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September 30, 2005

News! Google Is Now The Number One Internet Index

On 09 28 2005 Google said it expanded its index of the Internet to make it three times larger than any other search engine. But in the search engine wars, relevancy is the real judge on the usefulness of a search index not the size of an index.

Google has been involved in a hotly contested debate with rival Yahoo over which search engine has the biggest search index of web pages.

Yahoo and Google previously claimed to have indexed 19.2bn and 8bn web pages respectively. Google's home page previously claimed that although it had 8bn indexed web pages it was dropping references to the number of web pages and was focusing on the relevance of results found.

Indeed, It is search relevancy that has contributed to Google being the most popular search engine among Internet users.

In a Google blog note that marked the anniversary of Google's inception in 1988, Anna Patterson, a software engineer, said the birthday was being celebrated with an expanded search index 1,000 times the size of the original index created when Larry page was at Stanford university.

The fact that Google has expanded its search index to become the biggest index is not so important; the ultimate judge is a search engine user who cares more about search relevancy than the size of an index.

David Davis
Small Business Resource

Posted by David at 9:17 AM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2005

News! UK Small Businesses Can Slash Telephone Calls Using VOIP

British Telecom (BT) has drastically cut its VOIP prices to undercut Skype. Small businesses can now contact international prospects and customers in Australia, USA and other destinations paying 0.5p per minute over a BT openzone hotspot shelved.

The price cutting move by BT is clearly a strategy to limit the damage of customers switching to Skype. What this has done is to make the VOIP market red hot.

Gavin Patterson, MD of BT's Consumer division, confirmed that the price cut is an effort to prevent providers of Internet telephony tempting BT customers away with cheap calls.

Many tech companies are hurrying to get a piece of the "VOIP action", with several companies making their intentions clear towards voice over IP only this week.

DSG, owners of Currys and Dixons, has unveiled a VoIP venture, under the brand FreeTalk. FreeTalk will sell 'adapters' in DSG-owned stores providing users free UK fixed-line calls for twelve months over VoIP including cheap international calls, and as an alternative, charging a monthly subscription fee of £6.99 for the same deal.

DSG is the first company that will be selling tangible VoIP products on the UK high street.

FreeTalk will face competition from two other new entrants to VoIP, including Ebay's Skype and Vonage.

Onetel has launched Just Dial, with a £1.99 monthly subscription combined with free evening and weekend calls or £4.99 for free calls any time. Onetel will also be selling adapters for phone-fond VoIP users.

ISP PlusNet has also launched a VoIP service, PlusTalk, offering a range of calling packages with prices starting at £2.99 for a monthly subscription.

Wanadoo revealed its subscriber numbers today. The France Telecom-parented provider, which launched its internet calling package in March, has signed up 50,000 users.

The ISP said nearly half of its new broadband subscribers are choosing to use VoIP now and each of Wanadoo's VoIP users is making around 150 minutes of calls per month.

In the race to win customers Ebay's Skype has a ready customer base of ebay merchants that numbers 60 plus millions and growing. As Ebay develops its strategies to capitalise its investment in Skype the telephony industry is about the witness change that's comparable with the Internet revolution. This spells good news for small businesses.

David
Small Business Resource

Posted by David at 2:27 PM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2005

Small Business Owners Should Not Make These Mistakes Over Contract Tendering

There are two basic business rules that a small business should not violate when it comes to contract tendering. These classic rules are illustrated is the following "Hurricane Katrina" and "Iraq" cases:

In awarding two big contracts related to Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration has violated two very basic rules:

1. Don't give somebody a contract without at getting at least one other competitive bid.
2. Don't agree to cost-plus pricing.

The contracts, for temporary housing, were both awarded to politically connected companies: Fluor Corp. and Bechtel National Inc., a division of Bechtel Group Inc.

One can understand why a novice business owner would make this mistake: You are eager to get the business going and don't want to delay progress by reviewing bids. You trust the company you favor not just to do a good job but also to price it fairly, so you opt for one-stop shopping.

