And thirdly, watch out for the key itself because the PT designers placed the PANIC button right on the key, exactly where you would be grabbing it to unlock your doors and your trunk.

The result? On various occasions throughout the day you activate your car alarm without intending to. And if that is happening inside the tight space of an underground garage, the effect is all the more embarrassing and ear-splitting of course.

As American car manufacturers are wondering why Japanese and South Korean car makers are taking over the American market they should really pay attention to all these small things that either don't work or work with unpleasant results.

It's time they realize that “cute” is not always “friendly.”

Perhaps by taking such “design risks and challenges” they are trying to take a road less traveled and discover some new “aesthetic ground.”

Yet they should also remember what Jerry Seinfeld said about the matter: “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.”

FREE Copy for Non-Profits in Need

Good morning folks! This morning I woke up with a great inspiration.

If you are a 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organization in need of non-commercial copy for a good charitable cause, yet you are in no position to pay the $75 to $200 hourly fees that most professional copy writers like myself regularly charge, then don't despair.

I've decided to donate each month a certain portion of my time to one such qualified organization on a first-come first-served basis. This would be my own small way of giving back to the world what I received so generously from it -- this precious gift of language and creative expression.

There is no gimmick, no fine-print, no nothing to this offer. It is exactly what it reads like.

If you are one such organization please write to me at writer111[REMOVE this first to prevent spam]@gmail.com and explain your situation and your need. If I think you qualify for my free copywriting offer, I would be happy and honored to be in your service, time permitting.

My thanks in advance for helping us make this world a better place to live, one correctly-chosen word and one well-turned phrase at a time.

A Manual for $20,000

Sometimes it's not easy to price a technical writer's work. How much is a user's manual "worth", really?

It probably is not worth much if it is one of those thick door-stoppers gathering dust at the top shelf of a never-used library.

However, it might also be worth billions if it shows a technician at a nuclear plant how to stop a core meltdown in progress.

Here is a rather well-priced manual that I've read quoted in the Wall Street Journal (June 7, 2007).

Natasha Pearl runs a New York lifestyle-management service. Among her services is finding top-quality kitchen personnel for her wealthy clients.

Ms. Pearl reportedly charges $10,000 "to find a chef" "and up to $20,000 to draw up a housekeeping procedural manual for a mansion."

As Sinatra says in one of his immortal songs, "nice job if you can get it..."

Good Copy Illuminates and Delivers (the Truth)

Good copy has two important functions.

1) It brings up "the world" alive. And once our attention is engaged,

2) It also delivers the unvarnished truth.

Delivering the truth without aesthetics, without illumination, would be like that proverbial tree falling down in the forest and nobody noticing it. Does a tree really fall if there are no witnesses? We don't know.

Sheer aesthetic fireworks, on the other hand, without any truth, is disservice to the world. It is betrayal of our short existence here on this earth. It's the lowliest of the black-arts.

There should have been an Eleventh Commandment: "Thou Shalt Not Mesmerize For the Sake of Self-Aggrandizement." Eventually all good writers come to learn appreciate the "Eleventh Commandment."

Here is an author that I discovered today; a writer who has a full grasp of both of these important prose rules and boy, can she write!

She is Manohla Dargis of the New York Times and she is writing "only" movie reviews. But they are complete. Perfect. Because what she writes is both beautiful and true.

Here is the beauty part:

"Played by a tamped-down, amused and amusing Al Pacino, Willy Bank is a pint-size Trump in oversize eyeglasses and a burnt-orange tan that makes him look like an Hermès handbag..."

With a description that visual and strong, you can immediately see this character right before your very own eyes. That's power copy.

But that's not all. Dargis continues:

"But that’s how everything rolls in Mr. Soderbergh’s Vegas: smoothly and sleekly and low to the ground, without obvious effort and, most important, without ugliness... When Danny Ocean and his Boy Friday, Rusty Ryan (Mr. Pitt), stroll across a casino floor, you never see the cigarette burns on the carpeting or the middle-aged men quietly weeping after the night and their savings are long gone."

Wow! That's Sociology of Vegas 101 in a few sentences.

Writing well does not need to sacrifice from the truth. Or, inversely, writing the truth need not be an exercise in eating broken glass. Manohla Dargis is one of the many excellent writers out there today proving the point.

Two Inspiring Success Stories

Did You Know That...?

John Paul DeJoria, Co-Founder and CEO of "John Paul Mitchell Systems" which sells $800 million worth of hair products a year, was not always rich. "I was homeless twice in my life, mainly because I was too proud to ask anybody for help. In my early twenties I was divorced from my first wife. I had my son; I had no place to live. I went out and collected Coke bottles at night. I'd cash them in at the drugstore. You'd only get two or three cents in those days. We lived off a very skimpy diet in those days, rice, potatoes, cereal, macaroni and cheese or canned soup, but we lived."

Bill France, Jr., the man who single-handedly invented NASCAR stock car racing and helped build the Daytona race track, used to sweep the floors in his youth to make ends meet. When Daytona International Speedtrack was built in the late 1950s, France helped grade the earth, erect the stands, and even cleaned the port-a-johns on the construction site. When France passed away as a multi-millionaire on June 4, 2007 he left behind not only a legacy of sports but one of perseverance and success as well.

Marketing Notes: "Qode" and Onion's Sharp Take on MySpace

This morning a reader of mine made me aware that QR Code technology indeed exists in the United States, provided by Qode, a Florida company (www.qode.com). Thanks Ken D. for the heads up.

You can download the Qode software to your cell phone and then point it to the "Qode" (a version of QR Code) and it will take you to the related web site. I guess these must be proprietary QR codes because you would not want any cell phone to point and get to the same web site, or would you? I'm still not sure who and how money is made through this technology. What is the business model? Probably that's also changing and evolving as well as we speak.

You can point your cell phone at a Qode and take a virtual tour of a house on sale, compare ticket prices, get all kinds of info on all kinds of products and services, etc. And the information can be customized by times zone and other variables as well. For example, pointing the phone at a Qode "stamp" at 9 a.m. in San Francisco would take you to a web page appropriate for the "morning zone" but the same stamp will take you to an "afternoon" page in New York.

SECOND ITEM:

The Onion, the nation's premiere satire paper, has published an item on May 31 that made me laugh out loud because it expressed my own cynicism about MySpace's claim as a "social space." How can people who do not even know one another claim to be one another's friends, by the thousands at a time? That I could never comprehend. And The onion slashed at the whole idea with the following new story:

"MySpace Outage Leaves Millions Friendless"!!! I really laughed hard at that one. "BEVERLY HILLS, CA -- An estimated 150 million people continued to be without social lives Tuesday as a massive system failure at MySpace.com entered its third day."

Fantastic humor but perhaps also a scary harbinger of things to come... could it be true? Why not?

How to Tell Fake Phishing E-Mails from Real Ones

There is a very easy way to tell a fake phishing e-mail from a real one.

