Monthly Archives: November 2009

Nov24

Short Week Rush

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Short Week Rush

The Thanksgiving short week represents the crazy slide to the end of the year to me.  From this point on, I am going to be running faster and faster to try to get as much done before the turn of the year as I possibly can.  Never mind that January is usually the slow m-o-t-i-o-n month, I will be racing to get through the next few weeks.  Trying to finish up the year and get ready for the next.  Somehow, through flu and a number of other strange distractions from September through now, I managed to design this year’s Holiday Card and print it out – this week I will be spending some of my time handwriting addresses and notes to my Seasonal Greeting List…while simultaneously planning out my slate of radio shows for 2010 Whole-Earth-Pets , lining up people to interview for “Pet Talk”, plan for the addition of a Youtube Channel for that channel, and prepare to launch my new “Intuitive Living Channel” on BlogTalkRadio.com too.  If I have time, I will compile some of the information gleaned from the last year of doing radio shows, and publish in e-book form.  Lots to do, people to see, and of course quality time to spend with my loved ones.

So before I get totally caught up in the short week rush, and the slide into the end of the year – I want to acknowledge the things I am thankful for:

  1. My old friends and my new ones!
  2. The new things I learned to do this year
  3. The time I have spent with my dear sweet Bill
  4. The opportunities that have come my way
  5. The wonderful people I have met this year
  6. The time I managed to squeeze for Saggittarii Theatre
  7. My animal companions
  8. Having enough to eat and a roof over my head
  9. Being able to help others

There are lots more, but those are the ones that come easily to mind, and they are not in order of importance, because they are all equally wonderful.

Nov18

Yo Ho Yo Ho A Start-Up’s Life For Me

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Yo Ho Yo Ho A Start-Up’s Life For Me

The beauty of a start-up is that you can make changes quickly… it can also be the pitfall of the start-up. How do you prevent the beauty from becoming the pitfall?

Communication is first and foremost, just because everything is running at light speed, and you are zooming about, remember to tell everyone else what is going on, to avoid the feeling that things are “dropped over the fence” to the rest of the team. Encourage people to “ring the sales bell” not only for external triumphs, but for internal ones as well – CELEBRATE successes.

Build strong teams – if you can’t roll up your sleeves to pitch in, show your appreciation when everyone else is hip deep in alligators. Assign tasks playing to the strengths of each player – you don’t see coaches using their running backs as defense against someone 2 times their weight. If you don’t know the strengths of your team go back to communication – ask them!

Oh and BTW, this approach works for established companies as well. Go figure…

Nov7

Zig When They Zag – And Stand Out by Scott Bywater

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Zig When They Zag – And Stand Out by Scott Bywater

Zig When They Zag – And Stand Out
Copyright (c) 2009 Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS
http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

The internet has become all the rage these days.

Don’t send a letter, pop it on an email.

Don’t mail the customer anything, pop it in an email.

In fact, let’s forget about letters altogether and do everything
electronically.

I’m as guilty of this as the next person.

But recently I received a thank you card and it made me think a
little differently.

You see, I receive (and appreciate) a bundle of emails every week
thanking me for the emails I send out.

And nothing makes me feel better than knowing that as I write
these emails from my lonely office, someone is reading them and
hopefully applying them.

However a couple of weeks ago I received something in the mail
which really stood out.

It was a thank you card from a guy called Greg Kumanovski from
Global Pictures. All it said was…

“Thank you for your regular emails with all the helpful ideas.
Have a great day”

But I’ve had that card sitting on my filing cabinet ever since
he sent it to me.

And I think there’s a lesson here for all of us.

Whether it’s thank you cards or anything else, consider sending
the hard copy version over the soft copy version.

In other words: when everyone else is zigging, why not zag and
stand out from the crowd.

After all, mail order should be far more effective these days
because nobody else is doing it.

For instance, yesterday I was chatting with a guy who sent out
his proposals via email.

He was getting a lot of proposals requests coming in every week
and would pretty much churn back a standard response with a
quotation.

I suggested he set up a system where he could send them out via
mail instead.

We worked out that all he would need to pay for the cost of the
mail is a 1% increase in response.

My bet is that he would get it.

Especially when all of his competitors are probably doing
everything via email as well.

So take a moment now to think of how you can do things
differently… and use alternative strategies to stand out from
your competition.

———————————————————-
Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter with extensive
experience in B2B and B2C writing. Mr Bywater is the author of
Cash-Flow Advertising and More Customers Made Easy. You can gain
access to his copywriting and marketing tips via his entertaining
and eye opening “Copywriting Selling Secrets” newsletter
available at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Nov1

Sometimes “Free” really IS Free

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Sometimes “Free” really IS Free

Surfing around the net this morning, in a frantic bid to catch up on my reading – a technical generalist’s job is ever shifting – I found some sites that offer tools and information that I just HAD TO SHARE, because let’s face it – when you find a treasure that is FREE, you ought to share the wealth!  And these tools are FREE, no requirements to join something or sign up for something – just plain old free.

My fave of today is at: MakeUseOf.com. This particular posting has 15 .pdf manuals to download that range from Audiophile guides to free music and services, to Linux for Dummies. Literally something for everyone there, and all concise and well-written.

A service that my co-worker, Afsheen, turned me on to is SocialOomph.com – it is not a pretty site, nor is it especially easy to navigate – BUT – it allows you to automate some of the Twitter activities that busy professionals might like – for example – you can set an automated thanks for a follow; you can set to automatically follow people who follow you; and most brilliantly of all – you can set up scheduled Tweets! That is what I call ROCK AND ROLL!

If you are looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, check out Photoscape it is freeware with lots of power. Not completely as versatile as Photoshop, but for the amateur – it is a pretty powerful tool – and allows photo collage and layering.

I will post stuff as I find it – drop me a line if you are looking for something in particular and if I stumble on it in my virtual travels, I’ll share!