Early to Rise Saturday
October 23, 2004
By Michael Masterson

Today:

* How to make your sales pitch more effective

* An ancient Chinese remedy for pain that really works

* If this doesn't get you going, nothing will!

Plus:

* Can you help this ETR reader solve his marketing dilemma?

* This Week in Early to Rise

* This Week's Pop Quiz

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WEALTH
Sometimes It Pays to Break the Rules

Successful copywriters write in a way that closely resembles conversation -- and sometimes that means they break conventional rules of grammar. The reason for that is simple: Conversation is the most intimate form of communication. Intimacy promotes trust. And trust lubricates the sales process.

If you suspect that your copy is more distant than intimate, read it out loud. You'll know immediately if it's too formal. If it is, here are some tips to make it more conversational:

* You can and should use contractions like "don't," "can't," and "aren't."

* You can start a sentence with "and," "but," "or," or "so."

* You can use sentence fragments. (Often better than long, grammatically correct sentences.)

* You can refer to yourself in the first person ("I") and your reader in the second person ("you").

(Source: "Write On Target: The Direct Marketer's Copywriting Handbook")


HEALTH
Scientific Proof That Acupuncture Significantly Reduces Pain

For thousands of years, the Chinese have been using acupuncture to treat pain (among other things) -- and now we have scientific proof that they know what they're doing.

A recent study at the University of Medicine of New Jersey showed that acupuncture treatment resulted in 60% to 70% reductions in the pain-induced brain activity of test subjects. In a review of similar studies, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found promising results in favor of using acupuncture to treat postoperative and chemotherapy nausea, dental pain, headaches, and joint and back pain.


WISDOM
How Many Months Do You Have Left to Achieve Your Dreams?

At the Agora Learning Institute annual conference this year, Robert Ringer had these words of advice in his keynote speech:

"How old are you now? How long do you hope to live -- realistically? Subtract the first number from the second. Now take that number and multiply it by 12. (In my case: I'm 54 and expect to live till I'm at least 84. That gives me another 30 years to live.)

"Take that number and multiply it by 12 (40 x 12 is 480). That's the number of months you have left to live your life.

"Think about that. When expressed in months, it doesn't sound like all that much, does it?

"Now do this: Subtract almost a third for sleep time and, say, another fifth for eating, dressing, commuting, etc. time. That's the number of months you have left to enjoy yourself and realize your dreams.

"In my case, after doing that I'm down to about 350 months. Only 350 months. Yikes! I'd better get going!"

(Ed. Note: If you want to learn more about what went on at this year's conference, you'll be happy to know that all of the sessions were professionally recorded and are now available on CD or VCR. Order your copy, click here: https://www.agora-inc.com/secure/FORM1.CFM?PUBCODE=700SBCTP&PCODE=W700EA41&ALIAS=all.)

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This Week's Most Compelling "Speak Out" Topic:
The "One-Step" vs. "Two-Step" Approach to Marketing

When you're marketing a new local service, is it better to use a lead-generation campaign or go directly for the sale? That's the dilemma one of our fellow ETR readers is facing right now -- and he'd like your input to help him make a decision.

Basically, this is the way he sees his two options:

Option 1: The "One-Step" Sales Approach

Send 5,000 local prospects his best sales letter, along with brochure, reply card, and all the bonuses, for a 5-day "at cost" trial offer.

Option 2: The "Two-Step" Sales Approach

Send 5,000 local prospects his best sales letter -- not mentioning the trial offer and not asking to "buy now" -- with a call to action for him to send them a free report (along with his full sales package, of course).

There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Go to the General Discussion forum of "Speak Out" to get the whole story and share your thoughts. The thread is titled "The Sales Dilemma -- one-step approach or two-step approach?" (http://speakoutforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=342)

Do you have a comment or question on this -- or any other topic that would be of interest to your fellow ETR readers? Post it on "Speak Out" by clicking on: http://www.speakoutforum.com/forum/

This Week in Early to Rise

10-18-04 Simplify Your Life (and Make It Pay Off in More Ways Than One), Part 2

When we left off on Friday, Charlie Byrne said, "Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I decided that something need to change, because we didn't want to live that way. [And what he meant by "that way," was the way their friends Chuck and Laura were living.] We came up with a plan and have already started fixing the problem." Here's what happened . . .
http://www.earlytorise.com/weekly/101804.htm


10-19-04 Why Are You Waiting for Someone Else to Inspire You?

I met Bella for the first time six years ago, while she was attending her first copywriting bootcamp (which, like ETR's Wealth-Building Bootcamp, is now hosted every year by the Agora Learning Institute). She was an energetic, recently divorced, ambitious 36-year-old, bubbling with ideas. "This is the best conference I've ever been to," she told me at the end of the three-day program "I can't wait to get back home and get to work."
http://www.earlytorise.com/weekly/101904.htm

 

10-20-04 Why Some People Should not Be Investing in Individual Stocks

"The conference is terrific," he told me during this year's Wealth-Building Bootcamp. "But I wish you would spend more time talking about investing in individual stocks and options."
http://www.earlytorise.com/weekly/102004.htm|


10-21-04 How One Man Built a Multi-Million-Dollar Business Selling to a Very Small Universe of Buyers

I met someone at ETR's Wealth Club Bootcamp that rekindled my interest in niche marketing. His name is Matt Furey. If you read martial arts magazines, you may recognize the name.
http://www.earlytorise.com/weekly/102104.htm


10-22-04 The Chicken Nuggets Theory of Human Behavior

Two weeks ago, while attending the Agora Learning Institute annual conference, a young man named Lou came up to Matt Furey, introduced himself, and started talking about how much he admires Matt's copywriting and the way he markets his "combat conditioning" program. Later on that night, Matt had a conversation with Lou in which he gave him what he calls his "Chicken Nuggets Theory of Human Behavior."
http://www.earlytorise.com/weekly/102204.htm

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This Week's Pop Quiz

How much do you remember about some of the things you learned this week in ETR? The answers to this week's Pop Quiz are at the end of today's message.

