Why It’s Good to Be Rich
January 16, 2005
Life is a whole lot easier if you have a truckload of money.
True, this isn’t exactly an earth-shattering insight. But I don’t think people really appreciate just how advantageous it is to get their finances under control and accumulate a decent dollop of wealth.
Here are 25 financial benefits that are enjoyed by folks with fatter wallets.
1. You can pay off your credit-card balance every month, thus avoiding ridiculously high interest costs.

2. Your kids won’t qualify for college financial aid — but they also won’t graduate with a fistful of student loans.

3. Because small financial hits seem bearable, you can trim your insurance costs by raising the deductibles on your auto and homeowners policies and by skipping extended warranties and trip-cancellation insurance.

4. You always have enough money to take advantage of tax-favored accounts like 401(k) plans, tax-deductible individual retirement accounts, Roth IRAs and 529 college-savings plans.

5. Your brokerage and mutual-fund statements tell you you’re rich, so you don’t feel any need to prove it by leasing spanking-new cars and buying designer clothes on credit.

6. You can put down at least 20% whenever you buy a house, thereby avoiding private mortgage insurance.

7. Your accounts are big enough that you don’t get hit with the irritating bank fees, annual IRA fees and brokerage-account maintenance fees that pester those with smaller balances.

8. Because you have a great credit history, banks are happy to lend you money, which means you qualify for no-fee credit cards with rock-bottom interest rates and home-equity lines of credit that charge less than the prime rate.

9. You can drop your life insurance, because there’s plenty of money for your spouse and kids should you suffer an untimely demise.

10. You aren’t so anxious to make money that you opt for foolish schemes like buying lottery tickets or banking heavily on a few dicey stocks.

11. Because you and your spouse will each be worth well over $1 million at retirement, you can skip long-term-care insurance and instead plan on paying your own nursing-home and home-care costs.

12. You regularly have enough money to take full or partial advantage of the annual $11,000 gift-tax exclusion, thus shrinking your estate and helping your kids.

13. Whenever you change jobs, you always roll over your 401(k) balance. What about cashing in the account and paying the income taxes and tax penalties? You’ve never been that desperate.

14. You would certainly like to beat the market — but your retirement doesn’t hinge on it.

15. You don’t suffer financial stress, whether it’s fretting about next month’s credit-card bill or worrying about how you will ever retire.

16. Whenever you buy a car, you pay much or the entire tab with cash, thus avoiding the costs of leasing or taking out a big auto loan.

17. Your financial prudence provides a good role model for your children, so they also grow up to be financially sensible — and they’re far less likely to need bailing out.

18. You have the wherewithal to delay Social Security retirement benefits until your full retirement age. That’s a smart move, because you expect to live to a ripe old age and the bigger monthly check will come in handy.

19. To pay for retirement, you don’t have to sell the winning stocks and stock funds in your regular taxable account. That means these investments will likely get their cost basis stepped up upon your death, so your kids will inherit these investments without any capital-gains taxes owed. Similarly, you can leave your Roth IRA intact, which means your children will inherit a pool of income — tax-free money that they can then draw down over their lifetimes.

20. You don’t waste time on silly financial games, like continually shifting your credit-card balance to the lowest-cost card or trying to figure out which bills you can delay paying.

21. You can shoot for higher returns, by tilting your portfolio toward stocks and riskier bonds and away from savings accounts and money-market funds, because you know you will still have plenty of money, even if the markets disappoint.

22. There’s no risk you will be 93 years old and asking your kids for cash.

23. You don’t have to opt for costly retirement-income strategies, like buying an immediate-variable annuity or taking out a reverse mortgage, both of which can put a big dent in the wealth you will eventually bequeath.

24. You always have the cash to seize financial opportunities, whether it’s a beaten-down investment or a liquidation sale at a local store.

