According to Italian folklore, it’s not Santa Claus who gives presents to good little boys and girls. Instead, La Befana, a good witch, travels the country by broomstick on Epiphany Eve (the night before January 6). She fills the stockings of good children with goodies, but leaves only coal for those who have been naughty. (These days, parents put carbone dulce (”sugar charcoal”), a rock candy that looks like coal, in their children’s stockings as a joke.)
The story behind the legend is that the Three Wise Men invited La Befana to go with them to visit the newborn Christ child, but she declined because she had housework to do. When she was done she set off to join them, but got lost. Every year, she continues her search on Epiphany Eve, giving presents (or coal) to all the children along the way.
According to Italian folklore, it’s not Santa Claus who gives presents to good little boys and girls. Instead, La Befana, a good witch, travels the country by broomstick on Epiphany Eve (the night before January 6). She fills the stockings of good children with goodies, but leaves only coal for those who have been naughty. (These days, parents put carbone dulce (”sugar charcoal”), a rock candy that looks like coal, in their children’s stockings as a joke.)
The story behind the legend is that the Three Wise Men invited La Befana to go with them to visit the newborn Christ child, but she declined because she had housework to do. When she was done she set off to join them, but got lost. Every year, she continues her search on Epiphany Eve, giving presents (or coal) to all the children along the way.
Seven years ago, the real estate market where I live - the west coast of Canada - was in a serious slump. Crushed by the Asian crisis of the late 1990s, the Greater Vancouver area just couldn’t seem to rally back. Houses languished on the market, and often slipped into foreclosure. Price reductions were the norm. It was a tough time.
It was also when my husband and I began our real estate investing partnership.
The market was scary, but we didn’t worry much about that. We focused on our objectives and on finding a deal that worked for us. We wanted to buy a rental property in a decent area that would put a little money in our pockets every month. We looked for deals in areas within walking distance of schools, near shopping centers, and around transportation options.
Finally, we found a large duplex, sitting on top of a fairly steep driveway. It had been on the market for over 15 months, going from $199,000 to $179,000 to $169,000 and then slipping into foreclosure. We picked it up in court for $159,000. And within 12 months, our income from that investment was $300 per month. Since then, the rents have almost doubled, and the property value is well over $300,000.
It’s easy to mistake the incredible turnaround made by that market for good timing on our part. But it wasn’t. The reality is that we did very well on our purchase because we had a plan with a clear set of objectives - and we stuck to that plan. We focused on the deal, and didn’t worry about the market.
These days, real estate investing once again seems like a scary thing to do - and it is if you are trying to time the market or hoping to make a quick buck. But if you need reassurance, remember what Warren Buffett has often been quoted as saying: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
[Ed. Note: Set specific objectives for what to look for in a property, and don't diverge from your course - no matter what the market does. It's the clearest way to make the best possible real estate deals. Get more profit-producing real estate secrets from some of the world's leading specialists right here.
In eight years, Internet Money Club member and real estate investor Julie Broad and her husband have built a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio in their spare time with minimal cash resources. They publish a free monthly newsletter to help other rookie real estate investors achieve their investment goals. Get your free report for making money with real estate here.]
Splurging in the middle of a recession is a no-no by Wall Street’s lights. They’re very good at punishing companies that can’t rein in spending when the economy goes into a tailspin (like now). The thinking is, a company can’t increase sales in a recession and shouldn’t try. They can only hope to cut costs to sustain profits. But this particular piece of conventional wisdom doesn’t always hold true. In the recession of 1989 to 1991, many companies that dared to spend aggressively on advertising were amply rewarded…
Jif peanut butter raised ad support and sales went up 57 percent.
Kraft salad dressings saw a rise of 70 percent.
Bud Light and Coors Light spent more than the average on marketing, and ramped up sales by 15 percent. (Overall, beer sales were down 1 percent.)
With aggressive advertising, Pizza Hut sales rose 61 percent, and Taco Bell’s rose 40 percent.
