The Veteran View

Okay, I’m not the young buck on the scene anymore.

No longer the smart-mouthed kid, or even the too-hip-to-live aging-well culture warrior.

I’m not even officially “middle aged”, unless I live to be 100.

I’m now… gasp… the grizzled veteran who’s not just seen it all… but maybe seen too much.

When the hell did that happen?

I was talking with one the true young bucks of the Web age today, a brilliant guy in his early thirties. Because of the timing of the Web’s maturation into a viable marketing vehicle, I get to talk to a LOT of people in their late twenties-to-mid-thirties these days. They were born at the right time.

Now, I can get along with almost anyone. My range of close, intimate friends goes from certified senior citizens all the way down to kids just getting started as adults. I’ve never put shallow age limits on who I call a friend — I rate the substantial stuff higher.

Still, when I’m talking with someone twenty years younger than I am about a joint venture to an online market… it’s just weird. I find myself wondering just what, exactly, I’m bringing to the table.

After all, they’re the Web-head techies. And they’ve studied marketing and advertising for years… most of them started early, at ages where I was still a wet-behind-the-ears party-hearty moron.

I guess the fact that it was sometimes my work they were studying brings a small bit of ironic balance to the scene.

So they’re sort of “going to the source”. I don’t enjoy being a “source” necessarily, since that reminds me how long ago it was I was a vibrant young rookie, ready to choose off the world with one hand tied behind my back.

But there you have it.

And, to be fair to myself (and all the other veterans out there still slugging it out on the advertising front lines)… I also bring the sometimes heavy hand of EXPERIENCE to every discussion.

Talent is a good thing.

But, push come to shove… honest experience can take you further. You gotta hone talent. With experience, all you gotta do is remember the lessons.

And believe me, there are lessons to be learned from every scrap of adventure that happens to you.

I’m a walking encyclopedia.

So… how would you like to hear a bit of insight from “The Voice o’ Experience”?

Here it is: A long, long time ago, I had my heart broken in two. I was right out of college, and everything I was and ever thought I’d be was tied up in a girl I’d been living with and loving for several years.

Things went south in a hurry and in a blur. If you need details, you’ll have to get me drunk… and you’ll need an hour to hear the short version.

If you’ve ever had your heart broken, you know the drill.

If you haven’t… count your blessings. And stop taking love for granted, you fathead. Most people plow through relationships just daring life to snarl back.

Trust me on this: The bite is worse than the bark.

The pain I felt is unlike anything else I had ever experienced, or ever would experience. My heart still pumped blood, but it felt ice-cold. There was an emptiness in my gut that radiated out to my toes… so I felt like a walking zombie, wading through a dream.

I really thought the pain would kill me. It was that intense.

When, a couple of years later, I realized I wasn’t gonna die from the heartbreak… I considered doing a Kurt Cobain. There were some truly grisly moments… but mostly I just descended into a lifestyle of debauchery and risk and flipping off Fate. Daring it to bring the axe down.

It was Existential City to the max. I kept journals that read like someone peering into Hell. I wrote poetry and songs that caused listeners to wince and ask me if I was all right.

I was cold. Lost. Alone. And clearly depressed.

It went on for almost two years. And after than, the ragged edges of my state-of-mind still weren’t quite right. I had nightmares for a decade, off and on.

And you know what?

Tonight, driving home from an errand, I heard a depressing love song from that time. (“What A Fool Believes”, by the Doobie Bros, if you must know.)

Music often lights up my memory banks to the point of physical sensations. I went right back to those damaged years, and remember viserally how I felt, the emptiness in my gut, the sense of hopeless loss.

And I smiled.

After a couple of decades of perspective, I no longer see that period of youthful grieving as a depressed mess.

In truth… between the mini-bouts of self-pity and loathing… I was still enjoying life back then. There was a twinge of sadness that hung over me like a bad odor — people often said I was the most brooding friend they had… and yet those same people, most of the time, were laughing with me during our adventures.

I smiled tonight… because I remembered not only the pain… but also the LIFE. That staggering joy of breathing deep and digging into the feast as best I could.

I ate big chunks of life back then. In retrospect, I wish I’d had an uncle like the “me” of today to offer guidance and reassurance and some decent frigging advice… but I wouldn’t BE “me” today without having travelled that long, grueling journey alone and clueless.

You’ll hear successful people speak ruefully of the best times of their lives being the struggle, and not the reward. It’s the years of working against adversity, risking it all, standing elbow-to-elbow with your comrades as the sparks fly that make you feel so wonderfully and urgently alive.