We've all done it and, for most of us, experience taught us why the rules against doing so were created in the first place. A vendor that knows it's getting the contract, however well intentioned, will naturally take less time in studying the project before it bids on it. That lack of early analysis leads to not just sloppier pricing but also less creative approaches to solving problems. Cost-plus pricing means mistakes will be paid for by the customer (in this case, the U.S. government) and not the vendor. Again, that means less attention is paid to the process.

If this were the first time the Bush administration made this mistake, you might be able to forgive them (and that's a stretch). But this is exactly what they did in Iraq, where many billions have been spent with such disappointing results.

Normally I don't make political comments but if you're a small business owner, the above are good examples to bring to your attention. We learn from our mistakes - just you remember not to make the same mistakes in your business dealings.

David Davis
Small Business Resource.

Posted by David at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2005

"Street-Smart" Advertising for Small Businesses

When it comes to small business advertising small business owners don't have fat bank accounts - so they shouldn't gamble.

Bill started a new tile-installation business. To increase sales, he decided to place a display ad in the local metropolitan paper. The cost was $1,200 a week. That was a lot of money for Bill, so he was reluctant to commit to running the ad for more than one week. But the sales representative - we'll call him "Fast Freddy" - was adamant. If Bill wanted his marketing campaign to work, he needed to run the ad repeatedly. He convinced Bill that advertising results don't always come in right away. First, "awareness" has to be built. So Bill agreed to give it a try. And here's what happened ...

Week One: Bill received two calls and set up two "free estimate" appointments - but, unfortunately, didn't book either job. Fast Freddy assured Bill that he didn't have to worry. The more the ad was repeated, the more aware customers would be of his business. It would be only a matter of time before Bill's phone was ringing off the hook.

Week Two: Bill received only one call - and when he tried to set up a "free estimate" appointment, the customer said he would call back. Fast Freddy reminded Bill that if he wanted to be successful in business, he had to build an image. If Coca-Cola, Burger King, and all the other Fortune 500 companies spend so much on advertising just to build an image, it must be a strategy that works.

Week Three: Bill paid the fee for the first two weeks of the ad with his personal credit card, as all of his cash had vaporized. But there were no calls at all this week. And he didn't have the money to run the advertisement again. However, he had an idea. He asked Fast Freddy if the paper could run the ad on a "CPA" (cost per action) basis. Fast Freddy was aghast, insisting that the paper couldn't run its advertising business that way. It had to know that it was going to get paid.

The end of this story is that Bill had to let his small business fold. He went back to working for a larger company that had the capital and position in the marketplace to ensure a continuous flow of new customers.

It's been my experience that if an ad is going to work, it works right away ... period. For example, I used to market electric stun guns in martial arts magazines. The very first time I ran my ad, it sold enough product to earn a profit after paying for all of the expenses, including the cost of the ad. And it earned a profit every time I ran the same ad. But when I made the mistake of buying into the "image-building" approach with an ad promoting an automobile oil additive in local shopper publications, I continually lost money.

Yes, there are exceptions ... rare instances when an image ad that didn't work right away begins to produce after repeated insertions. But if you're a small-business person with limited capital, you simply can't afford to take that kind of risk. As acclaimed marketing guru Jay Abraham said in Message #1486 .

"'Image' advertising (another name for institutional advertising) seeks to create an image about your product or your company in the hope that people will remember you when they're ready to buy. Most image ads say, in effect, 'Buy from us. We're wonderful.'

"As far as I'm concerned, with image advertising you have to spend a fortune over a long period of time before you get any results at all. And even then, the results are virtually impossible to measure."

My Street-Smart Business Principle No. 1:

Always use the "Break-Even Probability Formula" when considering an advertising expenditure.

When you're considering spending money on advertising, calculate how much of your product or service you will need to sell in order to break even, what the probability of reaching that break-even point is, and if there is a high enough profitability level.

In the example of Bill's tile-installation business, he was a one-man shop that profited by an average of about $600 per job. That means he would've needed to secure two paying jobs from each of those $1,200-per-week ads just to break even.

So Bill should've first determined if there was a strong probability that he would make that number of sales from such an advertisement.

And there's something else he should have considered. As a one-man shop, Bill only had enough time to complete two jobs a week. In other words, even if he did get the two jobs he needed to break even on the advertising cost, he wouldn't be able to bring in any additional income to contribute to his overhead or living expenses.

