Are You Achieving Your Writing Goals – Freelancing
Are You Achieving Your Writing Goals
Mridu Khullar
At the start of this new year, like at the start of every other new year, I came across dozens of articles about the importance of setting achievable goals, challenging myself to do new things and fixing measurable standards and working towards them.
But what happens when you mess up the goals from last year Where
"Internet Marketing Simplified! 2 Pillars For Achieving Massive Results" – Site
"Internet Marketing Simplified! 2 Pillars For Achieving Massive Results"
Jeff Smith
Are you confused by the flood of information on how to improve your internet marketing results
Mastering the search engines, pay-per-click advertising, affiliate marketing, website design, writing articles, and on it goes.
Doesnt it seem more and more complicated to focus in on what really works and what doesnt
After working to build many businesses from the ground up over the last 10 years, its more clear than ever that there are 2 main principles that will largely dictate your success in any business. All of the other techniques build on these first two principles.
Think of these two main principles as the cement pillars that hold up a bridge - without them, no matter how well you construct the bridge, it will still fall down.
Focus your energies, time and resources around meeting these two key principles - you will immediately see a big difference in your results.
PRINCIPLE #1
You must have a well positioned product, fulfilling a hot desire within a clearly identifiable and accessible target market.
Lets break this down.
Making a profit in business is really quite a simple concept, you have to earn more revenue than your cost. Revenue minus cost is your profit.
So where does that cost come from
The two big sources of costs are: costs associated with creating or finding your product to sell and cost of reaching your market to sell your product
It only makes sense then that identifying a hot desire within a market you know how to reach will mean much lower costs for your businss. Ultimately, this means more profit for you.
Have you ever run against the wind Tried to swim upstream in a river Walk one way in a crowd when everyone else was walking the other way
Its a very tough lesson to learn.
Ive been brought it to consult with companies that have burned through millions of dollars before learning this lesson.
You cannot FORCE a low-demand product on a market - no matter how much money you spend on marketing.
You cannot hope to reach enough buyers in the entire marketplace even with a very high-demand product in one segment.
In fact, Ive seen situations where unknown entrepreneurs enter a market, quickly identify a hot desire, address it with a less than perfect product and in a very short time have created wealth 100X higher than anyone else in that market.
An old mentor of mine used to tell me all the time, "focus on the low lying fruit - theres far more than enough to go around"
PRINCIPLE #2
You must reach your market with a clear, empathetic message that instantly catches your readers attention, interest, desire and moves them to see your product as THE answer to their deepest desires.
If you were reading closely, youll recognize Principle #2 as the same principles that underly great copywriting.
How do you become a great copywriter and master Principle #2
1. Research, research and research. I make sure I have a pulse on my target markets desires, needs, emotional triggers. Focus in on WHY they want a solution to a particular problem. Research takes many forms...
speak with them
survey them
read what they read
talk to others who do business with your market
test using articles and special reports to guage the response
do what they do
By doing this you should have content for 20-30 at least different benefits for your product.
Then....
2. Polish your benefit statements. This is where you can use books of action verbs, swap files samples of great ads, letters and webpages, the services of a copywriter. This is the technical aspect of copywriting which can be learned by reading other great material.
Far too many people go right to #2, as a result their benefit statements seem bland, miss the mark or seem the same as everyone else.
Next time you get distracted by the latest and greatest tip, technique or strategy - know that focusing on these 2 fundamental principles: In-demand product ideas and effective copywriting, will make the most difference to your pocketbook in both today and in the future.
About The Author
Discover how to create your own best-selling eBooks, Special reports or books to sell online ...AND keep 100% of the profits. Limited time complimentary access to 7-Part Minicourse will get you started quickly and easily. Visit: http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/
jeff@infoproductcreator.com
Labeling is Disabling: Achieving Congruent Communication – Parenting
Labeling is Disabling: Achieving Congruent Communication
Azriel Winnett
A small town, somewhere in the world, was managed by a town council of seven or eight members. The council normally met once a week. One member - lets call him Bill - would invariably stroll into the council chamber exactly ten minutes after the time scheduled for the meeting.
For Bills fellow councilors, this seemingly inconsiderate practice was very disruptive. At first, since Bill was known to be an extremely busy professional, they were prepared to assume that he had been unavoidably delayed. But when history repeated itself meeting after meeting, they began to wonder..