Somewhere along the line, I learned to enjoy the ride, despite the hurt and uncertainty. My time here on earth has been far from perfect, but I have been blessed. I don’t really believe in angels… but if there is one hovering over my shoulder, I’d like to publicly thank her for getting me through all those close calls.

I hope she doesn’t take it personal that I doubt she’s even there.

And here’s the main point: Dude, what I went through almost killed me. And yet, my only regret is that those times are gone.

If I live as long as some of my luckier relatives, I’ve maybe got 10,000 days left. It isn’t enough, but I’ll take ’em. Every single one, with all the hurt and grief that are sure to arrive with many of them.

If you’re young, and you’re wondering when the fun starts… stop wondering.

You’re in it. This is your movie, running right now.

Take a deep breath. Feel the machinery purring beneath your breastbone, and go outside, right after you log off, to feel the blush of autumn on your cheek.

Listen to some music, closely, before you go to bed.

Taste something sweet. Kiss someone sweeter.

Let me be a Voice of Experience for you, just this once. Whatever you’re going through will pass. Things will go good, and then bad. Good. Bad. Good, bad, good, bad…

And the roller coaster will just go on. Be happy you still have a role to play. Maybe there’s reason behind everything, maybe not. At the end of the day, it doesn’t much matter.

If you’re not having the grand adventure you desire, there are ways to put some new drama, comedy and tragedy in motion in your life. I can personally tell you a dozen ways to shake out the jams tonight.

But that’s advice for another time.

Right now, I’ve still got an ancient movie reel whirring in my head, starring a much younger, much sillier, and much more lost John than the one you currently have the pleasure of knowing.

I love the guy.

And I’m real happy he decided to hang around to see how Act Two developed.

Stay frosty, y’all.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

I’m Here…

Lovely blog software I’ve got here. If I don’t post for six days, it goes into a sulk and serves up a blank page.

That’s just rude.

So, I’m leaving a quick note here to let people know I’m not dead yet.

I also know that the notification for posts is not working for most of you, either. Mostly, I’m happy with this blog set-up, and I’ve got someone looking into a little online surgery to fix the annoying aspects.

It’s always something.

I’ll have a more substantial post here soon…

Stay frosty.

Love the weather here in Northern Nevada. Fall’s my favorite time of year — a sense of renewal just as strong as spring, but with a different urgency to it. I’ve always made the major changes in my life in autumn…

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

Reminder

I’ll be on the horn with Armand Morin in just a few hours — 6 pm west coast time, tonight, Tuesday the 4th — talking about copywriting.

It’s a free call. If you’d like to eavesdrop, bop over to this link:
http://www.quicksales.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=311096

Just leave your name and email, and you’ll be sent the relevant details. (I explained more about this call in the previous post.)

I’m already pacing the floor, getting prepared.

Snarl.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

My Cute Little Kitty Wants To Eat Your Canary

Have you ever watched a cat stalk birds?

I wasn’t raised on a farm, but I did grow up near one of the last edges of American civilization — specifically, a far-flung suburban outpost in pre-densely-populated Southern California, long before the tsumani of pavement washed in and covered up all the vineyards, orchards, and xeriscape foothills.

When the sun went down, it got real dark, cuz there weren’t any streetlights. And since it was a working class neighborhood, people crashed early. Late at night, the only sounds of man you could hear were the distant ka-chunk-ka-chunk and wail of trains.

And coyotes ate your pets if you left ’em out.

We weren’t exactly pioneers… but we were butted snug against an uncowered and unforgiving Nature.

So we learned a lot from animals. (Though I’m not so sure that watching the pained look on my dog’s face as he hopped around still attached by his Johnson to the bitch he’d just inseminated was the best way to learn about sex.) (Kinda explains some of my early adventures in the back seat of the Impala at the drive in, though… but that’s another story.)

Humans have lost most of our natural hunting instincts. We’re impatient, unskilled even with the opposing-thumb advantage, and easily grossed out. At least until we re-learn the Zen of stalking.

Watching cats go after Tweetie was a favorite past-time. (This was before X-box, you understand.)

If you’ve never seen the show, allow me to explain why it made such am impression: Fluffy sees bird, and immediately goes into kill mode. This is entirely different than any other mode she ever adopted. Playing with yarn, batting the cat-nip ball around, attacking an unsuspecting foot tapping out a beat to the radio… all these behaviors are clearly NOT total hunting mode.

You see that when you finally catch her getting serious.