Clearly, making this advertising expenditure was a bad idea.

In an article titled "How to Develop a Successful Advertising Campaign" , Tom Egelhoff astutely notes, "In order for advertising to be successful it must be an investment, not an expense. That simply means that advertising must produce more potential customers who buy something than the advertising costs the company. Advertising cannot create a financial drain on your business."

As a small-business person, it's critical for you to remember that the only kind of advertising you can afford to do is the kind that generates at least enough cash flow to pay for the campaign and still contribute additional profits.

My Street-Smart Business Principle No. 2:

Never risk substantial capital on untried advertising

Another way to make sure you make the best possible use of your limited advertising funds is to avoid making large expenditures on ads that you've never tried before. In Jay Abraham's book Getting Everything You Can Out of Everything You've Got , he wisely advises: "Never test big if you can test small." This sounds obvious, yet too many small businesses don't do it. As a "street-smart" small-business person, you need to be very cautious with your advertising dollars. If you try one large ad and it fails, it could put you out of business.

Be patient when you're trying to grow your small business. It's better to grow slowly rather than taking a risk on gambling it all for one big hit.

By Larry Fredericks

[Ed. Note: Larry Fredericks is an acclaimed entrepreneur with a history of successful business dealings in retail, direct mail, the Internet, and real estate. In addition, he is a nationally published business author and speaker who has recently released his "Street Smart" Business program. For more information on the program, follow this link.]

Posted by David at 1:29 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2005

Eighty Eight Per Cent Of UK Distressed Businesses Are Ignorant About New Help Plan

Almost 90 per cent of UK business owners are ignorant of government legislation designed to save companies in distress, according to a new survey carried out by PWC. The professional services firm.

The Enterprise Act, designed to encourage a more forgiving culture for troubled companies, makes the priotity of administrators to rescue businesses rather than selling their assets.

Companies no longer need to hire a barrister but can send a fax to the High Court.

However, PWC's survey of 501 business managers found that just 12 per cent were aware of the rule change and how it could help companies in difficulty. Among companies with less than £100,000, fewer than one in 10 managers had heard of the Enterprise Act. Of those companies that were aware of the legislation, 25 per cent felt the new rules would not help.

David
Small Business Resource

Posted by David at 5:08 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2005

Small Business Marketing

Successful Small Business Marketing Strategies- 4 Simple Promotional Ideas

4 Simple Promotional Ideas

In your last "Success Marketing Strategy" I wrote about the courage that a supermarket realized by giving away with 'no strings attached' offers for free products that they sold.

This was a great example of how anyone can succeed in promoting their small business by following these four simple ideas:

#1: Worry less about image than everybody else does.

#2: Write like you would talk - selling face-to-face, person-to-person.

#3: Be friendly, not stuffy

#4: Be courageous.

As a final comment on this subject, I'd like to encourage you to really work at putting together good direct marketing campaigns for your small business. Don't just hastily throw something together or just wholesale copy an idea you got from these emails.

It takes time, effort, research and sweat to make direct marketing work. One friend of mine in the business forces himself to write at least fifty different possible headlines for the same ad before settling on the best one.

I recently talked with a telemarketing consultant in Las Vegas who does a lot of work with banks and savings and loans across the country. When she goes into a market area to plan a campaign for a bank she first wants to see all the advertising and mailings being used by all the competitors. Then she calls every competitive bank pretending to be a customer inquiring about their advertised services to see how they handle things over the phone. That's research.

I have extensive files of samples and small business ideas and dozens of reference books and materials that I wade through, jotting down notes before even beginning work on each new project or campaign. I know one copyrighter who always tests his basic pitch either face-to-face, door-to-door or over the phone with fifty or more prospects before finalizing his copy.

Simply put I'm talking about paying a high price in preparation so that you get maximum results in the implementation. The payoff can be a predictable means of adding customers or otherwise increasing sales that you can use over and over
again for your business used to expand your business, even franchise, license or sell to others.

The competitive edge you can gain in your marketplace through this process is mammoth because odds are none of your competitors will have the knowledge and the discipline necessary to go through the same process.