One immediate clue is to receive it from a bank where you have no account. That one is obvious (you would think) but still you'd be amazed how many people take such mails seriously despite the fact that they know they don't have an account at the said institution.

More importantly:

Such e-mails ALWAYS include a web URL link that they want you to click and visit to "update your critical security information" etc.

BEFORE clicking it, HOVER your cursor on the link and then look at the STATUS BAR at the bottom of your browser window to see the REAL ADDRESS that the link is pointing to.

If that address has nothing to do with the real-looking URL in the letter, then you can rest assured that you are the target of a phishing expedition that could drain your bank account before you know what.

Most of the time, such real addresses will have foreign country suffixes at the end since they are usually sent by scam artists from other countries. That would be a dead giveaway as well.

Remember: the e-mail address from where the e-mail seems to be originating from means NOTHING since it can easily be faked. Once I even received a scam mail from MY OWN E-MAIL ADDRESS! Wow... the scam operators really went overboard with that one without being aware of it.

The URL typed inside the body of the mail also means nothing because it is just plain text.

But the real web address to which that text is linked - that cannot be faked that easily.

Just hover your cursor over any link that you suspect and find out the real address the link is pointing at. That can save you a lot of unnecessary headache.

High Cost of Bad Information Design!

Poorly designed fax sheet causes police to evacuate more than a dozen businesses in Massachusetts!



This faxed page released by the Ashland Police Dept., shows a fax as it was to appear as a promotion sent by a marketing group Wednesday, May 30, 2007, to a Bank of America branch in Ashland, Mass.

A faulty fax arrived at the Bank of America's Ashland office Tuesday night omitting portions of the fax.

A bank employee misinterpreted the message Wednesday as a bomb threat causing authorities to evacuate more than a dozen neighboring businesses. (AP Photo/Ashland Police Dept.)

FrameMaker Tip – How to Set Up Your INDEX page numbers correctly

FrameMaker, like all powerful tools, can be frustrating if you do not know how to use it properly.

For example, FM has one of the most reliable and versatile book indexing functionalities under the sun. But setting it right might require paying attention to what’s going on in the Reference Pages and one particular paragraph tag within that page.

If you think your Index page numbers do not look right, do the following:

1) Go to your Reference Pages by selecting View > Reference Pages from your main menu.

2) In there, make a search for the Index tags by pressing Ctrl + G to display the GO TO PAGE dialog box.

3) From the Reference Page drop-down list, select “IX” and click the GO button.

4) Once you are in the Index reference page, find the building block(s) with the paragraph tag “IndexIX”. This step is very important. Just place your cursor on the building block(s) and read the corresponding paragraph tag in the status bar, at the bottom of your screen.

If there are no building blocks in the Index reference page with the IndexIX tag, you will not have any page numbers showing up in your Index.

If that is the case, type in <$pagenum>. Launch your Paragraph Designer and assign the IndexIX tag to that building block. That will display your Index page numbers.

If you have just <$pagenum>, your Index entries will be followed only by plain page numbers.

If you would like to have chapter numbers precede the page numbers, then you need to add another building block before the page number building block:

<$chapnum>-<$pagenum>

If you want your Index page numbers in bold and red (let's say), select all the IndexIX blocks, launch your Paragraph Designer, and make the necessary font changes. Apply the changes and you are done.

Note: For all such changes to take effect, you need to save the Reference Pages, go back to your Body Page view, and update your book index.

You Said "Testimonials"? Here are some!

Rare is a microsite which really hits the ball out of the ballpark with testimonials so many and so good that they almost sell the product by themselves.

Here is one such microsite that should be studied by all copywriters and marketers as to how the testimonials should be handled:

http://www.losethebackpain.com/backpainreliefguide.html

1) There are so many testimonials on this web site that you cannot even count. You end up saying "I'll be darn - even if only half of them are telling the truth it still is amazing!"

2) Almost all of them are accompanied by real names, real towns, and PHOTOS of real people. Very effective. The fact that some of them are riding horses or in sports gear earns EXTRA BONUS POINTS since this is a site about getting rid of back pain.

3) There are quite a few sound files, ready for you to listen. Now you decide ALL of the testimonials must be true.

Also note how they are offset from the main body text with a light green screen. It is important to visually differentiate the testimonials from the rest of the text for easy reading.

By the time you reach the end of the page you KNOW that this product works, definitely.

Three Masters of Copy who are not “Copywriters”

“Copy” simply means prose, and good copy is any piece of text that communicates well.

There are many master writers who turn out exquisite pieces of copy who are not “copywriters” since they do not write direct sales copy. But they still sell, albeit indirectly, the products, personalities and services that they so skillfully review.

Since they are so good with the words, you also don’t want to be around them when they don’t like your product or service. Their mighty sword uplifts and reflects light on their favorite objects. But the same instrument can also cut and dissect like a laser beam.

Here are the three non-copywriter masters of the copy that I read regularly:

1) Frank Deford is an award winning sports author with fifteen books, a Senior Contributing Writer at Sports Illustrated and a commentator on NPR.

Here are some Deford samples:

“Clemens, the best pitcher of this era, engages in an annual peek-a-boo. He retires in autumn, and then, like a perennial, decides to bloom again in the spring.”

“More often, though, there is the likes of Terrell Owens, diagnosed with modesty deficiency syndrome…”

“For many athletes, New York City is an intimidating place to play. Fans have high expectations and aren't afraid to boo players who disappoint them. If you can take it there, you can take it anywhere.”

For more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4499275

-------------------------------------------------------------

2) Rex Reed is a movie critic at New York Oberver.

Here are some samples from Reed:

“…Mr. Fraser as Jamie, a frustrated, simmering wimp with a streak of mendacity waiting to surface and torch…”

“…director Rydell balances every move on the head of a pin…”

“Jane Fonda can do just about anything, but first you have to give her something to do.”

“This movie is so bad people are taking bets to see how long they can stay awake without snoring.”

“Directed by Marc Evans, Snow Cake suffers from the same faults that plague most Canadian films: It drones itself to death with the pace of a drunken ant, and the ending takes longer than to arrive than Christmas morning.”

For more: http://www.observer.com/culture_rexreed.asp

-------------------------------------------------------------

3) Warren Brown is an automobile reviewer at The Washington Post.

Here are some Brown samples:

“If pickup trucks were a religion, most of the owners of those vehicles in Asheville would be fundamentalists.”

“Witness the all-wheel-drive 2006 Infiniti M35 X sedan, a motorized treaty between excess and practicality.”

“…finished with elegant rosewood for older, more traditional customers who know that life's bits and bytes are relatively meaningless without its poetry.”

“Sitting in the car is akin to fitting one's body into a rich, comfortable glove. It is a rare instance in which status plays second fiddle to seduction.”