Part I:

1. As Charlie Byrne showed us in Message #1238, there's a double benefit to clearing out your house and selling your "junk" on eBay. The first (and most obvious) benefit is that you put some extra money in your pocket. What is the other one?

2. People who successfully make a positive change in their lives don't wait for "inspiration" to motivate them. They don't wait for everything to be "right" before taking action. For example, they don't wait for their personal lives to sort themselves out. Or for their work to settle down. What are some of the other things mentioned in Message #1239 that they ignore?

3. In my opinion, if you have less than $50,000 in your investment account, you should not be investing in individual stocks. Too risky. Instead, you should put your money into a no-load mutual fund that tracks one of the major market indexes. And forget about it. True or False? (Message #1240)

4. In Message #1241, I introduced you to Matt Furey. And I explained how he created a very successful business by applying four "old-fashioned" direct-marketing principles to the space ads aimed at his niche market. No. 1 is to begin with a product that has a unique selling proposition. What are the other three?

5. In Message #1242, Matt Furey explained his "Chicken Nuggets" theory of human behavior. Briefly, how does it work?


Part II: Quick Tips

6. As consultant Mark Amtower pointed out at ETR's Wealth-Building Bootcamp, you can improve your communication skills by reducing your "word-to-idea" ratio. Did he mean that you should express your ideas in more words? Or fewer words? (Message #1238)

7. I'm convinced that people who believe in the low-fat, high-carb eating philosophy are healthier than everyone else. True or False? (Message #1239)

8. In a famous study, schoolchildren with brown eyes were told that they were smarter than their blue-eyed classmates. Not surprisingly, the performance of the brown-eyed kids began to improve. Meanwhile, the blue-eyed kids lost ground. Midway through the experiment, the children were told there had been a mistake and that the blue-eyed kids were actually smarter. Suddenly, the kids with blue eyes began to outperform their brown-eyed friends.

There are two lessons we can learn from this experiment. The first one is that positive expectations combined with focused effort will bring positive results. What is the second one? (Message #1240)

9. In Message #1241, I mentioned 12 up-and-coming niche markets that were identified in a premium for ETR's direct-marketing program. How many can you remember?

10. According to the booklet "Make Yourself the Obvious Choice," you can be in the top 1% of all readers by reading how many books each month? (a) 1, (b) 5, or (c) 10 (Message #1242)


Part III: Word to the Wise

11. Someone who is "vociferous" is (a) a very good singer, (b) a very good dancer, or (c) very noisy. (Message #1238)

12. You might use the word "coruscate" when describing something that is (a) sparkling, (b) rough, or (c) mellow. (Message #1239)

13. Someone who is "profligate" is (a) miserly, (b) wildly extravagant, or (c) skillful. (Message #1240)

14. "Grappling" is (a) a type of wrestling, (b) a wine-making technique, or (c) a lighting effect. (Message #1241)

15. Another word for "platitude" is (a) piracy, (b) lament, or (c) cliche. (Message #1242)


Answers to This Week's Pop Quiz

1. As Charlie discovered, when you take this step to simplify your life, it makes you (and your house) feel better. Instead of being overwhelmed and weighed down by clutter, you feel lighter . . . fresher . . . energized.

2. They don't wait for a project they are working on to be completed. They don't wait for the new addition to their home to be finished. They don't wait for problems with a relative to be resolved.

3. True

4. (1) Create a personal relationship between you and your customers. (2) Package your back-end products to sell well at relatively high prices. (3) Network.

5. Child learns something from parent, teacher, or some other authority figure. Child believes what he learns is true. Child then closes his mind to learning anything else on the subject. Child rejects any attempt by anyone to teach something that runs counter to what was originally taught. If attempts are made to teach anything NEW to Child . . . even if Child is now 45 years old . . . not only does Child reject idea -- but he gets angry."

6. Fewer words. The wider the word-to-idea ratio, the less likely it is for communication to occur. The tighter the ratio, the more likely it is that you will get the desired result.

7. False - In Message #1239, I gave the example of BR. He's thin, but not muscular. Light and fragile, instead of lean and strong. And though he's only 56 years old, you'd think he's at least 10 years older than I am. His face is gaunt, his color is poor, and he looks, in short, almost sickly. Like many other people I've noticed who eat like he does, his diet may be keeping his weight down -- but it's also affecting his health.

8. And second, if you want to motivate your children, your employees, or your co-workers to do their best work, make them feel that you believe they can do it.

9. artist supplies, collectible toys, cosmetics, do-it-yourself legal guides, fruit baskets, home health tests, jewelry and gems, natural products and health foods, pet supplies, privacy products, tools, and vitamins and nutritional supplements

10. a - just one book per month. To do that, you would have to read about half a chapter each day -- about a 15-minute commitment.

11. c
12. a
13. b
14. a
15. c

Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2004

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