I am often introduced at seminars and speaking engagements as a genius in direct marketing and I'm paid consulting fees in recognition of this genius but I assure you that genius is incorrect. My genius, whatever degree there actually is, has
manufactured purely through the same king of research, study, investigation, observation and experimentation available to anybody and everybody. Yet there are very few willing to pay that price for this priceless capability.

Direct marketing can be the tool you use to turn a small business into a big business, a struggling business into a successful one, a modest income into wealth.

In your next Success Marketing Strategy that will be arriving to you in just a few days, I'm going to switch gears and cover... my A-B-C thoughts about the formula of success.

Dedicated To Multiplying Your Income

Dan Kennedy

Posted by David at 1:14 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2005

Five Tips On How To Reduce The Risks In Running A small Business

Here arr five tips for running a small business from a risk management perspective.

1. Follow The 80:20 Parteo Principle: In running your small business focus your energies on activities that make you the most money. This limits your risk in that you're not spreading yourself too thin. if you allow yourself to be pulled in many directions you're distracted from what really makes you money. Don't let off-focus opportunities derail you from your main vision.

2. Don't build a small business you can't finance. This is an issue that dwarfs other issues. access to capital is vastly more inportant than anything and everything else. You've got to be wise on how to approach your financing and secure as much start-up capital as you can.

3. Think ahead: Advice about developing a business plan is sound. But think ahead about operational and logistic matters as well. For example, by establishing plans for dealing with production delays or problems with vendors beforehand, you'll be able to defuse these issues quickly, without hurting your bottom line.

4. Draft legal agreements (forms): Have standard contracts like non-competes and non-disclosure agreements on hand to deal with your three main liabilities; employees, vendors and customers. Getting everything in writing limits your liability in case things go sour (like an employee leaving and taking two other top sellers with hm). A library of standard business letters and business forms like instant business letters would save you time and legal fees. Most small businesses don't have to pay a lawyer everytime they need legal forms.

5. Don't fear risk - manage it: Managing small business risks - that is limiting your liabilities and general exposure keeps thouble at bay and gives you the freedom to innovate. Hiding from all risks, even the innovative , invigorating kind, can cause your business to get run over - which is an even bigger risk.

David Davis
Small Business Resource

Posted by David at 1:11 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2005

Looking for a Good Business Idea?

For an almost-can't lose chance for success, combine two fundamental rules for making a small business work:

1. Discover something you can do better than anyone else.

2. Figure out how to sell your product or service cheaper than anyone else.

Start by asking yourself, "What product or service am I unhappy with?"

If something is bothering you, chances are others feel the same way. If the feeling is widespread enough - and you have a way to solve your own problem - you may have a multi-million-dollar business idea.

Then ask yourself, "How can I provide my better product or service for less than the competition?"

That's what the founder of Save-A-Lot supermarkets did. He noticed that stores like Wal-Mart and Kroger had no interest in going into blighted (see Word to the Wise, below) urban neighborhoods. So, by taking on a market that the bigger chains ignore, The Wall Street Journal says, Save-A-Lot has "quietly become one of the nation's most successful grocery chains."

Save-A-Lot is part of a boom in low-frills supermarkets known as "hard discounters" that are undercutting the Wal-Marts and Krogers by stocking mostly their own brands and focusing on high-inventory items. (A typical Wal-Mart, for example, might stock 30,000 items, while a Save-A-Lot might stock 3,000.) The stores are sold as franchises. (75% of them are run by licensees.) Already, Save-A-Lot has 1,229 stores in 39 states and is adding more than 65 stores this year alone.

Over the weekend, see if you can come up with an small business idea for your million-dollar business. Start by thinking about all the products and services you regularly use. Have you ever said something like, "If only that widget had a _____, it would be so much easier to use"? Or "If only that company would _____ instead of _____, it would make my life so much easier"? That could be your breakthrough idea. And if you can figure out how to provide your better product or service at a better price than the competition, you're ready to leap into the wonderful world of entrepreneurship.

