There’s a good reason why I chose to be a copywriter - I love writing copy.
I love writing copy more than anything else, and it is one of those FEW things I’m naturally good at.
But, I guess in the last couple of years, I’ve unknowingly overdone it a bit.
I’ve taken on too many copywriting projects and written way too much copy day in and day out!
And now, all that appears to have taken a serious effect on my enthusiasm to write copy. So much that what I used to love feels so boring to me right now.
The whole process feels like a monotonous task to me now.
But why am I telling you all this?
So you don’t commit the mistake I did. So you don’t work 7 days a week like I did!
It sometimes just happens that we’re so focused on making our business a success that we don’t realize we’re overworking ourselves. We keep thinking we’ll take a break tomorrow and that tomorrow never comes.
So if you too have been thinking about a break and putting it off, take that break now.
Trust me, you’ll feel much better when you take some time off from your regular work. I spent the entire day yesterday doing absolutely nothing and I’m feeling much better already.
Just keep your work hours in check, enjoy other things from time the time, and there’s a good chance you won’t end up being in the position I am.
I’m currently working on cutting down my workweek to 5 days. I’ll also be trimming down my client list and adding lots of fun activity to my daily schedule.
Hopefully that will help me regain my original enthusiasm in quick time.
If you’ve got any suggestions to give me, just reply to this post below.
Early last week… on Monday or Tuesday I think… my computer got infected with a virus.
I’ve been through such things before, and I’ve managed to wipe clean the entire system without formatting the hard disk. However this time, it was different.
This time, the virus kept returning no matter how many times my antivirus software deleted it, and it just wouldn’t bulge.
So I eventually had to format both my systems (yes, both my laptop and desktop got infected)… and thought the ordeal was over.
But little did I know that this was just the beginning.
Just as I was done reinstalling Windows on both my systems and was about to heave a sign of relief, I found that my FTP account password had gotten compromised and my account hacked!
The hacker had messed up files on all my sites, most of which were wordpress blogs.
This was like a shock to me because this is the first time that my websites have been hacked.
I always thought who the heck would hack MY websites when there are a lot of other bigger fish out there.But this shows that just about anybody can get hacked.
So over the last one week, I’ve been working overtime to restore my sites to normalcy.
Some of them have been restored. As for the other sites, I’m still working on them.
To sum it up, it has been a nightmare week!
Now I believe some of you guys out there are better versed with Wordpress security than I am. So if you’ve got any tips for me or you’d like to talk about a similar experience that you’ve had, just reply to this post.
Thanks,
Dean.
P.S. One tip from me…
Don’t assume your hosting guys will have back ups of your site when something like this happens. When I asked my host “Hostgator” if they could restore the sites back to their initial state, they gave me the standard answer — that they don’t have backups since my inode using is high.
So does that mean we have unlimited storage but we’re not supposed to be using it?
Did you know that you can actually see… and record… every single move visitors make on your webpage?
You can see what they see, you can see what they click on, you can see what they read, what section of the page they stay on longer, where they went to from there, and so on.
But why would you or anybody want to know all this?
It’s simple — if run allow your visitors wander aimlessly on your webpage, you’ll never accomplish the goals you set for your website or yourself.
The basic idea of having a direct response website is to make them perform the action YOU desire.
And that’s what these new site recording tools can help you do.
Simply put, what these new tools do is they record your visitors’ movements and actions on your webpage, and save it as a video.
You can then view these videos later, analyze the problem and make the necessary changes that will correct this problem.
Now, I’ve been testing two different such tools on my own websites and that of my clients.
One of my close friends introduced me to a new concept yesterday.
Now this guy works in a software firm, and he got professional training on the concept we’re going to discuss to help him with his office work.
So at first instance you might think that the concept has nothing to offer to YOU.
You’re wrong! As was I…
You see, when my friend told me about this concept, I also thought he was talking about some software. I thought we needed technical expertise to get it to work for us.
But that just wasn’t the case.
The concept he told me about is called “Six thinking hats”. Maybe you heard about it before.
“Six thinking hats” is a concept or an approach for looking at an issue from different viewpoints. The different colored “hats” here tell us about the things we need to consider while we put on that hat.