“Head-turning quotient: Oh, Bess! Honey, you snapped necks everywhere with your bad self…”

“I much prefer dancing -- spending an evening with salsa, samba or tango. There is just as much sweat in such movement; but the experience is more enjoyable, memorable -- like driving a DB9 along a beach road in Coronado at twilight.”

For more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/columns/autos/brownwarren/

SCAMGLISH Gives Away E-Mail Scams

If you are not sure if an e-mail offer is a scam or not, just look at the English with which it is written.

Almost all scam letters have ungrammatical, awkward, stilted and sometimes outright laughable English (or, "Scamglish") since the text is copied and pasted many times over during the life cycle of the scam, without hardly any proofreading or anybody taking the time to make sure it is a grammatically correct letter. I doubt if some of them can even write or speak standard English.

Scam artists do not have the time for such niceties, thanks goodness. Otherwise how would we immediately recognize them?

Here are some recent gems that ended up in my mail box today... Enjoy!

---------------------------------

“You would be paid $450 every two weeks to a total of $900 per month.”

“Commission: 10% of every money order/check that is cashed instantly "cash in hand"
or "cash on counter" is what you get from the total cashed amount.”

“…our company supports any fees.”

“Thank You for taking your time to read our offer.”

“…we do not have a payment receiving personnel in these Areas.”

“I am very happy to inform you about my success in getting those funds transferred…”

“Furnish him with your informations like; Your full name.............”

Editing is a Process

ORIGINAL: This multi-pack approach saves space in the parking lot but with a lessening of system reliability.

BETTER: This multi-pack approach saves space in the parking lot but decreases system reliability.

BEST: This multi-pack approach saves parking lot space at the cost of decreased system reliability.

------------------------------------

ORIGINAL: "Your ticket price includes both free parking as well as free pop-corn."

BETTER: "Your ticket price includes free parking as well as free pop-corn."

OR: "Your ticket price includes both free parking and free pop-corn."

No Testimonials? No Problem!

Testimonials are important in marketing. Nothing beats a real testimonial singing the praises of your product or services.

When I write marketing copy for a client, testimonials are among the first inputs I ask for. They really make a difference in the tone and credibility of the copy.

But sometimes the business would be so new that the client would not have any testimonials yet. So what do you do then?

My solution is to write “hypothetical testimonials” that express my client's rendering of what an imaginary prospect would have thought or said had she in fact used the product or service in question.

This way I avoid committing a misrepresentation (by inventing a real testimonial that does not exist) while planting the seeds of a realistic and positive outcome in the prospect's mind. When a real testimony does not exist, I think that's the best a copywriter can do without crossing over into the misrepresentation territory.

For example, imagine you are Linda Smith, a (fictional) Real Estate buyer's agent and you have commissioned a copywriter to draft a copy introducing your services without any real client testimonials.

Then I would recommend something like the following, written with your voice:

“...

And imagine yourself moving into that home of your dreams overlooking the Pacific Palisades, with three bedrooms and a media room in the basement. I can imagine you out there in the balcony enjoying the sweet ocean breeze and thinking:

This is exactly what I always wanted, down to the monthly payments right within my range! I have no idea how Linda Smith did this but I won't worry about that part...

...”

The copy in italics clearly is a hypothetical testimonial since it expresses your thoughts (as "Linda Smith") about what a prospect MIGHT be thinking after purchasing a hypothetical home of her choice.

I think a sales or web copy with such hypothetical constructs would be more powerful than without them. And since you make it very clear that it is no more than a figment of your client's imagination (“ I can imagine you out there ... and thinking”) there is no misrepresentation either.

A “hypothetical testimonial” is a legitimate copy device that you may choose to employ when you do not have any better input from your client.

Avoid Unparallel Construction

“Unparallel Construction” is the bane of commercial copy.

Sentences, and sometimes whole paragraphs of copy, lose their direction and fail to communicate their core message if they are composed with unparallel components.

Here is a current example.

As I was driving this morning I heard the following radio commercial:

First sound clip -- a pizza shop, taking orders over the phone. The customer keeps adding ingredients to his order… “pepperoni, extra cheese, anchovies, onions, mushrooms, …”

A lively sound clip with good actors. Pleasant to listen to.

Second clip – we switch to the anchor, who explains to us that there are TWO types of people in the world: those who order pizzas loaded up with multiple toppings like the customer we’ve just heard, and… those who would not put a slice of pizza into their mouths no matter what.

So far so good. We clearly understand the initial set up. TWO types of people – the pizza lovers versus pizza haters.

Okay. We are already wondering if this is some sort of pizza commercial…

But then comes the Grand Disconnect, thanks to the obviously faulty and unparallel construction of the whole copy.

We are next told that, SIMILARLY (?), there are also TWO types of HEARTBURN! And such-and-such brand of over-the-counter anti-acid medication takes care even the worst of them!

Hello?! “Two types”?

WHAT two types of heartburn? Since the whole analogy is based on the conceptual parallel established with the previous dichotomy (pizza lover vs. pizza haters) the intended parallelism breaks down.

Yes, people who order their pizzas with massive toppings may and do get a heartburn. We know that.

But why should the other group have heartburn as well if they are not eating pizza at all? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Those two dichotomies are not parallel at all since the former cannot cause the latter.

That’s why this commercial confuses the listeners rather than make an easy and obvious point.

All throughout the commercial I found myself wondering why people who avoid pizza at all cost do get a heartburn JUST LIKE (?) the hard-core pizza lovers.

The first set-up intro of the commercial is totally wasted.

Instead, the commercial could again start with that great opening sound clip of a worker taking a pizza order with mega toppings, but then would immediately switch to the PROBLEM created by that order: a massive heartburn.

SOLUTION? Our wonderful anti-acid medication of course. Okay, it's a bit boring. There is no great punch line there, I admit. But at least it makes sense and does not confuse the listener.

By setting up this Rubic Cube of unparallel dichotomies, the commercial really bites more than it can chew and listeners are the ones who get a heartburn while listening to it and trying to decipher the enigma thrown at them.

It’s great for exercising your brain while driving on the road. But probably it’s not very good for selling a whole lot of anti-acid pills.

A Personal Milestone: 400th EZ Article in 365 Days

Today I've published my 400th online article on www.ezinearticles.com

I initially did not realize that it has taken me exactly one year to date to write these 400 articles.

However, I must note that there were many months within the last year when I did not contribute any articles to EZ at all due to other pressing (and paying) writing assignments. So had I written regularly, I probably could've been up to perhaps 700 articles by now.

I am thinking to write a brochure on how to market goods and services through article writing. It certainly did me good, so good that recently I started writing for another similar ezine article web site as well -- The American Chronicle.

Here are my EZ and Chronicle links:

Ezine Articles

American Chronicle

QR Code Revolution is on its way

A sample QR Code

Barcode, move aside! QR CODE is here.