She doesn’t tense up, and launch on the target, either. No. She zeroes in on it, and patiently goes to school on every move it makes. Knowing her own abilities, she judges distance, marks obstacles, gauges the awareness level of her prey.

No Attention Deficit going on here.

If she needs to get closer, it’s an almost imperceptible creep. Muscles will hold a pose frozen for long minutes to avoid detection.

Zen patience.

Finally, after digesting every scrap of available information… and unable to close the distance any further without detection… she pounces.

Every fiber of her being is focused on taking Tweetie down.

And if she misses… fine. She returns to her hidey-spot and waits for the next opportunity. Just a little more prepared this time. A little looser.

All grown up now, I still remember watching Fluffy work.

Because what I learned from her is still amazingly relevant in business.

Don’t scoff. Now that I’ve pointed it out to you, the concept of being a cat becomes obvious when you observe savvy, experienced businessmen operate.

It’s the opposite of the impatient, grabby rookie.

The veteran doesn’t rush into any opportunity. No way. He stalks it first.

Studies the market, the demographics, the competition. (Especially the competition.)

Even more relevant… he gauges his own skills against what is necessary to win. Fluffy could have caught Manfred the big lazy beagle much more easily than any bird in the neighborhood… but winning involved more than just catching the prey. Winning meant conquering.

Rookies come to me all the time, hopping up and down with excitement about getting into, oh, the diet market. They heard how much money can be made there, and they can’t wait to dive in.

Until, of course, they discover that while it’s easy to get into that swampy pool… it ain’t so easy to stay afloat. Lots of nasty federal agencies hiding in there, with big teeth and no mercy. Lots of vicious competitors unemcumbered with ethics or a sense of fair play.

You don’t know what you’re doing, you’re gonna get your lunch eaten.

The first advice I give rookies who are looking at a new market… is to simply study it first.

That’s what the pro’s do.

Study whatever you lust after like a cat.

Now, as a freelance copywriter, I have stalked so many different markets, I’ve lost track of them all. When I take on a new client, I don’t just sit down and knock off a brilliant ad. I need to get neck-deep in the details of the market first. Learn what makes the customers tick… what triggers their buying decisions… what the competition is up to (and what they’re doing better than my client).

After, oh, twenty-five years of getting hip to various markets, it’s no longer a big deal to me. All markets have certain things in common, and the differences are often very similar, too.

It’s kind of like being a major league pitcher. At first, you gotta study each new batter with all your might — you ask other pitchers and catchers what they know, you agonize over film, you gather and absorb as much info as possible.

And then, after a little experience, you realize you can shortcut the process a bit. Cuz there are only so many variables involved. Those variables look daunting to a rookie… but become familiar to the pro.

Eventually, you begin to “read” opposing batters with great skill, more easily.

You still ask around, you still watch the film… but you don’t need to agonize so much anymore. You’ve been there before.

You can’t get jaded about it, of course.

But you can — and need to — use the available shortcuts.

This never-ending process of learning and conquering so many different markets is what makes veteran copywriters such “total” marketers.

I’ve been exposed to every kind of marketing tactic and strategy there is. Seen some of ’em work like crazy, seen others crumble like a mud hut in a storm.

I’ve tried every angle of salesmanship, too. From the basic and fundamental forms of “just sell the damn thing”… to the advanced and psychologically-complex techniques that establish long-term relationships between seller and buyer.

And everything in between.

So… when you deal with a veteran freelance copywriter, you’re actually getting access to almost every aspect of business. Selling, yeah… but also positioning within a market, creating good product from scratch, finding new target audiences, avoiding pitfalls that swallow up rookies, and on and on.

Heck, I even have experience with hiring the right kind of people to staff your joint. I can look at your plans and tell you about the warehouse you’re gonna need to lease, the parade of employees who will pass through your scrolls, even how your life will look three months down the road.

I’m not psychic.

I’ve just been around the block a few times.

I like to think of my skills set as a Bag of Tricks. There are several bags within the main bag, too.

There’s a bag of marketing tricks. Strategies and plans I’ve tested out and seen others work, plus all the ways I know to reach prospects with a sales message (including the Web, direct mail, print ads, seminars, all of it). It’s a pretty impressive bag of goodies.

Then, there’s a smaller bag full of insight into running a business. Essentially, Operation MoneySuck at full tilt. I’ve worked closely with large corporations and small entrepreneurs… and each has their foibles and habits and ways of making it happen (and, too often, ways of making it not happen). Knowing this stuff can shortcut years of failure, and speed up success like crazy.