25. Drawing up a will doesn’t seem like a waste of money — or an absurd act of financial optimism.

It Really Bugs Me

By: Beth Greer, Super Natural Mom

Imagine picking a fruit or vegetable from your garden, spraying it with bug spray, and then handing it to your child to eat. Does that seem absurd? Well, that’s exactly what we do each day with store-bought non-organic produce. The chemicals are invisible, odorless and tasteless. We do it because most of us are unaware.

For example, the teenage daughter of a friend of mine babysat for my eight year old for the first time the other night. I felt comfortable leaving my child with her; I told her to please feel free to help herself to any food she wanted in my refrigerator or pantry. The next day I touched base with her mom who said all went well, except that her daughter had phoned her from my home and exclaimed: “Mom, everything in their kitchen is organic. It’s so weird!”

I was stunned that a 16 year old would find a kitchen filled with healthy, organic* food to be weird and then I realized that “weird” to a teenager usually means something they haven’t seen before, or been told about.

So, here are the top three reasons to choose organic fruits and vegetables:

1. Pesticides are pervasive. Those juicy strawberries now being displayed in the market may look luscious, but they have a dark side. Their red color has been enhanced by a fungicide and they have been infused with methyl bromide, a gas that is injected by tractor into their growing soil. These substances then become part of fruits’ flesh, and can’t be washed off.

2. Organic foods have a higher nutritional value and can help fight disease in our body. An organically grown apple has 300% greater Vitamin C and 61% greater calcium content than a conventional or non-organic apple. Also, the amount of calcium in organic spinach is 7 times greater than in non-organic spinach and the potassium is an astounding 117 times greater in the organic. In addition, researchers found that organic fruits and vegetables have significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods

3. Pesticides are toxic to us and the environment. A recent study from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, found that women with high levels of DDE (a derivative of DDT) in their blood were four times as likely to develop breast cancer as women with low levels. Pesticides are known to harm the human neurological system as well as depleting the Earth’s protective ozone layer leading to more skin cancer.

Warning: peanuts, peanut butter, and coffee have the largest concentration of pesticides of any food.

Given all these facts, why do farmers still use pesticides? Well, mostly it’s because they believe it will save more crops from insects, weeds and disease. But that’s not true: before the 1950s, farmers lost about a third of their crops each year, and today, with over 21,000 pesticide products to choose from and pesticide costs exceeding $4 billion a year, farmers still lose the same – one third of their crops!

So what can you do?

Be an Aware Consumer:Be aware of the high toxicity levels of non-organic fruits and vegetables. Remember that pesticides can disrupt the endocrine system and be carcinogenic as well. Know, for example, that the FDA detected 30 different pesticides on the strawberries they sampled over a two year period; apples had 36 pesticides.

Make Eating Organic Produce a Habit: Go to Whole Foods, The Good Earth, or other health food markets, or buy at local farmers markets (ask your friends or go on the Web to:http://www.cafarmersmarkets.com/findMarkets for a full directory. Be sure you understand the vocabulary in this game: “conventional” means pesticides were used; “Free range” or “free-roaming” or “all natural” are meaningless. “Organic” means 95% of the product contains no pesticides; “100% Organic” means none of the product contains any pesticides. By the way, if “organic” prices frighten you, you might try planting your own garden, or buy a share in a nearby community farm (to find one, go to www.sare.com).

Begin with the foods that you and your family are consuming in the greatest quantities. For kids, consider switching to organic baby food, strawberries, rice, milk, bananas, peanut butter and apples.

Avoid giving children large amounts of the foods with the highest toxicity scores: Since their immune systems are more susceptible to the adverse effects of pesticides, it is especially important to make sure that your children eat as many natural and organic foods as possible.

Maybe as we become better informed and more aware of what we eat, we can pass this information along to our children and the good stuff won’t seem so “weird.”

*The term “organic” refers to food that is grown and processed in a practical, ecological partnership with nature, without the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or herbicides. Organic foods are minimally processed with no artificial ingredients, preservatives or irradiation. And they taste better! Produce is sent to market as close to harvest as possible and may have suffered less nutritional loss by the time you eat it.