Soon we will be pushing flash movies, coupons, MP3 files, good-old text and god knows what else to our cell phones by pointing their tiny built-in cameras to a QR Code, taking a snapshot, and then pressing the SEND button.

The revolution is already well underway in Japan and it's just a matter of time before it reaches the American shores.

Imagine, you are at the supermarket. You see an odd looking bottle of something on the shelf with a QR Code on it.

You point your cell phone camera at it, take a snapshot and push SEND and presto!

Soon you are watching a video about how to use the product, its benefits, complete with a 15% discount coupon that you can use right there at the same store!

Welcome to the 21st century and make all your marketing plans accordingly.

Click here for an excellent article on QR Codes

"People's Princess" and the Power of Words

As I was watching the movie QUEEN yesterday (for which the lovely Helen Mirren has won an Oscar this year), I was once again reminded the power of words and how the right phrase coined at the right moment in history can sway the masses in one direction or the other.

After Princess Diana dies unexpectedly in that car crash in Paris, PM Tony Blair's chief aide and writer comes up with the phrase "People's Princess" for him to use during his public condolence speech.

The phrase, pure invention of a gifted writer, catches on like wildfire. It captures and expresses the British public's love and adoration for the fallen Diana so well that in the end even a reluctant Queen has to come down from her high horse and pay due respect to the memory of her former and still-resented daughter in law.

An 11,158 Word Sales Letter

Most of the time my clients think an online marketing copy should be as short as possible in this day and age of short attention spans.

But, believe it or not, that goes against the practice of some of the most successful online marketers today.

Why?

When a targeted group of potential buyers are about to make a decision to purchase a very expensive product or service, they do not mind to read as many supporting arguments and as long a list of benefits as possible. The logic of "short is better" simply stops there.

In a previous posting I have mentioned a financial newsletter subscription letter distributed by Agora Publishing that was over 7,000 words.

Today I have received a well-crafted sales copy from American Writers and Artists Institute, promoting a 3-Day $9,000 seminar that was over 11,000 words!

There is a lesson there for all copywriters and direct marketers.

“Link Popularity” versus “Search Engine Saturation” Indexes

“Link Popularity” (LP) and “Search Engine Saturation” (SES) indexes are two different and complementary ways of measuring your web site’s ranking and relative importance on the web.

LP indicates the number of web sites with links to your domain.

SES, on the other hand, indicates the number of pages on your web site indexed by various search engine robots.

In general, the higher these numbers are the better it is.

However, there are caveats as in everything else in life.

High LP numbers, for example, can be generated by links coming in from web sites that nobody is visiting anyhow. All links are not created equal. A link from yahoo.com is perhaps worth a million links from nobodyvisitsme.com (just an example).

In the infancy of the Internet, “Directory Farms” were created to drive up the LP numbers. These were web sites with nothing in them but a bunch of web links. But these days you will be penalized by most search engines if your link is included in such “farms.” So you have to be as concerned about the quality of your links as their quantity.

SES has its own issues too. You can create thousands of pages, for example, to generate a higher SES index but…

Are those new pages related to the main topic of your web site?

And do they make it easier or more confusing to navigate around your web site? When visitors get confused by your inconsistent navigation and unrelated content, they may leave forever.

There is a point where “abundance” tips over into “confusion” and to know when to add things and when to stop is at the heart of search engine “optimization” process.

(If more was simply better under ANY conditions, the process would be called “Search Engine Maximization” and not “Optimization.”)

There are many sites out there that generate both LP and SES reports; some even provide comparative data on competing web sites. One such site that I use and like is www.marketleap.com.

Check the LP and SES numbers of your web site regularly since they change frequently. The best practice is to take regular measurements and then take their average for a reliable benchmark.

If the numbers are good, try to understand what you did right and replicate it.

If, on the other hand, the numbers are falling, analyze the reasons why and take appropriate measures to counter the trend.

About "Knowing"...

“It’s not what you know, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows what you know.”

~ Ed Sykes. Motivational Coach and Speaker

Karan Bilimora - An Indian Succes Story

Karan Bilimora is a name not well known in USA but he is the owner of Cobra Beer, a company worth 100 million pounds and named as one of the 100 fastest growing companies in the UK.

"The initial years were full of struggle," he says. "But I have made it, despite a number of factors that went against me when I started. The worst recession since World War II was on, and I was obviously a foreigner trying my hand when I had never even sold a beer bottle earlier."

Click here for the rest of this story

6 Success Secrets of NFL Great Jerry Rice

Jerry Rice gew up in Crawford, Mississippi and he worked as a brick layer when he was a teenager to help his father build house foundations. Brick laying was tough work but it also helped him develop his legendary work discipline and hand strength.

He later went on to become the most successful NFL All-Pro wide receiver of all time with the San Francisco 49ers.

The following are the six success secrets that Jerry Rice used that can easily motivate you to achieve success in any aspect of your business, career, and life...

Click here for the list

Top 10 Success Tips for Interns

From Penny Loretto,
Your Guide to Internships.

Organizations seek interns who are motivated and exhibit a "go-getter" attitude. Employers also want people within their company who have a strong work ethic and are dependable and work well independently and in a team environment. Many Human Resource Departments report that they seek many of their full-time employees from interns exhibiting these skills who have previously interned with their organizations.

Click here for rest of the article

Aweber's "Split Test" Functionality

Autoresponder company Aweber offers a great "split test" option to its customers that I just found out.

Imagine you have a subscription box on your web site, just like I do here in the right sidebar.

Let's say 1% of those who visit your web site are actually signing up.

The question is, could that have been 2% or more if you tried a different sign-up box and/or you gave out a different download premium... Wouldn't you like to find that out?

Aweber allows you to test exactly that by running a "split test."

This is how you do it:

1) You design two different sign-up boxes, with perhaps different text, different colors, different font family and font sizes, or a combination thereof.

2) You either link those different boxes to the same free download (or what Aweber calls a "message"), or come up with a second free download for the second signup box.

3) Then, you tell Aweber the probability with which those boxes should be displayed every time their page is viewed. (There are other and multiple pop-up options of displaying the box as well.)

For example, you can have Box A displayed 50% of the time and Box B displayed the other 50%.

4) Aweber composes a Javascript code for you based on the above steps. You copy that HTML code and insert it in your web page, in the appropriate location.

And you are done!

Not only your boxes are displayed according to the probabilities you have defined, but detailed statistics are provided about the performance of the alternative sign-up boxes. That way you can easily determine if your design changes have improved or actually deteriorated your conversion rate.

A very useful functionality that should help you improve the performance of your web site through a controlled and scientific method.

Write Powerful Copy by Eliminating Old and Tired Expressions

You'll increase your web site traffic faster if you use clean and short sentences.

Remember: less is more.

Eliminate all hackneyed expressions from your prose for some snappy copy.

Examples:

--------------------------------------------------------

Ring the bell in order to get service.

BETTER: Ring the bell to get service.