David Davis
Small Business Resource

Posted by David at 5:35 PM | Comments (0)

September 9, 2005

Small Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Is Key For Katrina Small Business owners

Politics and criticisms aside the most important challenge now facing Katrina surveyors is the rebuilding of lives and their livelihoods. Rebuilding will be two pronged; from the top down by both federal and state governments and from the bottom up by small businesses that are the majority employers. In the midst of despair and recriminations business must come slowly back to life. For that to happen the focus now should be on business continuity and disaster recovery. Bottom line - small businesses need fast access to small business disaster loan.

Small business owners like Julian Fayard who lost his home in the hurricane has a petrol station and grocery store in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He spent every waking hour since the hurricane to get his business up and running. Within minutes of opening his business customers were queuing for hundreds of meters. Julian Fayard is not alone, similar scenes are occurring throughout southern Mississippi.

Local radio stations deliver messages from employers asking staff to return to work and contractors are hiring labor to help with debris clearance and repairs.

Picking up the pieces after Katrina will be harder for small businesses without support from large corporations and assess to small business disaster recovery loan. Julian Fayard is lucky; economists from the US Congressional Office estimate that Katrina will wipe out 400,000 jobs. According to Mary Lynn Wilkerson, director of Louisiana Small Business Development centers, more than 110,000 small businesses in Louisiana have been destroyed. "Small businesses are uniquely vulnerable to disaster", says Donna R. Childs, co-author of Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business Guide.

Fallback On Contingency Plans, Insurance and Backed Up Records

Even companies that prepared their companies for disaster by developing contingency or disaster recovery and business continuity plans will find it hard to recover from Katrina. It will take time for insurance companies to pay out claims for physical damage and lost profits. Without backed up records as evidence to support their insurance claims small business owners will face delay in settlement.

Small Business Continuity - How To Small Business Owners Can Increase Their Chances Of Saving Their Business
As business owners come to survey your business they'll discover the full damage. Here are some tips on how to carry out an effective survey:

1. Take Photos

Carry a camera and take plenty of pictures as this will help in insurance claim or when applying for a Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster loan. Focus on what's been destroyed and damaged.

2. Contact People Who Can Help You Stay In Business

Your next step is to prepare a list of people to contact - People who can help you stay in business; employees, supplies and customers. Communicate the fact that you're trying to "pick up the pieces" and relaunch the business. This is critical as it sends the right signal that'll stop rumors spreading that your business has been wiped out by the disaster.

Make of list of people to call and prioritize it based on "greatest need". For example, suppliers who are about to make a big delivery, shipment in transit or big deadlines that are due should be high priority.

Contact competitors to enquire if they have excess space you can lease. Your competitors understand your situation and quite often they can help with other stuff, like computers and office furniture.

SBA Small Business Disaster Loan

The Federal Government has declare areas affected by the Katrina hurricane as disaster areas and this allow small businesses to apply to the SBA for Small business disaster loans if they don't have business insurance or where insurance coverage is not adequate to compensate for total loss.

To apply for a small business disaster loan business owners should first contact the local office of the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) who will direct them to the SBA.

David Davis
Small Business Resource

Posted by David at 9:10 AM | Comments (0)

September 8, 2005

Good companies Do Not Need To Pester People With Surveys Since Their Measure Of Customer Satisfaction Is Rising Revenue!

The above theme appeared prominent in Richard Tomkins article in the Fnancial Times "Business Life Creative Business" section, on September 5, 2005. As Columnist writing on "Business Culture" he appears to dislike customer satisfaction surveys. Indeed, he refers to customer satisfaction surveys as "a modern day plague". His dislike for customer surveys seems to me to be a contradiction for someone writing on the 'right brain' activity of creative business.

whether it's market researchers, email, the Internet or in the workplace people it seems cannot escape being quizzed about their satisfaction. This disease as Rihard Tomkins puts it is also spreading to the public sector. This absurdity is also present in the emergency services.

Richard Tomkins is scathing in his comments about customer satisfaction surveys.

Do you agree with him?

While Richard Tomkins lets it publicly known that he's adverse to consumer satisfaction surveys there's a counter argument. It runs like this. Companies that do not solicit customer feedback on their products and services are missing opportunities to increase sales by not capitalising on cheap market research.

As an innovative small business entrepreneur, using customer satisfaction surveys could provide you with constructive product feedback information. Such information could be used to enhance your existing products. In a competitive marketplace enhancing existing products or developing new products from customer feedback could provide the competitive edge that sets you apart from your competitors.