About the Author:

Beth Greer has helped thousands of people see possibilities and feel empowered to make changes in their lives through her role as former President of The Learning Annex, a nationally renowned alternative adult education school. She has lived through the process of discovering a tumor, then successfully shrinking it away without drugs or surgery, using alternative methods of healing. She lives in Mill Valley with her husband and 8-year-old daughter. Contact Beth at:supernaturalmom2@aol.com.

“The Secret” Spawning New Secrets All Over the World

By: Mark Lujk

It’s been on Oprah, CNN, Ellen DeGeneris, Larry King Live and featured in the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal and Healthy Wealthy nWise. Rhonda Byrne’s Passion series interview for Healthy Wealthy nWise on April 10 attracted over 30,000 listeners.

Now, offshoots of The Secret are showing up in all different venues. On May 10, Greg Reid and Scott Evans premiere their new film, “Pass It On!” featuring people like Mark Victor Hansen, Brian Tracy, Rev. Michael Beckwith, John Assaraf and many more.

September 25 – 27, producer Mark Lujk will host an event for 3,500 people in Amsterdam featuring Secret stars Bob Proctor, Joe Vitale, Bob Doyle, Dr. John Hagelin and others. This event will expand from the Law of Attraction to other tools for creating the life you choose, such as The Passion Test, taught by #1 National bestselling author, Janet Attwood.

Passion will be an important theme of this conference and will address the questions many people have had about how to use the Law of Attraction effectively. The conference will help participants get clear on what is most important to them in their lives, along with using the principles of the Law of Attraction. By showing participants how to align with the things they love most, the conference promises to add a new dimension to The Secret and the knowledge it conveys.

Janet Attwood will take participants through The Passion Test. This is the simple, powerful process which allows anyone to quickly discover their top passions. Then, Fred Gratzon, author of The Lazy Way to Success, and Patrick Combs, inspirational speaker and success coach listed in the Motivational Speakers Hall of Fame, will talk about their own unique methods of taking those passions and making them a driving force in one’s life.

“The greatest life of all is the life that comes from within and then manifests on the outside” – Patrick Combs

The Amsterdam conference’s theme is “I think, I create, I succeed!” The three parts of this theme are more or less distributed evenly over the three days.

As The Secret has taken the world by storm, over 3.5 million copies of the book are in print, more than two million people have purchased the DVD, and more than 400,000 copies of the audio book have been sold as well.

Quite naturally, the ideas in The Secret have created a discussion which continues to evolve. The Amsterdam conference reflects the desire by many people to go deeper into the concepts The Secret introduced.

This conference will examine things like: the role of ‘beingness’ in the creative process, the law of attraction, dealing with resistance, finding success in failure, creating simple and effective solutions, thinking and non-thinking, creating good health, how to make your subconscious work for you rather than against you, the latest developments in brain research and brainwave training, financial literacy, creating a life of ease, getting in alignment with your core values, and the list goes on and on and on.

While fabulous speakers are part of a great event, the most valuable part of these events is the opportunity to connect with like-minded people. As Joe Vitale pointed out:

“Sometimes I think networking is more powerful than the actual presenters, because networking is when you meet the presenters, you meet other attendees, that’s when you get ideas from them, you make relationships that lead to joint ventures, and so on. Also, when you go to an event like this there is a mastermind effect. And the mastermind is when a group of people get together, all to support each other in a goal. And when they do there is a higher mind than just the collective group.” – Dr. Joe Vitale

The Power of Fun

By: Keith Varnum

“Man, I wish we could get rid of him. What a pain in the butt!” exclaimed the president of my burgeoning natural foods company.

“Yeah, I wish! But we can’t. He brings in too much money. The owner won’t let us fire him,” bemoaned the general manager.

Who’s that?

The head honchos were talking about me! I was the bane of their existence. In their eyes, I was worse than an annoyance. I was a curse. Their cross to bear this lifetime.