--------------------------------------------------------

Truth of the matter is, there is something fishy with this deal.

BETTER: There is something fishy with this deal.

--------------------------------------------------------

In a manner of speaking, he was the black sheep of the family.

BETTER: He was the black sheep of the family.

--------------------------------------------------------

To be perfectly honest with you, I don't like the way things are going.

BETTER: I don't like the way things are going.

--------------------------------------------------------

To be perfectly frank about it, I wish I had another option but I don't.

BETTER: I wish I had another option but I don't.

--------------------------------------------------------

The long and the short of it is, Frank has to pay that hundred dollars back.

BETTER: Frank has to pay that hundred dollars dollars back.

--------------------------------------------------------

Well, what do you think?

BETTER: What do you think?

--------------------------------------------------------

Worrying about the past does not make any sense and you know that.

BETTER: Worrying about the past does not make any sense.

--------------------------------------------------------

Needless to say, Hawaii is a gorgeous place to live.

BETTER: Hawaii is a gorgeous place to live.

--------------------------------------------------------

You will be able to leave on Sunday.

BETTER: You can leave on Sunday.

--------------------------------------------------------

You have the ability to learn.

BETTER: You can learn.

--------------------------------------------------------

The brigade was not enabled to deploy.

BETTER: The brigade could not deploy.

--------------------------------------------------------

Make sure to click the Start button.

BETTER: Click the Start button.

--------------------------------------------------------

Ideas in themselves cannot be copyrighted.

BETTER: Ideas cannot be copyrighted.

--------------------------------------------------------

Doctors recommend taking calcium in conjunction with vitamin D.

BETTER: Doctors recommend taking calcium together with vitamin D.

--------------------------------------------------------

The information in this document is considered the property of ABC Corporation.

BETTER: The information in this document is the property of ABC Corporation.

--------------------------------------------------------

In the event that your roof leaks, call a roofer.

BETTER: If your roof leaks, call a roofer.

--------------------------------------------------------

It simply works.

BETTER: It works.

--------------------------------------------------------

We were totally amazed

BETTER: We were amazed.

--------------------------------------------------------

He was really lost.

BETTER: He was lost.

“Fewer” or “Less”?

FEWER should be used when one can count the items/subjects in question. It is usually used with a following “THAN”.

For example:

1) Today I had fewer than ten phone calls.
2) Fewer awards than advertised were distributed at the Honors Ceremony.

LESS is used for items/subjects that cannot be measured.

For example:

1) You should work less to be healthy.
2) Since we had less snowfall this year, we decided not buy that snowblower.

Power of FRAMEMAKER Markers

There is a reason why professional technical writers authoring long complex documents almost always use FRAMEMAKER.

There simply is no comparison between FM and MS Word, for example, when it comes to industrial-strength heavy-duty documentation with multiple levels of numbering, indexing, TOC, multiple lists, etc.

One look at FM’s Marker functionality, and you realize right away how deep its marking capabilities are.

Here are just some of the markers you can use to tag your FM text with:

Index – the most obvious one, used for indexing terms.

Pending – used for not-quite-finished items that you would like to revisit at a later date.

Conditional text – used to generate multiple versions of the same document geared towards different audiences or markets.

Glossary – used to tag the items to appear in a Glossary.

Header/Footer – FM easily creates running headers and footers from existing paragraph tags. But if the text that you’d like to convert into running headers/footers is not styled as paragraph header, you can select that text and tag it with this marker.

Cross-ref – used to identify any text as a cross-reference to appear in the Cross-Reference dialog box.

Comparing Autoresponders Feedblitz vs. Aweber

Autoresponders is one of the must tools that should be used by all serious bloggers and online marketers. It is an excellent way to keep up with your readers and clients with minimum of effort.

Here is a brief comparison of the two autoresponders I’ve used in the past:

FEEDBLITZ

Major advantage: it’s free. You can broadcast your blog content automatically to your list.

Also has: double opt-in subscription engine. It eliminates people subscribing other people without their consent.

Support: so-so. You are basically on your own.

Questionable feature: number of subscribers are displayed under Feedblitz’ subscription box. That’s great if you’ve got 10,000 subscribers but it looks bad if only 2 people have subscribed to your newsletter.

Major drawback: you cannot schedule an e-mail campaign well in advance, with certain pieces mailed out on certain days.

Visit www.feedblitz.com for more info.

AWEBER

Big advantage: You can not only broadcast your blog content automatically to your list but you can also schedule an e-mail campaign well in advance, with certain pieces mailed out on certain days.

Also has: double opt-in subscription engine. It eliminates people subscribing other people without their consent.

Major drawback: it costs $19.95 a month.

Note: Aweber allows an “infinite” number of autoresponders for multiple websites.

Support: very patient people answer your questions politely and they never give up on you.

Too many configurable features to count here.

Visit www.aweber.com for more info.

My New Logo, thanks to Wikipedia

I use the public domain images of Wikipedia frequently and publish under GNU Free Documentation License.

In this logo, the earth image was also legally borrowed from Wikipedia. The rest was rendered in Adobe Illustrator.

Top 5 Sectors that Generate Maximum Online Leads

When it comes to generating a lot of online leads, all sectors are not created equal.

According to a recent Pew Internet & American Life survey, here are the 5 top sectors that generate maximum amount of leads:

1. Pharmaceuticals
2. Retail
3. Travel
4. Education
5. Personal finance

“79 percent of respondents said they turned to the web for health research. 91 percent of consumers who responded to a 2007 Prospectiv Consumer Preference Index (CPI) survey expressed interest in visiting websites focused on treatments for their ailments; 47 percent indicated they would like to receive treatment information via email,” according to iMedia Connection.

A Firefox Secret to Blogger Productivity

Darren Rose of PROBLOGGER writes:

"One of the little tricks that I use every morning when I first log onto my computer that gets me off to a flying start is to open up my ‘StartUp Folder’ on Firefox.

This is a bookmark folder that contains 15 or so key sites that quickly give me an indication of what is going on across my blogging business. Within 60 seconds I know what’s hot, what’s broken, where there’s a fire that needs to be put out and where I can give things a nudge to make them go viral.

Here’s how it works.

Firefox (and other browsers) allows you to arrange your bookmarks via folders and place these folders in your bookmark toolbar across the top of your browser. These folders can be accessed in two main ways:

* by clicking the folder and selecting a bookmark from the drop down menu
* by right clicking the folder and selecting ‘Open in All Tabs’ (if you have tabbed browsing turned on).

It’s this second method that I use every morning (and 2-3 times per day)..."

Click here for the rest of the story

Joy of Editing

“Honda recently announced that it is soon going to start its Mexican-built Civic exported to U.S.”

BETTER: “Honda recently announced that it will soon start exporting its Mexican-built Civics to the U.S.”

“upon the advertising campaign going active…”

BETTER: “when the advertising campaign is launched…”

“The signal to unlock a barrier can truncate upon the door position input going active."