Then one day, the sleepy little town was overtaken by a crisis, and the mayor asked his councilors to attend an emergency session - at 7 the following morning. And you guessed it - Bill turned up at 7:10 precisely.
This seemed to confirm the mayors suspicions that something more than unavoidable circumstances lay behind Bills habitual latecoming. After the meeting he called over the offending councilman for a private chat.
To the mayors surprise, Bill accepted the rebuke with good grace. Punctuality had never been his strongest point, he pleaded, and it had never dawned on him that his bad habit was upsetting everybody so. But from this point, he assured the mayor, he was a reformed man...
The day of the next council gathering came around, and sure enough, Bill was among the first to arrive.
"Whats the matter Bill" jeered one of his colleagues "Is your watch half an hour fast"
"Surely, you were locked out of your house!" added a second, in a somewhat derisive tone.
Right until the end of his term of office, Bill was never on time for a council meeting again.
*********
This is a story that actually happened, although I have changed some of the details.
Three or four decades ago, an educational psychologist by the name of Haim Ginott caused quite a stir when he suggested to parents and teachers that they try a new way of communicating with children. He urged them to unlearn the language of rejection - blaming and shaming, ridiculing and belittling, threatening and bribing - and to learn a new language of acceptance.
In his bestselling books, Ginott repeatedly wrote about the need for "congruent communication." By this, he meant that the way we communicate should be congruent, or consistent, with our objective.
What a pity that so much of our communication isnt!
We see this clearly from our story. Had his colleagues given Bill some badly needed encouragement in breaking a difficult habit, everybody would have come out a winner. But instead of drawing him near, they pushed him away.
Before taking up psychology, Ginott had been an elementary school teacher, first in Israel and then in the USA. But he was not happy, for he realized that his professional training had not equipped him well for the cold realities of the classroom. "I tried to teach my students to be polite," he complained, "and they were rude; to be neat, and they were messy; to be cooperative, and they were disruptive!"
What, then, was the problem
Could it be, he apparently asked himself, that he was the problem
Was he relating to his young charges correctly Or was he, quite unwittingly, pushing them into them into the same corner into which Bill had been pushed by his colleagues on the town council
How, he asked himself further, does a teacher react if a guest comes to her classroom and forgets her umbrella Does he run after her and say: "Whats the matter with you Every time you come to visit you forget something. Next time, youll forget your head! Why cant you be like your sister Shes a responsible person.."
For sure, he will say nothing more than "Heres your umbrella." Thats it. But nobody knows why a teacher or a parent has to assume the role of a judge, or a prophet, when he or she is addressing a child.
A wise person knows that to label a person is to disable him. This applies especially in the case of young children, whose minds are like wet cement. The diagnosis may become the disease. A child may often live up to his parent or teachers negative prediction.
But thats not all.
What do you do when feel youre the target of verbal abuse Normally, you answer back. You give as good as you get. But what if youre powerless to defend yourself against one who insults or belittles you At the very least, youd try to immunize yourself against any further verbal barbs and stings. Youd begin to seal off your mind.
Labeling, or any kind of negative name-calling, is not only a way to make personal enemies. It is one of the deadliest enemies of communication itself. Through it - and I am choosing my words carefully - parents or teachers could lose their children forever.
We want to place our children in at atmosphere in which learning can thrive and creativity can flourish. We want them to prepare themselves for mature and responsible adulthood. We dare not shut the door in their faces.
"Fine," you might say, "but how do we do things the right way"
Its a complex subject, but heres a simple illustration to keep you going.
In the best of schools, it sometimes happens that two classmates insist on striking up a conversation precisely when their teacher needs their undivided attention - for example, when he is about to assign homework. Here are two short sound bytes from two different schools.
Teacher A: "Shut up - or else! You guys belong in a reformatory."
Teacher B; "I need to assign homework now. I cannot do it unless there is absolute quiet!"
Who is the more effective communicator You be the judge!
******
Copyright © 2004 Azriel Winnett
To use this article in your publication, please contact info@hodu.com for permission. This will usually be granted immediately.
About The Author
Azriel Winnett is the creator of HODU.COM -YOUR COMMUNICATION PORTAL at http://hodu.com. This popular Web destination helps you enhance your communication and relationship skills on all levels - in business and professional life, on the family front and on the social scene.