Then, there’s the bag of salesman’s tricks. This also is a very deep bag… because I’ve studied salesmanship like a groupie. And I’ve been lucky about finding “old school” mentors who know how to sell face-to-face as well as how to reach crowds with copy. Everyone has an Inner Salesman… but most of the time (even with experienced marketers) he’s fast asleep. Your first order of business, if you crave success, is to kick that bad boy awake and put him to work for you.

Finally, of course, is the big damn bag with all my copywriting skills. All the secrets and shortcuts and tested methods of delivering a world-class written sales pitch that have kept me at the top of the game for so long.

When I talk to you about business, I’m not pulling this stuff out of thin air.

I’m just reaching into my bag, and showing you what I KNOW to be true.

Copywriting is critical to the success of any business. Nothing happens until the copy gets written, in fact.

However… there’s copy… and then there’s pro-level copy, written by a veteran with a cat’s sense of stalking the prey. Taking it ALL in, every detail and nuance of your business and market… and delivering the most killer sales message possible straight into the tender emotional sweet-spot of your prospect.

You know — the sweet spot that’s connected to his wallet.

Anyway, if you’ve never heard me talk about this process in person… and you’d like to (cuz it’s the best way I’ve ever discovered to learn fast)… I’m about to deliver my last scheduled in-person speech for the forseeable future.

The event is The Big Seminar, Armand Morin’s amazing three-day blow-out focused entirely on selling online. My fellow speakers are a “Who’s Who” of Internet marketing, and I can guarantee you that when I’m not onstage, I’ll be in the audience taking serious notes.

If you’ve never heard of The Big Seminar, you need to get hip right now. It’s happening November 4, 5, and 6, so you need to act fast, too.

Here’s the first — and easiest — thing to do right now: I’m talking, on a free teleconference call, with Armand this Tuesday, October 4th, at 6 p.m. Pacific Time. (That’s 9 p.m. East Coast Time.)

I’ll be going over some of the things I want to cover at the seminar… including filling up your own Bag of Tricks. Should be a killer call, and if you’d like to listen in, it’s easy to do.

Just leave your email at this link:
http://www.quicksales.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=311096

Armand will email you with the details of the call — the phone number, and your code that lets you listen in.

Do this even if you have no intention of attending any damn seminar, for any damn reason.

Why? Because… Armand is a MASTER at Internet marketing… and just experiencing how well he treats people through email, and moves along the process of creating and holding such a massive event… is an education in itself.

Watch this guy work. Be a cat. Show a little patience, and study how the very, very good do their thing.

It’s a free call. You’ll get an email or two urging you to attend the seminar… and again, even if you have not the slightest inclination to go, you need to see how the process happens.

Stalk this process. Have some fun with it. It’s one of the ways the smartest marketers online make a LOT of money.

And hey — you also get to enjoy listening to me rant on some very interesting — and profitable — subjects.

Again, you gotta hurry, though.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

What Is Information Worth?

We’re still in the Information Age, right?

I ask, because every time I blink, things change again. Pisses me off. I was born into the transition of the Industiral Age into the Atomic Age, was a teenager during Sixties, hung out in Silcon Valley while the Computer Age hit puberty… and through no fault of my own somehow wound up teaching people how to make the best use of the Information Age.

Whatever.

Grizzled old veterans like me are needed, because of all the confusion surrounding capitalism in this brave new world of nano-tech information exchange.

Hell, a blink now is an eon in terms of data flow.

So, what is information worth?

That’s the question I hear most often, in various plaintive forms, from entrepreneurs. How do you put a price on an idea?

I have a pretty good gut instinct for pricing almost any kind of product… but it’s hard to explain how a gut feeling works. I’ve just been in tune with so many markets and so many buyers over the years, I can get vibes from the zeitgeist and translate them into dollar amounts.

My friend Dan Kennedy is one of the few to figure out a simple formula to help the “vibe challenged”.

Let’s say you have a book that explains a concept. Like, oh, how to sue your neighbor when he’s a jerk. Not when he’s committing felonies like cooking speed in his bathtub or running hookers out of the garage… you know, things that objectively lower your property value. That’s too easy.

No, this imaginary book of yours explains how to nail him to the legal wall when he’s simply a blot on your happiness. Doesn’t mow the lawn, is loud and rude, has a dog that befouls your morning paper, whatever.

(Is there a book like this anywhere? If there is, I want it.)

Anyway, how would you figure out what is a publication like that was worth? No real competition to emulate, no similar products out there to compare.