BETTER: “The signal to unlock a barrier can truncate when the door position input is active.”

“They determine whether the authorized party is present prior to the start of a transaction.”

BETTER: “They determine whether the authorized party is present before a transaction begins.”

Bad English (or “Scamglish”) Gives Away E-Mail Scams

I’ve yet received another “Lottery Winning Notification” – this time from Microsoft (!). Ho ho ho!

There are two items that give away these scams immediately:

1) The domain name of the return link is invariably registered in some foreign country (Hong Kong, Slovenia, Russia, UK, Netherlands, Japan, etc.) but never in the United States. Just check out the last two letters of the domain name and consult the following country list: http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/domains.html

2) Bad English is the second giveaway since these messages are copied and pasted many times over, sometimes by scam artists who do not even know any English! And the results show...

Here are some sentences written in Scamglish, quoted from the “Microsoft lottery” letter that I’ve mentioned:

“…the Lucky numbers 14-21-25-39-40-47(20) which subsequently won you 1,000, 000.00 (One Million Great Britain Pounds) DATE: 9/APRIL/2007 DRAW NUM: 1 It was held in London (UK) the claims agent assigned to you to, for the Release of your prize…”

“…a wide range of web hosts which we Enjoy their patronage…”

We are all lucky that, even though the bad guys are smart enough to come up with these schemes, they are never smart enough to proofread and edit their English copy.

Caution -- Flash Drive Sticks

Flash drive sticks are great. They provide a lightweight solution to memory problems. I have one myself that I carry with me wherever I go.

But are you aware that the same innocent looking flash stick can actually be a Trojan Horse, carrying someone else's malicious code or virus?

How come? In essence, once you insert it into your USB port, every flash drive becomes a mini hard-drive. If all you have on it is a bunch of files and images that yourself have saved, then there might not be a problem.

But be careful every time someone hands you a flash drive! If there is a malicious executible file on the stick, it could automatically start to execute it the minute it is connected to your computer.

MS Word files fall in the same category. Be very careful about opening the MS Word files on a flash memory stick which is handed to you by others because Word is an excellent vehicle for all kinds of destructive macros. Once you open the Word file, macros execute and do whatever what they were designed to do.

Did you know that any high school student can write a 5 to 10 line Word macro that would wipe away ALL the files on your machine when the Word document is opened?!

Use and enjoy your flash drive stick but also keep in mind that sharing it with others is probably not a bright idea in this day and age of hacking frenzy.

(PHOTO CREDIT: Published under GNU Free Documentation License. Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Flash_drive_usb_memory.jpg)

Happy Mothers Day!

To all the mothers of the world -- you are the One! And we love you so...

(PHOTO CREDIT: Image by Jean-Pol GRANDMONT. Published under Creative Commons (CC) license. Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Grand-Reng_JPG05.jpg)

Yahoo Mail Alert

Have you checked your Yahoo mail recently to make sure it is working properly?

I have received a few complaints within the last 48 hours about how SLOW Yahoo mail is these days, with mails arriving DAYS after they were sent. If you are relying on Yahoo mail for your business, that might be a costly delay indeed.

Since I'm not using Yahoo mail myself I was not aware of the problem.

How long online marketing copy can be?

The question comes up from time to time:

"How long an online sales letter should be?"

People new to direct marketing are a bit reluctant to send long letters for fear of "boring" their prospective customers. And that sounds like a valid point indeed in this day and age of soundbites, short YouTube clips and extreme programming.

However, there are a lot people making money by sending really long sales letters.

Here is one I've received from the "The Daily Reckoning" group, a subsidiary of Agora Publishing from Baltimore, MD.

The letter is for selling Steve Sarnoff's option trading newsletter and it is exactly 7825 words!

Seven thousand eight hundred twenty five words, including not one (P.S.), not two (P.P.S.) but THREE (P.P.P.S.) Post Scripts!!!

So if your message is good, if you have a lot to say to convince your prospects, if you need room to display your wares and advance logical arguments that use a lot of empirical data, feel free to write as long as you want.

More people than you might believe actually do read all that to make up their minds, especially in the financial newsletter sector.

A Good Microsite

A microsite is a single-page web site devoted to selling a single product or service. It is a direct marketing tool that is very suitable for network marketing (signing up new members for a Multi Level Marketing downstream) as well.

Here is an example that is not perfect but still does many things right in terms of design and copy:

http://www.PublishingSeminar.com

This is a microsite selling a 2-day book marketing seminar in NYC.

I'll list some of the correct elements that makes this design above-the-average:

1) A specific and somewhat unusual offer up-front. (See the screenshot below.) They are promising to double or triple your annual income after this 2-day event during which they will introduce their SYSTEM. That's rather specific and a lot to promise, isn't it?



2) Photos of 4 authors follow the promise, thus personalizing the message. Now we are looking at four guys whose faces we can see, names we can read. This already feels like a REAL event.

3) Great BLUE subheaders divide the text into digestible chunks. We are explained not only who should attend but also who should NOT. This again "shows" how serious these people must be.



4) Prominent bullets with check marks itemizing important points in easy-to-read lines.

These bullets summarize some of the FEATURES and BENEFITS of the training bootcamp although it still (for understandable reasons) does not quite gieveaway the particular features of the Streamlined System itself. Since information is what they are selling, you have to buy it first in order to get the full set of features.



5) Then comes the first set of double registration buttons with OUR UNPRECEDENTED MONEY BACK GUARANTEE in between them. We now are aware that we are reading information about an event that we can register EASILY if we want to NOW.



6) Detailed BIOs of the speakers with their photos (again!), further building up the credentials of the main participants. This seminar would be nothing if we are not sold on the credentials of the presenters. So this is an emphasis that will never go to waste and should translate into a higher conversion rate.



The fact that these presenters have such impressive biographies is of course a giant plus. (Also: check out the easy-on-the-eye blue bullets.)

7) Following the excellent bios of the four presenters, we are hit with a very visible TESTIMONIALS section. Here is the PROOF of how others benefited from this seminar. BENEFITS follow the FEATURES (author bios used as a stand-in for the features of the promised Streamlined System). Observe the FULL NAMES and towns and states fafter the testimonials. We think... "these must be real people."



8) Then we are provided another chance to click and register with PRICE GUARANTEE. The friendly but convincing and insistent copy continues to chip away at our resistance.

9) Here comes the BONUSES if we register by May 12, 2007, followed by another registration button. Does your offer also come with a DEADLINE? Does it have a built-in URGENCY?

This is the FOURTH opportunity to register since we started reading the copy from the top. There will be TWO more such buttons by the time we reach the bottom of this microsite.



Always try to give something FREE to your readers as an immediate reward for taking action.

10) There is even hotel information there, just touched upon. But unfortunately the author says the information will be provided only AFTER we register. What a letdown...