What’s Up with That?

Why did I upset them so? Simple. I had too much fun!

I reveled in fun. I propagated play. I promoted enjoyment on all levels of our organization.

As the company vice president, I offered free homemade gourmet, organic lunches so all the workers could bond by eating together every day. By request, like a radio station, I piped in everyone’s favorite music throughout the warehouse and offices. I provided free Hollywood film showings and live rock band concerts every Friday night to develop a sense of community among the workers. I arranged Non-competitive Game Days with other New Age businesses. I got the company to pay for employee hiking, canoeing, sailing and skiing excursions.

In our retail food stores, I sponsored parties almost every day. Customer Gratitude Days. Employee Appreciation Days. New Employee Celebrations. Old Employee Goodbyes. Welcome-to-Spring Bashes. Summer Flings. Winter Festivals.

A Threat to a Smooth Running Ship

What upset my bosses’ world of professional propriety was general merriment. Revelry for no reason. Play with no purpose. Amusement with no apology!

A Danger to the Bottom Line

The only weak link in their argument against fun in the workplace was that the Universe didn’t agree! A small flaw in their philosophy of business.

The World Talks Back

Yes, what really got under their skin was that all my “frivolous folly” filled the coffers. Fun attracted customers like kids to ice cream. Our retail outlets were always packed. People ordered wholesale from us because our phone people joked with them—and our delivery people came bearing smiles, laughter and free gifts.

My bosses called me shallow and silly. They warned new executives and employees to not spend much time with me or they would be “infected with idiocy.”

The Genesis of Joy

I didn’t promote fun because of any intellectual or highfalutin philosophy. I developed my approach in order to make “work” tolerable. In my first “job” - a childhood lemonade stand - I discovered I could make business fun AND profitable. I was sold on play. I was hooked on horsing around. Play equals profit in my book!

I’m Not the Only One

In today’s lingo, you could say that fun is the new Feng-shui of business. Ask Google, Inc., who provide to their employee’s three free meals a day, play space, office daytime volleyball games, and encourage the use of roller skates at work! Fly the joking, jovial skies of Southwest Airlines—the only airline to turn a profit every year since 9-11!

How Do Angels Fly?

How do angels fly? They take themselves lightly.

Certainly there are times when life presents major challenges and one needs to act clearly and directly, but behaving responsibly and efficiently does not preclude humor and light-heartedness.

In fact, a flexible, fluid, upbeat approach and attitude is crucial to releasing magic and miracles in any endeavor—personal or professional. Inspiration and breakthrough are often born from the spirit of playfulness and exuberance. A spontaneous wink, a funny smile, a comic gesture can unlock deep blockage and stress in any stagnate situation. Through conscious silliness, soul purpose and connection can emerge.

Science Supports Silliness

Recent research supports this thrilling thesis. Scientific studies show that fun, humor and laughter reduce stress, boost immunity, relieve pain, decrease anxiety, prevent depression, rest the brain, enhance communication, inspire creativity, bolster morale, sustain resilience, and help us keep our balance and perspective in all activities.

Doctors, nurses and attendants now use “clowning” in hospitals to stimulate the healing process with patients. Medical professionals have discovered that when patients are laughing and having fun, they experience less physical and psychological pain - and recover faster.

The same healing, transformative dynamic reigns in every realm - business, relationships, sports and spirituality. Laugh more, heal quicker, feel better, live longer - and attract more abundance in all arenas of life!

The Purpose of Life

After all, what is the true purpose of life? To learn to love more fully. What is the ultimate result of all authentic fun, laughter and play? More free flowing energy. Healing. Love.

Machines Malfunction

One of my teachers is fond of saying, “Even machines malfunction in the presence of seriousness.” All human endeavors malfunction in the presence of seriousness!

Clues Abound in Our Language

The definition of seriousness in our culture is “weightiness.” And people say, “You must have appropriate gravity for the occasion.” But doesn’t gravity weigh us down? “His manner was very professional and properly sedate.” Sedate or sedated?

