Advertise on Your Laptop

Now here's a real coffee house conversation starter:

There's a company called Schtickers that lets you create your own customized laptop skin. You can get everything from van Gogh's Starry Night to your company logo emblazoned on your trusty laptop.

These things are great for writers, copywriters and other solopreneurs who like working remotely. James says check it out.

Be Careful What You Wish For: Adventures with the Law of Attraction

Although I didn't know it at the time, I attracted my laptop using the Law of Attraction.

Back in early November of last year, the Dell desktop my wife won at her company Christmas party died. Not with a whimper, but with a bang. Literally.

It had caught about nine viruses, including a particularly insidious form of spyware whose modus operandi was to pop up ads for phony antivirus software.

Well, in the course of trying to fix the problem, the Dell's power supply blew a fuse, and with a loud pop, a tiny flash of flame from the back, and the smell of burnt plastic, she was gone. And so was my livelihood, for the time being.

It was time to go computer shopping. We had to. There were projects to finish, and more yet to take on.

Here's where my first experience with the Law of Attraction came into play.

For months I had been wanting a laptop. I would sit and think about it during my less busy moments, imagining what it would be like. How I could write from remote, exotic locations like coffee shops and parks. How my wife could surf while I got some work done.

Well, I got my wish, but at the expense of our desktop. This wasn't what I wanted, I thought. My point in having a laptop was so that we could have TWO computers!

Well, long story short, but the Dell is all better now, and for the moment, virus free. And I am happily typing this missive on my Gateway laptop.

If there is a lesson on the Law of Attraction here, it is this:

Think about what you want. I wanted a laptop.

Act as if you have already received it. I imagined myself typing on that thing almost every day for months.

Feel what it would be like to have this thing. I imagined how great it would be and how much it could help me leverage my limited time every day.

Take advantage of opportunities as they arise. The "opportunity" here was that our desktop died, and we had to do something. I was a little angry that the fates had not given me the laptop in some specifically pleasing way, but it all worked out. But be careful here. You don't want to be too general in what you ask for, but you don't want to get hung up on specifics either.

In other words, be careful what you wish for and how you wish for it.

I'm studying the Law of Attraction in earnest now, and hopefully, as time permits, I'll be able to share more of what I've learned with everyone who reads this blog.

Best of Continued Success,

James

The Essential Copywriter's Bookshelf: Hypnotic Writing by Joe Vitale

This is the first in what will be a continuing series covering books that should be on every copywriter's bookshelf within arm's reach. This time around I'd like to tell you about Hypnotic Writing: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words by Joe Vitale.

I've just started reading this one, but I can't put it down. Joe Vitale really knows how to create hypnotic writing! In this book, he shows you step by step, including lots of real world examples, how to create sales copy that your customers won't be able to stop reading. I'm going to copy some of the sales letter examples he uses for my swipe file. This book is a must for anyone interested in copywriting.

How to Quickly and Easily Create Your First E-Book

Whether you’ve been promoting your business on the Internet for any length of time, or you haven’t even started, you’ve probably thought about creating your own e-book. After all, e-books are a great way to promote yourself, encourage people to sign-up for your newsletter, or sell on your Website for some passive income.

The trouble is where do you start?

Start with a problem your target market wants solved. This seems so obvious, but you’d be surprised how many would-be entrepreneurs skip this step, opting instead to sell something they themselves like and think everyone else should want.

Rule number one is: Sell what your prospects want, not what you think they want.

Next, outline it. There’s nothing worse than coming up with a great idea for an e-book, and then, when you sit down to write it, find out that you don’t have enough material.

How long should it be? When I write e-books for Bob Bly, his suggested word count is between 10-15 thousand words. Below that, he says, is too short. Above that is too long.

I know that sounds like a lot, but believe me, it really isn’t. And if you’ve got all the material you need, and have the project well planned out beforehand, those 10K words can go pretty fast.

And there’s no rule carved in stone that says it can’t be shorter. If your finished product is only around 10 pages, just call it a report.

By now you’re probably thinking, “I’m not much of a writer. Can I still create an e-book?”

And the answer is, “Yes. Absolutely!” Here are two great ways to create your own e-book without writing a single word.

1) Interview an expert.

You don’t have to be an expert on the subject you want to write about. Find an expert on your subject and interview them. Talk to them by phone and record it, then have someone transcribe it for you. Poof! Instant e-book!

The recording also makes a great companion to and bonus for the e-book.

2) Hire a ghostwriter.

A ghostwriter is simply someone who writes it for you, under your byline. You put your name on it, you keep all future profits.

When you should hire a ghostwriter:

When you don’t have the time to write it yourself. Running a business is a very time-consuming task. You’ve got to market your business, service clients, do paperwork, and any number of related things. If you’ve been holding off on your e-book because you haven’t had time to write it, it may be time to think about hiring someone to write it for you.

When it is more cost effective to hire someone else. Maybe you could take the time to write it, but your time is worth more than you could reasonably make back from the sale of your e-book. This is often one of the reasons many business owners outsource needs like copywriting and Web design.

3) Do you write articles? Bundle a set of related articles and create an e-book.

And there you have it, a guide to quickly and easily creating your own e-book, including 3 ways to do it without writing a single word. Now go do it! And have fun.

The Thought for the Day: Be Weird

"Success is taking all the things that made you weird as a kid and getting someone to pay you for them when you're older."--David Freeman, Screenwriter

A Little-Known Source for Great Ad Ideas

Swipe files have been on my mind lately, and Ben Settles mentioned a great source of ads recently: old comic books.

As a recovered comic book geek, I remember those ads very well. Here are a few of my favorites:



Ah, good old Charles Atlas. These ads were great. Notice the little comic-style story in the left margin. Comics were the perfect place for these ads, comic book readers being a pretty picked-on bunch, after all. Here's a another version in all its four color glory:



These ads combined all the color, power and zap! of the comics with proven direct response principles. They don't run them like this anymore. Comics these days have gone to running image ads. To find some of these old gems, check out flea markets, antique stores, and the back issue bins of your local comic shop. Most comic books lose their value over time, so you can walk out with a box full of them for a few bucks, though many will run the same ads (many comic store owners protect their stock in protective plastic sleeves, so make sure it's OK with them to take a look at the inside back cover to see if there's an ad you want to take home).

Happy hunting!

Make it Happen in 2008

Will 2008 be your best year ever? Or more of the same? Will you go after your dreams this year, or spend next December 31st regretting the way your life is going?

The choice is up to you. I want to challenge everyone reading this to do whatever it takes to get their dreams off the ground this year. No excuses. We are all responsible for our failures and our successes.

So stand up, take a deep breath, and go for it.

And feel free to share your dreams in the comments.