If you were in a bar, and the guy on the next stool overheard you talking about your book and wanted it… how much would you tell him he had to shell out to get one?

I know what most rookies would charge. Ten bucks. They’d figure they could get it printed at Kinko’s for four, mail it for two… and make four big damn dollars on each sale.

Oh, wait, that’s old school.

New world math: It’s ten bucks for the download. No printing cost, no postage. You keep the sawbuck.

That’s fair, right?

I am forever having to whack rookies upside the head over this.

No, it’s not necessarily fair. Did you try asking for one hundred bucks first? Or fifty? Or a thousand dollars?

When I get hired to help entrepreneurs launch an information product, we spend a LOT of time going over the price. There are many factors to consider — for example, if you are using this book as a lead generation “loss leader”, you may want to give it away.

However, if you find out there’s an overlooked crowd out there just itching to sue their neighbor for being a jerk… the info you have to share may be worth beaucoup bucks. (That’s French, I believe, for “oodles”.)

So, at the very least, once you establish that you can generate traffic that results in sales… you need to test price.

I recently had an Insider send me his ideas for testing price. He had a “good, better, best” menu he wanted to try out. I swear I am not making this up: $1,233… versus $1,333… versus $1,433.

That is NOT the way to do it.

Here’s one way to do it: Figure out a price that “seems” fair. Then, lowball that figure to the point where you feel you’re giving it away. Then, jack up the price until you’re almost embarrassed to be getting so much for what you offer.

An example: $19.99… $69.99… and $99.99. A good spread.

Until you test, you will never know whether the guy who eagerly bought what you have for $69… wouldn’t just as eagerly have parted with $99.99.

Or more.

Or, that your product that’s breaking your bank at $69… wouldn’t put you on the Forbes 500 list at $19.

My clients, however, are most often astonished at how high they can go. One of them sold information for years at $49… until I shamed him into testing $69. Then $99. No change in response rates.

Same number of people bought. More money came in.

That means the “value” of the info, in the eyes of the market, was much higher than what the seller of the info ever dared to dream.

Gulp. They were leaving twenty bucks on the table, just by never testing $69.

And once they got over that shock, they discovered they were actually leaving FIFTY bucks on the table with each sale. For YEARS.

I could see the ulcers start to form as they grimaced, thinking of the fortunes left uncollected in their market.

Hey — at least they fixed it when they did. Without intervention, they’d still be happily giving the stuff away for half of it’s “worth”.

Back to Dan Kennedy: It’s not often another marketer shocks me… but Dan did.

He said: “Well, did you have them try $199? Or $499? Or nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars?”

Uh… no, I didn’t.

So I went back, and had them test $199. It didn’t pull well. But I didn’t give up — after all, the market had sort of been “trained” not to highly value this type of info before.

So I wrote better copy. I gave a REASON why it was worth so much more now. We pumped up the value with more reports, more tapes and discs and stuff. Turned it into a big old box of infomation, all aimed straight at the heart of the market.

And we discovered that — sold correctly — we could get as high as $399. It was a bigger, bulkier and more involved product… but still just information. At the end of the day, we were still just telling them things they didn’t know yet.

Dan reminded me to never let a client set the ceiling on prices.

No, no, no.

You let the market tell you what the most they’ll pay is.

For years, Dan has doubled… and then doubled again… his fees and prices.

And, at each amount, he (and his stuff) was worth it. Maybe he couldn’t have jumped directly from his earliest fees to what he’s charging now. Maybe you need to bring the market along slowly, in increments.

But maybe not. I was hanging around Jay Abraham’s office back when the MOST anyone had paid for a marketing seminar was $399. And you had your hotel room picked up, all your meals paid for… and the seminar lasted five days.

Whew.

Jay was having none of that. His first seminar lasted just over one day… you had to pick up all your own expenses… and he charged five grand for the privilege of attending. You were guaranteed a chair in the room. That was it.

And you know what? Jay made you understand why this was still the biggest damn bargain in business. His copy gave you all the reason you would ever need to explain to your spouse and business partner why you were shelling out this fortune to attend a seminar.

Audacious minds like Jay and Dan are a national treasure. Especially for entrepreneurs and anyone else who is trying their hand at earning a living outside the “normal” corporate womb.

One of my very favorite Scuttlebutt tapes was the recorded conversation I had with Dan Kennedy a few years back. (Scuttlebutt Number 5: “The Secrets To Success That Scare Most People Half To Death.”) I don’t get to talk to Dan near as often I like. Lunch with Dan is a riotous affair… and I learn something new every time between laughs.