For instance,
White hat for data and facts
Black hat for problems, obstacles and difficulties
Red hat for feelings, intuitions and gut instincts
Green hat for possibilities, alternatives and new ideas
Yellow hat for values and benefits
Blue hat for managing the thinking process
As soon as my friend finished explaining this process to me, I could immediately see its uses for copywriters and internet marketers…or for anyone else for that matter.
For copywriters, this would help improve the way you do your research or write your copy.
For marketers, it would help structure the way you launch products correctly.
I bet many of us are already using this approach without knowing it. But the whole idea of sorting different concerns into different “hats” makes the project so much more easier and organized.
So if you’re looking for more information on this topic, just visit this website.
Regards,
It looks like people are really going ga-ga over this “list building” thing.
A few days ago, I decided that I’d start making more posts on twitter. (I had opened a twitter account some months back but never got around to posting on it.) So as part of this I started following some people.
Almost immediately after I clicked on the “Follow” button on some members’ pages, I got a private messages offering a free “gift” for deciding to follow them.
And as you might have guessed, to get this gift I’d have to go through an opt-in form.
Let’s assume I entered my details and opted in, is there a guarantee I would make a “good” list member?
You see, I have 4 email accounts — 3 Gmail and 1 Yahoo account — set up just to receive these list emails.
So that makes it 4342 Unopened emails in all accounts combined.
I don’t even open certain emails accounts for months together because I’m too busy. And when I do, I only read specific people’s emails.
That being the case, what is the use of making a person like me opt-in to your list forcibly?
What if you have a 1,000 people like me on your list. What if you have 10,000 like me on your list. You’d think you have a big list but that’s not the case in reality.
Hence, I think the time has come to re-think the strategy of doing forced opt-ins while offering freebies.
You can probably just give away the free report or video first(without an opt-in) and then give them the option to opt-in later. This way they will at least open your future emails because you’ve won their confidence.
Very often we come across sales letters that immediately grab our attention and force us to keep reading.
We feel like we’ll miss out on something very, VERY important if we don’t read the message. We start to believe our life will change for the better after reading it.
Maybe you also have wanted to write sales copy like that…but always believed you couldn’t.
To write sales copy using the traditional approach, you have to do hours and hours of research, acquire and arrange all the data, write the copy, remove the extra contents, polish the copy, repolish it — the whole process is extremely lengthy and tiresome.
But the truth is…
You don’t really need to spending so much time to think and come up with a brand new sales letter from scratch.
You can effortlessly emulate one of the sales letters that you know was successful…and quickly come up with a sales letter for your own product or service.
This, as you may already know, is what is called “Swiping”.
But swiping is not stealing sections of text from other ads like most people think. There’s an entire psychology to it.
Sadly, there are few products where this topic has been covered elaborately - and luckily, I know one of them.
Don’t worry about the name of product or the headline on that page. I’ve read that book and I’d rather call it “Crash Course on Swiping”.
So who is the course for?
If you’re a copywriter, swiping previous successful ads will help you write profit-pulling copy easily and quickly. So you can definitely benefit from this course.
If you’re a business owner who needs copy on a frequent basis, you’ll be able to write your own copy without hiring a copywriter.
And if you’re someone who’s just looking to learn how to write copy, you will find it useful too because it will teach you to write winning copy fast.
No matter which of the two categories, you will benefit from this course.
If you’re really serious about making your online business successful, then the one question you should be asking is, “How can I build credibility fast?”
So why is building credibility so important?
Well, to understand that, you first need to understand the difference between running a local business and running on online business.
See…when you have a local business, people have the chance to interact with you, to know you, and then buy the product AFTER they feel confident that you will provide good service to them.
But that’s not the case when you run an online business. Now your buyer need not be from the same city, county and country anymore. In fact, he need not even be from the same continent.
This is when credibility becomes extremely important.
When you have credibility and track record of selling good products, people will have less hesitation about buying from you. It makes the potential buyer confident about your offer and shatters buyer resistance.
Great! So what can you do to build credibility fast on the internet?
Look, no matter what you’ve heard so far, promoting with free articles is STILL the best way to market yourself on the internet.
First off, since articles can be written by yourself also, it doesn’t need you to expend any money. (Unless if you wish to outsource them)
But more importantly…when you write a good article on a particular subject, people will instantly take you to be an expert on that subject. And since this method is different from the usual advertising methods, you successfully fly under their radar and increase your sales.
So those are a few reasons to rethink your decision about not using articles for promotion.
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