While your competitors are second gessing reasons for your competitive advantage you're doing the smart thing; capitalising on your customers need for products that solve their problems. In marketing terms you're solving real needs instead of wasting resources trying to reinvent the wheel. "You're one of the smart set that thinks in the box."

Richard Tomkins's article to be fair is focused on the narrow aspect of customer satisfaction; the type that seeks feedback on the rating or services performed. He says "my criticism of these services is that they are a sign of failure". "Good companies with good products or services do not need to pester people with questionnaires".

Richard Tomkins is entitled to his opinion but when it comes to "creative business" small companies that forget the easy and cheap option of surveying their customers are not being smart. Soliciting feedback from your customers, who vote with real dollars and pounds is not a sign of failure, it's being creative.

David Davis
Small Business Resource

Posted by David at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)

Could Copywriting Be the Business Idea of Your Dreams?

Have you ever dreamed of owning a lucrative small business that lets you work anywhere you want - anytime you want - and gives you plenty of time off to travel, spend time with family and friends, or to pursue your hobbies?

If so, direct-response copywriting could very well be the business of your dreams.

Why does copywriting pay so well? It's simple supply and demand.

Thousands of direct-response marketers across America and around the world are desperate for strong advertising copy. But there are so few writers to meet that demand that the good ones can pretty much write their own tickets.

If you can read, write, use a computer, and dial a telephone, you can learn this lucrative skill and make a very healthy living at it.

I'm living proof that it's true.

In the 1970's, I was a 20-something high-school dropout. I had a wife, a two-year-old daughter, and a baby on the way. My 12-hour-a-day job paid minimum wage, and we were struggling to pay the bills and put groceries on the table.

One day, as I was scouring the local paper for better job opportunities, I spied a tiny "help wanted" ad that intrigued me. A small-business owner needed someone to write ads for him.

"What do I have to lose?" I asked myself. "I can write. How hard can this be?"

My prospective employer wasn't exactly blown away by my experience and credentials. In fact, I expected the guy to have me thrown out of his office. Instead, he gave me an opportunity to prove my skills by writing a short sales letter. I poured my heart and soul into it, and a week later I had a new job - as a copywriter.

That's when everything changed for me. In the months and years that followed, my income soared to $100,000, then to $250,000, to $500,000, to $1 million ... and ultimately to nearly $3 million in a single year.

I'm not telling you this to brag - only to show you that if a high-school dropout like me can do it, you can too.

Even if you believe you have no natural talent for writing, you can still do very well. Good copywriting sounds like natural conversation - so if you can talk, you already have all the innate knowledge needed to be a successful copywriter.

Here's how you can get started on a profitable copywriting career:

1. Purchase a good home-study program. Really study it. Complete all of the exercises and become fully immersed in the skill of copywriting. This is how you learn the basics of what is considered good direct-response copy - the simple techniques that move people to action.

2. Get a deeper understanding of the basics of direct-response marketing by reading books such as Bob Bly's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Direct Marketing. Learn the industry lingo and understand the nuts and bolts of the direct-marketing business. You must understand the inner workings of the business so you fully understand how your copy fits into the equation. And it doesn't hurt to speak the language.

3. Study the masters. Study sales copy written by pros like Gary Bencivenga, Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert, John Carlton, and others. Sign up for and read their e-newsletters, visit and read the archives on their websites. Learn from the best.

And after you have done all of the above and are ready for your first assignments (and for the cash to start rolling in) ...

4. Pick a niche in which you have some interest and knowledge and start looking for clients. My niche has always been health and financial publications. Your niche might be business opportunities or real estate.

Whatever your interests, I'll bet there is a product or publication just waiting for your newfound copywriting skill to sell it.

Narrowing your focus on a niche market will insure that you meet your goals faster. It's a huge direct-marketing world out there; don't waste your time running around trying to be everything to everyone. Write what you know.

There's one more thing you must do to make your sales copy successful.

Good ad writers simply explain all the benefits a product will bring to the customer's life - and they make a great living by doing that.