This guy understands the concept of “what the market will bear” better than anyone.

I’ll bet you’re already tuned into Dan’s world, in fact.

However, you may not know that he’s doing a brand spanking new teleseminar on making money as a copywriter next week. Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero — one of my Insiders and good copywriter on her own — has arranged for Dan to spill his guts on how to coerce clients to cough up the cash. (How’s that for alliteration?)

Copywriters have a helluva time figuring out what to charge for their services these days. Because skill at writing copy is really just another form of information — as the writer, you take an ephemeral sales pitch and create copy that persuades.

You take information… and make it manifest.

The top guys all get outrageous fees backloaded with royalty arrangements… but how do you GET to that stage?

You can actually watch copywriters slash each other’s wrists on www.elance.com — it’s great fun — by underbidding everyone else until the job gets awarded for spare change. (I would not be surprised to learn of copywriters offering to pay the client to do the work at some point.)

That’s just crazy.

Again, my own course on Freelance Copywriting covers this. (There are only three sections: Get good, get connected, and get paid.) You can check it out by hitting the link to the right up there.

But why not check out what Dan has to say, too? This is a guy I’ve respected and learned from for almost twenty years now (since we first met at one of Gary Halbert’s notorious Key West “Hot Seat” seminars) ($7,000 to put your butt in a seat). I was sort of co-producing the event, and Dan was the anonymous last speaker of the night.

It’s the only time I’ve actually felt my jaw drop.

This is a guy who knows what he’s talking about.

Anyway, you can check it out for free. He’s doing a no-cost “preview” of the teleseminar (which will cost you if you sign onboard) very soon now. You gotta hurry. Lorrie is gonna grill him about the specifics — the preview will be an experience not to be missed by anyone who’s serious about this subject.

It’s a free look, she’s told me, to show you what the teleseminar is really “worth”. Smart. And a gift to you — free info is getting kinda rare these days.

To see what the fuss is about, bop on over to http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=294905&u=red-hot-copy.com/dk.htm

Find out what Dan has to say about the price of your skill.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

Free vs. Smart Money

I think we’re witnessing a “New Coke”-level debacle on the Web this week.

The bean counters have apparently taken over the New York Times online site… and driven a stake through its heart.

Let me explain: You remember the New Coke thing, don’t you? Back in the early nineties (you know, last century), Coca Cola — one of the most profitable businesses in the universe — got bored with success. And they took their flagship product — Coke — and futzed with the formula.

Why? No reason. There was no hue and cry for a new flavor, no urgency on any front.

People hated the new fizz. Just loathed it. And, despite having sunk something like the gross national product of Brazil into the marketing blitz… the marketing geniuses were forced to bring back the Old Coke.

None of this surprised me at all.

See, as a veteran freelancer, I often get ushered into the deep, dank inner sanctums of a client’s business. I get to see where the bodies are buried, how the books are juggled, and what the real scuttlebutt is on the bottom line.

I used to be astonished at what I found. (For example… when a typical businessman quotes his most recent profit figures to you… you can pretty much cut them in half. If you’re interested in what’s real, as opposed to what sounds good, that is.)

I am astonished no longer. I expect most large companies to implode at some point… with resulting damage that may or may not be repairable. I’ve just seen it happen too often.

Sometimes it’s like a slow-motion train wreck. Other times it’s like watching someone calmly uncork a hand grenade and swallow it, smiling.

Our culture, for reasons I can’t yet fathom, is rife with a twisted paradigm: Sometimes, success equals insanity.

Here’s a very recent example: Up until Monday, the New York Times online site had a measureable readership of something like 39 million.

I was one. My morning routine included stops at slate.com… the drudge report… the Washington Post site… the Wall Street Journal online version… and the New York Times.

Plus, an assorted menu of other sites, as time allowed.

All, except the WSJ, were free.

Forget about the percieved politics — I read the Times for the quality of the writing. I’m a journalism cult fan. I liked the columnists… or rather, I had LEARNED to like them, after three or four years of reading them online.

Now, however, that game is over. The bean counters at www.nytimes.com somehow decided that the best and most wonderful thing they could ever do… was to charge for access to the columnists. You can still see the headlines and most of the breaking news for free… but for the “good” stuff, you gotta pony up.

Um… no thanks.

Here’s the gamble they took on: Were 39 million people reading the columnists because the writing is too important to miss… or were they reading the columnists because they were good… and free?

My bet’s on the free part.