That's one obvious negative of this site. I would never hold back such crucial information from the reader especially for those who would be travelling from far away locations to attend this event. Heck, I would even include information on how to travel to the exact location of the training workshop for those out-of-town travelers. Whenever possible, make it easy for people to join you, visit you, so that they will also "buy you."

The way it is done now, a lot of readers might be wondering "well, I think I can afford this workshop but New York City is a very expensive place and I don't know if I can afford a hotel in Midtown West Manhattan!"

If I were the owner of this microsite, I'd immediately change that "we'll share the info if you register" teaser with clear information on hotels and prices, or, remove that section altogether in order not to create any unnecessary question marks in the readers' minds. Anything that would make a reader hesitate would also drop the conversion rate.

Overall, a pretty good example of what a microsite should look like, with much to learn and emulate.



Last but not least -- check out the PS, which a MUST for any successful direct mail letter.

Did you know that most people simply scroll down to the bottom of sites like this and read the Post Script FIRST?

Do not hesitate to repeat your best offer and best benefits in the PS once again.

Technical Editing

“These other outputs are useful when additional prompting of the user is achieved via stored messages or indicator lamps.”

BETTER: “These other outputs are useful to prompt the user via stored messages or indicator lamps.”

------------------------------------------------

“The confirm direction specification is used to set the significance of the sensor to transaction directionality.”

BETTER: “The Confirm Direction is used to specify the transaction directionality of the sensor.”

------------------------------------------------

“A barrier usually factors into the determination of whether the user has actually moved from one location to another.”

BETTER: “A barrier helps determine whether the user has actually moved from one location to another.”

(Eliminate convoluted phrases such as “factors into the determination of” whenever possible. Simplify, simplify, simplify.)

Facts and Metaphors

“… Facts have a way of yielding to nuance like a jury to a trial lawyer. Under the right influence, they will go along with anything. But the metaphors remain… and continue to give useful service long after the facts have changed.

What's more, metaphors help people understand the world and its workings. As Norman Mailer recently put it, "There is much more truth in a metaphor than in a fact." But the trouble with metaphors is that no matter how true they may be when they are fresh and clever, when the multitudes pick them up, they almost immediately become worn out and false. For the whole truth is always complex to the point of being unknowable, even to the world's greatest geniuses.

The world never works the way people think it does. That is not to say that every idea about how the world works is wrong, but that often particular ideas about how it works will prove to be wrong if they are held in common. For only simple ideas can be held by large groups of people. Commonly held ideas are almost always dumbed down until they are practically lies… and often dangerous ones. Once vast numbers of people have come to believe the lie, they adjust their own behavior to bring themselves into sync with it, and thereby change the world itself. The world, then, no longer resembles the one that gave rise to the original insight. Soon, a person's situation is so at odds with the world as it really is that a crisis develops, and he or she must seek a new metaphor for explanation and guidance…”

By Bill Bonner
President, Agora Publishing

Unparallel Construction

Here is a grammar rule that I like and try to follow: “In a compound sentence with multiple clauses, the clauses should be parallel in structure.”

It’s called the “Parallel Construction” rule and I try to adhere to it in my own writing because it increases comprehension.

Complicated sentences that do not have parallel clauses are usually hard to read and comprehend. Usually there is something “not quite right” with them even if you cannot always put a finger on it.

Here is a recent example from an Associated Press news story:

“PARIS, France (AP) -- France's defeated Socialists called for an end to post-election violence Tuesday after anti-Sarkozy protestors took to the streets for a second night, leaving cars burned and store windows smashed in Paris as well as unrest elsewhere.”

“Leaving cars burned and store windows smashed in Paris” is a clause that describes what was “left behind in Paris” by the protestors after they took it to the streets.

But the conjunctive clause that follows it “as well as unrest everywhere” sounds off because it violates the “parallel construction” principle.

A true re-construction of that phrase would read “as well as leaving unrest elsewhere” ! Perhaps now the problem is more clear because in English “leaving unrest” is not a grammatically acceptable phrase.

However, a condition can “lead to unrest” or a person can “cause unrest.”

Therefore, one way to correct this malformed sentence would be:

“PARIS, France (AP) -- France's defeated Socialists called for an end to post-election violence Tuesday after anti-Sarkozy protestors took to the streets for a second night, leaving cars burned and store windows smashed in Paris as well as causing unrest elsewhere.”

To me, this new sentence reads better and is easier to understand. Don’t you agree?

Overcoming fear of success

An interesting post on the complex psychology of success...

"May 5, 2007 11:09 PM

I deeply want to be successful, yet I seem to fear success almost as much as I fear failure. Towards that end I often find myself doing things that are somewhat self sabataging. For instance, if a job pays well or requires a lot of responsiblity, I'm usually too scared or intimidated to apply for it. I only feel that I'm "worth" the jobs that offer less status and pay.

Another example of my fear of success is a nonprofit idea I had recently. I have gotten feedback from several very knowledgable people who said that it is an excellent idea and that I should put together a business plan and consider applying for some grants. However, I'm terrified to do so! In my family, I was always seen as the immature, unsuccessful one. How could I possibly start my own business?? Even if I did not go very far, I could treat the business plan as a learning opportunity--something to include in my portfolio to show other companies the ideas I have and the type of work I could do. But of course, this would lead to expectations that I would have to meet...and nothing terrifies me more. So my idea is sitting by the wayside.

I also struggle with difficulty defining my goals. I have many, many interests, and consequently find myself expending energy in multiple career directions. Since I never seem to focus on any one thing I pursue multiple endeavors without being particularly successful at any of them. I really believe that if I had better focus and more confidence I could achieve a lot more.

Does anyone have suggestions for overcoming a deeply ingrained fear of success?"

Click here to read the responses...

Bootstrap Your Way to Startup Success

by Michael E. Gordon, PhD

Bootstrapping is the process of conserving financial resources to the extreme during a business’s startup phase. It means pulling yourself up by your bootstraps by doing most of the work yourself.

Because you want to go into any new business enterprise with your eyes wide open, let’s take a look at some of the pluses and minuses of bootstrapping...

Click for the rest of this article

Watch out for those tricky "Misplaced Modifiers"

Even the most polished publications are not immune to that dreaded mistake committed frequently in English -- the "misplaced modifier."

Here is a current example from the august Wall Street Journal, an excellent publication to which I'm a subscriber:

"Mr. Zagorsky studied data from 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a representative sample of Americans funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics." (May 5-6, 2007, p. B4)

Here it reads as though the Bureau of Labor Statistics has funded the "Americans" who were in the "representative sample"!

But of course that's not true. We know that the study itself was the entity that was funded by the BLS.

That's why the correct sentence should read:

"Mr. Zagorsky studied data from a representative sample of 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth funded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

Rich are not Smart?

"How come you're not rich if you're so smart?" goes the popular putdown.

In general, we expect very smart people to be also very rich, don't we?