Play Is a Lubricant

Fun is the antidote for seriousness. Play is a lubricant for aliveness and creativity.

Yes, But …

Many people in our culture say, “Yes, but … you must have fun in a responsible way.” Yes, fun in a “responsive” way. Fun is the very essence of true responsibility—that is, appropriate responsiveness. Fun is the mutual enjoyment of the moment. The only way mutual enjoyment can be created is by being appropriately responsive to the situation and people involved.

“Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It”

The challenge is to know how to create enough fun whenever and wherever you can. The biggest obstacle facing most people is their attitude towards fun. Enjoyment is often seen as a secondary - or superfluous - consideration in most undertakings. And, sometimes, it’s even viewed as a hindrance! Nothing could be further from the truth of human creative dynamics.

Make enjoyment your priority in every enterprise! Fun and lightheartedness are absolutely essential for wellness, happiness and success. As unforeseen and uncontrollable events threaten to knock you off stride or isolate you from supportive resources, play keeps you open, flexible and resilient.

Fun is the attitude of willingness to find whatever joy and aliveness exists in each moment. Approaching life’s challenges with a joyful heart is the surest path to success in any venture. Fun is the best fuel for success because it’s the best food for your body, mind - and spirit!

About the Author:

Drawing from the wisdom of native and ancient spiritual traditions, Keith Varnum shares his 30 years of practical success as an author, personal coach, acupuncturist, filmmaker, radio host, restaurateur, vision quest guide and international seminar leader with “The Dream Workshops”. Keith helps people get the love, money, and health they want with his F-r-e-e Prosperity Ezine, F-r-e-e Abundance Tape and F-r-e-e Coaching at http://www.TheDream.com

A Girl in CD Store
by: Author Unknown

There was once a guy who suffered from cancer… a cancer that can’t be treated. He was 18 years old and he could die anytime. All his life, he was stuck in his house being taken care of by his mother. He never went outside but he was sick of staying home and wanted to go out for once. So he asked his mother and she gave him permission.

He walked down his block and found a lot of stores. He passed a CD store and looked through the front door for a second as he walked. He stopped and went back to look into the store. He saw a young girl about his age and he knew it was love at first sight. He opened the door and walked in, not looking at anything else but her. He walked closer and closer until he was finally at the front desk where she sat.

She looked up and asked, “Can I help you?”

She smiled and he thought it was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen before and wanted to kiss her right there.

He said, “Uh… Yeah… Umm… I would like to buy a CD.”

He picked one out and gave her money for it.

“Would you like me to wrap it for you?” she asked, smiling her cute smile again.

He nodded and she went to the back.

She came back with the wrapped CD and gave it to him. He took it and walked out of the store. He went home and from then on, he went to that store everyday and bought a CD, and she wrapped it for him. He took the CD home and put it in his closet. He was still too shy to ask her out and he really wanted to, but he couldn’t. His mother found out about this and told him to just ask her.

So the next day, he took all his courage and went to the store. He bought a CD like he did everyday and once again she went to the back of the store and came back with it wrapped. He took it and when she wasn’t looking, he left his phone number on the desk and ran out…

!!!RRRRRING!!!

The mother picked up the phone and said, “Hello?”

It was the girl!!! She asked for the boy and the mother started to cry and said, “You don’t know? He passed away yesterday…”

The line was quiet except for the cries of the boy’s mother.
Later in the day. The mother went into the boy’s room because she wanted to remember him. She thought she would start by looking at his clothes. So she opened the closet.
She was face to face with piles and piles and piles of unopened CDs. She was surprised to find all those CDs and she picked one up and sat down on the bed and she started to open it.

Inside, there was a CD and as she took it out of the wrapper, out fell a piece of paper. The mother picked it up and started to read it.