And if I’m right… the Times just sent 30 million readers out into the blogosphere… where they will quickly discover tons of writers JUST as clever and JUST as savvy and JUST as tuned in as the best of the Times’ columnists.

It’s like the movie star who gets so full of himself, he figures he can indulge in any old movie he cares to slap together… and his “fans” will flock.

Result: Bomb.

Dead box office.

Happens so often, it’s a cliche.

Businesses do it, too. It’s called hubris. You get really, really full of yourself… think you can do no wrong… and guess what?

You’re toast.

Now, the Wall Street Journal understands their market better — they CAN charge for online access and be worth it. Hard to get what they offer otherwise. It can be done… but they have the most efficient delivery of what you want, all neat and tidy and in one spot.

Worth a few bucks.

But the Times? Fuhgetaboutit. They have a great history, but they’re still only as good as their last issue. Day to day to day.

And the Post is just as good (and better in many ways). Also, still free.

We’ll see where this goes. The early reviews on the Times’ move are not good — no one over there, apparently, bothered to imagine how this whorish move would play with the hoi palloi.

What is information “worth”, anyway?

Very intriguing question, worthy of your attention… especially if you’re in the information business (as most Web-based businesses are). I’ll post on that subject in a few days…

Until then, stay frosty.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

The Right Woid

Multiple Sources of Info

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I don’t pitch much.

The reason I started posting was simple: Even after writing a dense “Marketing Rebel Rant” newsletter each month… 8 packed pages… I found myself with an expanding backlog of good stuff to write about.

So I started this blog. It’s free, of course, so I don’t feel any restraints about what I write. Sometimes I nail the pulse of my readers, and I hear about it. Other times, I’m just providing a little honest content that probably falls short of earth-shaking… but if I can help even a handful of other writers or marketers, I figure I’ve done my part.

When I started out as a freelancer almost 25 years ago, no one helped me. And during those harrowing first months, I vowed that — if I ever “made it” as a professional copywriter — I would share what I learned along the way.

It was a naked, semi-desperate plea to whatever force runs the universe.

I don’t know if it worked or not… but since I did make it, I am fulfilling that vow to help others as much as I can.

Thus — the free blog. If you look over the posting archives, you will learn many of the crucial marketing and advertising (and life) lessons I had to absorb the hard way… through trial and error. (Mostly error.)

But the main thing is… it’s free. I do offer courses and other learning materials… and I’m damn proud of all of it. Just glance at the sampling of the testimonials I’ve posted at www.marketingrebel.com, and you’ll get an idea of what can happen to you — fast — once you decide to learn the profitable shortcuts from someone who’s already “been there”.

But I almost never push this material on the blog. For the moment, I’m content to allow word-of-mouth do most of my selling for me.

Today, however, I am making a small pitch to you.

My colleagues Bob Bly and Clayton Makepeace are holding a teleseminar aimed at helping freelance copywriters get more (and better) clients.

Here is what they say about these upcoming calls:

American Writers and Artists Institute, Bob Bly and
Clayton Makepeace Present …
Kick Your Copywriting Business Into HYPER-DRIVE!
Give us just one hour on Wednesday, September 14th,
and we’ll give you 30 PROVEN secrets
for making tens of thousands of extra dollars
— and more every year from now on — until you retire RICH!
 2 Ways to find a first client even when you don’t have a portfolio …
 How 2 top copywriters got started – by paying themselves to create a great portfolio …
 5 keys to turning a conversation with a prospect into a lucrative assignment …
 7 ways to make an offer big mailers can’t refuse …
 The #1 blunder new copywriters make – turns clients off like crazy – and how to avoid it …
 How being a direct response bully can make you rich …
ÔÅÆ How to rake in tens of thousands of extra dollars every year TAX-FREE …
ÔÅÆ And MUCH MORE!
PLUS, we’ll set aside as much time as is needed to answer your specific questions about building your copywriting business …
AND you get two valuable guides ‚Äì 7 Qualities of a Great Client ‚Äì And How to Spot the Sorry Losers You Shouldn‚Äôt Touch with a Ten-Foot Pole and How to Get PAID to Build a Power-Packed Portfolio — FREE!

To find out more — and I apologize for the length of this link — just go here:

http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/lp/ezine4_2995_lp.asp?s=M115&e=56440

The reason that link is so long, is because Bob and Clayton want to track where people show up from… and this link identifies you as someone coming from this blog.