At the same time, companies that didn’t spend on advertising suffered the consequences. Mickie D’s sales went down about 28 percent. Jell-O, Crisco, Hellmann’s, Green Giant, and Doritos suffered sales losses of 26-64 percent.
And there are studies that point to business-to-business companies getting good results from spending that supports sales during a recession. During the recession of 1981-82, companies that spent aggressively on advertising averaged significantly higher sales volume not only during the recession but for the following three years.
Investors looking for companies like these can search for them on Yahoo and other financial sites by “sales” or “revenue” (look for increasing sales in the last three or 12 months). Further research will most likely reveal that the money they spent on advertising also went up.
Search engines have no category that tracks spending in support of sales. But I like doing it “backward.” In the end, you don’t care why sales go up as long as they do. When you hear so-called experts on TV complaining about a company failing to cut back on costs and/or spending, take it with a grain of salt. Smart strong spending in support of sales can help a company grow - even in the worst of times.
This is a good lesson not only for investors but also for small businesses. It comes down to this: Smart spending is always smart, regardless of what the economy is doing. And stupid spending is always stupid. Companies seemingly get away with it when the economy is good. But when it stalls, stupid spending (think auto companies) catches up to them in a hurry.
[Ed. Note: Some of the smartest spending you can do is on yourself and your financial future. Start an Internet business, and you could end up making $100,000 to $25 million a year. Learn how to do it here.
Andrew Gordon, ETR's Investment Director, can show you how to spot the "red flag" signals that could predict (with as much as 92 percent certainty) when a company's stock is going to tank. Learn more here.]
I have a single sign posted in my office, taped to the wall next to my desk. On it are only two words: CUSTOMER CONTACT.
It is there to remind me - even to force me - to do more of the task I am always tempted to let slide: talking more frequently to my clients and customers.
Let’s face it. In today’s Internet world, it’s easy to stay in your hidey hole, avoid people, and just sit at your PC reading, writing, and thinking… which is what I’ve essentially designed my businesses to allow me to do! But the problem is that you become too isolated from the very people you are in business to serve.
E-mail has turned into a shield that allows people to avoid the stress of telephone calls and face-to-face meetings. Yes, working remotely by e-mail is extremely efficient. But it has the unfortunate effect of insulating you from the true emotions, fears, concerns, and desires of your market.
So here’s the New Year’s Resolution I recommend for you.
Type in the words CUSTOMER CONTACT in all caps, boldface, and at least 72-point type. Print it out, and tape it to your PC or the wall above your monitor.
Then look at that piece of paper several times a day, read it, and do what it’s reminding you to do: have more contact with your customers.
“But Bob,” you may be thinking, “I’m already too busy. If I spend the day talking to our customers, I won’t have any time to get my work done.”
Here’s what I do in my Internet information marketing business. It may work for you, too…
Like most Internet marketers, we get a lot of communication from customers – both through e-mail and phone calls. It is a combination of compliments, complaints, problems, and questions. The questions range from the mundane (”Your shopping cart declined my credit card”) to the thoughtful (queries about advice or instruction given in our e-books or audio courses).
I have hired an Internet Marketing Administrator, Jodi, whose job it is to take care of all these queries - because I simply don’t have time. So I instantly pass on to her every customer service request or communication (our “white mail”) the minute I receive it.
But I do something to add a personal touch… and increase my own level of customer contact. I advise you to do the same.
Pass most of your white mail on to an assistant to ensure prompt, efficient handling of timely requests and complaints. But read it all first. You will find that you can respond appropriately to some with a single sentence or even a few words (e.g., “Thanks” or “Glad to hear you liked my book”).
Your customers - especially the ones who are your fans - will be thrilled to hear from you personally. Maybe you can handle 10 percent of your white mail this way.
A smaller percentage will ask you questions that require a more thoughtful answer. Each week, spend a half-hour typing out and sending customized e-mail answers to them. Do not charge for this advice. Your customers will reward you with incredible loyalty, referrals, and additional purchases.