It said: Hi… I think U R really cute. Do u wanna go out with me? Love, Jacelyn

The mother opened another CD…

Again there was a piece of paper. It said: Hi… I think U R really cute. Do u wanna go out with me? Love, Jacelyn

A Sure Fire Way to Multiply Your Income
You better be real careful with this nudge… because… I’m going to try and sell you something you need, I’m going make a certain bet you need it more than I do so I’m even going to make it absolutely ridiculous for you to not reach in your pocket and pull out your hard earned cash right now, metaphorically speaking, of course.

I don’t give a damn what business you’re in, I don’t care how many tricks you’ve got up your sleeve, I don’t care how big your list of client is, I don’t care how cheap you can buy your media, I don’t even care if all your marketing is free because even if it’s free… if you can’t write a KILLER sales message it all counts for naught.
Finally, get yourself writing
KILLER Copy right now!

Personally I think the most valuable business skill you can acquire is the art of writing KILLER copy. Not only can you make a fortune for yourself selling your own products and services but you can whip your competitors ass in the process OR you can even become a “pure” copywriter… a “hired gun” and get paid more for a weeks work of copywriting than most people make in 6 months.

The world quickly
becomes your oyster

Just imagine, you can run this business from a stairwell in your home and reduce your overheads using just an A4 pad and a wooden pencil. If you want to go real hi-tech then get yourself a computer and plug yourself into the internet.

Think about it for a moment, with this skill you can choose to live wherever you like , answer to virtually no one, make as much money as your ambition allows, choose to work as much or as little as you damn well like… naked, if you choose.

You’ll never have to worry about traffic jams again, you can work outdoors by the pool or by the beach. Your neighbours and friends will envy you greatly and think you’ve become a drug dealer. All this and more is possible because…

good copywriters are
almost impossible to find.

I know one guy out of Sydney who locks away Australia’s best copywriter Pete Godfrey in a luxury hotel, pays him telephone numbers to write just for him and get this… only a couple of years ago Pete was a knock about laborer sweating his guts out for a few bucks in the midday sun.

If you asked Pete he would tell you he spent the first 9/10’s of his relatively short life being a “rebel without a clue.” Now his neighbours really do believe he’s a drug dealer, never seems to go to work, often seen lazing around his Olympic size pool without obvious means of support. There’s hundreds of companies with monster budgets desperate to find a good copywriter and thousands of smaller business owners begging for a good copywriter. RIGHT NOW I can think of 4 copywriters, who literally make all their income writing copy for my clients.

Personally, can you imagine, how many calls… I… get each week from clients hoping … I… will write copy for them and would you believe it… I turn everybody down.

No amount of money interests me in the task of writing copy for other people, in fact I often don’t even write all of my own these days, with everything I’ve got going on at any one time it pays for me to pay somebody else like Pete Godfrey to fill this role.

So if you’re a business owner, want to be a business owner or just want to live the life of a HIGHLY paid, HIGHLY sought after, HIGHLY revered copywriter then… I’ve got a package for you, no surprise, it’s called “How to Write KILLER Copy.” It’s a big pack too. I’m going too teach you until you’re exhausted, I’m going to…

HOUND it into you how to write KILLER
Copy until you beg for mercy

But I tell you this…if you get this pack and study it as I’ll ask you to do, you’re going to have something TEN TIMES MORE VALUABLE than a doctors or lawyers degree. You are going to have the knowledge…

between your ears which can
set you up for life

Remember, I told you I was going to make it a No brainer decision for you my “Motherload KILLER Copy pack” well, here it is, it’s stocktake time, and I want to clear the shed, I’ve got 27 of these packs at 40% off the normal price.

Simply visit my web store at www.copywritingwizards.com for more information. Don’t forget to look out for the KILLER COPY pack as well as other products designed to attract wealth To You.

Boomers Can’t Retire

by Donald J. Trump

It doesn’t seem that long ago that people looked at age 65 as the golden age of retirement. That’s when workers dreamed of a little condo on the beach, maybe spending their days golfing or fishing or hanging out with the grandkids.