But there does not seem to be a strong correlation between IQ and income and wealth, according to a scientific study conducted by Ohio State University's Jay Zagorsky.

Zagorsky's study of 7,403 Americans who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth between 1979 and 2004 showed that smarts and riches are very loosely connected. Each additional IQ point corresponded to only an additional $202 to $616 of income a year.

Other complicating factors: You can have high income but if you don't save, you won't be wealthy. Or, you can be wealthy on paper but if your wealth is tied up in non-liquid assets (like real estate with mortgage) then again you may not have a lot of income.

E-MAIL SCAM ~ “Iraqi re-construction effort”

This is a new one… Someone with an Arabic name is sending e-mails on behalf of the “Iraqi re-construction effort” and “PM Al-maliki regime” to solicit “your co-operation in a multi million dollars worth of contracts to supplies on various goods /construction…”

Notice the bad English. Usually these scam letters contain grammatical or stylistic errors since they are copied many times over before being sent out, sometimes by scam artists who can barely read or understand English. Random errors made during such replications inevitably multiply over so many copy-and-paste cycles.

All scam letters claim they are trying to give you money (and millions of dollars at that) if only you would “cooperate”… And the kind of “cooperation” they have in mind requires you (eventually) turning over all your bank account information to parties you don’t even know!

But the first letter is always a “warm-up letter” asking only for your “direct telephone numbers and exclusive e-mail and a scanned attachment of your well articulated tender/products and prices.”

And once you do that and prove to them that you will follow orders like a sheep, you will be demanded in a subsequent letter to turn over your bank information as well so that they can “transfer” your “fee” in return for your “indispensable services…” etc.

The letter usually comes from an “intermediary” who speaks “on behalf” of someone rich and powerful. This other person, the “real boss,” is either trying to transfer money out of a troubled country or has a business offer for the taking. The “Iraqi re-construction” scam is of the latter type.

Another give-away in this scam is the country-code at the end of the return e-mail – “si”, which stands not for Iraq but Slovenia.

If you can convince yourself why Prime Minister Al-Maliki’s “director general of the budget department/debt management office (DMO) of the ministry of finance” would send you a job solicitation e-mail from Slovenia, then perhaps you deserve to be parted from your savings as well.

Linux or Windows?

As I'm writing these words, DELL has decided to ship some of its new models with Linux OS. They have selected UBUNTU distribution of Linux.

Go DELL!

A perfect choice because I've been using UBUNTU on one of my machines for over a year now and I have nothing but qualified praise for it.

Qualified? Yes. Because I cannot run any of my Windows application (like Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive) on Ubuntu.

GIMP comes close to doing what Photoshop can do (at least at my level of graphic comptetence) but other Windows applications do not have their Linux-copunterparts yet. There is nothing over the horizon yet, for example, to match the reliability of power of FrameMaker in a Linux environment.

So why I still like my Ubuntu? Let me count the ways:

1) It's FREE.

2) OpenOffice that comes with it is FREE as well and it can match WS Office in every category, except in mail management.

3) No viruses. Period. I have not used any anti-virus programs or firewalls with my Ubuntu system yet. Knock on wood.

4) No system crashes. And when I crash my system (a rare event) while trying to open 10 different applications or files at the same time, Ubuntu recovers beautifully, restoring each crashed file one by one when you restart the system.

5) Auto updates... when you click this great little "you have updates" button on top of the screen, UBUNTU automatically downloads (after your approval of each item) whatever updates are developed by hard-working Linux volunteers around the globe.

I do all my writing, for example, on my Linux machine. Since OpenOffice also has a free PDF conversion utility built right into its word processor, I'm writing my new book ("Copyright-Free Content for Your Web Site and Newsletters") also on my Linux machine.

Click here for a great article that compares UBUNTU with MS Vista

Circulation at the Top 20 Newspapers

By The Associated Press

Average paid weekday circulation of the nation's 20 largest newspapers for the six-month period ending in March, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.

1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent

2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent

3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent

4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent

5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent

6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent

7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent

8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent

9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent

10. The Arizona Republic, 433,731, down 1.1 percent

11. Dallas Morning News, 411,919, down 14.3 percent

12. Newsday, Long Island, 398,231, down 6.9 percent

13. San Francisco Chronicle, 386,564, down 2.9 percent

14. The Boston Globe, 382,503, down 3.7 percent

15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 372,629, down 6.1 percent

16. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 357,399, down 2.1 percent

17. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 352,593, up 0.6 percent

18. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 345,252, down 4.9 percent

19. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 344,704, up 0.5 percent

20. Detroit Free Press, 329,989, down 4.7 percent

The Dallas Morning News is reporting for the first time since being censured in 2004 for misstating circulation figures. The Chicago Sun-Times has not yet resumed reporting.

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Sales Receipt - Printing the Full Credit Card Number is Against the 2003 Law

My local Sears store may get sued one of these days because it is still printing the full credit card numbers on their sales receipts.

According to the U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which went into effect on December 4, 2006, the retailers are not allowed to print their customers' full credit card numbers on the sale receipts in an effort to prevent consumer fraud and identity theft.

Some claim card expiration dates should also not be printed but the law is not clear on that point.

Big merchants such as Rite-Aid, Wendy's, FedEx, TJX, and Ikea are already being sued for doing exactly that.

100 class-action lawsuits are already filed at the federal courts and district courts (in California, Pennsylvania, and Kansas) for continuing to print full credit card numbers on sales receipts.

The lawsuits contend that the retailers are "wilfully" violating the law, which carry a $1,000 penalty per transaction (not per person). So, if a consumer has bought 10 sandwiches from a store with 10 different receipts displaying the full credit card number, the penalty sought would be $10,000.

To prevent the onslaught of these new lawsuits, VISA started to demand its vendors back in 2003 to accept new machines that print only the last four digits of a credit card number. That still remains the legally accepted practice but I personally see quite a few stores still printing their sales receipts the old fashioned way.

I guess it's time to have a friendly talk with the Manager of my Sears store...

How to write columns and get syndicated?

by Bhumika Ghimire

http://www.helium.com/user/show/68604

April 29, 2007

Writing columns and getting syndicated can be a great career moment for freelance writers. With this you can expect a steady pay and also increased name recognition.But before I get deep into benefits of getting syndicated, lets talk about what syndication means and how it works.

Syndication means that you column will run in more than one national or local newspaper or magazine. For example: you write a column on fashion which will be carried by newspapers in your home town as well as others across the nation. Which publication carries them depends on your contract. Usually an agent shops around and gets you a syndication deal. Your pay also depends on the terms in the contract, you can either be paid a certain percentage based on circulation or have a fixed amount. About the frequency of publication, some get it weekly and some have it daily. Though it is very rare to get a daily space.

So now that you know how syndication works, lets talk about how to get syndicated.

Click here for the rest of this useful article