Save all the questions and the answers. You may be able to turn them into another information product you can sell - e.g., “101 Questions about X and One Good Answer to Each.” (If you do that, do not use the names of the people who asked the questions.)
And what about complaints?
Answer the most thoughtful of the legitimate ones - those from obviously intelligent and decent folks - with a personal e-mail. Then add this P.S.: “I’ve attached a small free gift to compensate you for your problem.” And attach to your e-mail reply a PDF of one of your bonus reports or e-books.
By the way, I got this idea from Steve Leveen, founder of Levenger. In a talk he gave at one of the American Writers and Artists Inc. (AWAI) copywriting bootcamps, Steve mentioned that he answered many customer complaints with a personal letter… actually written by him… and often sent the dissatisfied customer a free gift.
It worked for Steve, it works for me, and it can work for you.
And what about the insulting, rude, or nasty white mail?
Do not respond, tempted as you may be. Pass all of it on to your assistant with instructions to answer as politely, completely, and helpfully as possible. (You are emotionally invested in your business, so jerks may make you see red. It’s better to let someone who is more neutral handle those negative or difficult people.)
That’s it. That’s my suggestion for your New Year’s Resolution: Get closer to your customers by communicating with them more often and more personally.
[Ed. Note: Personal, frequent contact with your customers and prospects is one of the best ways to build solid relationships with them. Starting an e-mail newsletter - filled with relevant, useful advice - is a perfect way to do it. For a step-by-step guide to setting up your own info-publishing business - including starting an e-newsletter, creating a website, and writing copy to drive traffic to it - sign up for ETR's Internet Money Club. See if there are any spots left for the "Class" of 2009 right here.
To learn more marketing secrets from freelance copywriter and marketing expert Bob Bly, sign up for his free e-zine, the Direct Response Letter.Do so today and get $116 in bonuses.]
“Acuity” (uh-KYOO-uh-tee) - from the Latin for “to sharpen” - is sharpness of perception or vision.
Example (as used by Stephen Budiansky in If a Lion Could Talk): “Horses tend to shy a lot because the construction of their eyes is optimized for a near 360-degree field of view, useful for spotting danger, but the price the horse pays for that is relatively poor acuity and some out-of-focus spots that can cause objects within the field of view to suddenly sail into sharp focus.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
A brand-new year is just around the corner. And though, here at ETR, we firmly believe that you can make major changes in your life at ANY time, January always feels like the perfect time to set some new goals for yourself.
We want to help you kick off the year right. So for the next 12 days, a dozen ETR experts will be suggesting specific resolutions that could make 2009 your happiest, most productive, healthiest, and most prosperous year yet.
To get the ball rolling, I have a simple one for you: Become a writer in 2009. And today, I’m going to explain why this should be on your list of resolutions for 2009 - and then show you a surprisingly easy way to accomplish that goal.
First things first. Writing can…
• Help you get your business off the ground. Writing an e-mail newsletter is an inexpensive way to market a fledgling business. Michael Masterson began Early to Rise with around $1,000, a simple website, and a newsletter. Originally, it was sent only to his friends and colleagues. But it grew. Now, ETR is a $26 million business with over 440,000 readers.
• Help you become wealthy. I’m not suggesting that you’ll be the next J.K. Rowling. Most fiction writers struggle to get published, let alone make a living. But copywriting is a career path that can really rack up the cash. Clayton Makepeace, Bob Bly, Paul Hollingshead, Don Mahoney - each one of these men makes hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by writing sales copy.
• Move you up to the top of your company. This is another way to make copywriting pay off for you. After all, as Michael Masterson has pointed out in ETR many times, the best way to get promoted is to get into the profit centers of your company. Writing copy that helps directly bring in money is one of the quickest ways to do it.
• Help you find a job - in any economy. A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that the number one thing employers look for in new employees is “communication skills.” And a 2006 survey of 431 human resource officials indicated that those skills aren’t easy to find. Forty-seven percent reported that their employees who were graduates of two-year colleges were deficient in written communications, and 81 percent reported that their high-school-graduate employees had the same deficiency.