Not anymore.

As baby boomers are hitting their 60s, most expect to delay retirement longer than their parents and their grandparents. And that’s smart because according to a couple of new reports, many of them can’t afford to stop working anytime soon. And that’s sad.

Blame everything from higher divorce rates to longer life expectancies for greater financial hardships that mean people have to work longer than the generations before them.

In addition, many of them want to keep working just because they like to work. The idea of just sitting back and doing nothing isn’t very appealing to people who have worked hard at jobs they’ve loved. I have friends in the real estate business who are in their 90s and still going strong. Kirk Kerkorkian is incredible and he just turned 90!

Many companies recognize this and offer smart incentives to keep their best people working longer because motivated people with experience are irreplaceable.

I can’t even imagine retirement. If you hate your job so much that you can’t wait to stop doing it, you definitely need to find a new line of work.

My father used to have an expression: To retire is to expire. I believe in that 100 percent. My advice? If you love your job, keep doing it.

Donald J. Trump is Chairman of Trump University.

Three More Ways To Make Your Offer Irresistable

In you previous Success Marketing Strategy I gave you four tips that you can employ in order to create successful offers.

Let’s quickly review them:

#1: The offer must be clear

#2: The offer must be a good value

#3: The offer should either involve a discount, a premium, or preferably both

#4: There should be a logical reason for the offer

There are three other tips that I know that when used will strengthen your offer which I will give you now:

#5: There should be a reason for immediate action - expiration dates, limited availability or a bonus for fast response. These all work well in creating a sense of urgency on the consumer’s part.

#6: There should be a strong, clear, direct call to action. Tell the person exactly what you want him to do. Do you want him to pick up the phone and call? Go to a website? Come in to a business? When? What will happen when he does?

Here’s a good call to action, for example. Cut this coupon out of your newspaper. Bring it in to any of our locations any day of this week from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Take it to the cashier at the counter; she’ll give you your free travel alarm clock a gift for just coming in while the supply lasts. Then feel free to browse through our unique travel store. Take advantage of the huge mark downs and sale prices and get a second travel clock free with any $50.00 purchase to give to a friend.

#7: Consider mentioning or even emphasizing your guarantee. Guarantees are not tired, not worn out - they still work. They’re still important to people. If you offer any kind of guarantee I think it ought to be an integral part of all your advertising.

These seven points are the keys to creating successful offers for just about any type of product or service. In the next Success Marketing Strategy that will arrive to you in just a couple of days I will give you some ‘idea starters’ as a quick list of possible offers for all sorts of businesses.

Dedicated To Multiplying Your Income,

Dan Kennedy

Make Every Ad Dollar Accountable

In your last Success Marketing Strategy we finished up our discussion on the different strategies to create profit improvement and I informed you that I was going to switch gears just a little and talk in detail about my favorite subject and strategy which I use to rely heavily on to insure the success of every business I own or have an interest in.

Of course that subject can be none other direct marketing.

I am a strong, enthusiastic advocate of direct marketing. For most businesses, small or large, direct marketing consistently delivers the best results for dollars spent. We need to begin with an understanding of direct marketing versus other types of advertising, promotion and marketing. Let’s talk first a little bit about the others.

There is institutional advertising. This type of advertising is often intentionally used by big corporations and blindly copied by smaller ones. It essentially says to consumers and/or to stock holders here we are, here’s who we are, here’s what we do and we’re nice guys but it never asks anybody to buy anything or to take any action. It’s image building.

Some examples you’re probably familiar with include the Goodyear Blimp flying over football games, the IBM TV commercial seen during the Sunday morning news programs and during some sports telecasts, most bank advertising, Time Magazine’s signs in airports, this is all pure institutional advertising.

Advertising agencies, consultants and the media love to sell you this type of advertising because there is no possible way to measure its effectiveness. Is it working? Is it paying for itself? Who knows?