But great ad writers know that the vast majority of purchases are made for emotional reasons. So they identify the strongest emotions the customer already has concerning the benefits the product offers - or the lack of them ... and then they speak directly to those emotions.

If you can do this one thing, you can be one of the great ones - and a life of high-paying assignments and amazing freedom will be yours!

By Clayton Makepeace

NB: Clayton Makepeace is a copywriter and direct-marketing consultant with over 33 years of experience and more than $1 billion in sales generated for his clients.

Posted by David at 2:20 PM | Comments (0)

September 2, 2005

Advertising Book Recommendation

I've spent the last two weeks in Brazil with family and during time gaps spent traveling on planes and waiting for the odd overcast day to give way to sunshine I continued my small business marketing education by reading the most complete book on advertising I've read to date; "Breakthrough Advertising" by Eugene M Schwartz.

Like any rare find especially one that your competitors could unleash against you if they were to get their hands on it, my inclination was to keep this magic gem to myself and file it in my burglar proof safe.

This gem on advertising appeared on Ebay auction for $900 but I purchased my copy for $430. I also have the reprinted version that cost $97.

Why would anyone spend so much money on this book, you might be asking?

The truth is I cannot find enough superlatives to describe this masterpiece on advertising. You can only appreciate this book by investing in your own copy. You won't be disappointed! Apart from Dick Benson's book that I recommended last month, "Breakthrough Advertising" will be the best investment in your marketing education that you're likely to make in 2005.

If you want to learn the art of selling, this book will be the best inventment you'll make as an entrepreneur.

Eugene Schwartz is frank about how he makes his living. He's a mail order copywriter who makes his living by writing persuasive ads that sell. This is his ONLY tool in trade. He does not pretend to be the greatest copywriter and gives credit to others ahead of himself.

What makes this book so special is how Eugene Schwartz takes you through the process of writing sales copy from how to capture desire in your headline based on the state of your market, how to get inside your prospect mind so you can sharpen and target your message to influence optimum desire and belief. You'll also discover six techniques of breakthrough copy that collectively builds and gives structure to ads that shatter tradition and sales records.

When you get this gem of a book on advertising you'll learn from a past master copywriter of hard-sell and soft-sell whose ads could be instantly spotted in any magazine or newspaper with their attention flagging headlines like: "How To Live To Be 100"... "How To Make Anybody Like You", "Smart-Money Secrets", "How To Double Your child's Grades", "I'll Make You amental Wizard..."

Gene Schwartz was writing pay-out copy at the age of twenty-one... became copy chief of one of the largest mail-order agencies in America at twenty four... started his own million-dollar-a-year mail order business at the age of twenty seven.

I cannot recommend this book enough. If you want to learn how to master the art of writing ads and direct response sales letters, put this book at the top of your marketing education list. Read it at least three times a year until the words fade from it's pages!

"In this long-awaited book-destined to become the bible of every copywriter who wants to consistently break records and shatter traditions-he gives you the pith of his understanding of the wordsmith's trade"
.........David Ogilvy

"Breakthrough Advertising" will arm you with the tools that will give an old product a brand-new slant; that will give a competitively battered product a new weapon! You’ll also learn:

1. Mass desire: the force that makes advertising work-and how to
focus it into your product
2. Your prospect’s state of awareness-how to capitalize on it when
your write your headline
3. The sophistication of your market-how to overcome the fact that
other products have been sold to your market before you
4. 38 ways to strengthen your headline-once you have your basic idea
5. How to make an idea grow: the art of creative planning
6. What makes people read, want and believe
7. Thirteen ways to strengthen desire
8. How to build a saleable personality into your product
9. How to verbally prove that your product does what you claim
10. How to destroy alternative ways for your prospect to satisfy his
desire
11. How to borrow conviction for your copy

Finally: I have no direct or indirect interest in any of Eugene’s Schwartz products and my recommendation is based purely on the fact that as an entrepreneur selling products and services for a living the material covered in “Breakthrough Advertising” unlike many other books I’ve read, deals with the “soul” of what advertising and selling is all about.

Final Note: Don’t just read this book… take notes and use it to your advantage.

David
Small Business Resource

Posted by David at 9:42 AM | Comments (0)