So if you know how to write, you’ll give yourself a big lead over other people competing for the job you want. Not convinced? My ability to write is what got me a job at ETR - fresh out of grad school, with very little work experience. And it helped me become Managing Editor in six short months.
• Help your business grow. The more traffic you get to your website, the more chances you have to find paying customers. And filling your website with high-quality content is a great way to get Google’s attention… and start attracting visitors.
Julie Broad, a member of ETR’s Internet Money Club, started her Internet business around this time last year. Then she started writing articles on real estate investing for ETR. (In fact, we have an article by Julie in this issue.) Soon afterward, her site’s traffic had increased 10 times. All because she was exposing her ideas and expertise - through writing - to ETR’s subscribers.
• Help build your credibility. Writing articles about your area of expertise can establish your creditiliby and help you get published in top publications in your industry.
Bob Bly shares this observation on the subject from E.U., a successful publisher: “It is simply amazing the reverence people have for the printed word. Simply because a person has written a book about a subject, people think he has something to say about it.”
And those are just a few reasons.
But it seems to me that a lot of people are intimidated by the idea of becoming a writer. If that’s the way you feel, I have (as I said at the beginning of this article) a super-easy way for you to do it:
Just get started.
If you don’t start writing, you won’t ever become a writer.
I know a very smart, very experienced marketing expert we’ll call “Alec.” He has thousands of good ideas and a brain full of useful advice. But as soon as he tries to put it down on paper, he gets stuck.
He’s been invited to be a guest writer for a well-known marketing publication. And appearing in that publication’s pages could enhance his reputation, help him reach hundreds of thousands of new prospective customers, and get the attention of industry giants who could propel him to greater success.
But because he can’t even bring himself to start writing down his ideas… he’s missing out on all that potential.
This first step is very important. (And it works for any type of writing - articles, sales copy, fiction.) You simply choose an idea - one small idea that you’d like to share. And you write it down.
Then you give it to three people to read - even if those three people are your spouse, your best friend, and your grandmother. Or you post it to your blog, save it on your computer, put it in your journal. Just get it out of your head and onto the page.
And you do the same thing the next day… and the next day… and the next day.
Don’t worry about grammar. Don’t worry about spelling. Or whether you expressed yourself well. You can hone your writing skills later. (And, by the way, ETR has tons of great advice on that subject. To access it, all you have to do is a quick search through our Archives.)
Side Note: Many successful writers - including Clayton Makepeace, Michael Masterson, Charlie Byrne, and John Forde (to name a few) - write beautifully. So it’s worthwhile to learn what it takes to be a fine writer. But when you’re just starting out, doing theactual writing is much more important than crafting elegant sentences and paragraphs.
The thing is, if you wait until you can write like Jane Austen… or if you wait until you have a big list of potential subscribers to your not-yet-launched newsletter… or if you wait until you “get inspired” - you will never get started. You will NEVER become a good writer. And you won’t get any of the benefits that come with being a good writer either. So don’t wait. Start right now.
Michael Masterson has said it hundreds of times: Ready, Fire, Aim. You’ve already got the experience or the passion or the ideas. So you’re Ready. Now it’s time to Fire - to start writing about it. And then you can work on the Aiming/improving.
Pick up a pencil or open up a Word document and write something down. Right now. It’s as simple as that. If you can’t think of anything else, do this: Write an e-mail to us at ETR telling us what you think we can do better. Then send it to us at AskETR@ETRFeedback.com. We’re always eager to hear from our readers.
[Ed. Note: Writing down your ideas is a great way to start an e-mail newsletter. And starting an e-mail newsletter is the perfect low-cost way to get your Internet business up and running. For more advice about creating your own e-newsletter - plus step-by-step guides to product creation, marketing, website development, and much more - join ETR's Internet Money Club. Our team of experts will walk you through everything you need to know to start a business that could earn $100,000 to $25 million a year. Space is limited, so find out now if you can still enroll in the "Class" of 2009.]