The next slightly more sensible approach is what I call ‘Non-Measurable Response Advertising.’ This type of advertising is trying to sell something but is still basically unaccountable for its results. TV commercials for a particular brand of car fall into this category. The intent of those commercials is to get you interested enough in that car to go to the show room but there’s really no way to tell how many people who came to the show rooms this week we’re influenced by those commercials.

Would they have come anyway as a result of the dealers own newspaper ads? Who knows? Many smaller businesses get trapped using this type of advertising. Appliance, record, clothing, department stores all run sales ads - here’s what’s on sale come on in. But they have no means of determining how many people became because of the ads versus how many might of come anyway or how many came from an ad in one media versus the same ad in another.

They can guess. They can take this weekend’s higher traffic less last weekend’s traffic and attribute the difference to the ads but it gets worse. They advertise the sale via the newspaper, two radio stations and flyers. How do you tell what works and what doesn’t? Again ad agencies and the media like to sell this type of advertising because it’s difficult for the advertiser to measure the results.

Another type of marketing is public relations and publicity. There are firms who you can retain to prepare press releases and articles about your products or services and your company and work at getting them placed at various media. These firms may also arrange interviews and talk show appearances. Although you can measure them by how much actual exposure they get for you it’s generally difficult to then measure how much business came from the exposure. Also in this category is the sponsorship of everything from a little league team to an Indy 500 race car or a golf tournament.

All three of these types of marketing probably have some place in a businesses total marketing plan. It is my firm belief, however that these methods are grossly and deliberately oversold to clients by media and professionals because of there resistance to results measurement. It is also my opinion that most businesses, the owners of small businesses and the executives of large companies stupidly waste outrageous sums of money on these non-measurable marketing options.

I would much rather see money spent where the results can be definitively and accurately measured so the changes can be made to develop successful response levels for every dollar spent - to do that you use direct marketing which we will get into in detail in your Next Success Marketing Strategy in just a couple of days.

Dedicated To Multiplying Your Income,

Dan Kennedy

How To Make Your Sales Force Productive

In your last Success Marketing Strategy I covered the topic of the job of the entrepreneur to manage his sales force. I enforced the notion that management’s toughest and most important job is the collection of accurate information about what’s actually going on out there on the sales battlefield.

Now I want to talk about what I consider to be the best thing management can do to increase the performance of most sales people. It is to force their analysis and accountability of time use. Most sales people waste enormous amounts of time and are notoriously poor time managers. I like to see sales people log and account for the use of their time in fifteen minute increments. The result is an honest representation of how much of their time is actually being used to produce results. Often even a small improvement in a sales person’s productive time use can result in significant sales increases.

Getting sales people to effectively prospect for new business is often a big problem. Prospecting is hard work. It often involves a lot of refusal and rejection and can be very discouraging. If you can develop a company managed lead development program to provide sales people with pre-qualified prospective customer leads that’s the very best marketing strategy you could have.

Consider space advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, exhibiting or a combination of these methods to develop qualified leads for your sales force. But caution if you do provide leads to sales people insist on reporting of results.

Most companies would probably be shocked to learn how poor their follow-up on qualified leads actually is. I kept count last year at trade shows and by mailing in reply cards I enquired about products or services to over three hundred companies. Surprisingly less than thirty, less than 10% of these firms ever followed up with in person or telephone contact. The sad fact is that most companies do a better job of collecting prospects than they do of selling to them.

Sales people who are given prospects must be required to report back on the results obtained. And if you operate a lead collection and distribution program on a large scale you need some method of randomly checking with the prospects directly to verify that your reps ever contacted them.

If you are dispensing leads to independent reps, distributors or franchisees and cannot legally require accountability than I advise you to sell not give the leads to the marketing people.

In your next Success Marketing Strategy I want to review the quick tips for improving the productivity of your sales organization. Be on the lookout for this information in just a couple of days.

Dedicated To Multiplying Your Income,

Dan Kennedy