Now… you know that I offer a course on freelancing, too. Graduates of my course have earned as much as $300,000 and more in their first year as freelancers. The advice and shortcuts I offer include everything I used to become a top, world-class writer… plus everything you need to know to work your own magic on the Web.

Still, I can easily recommend that you check this teleseminar out. All good writers know there are multiple ways to skin a cat… and if I even remotely suspect I can pick a single new piece of information that can help me increase my income, or increase the results of my ads… I’m there.

Robert Allen, who wrote the best-seller “Nothng Down” — which transformed the real estate market, and made a LOT of people ridiculously wealthy — also coined the term “multiple streams of income”. What he’s referring to is a brilliant strategy to get rich, fast… and stay rich, no matter what.

The main idea: Don’t rely on a single source of income. That puts you at risk.

Instead, develop many different ways to bring in moolah. Especially ways that operate automatically, without effort.

It’s the same with information. You really need to get all the info you can, from different sources. My most successful subscribers pay very close attention to the advice I give them… but they aren’t shy about also paying close attention to the likes of Gary Halbert and Dan Kennedy.

We live in a wonderful time for entrepreneurs. There is a glut of information available — a situation that simply did not exist when I was a rookie.

You don’t have to struggle like I did. Top writers are now spilling their bags of tricks wide open… and all you have to do is collect the good stuff, and put it all to use in your own life.

There are also, it’s true, a rather embarrassingly large number of “wannabe” gurus out there ,too. The best of their advice is really just a diluted rehash of what they learned from veteran writers.

I’m not warning you to stay away from the wannabe’s… but if you’re not awash in time, your best bet remains following the tried and true advice from us “old guys”.

Anyway, if you’re freelancing, or considering freelancing as a career, check out Bob and Clayton’s link. There’s no obligation to just see what’s up.

These are top writers, opening the vaults.

Stay frosty.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

They Know What You’re Thinking

Here’s a nice litte factoid to tuck away somewhere: From my many years working with clients, I can safely tell you that… if a great idea pops into your head… chances are somewhere between 12 and 12,000 other people have had the exact thought.

At the exact time.

This is why we have trademark and copyright laws. Because most people aren’t hip to this inconvenient factoid… and they get pissed off when someone “rips ’em off”.

There are simple reasons why this happens. First… many inventions and brainstorms come about when advances in technology meet economic opportunity. Several people “invented” electricity at the turn of the last century, when certain scientific breakthroughs made it possible. Edison just had better PR… plus the vision to get government to fund it. Without public financing, electricity would still be a curiosity, and we’d be running our computers with gas.

Color television was available in the 1920s, for example. However, while the technology was there, no one could afford to buy the sets. So no one broadcast anything. TV only got going when other technology became available to make black and white broadcasting feasible.

The other reason for simultaneous brilliance… is something Carl Jung called the Collective Unconscious. Each individual is hooked into a larger mind-meld with every other human alive, through our common biology. Sort of like being tuned into the same short-wave radio signal.

Don’t scoff. David Ogilvy and other top copywriters were great fans (as I am) of using the power of our unconscious minds. I often “sleep” on ideas… literally… and ask my brain to come up with a headline or concept or whatever when I wake up.

Works like magic.

As a professional creative-type, however, it’s also a source of high anxiety.

I have piles of ideas for books, seminars, new business models, and cool ways to completely transform my life… more brainstorm material than I could ever get to in two lifetimes.

I know many other creative business folks suffer from the same overload.

And it just kills me that — merely by thinking of them — I have sent all these ideas out into the collective open-air market… to be looted by others.

Of course, I seldom consider that I may have had my little brainstorms because some other poor guy had the thought first, and it escaped into my unconscious.

Interesting voodoo here.

The lesson: When you have a truly great idea, jump on it. Not so it doesn’t get away… but because if you don’t, you’ll probably see it on the cover of USA Today in a month or so. With some other slob getting all the credit.

Remember — paranoia is only a problem if they AREN’T after you.

Stay frosty…

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com

Afraid To Lose

Reality TV just got a little too nasty, didn’t it.

During the run-up to Hurricane Katrina hitting landfall, I was pretty disgusted with the media. You could see the inner glee of the talking heads as they savored the idea of another catastrophe to obsess on.

This time, surely, they could indulge their thirst for exploring other people’s misery, without the attendant shame of having to deal with Michael Jackson, or the vacuous Aruba murder mystery, or Brad and Jen’s breakup.

However, today, there’s a stunned look on most of them. The glee is gone, replaced by a disbelieving shock. There’s nothing ironic about what just happened, no easy headlines and no funny side stories.

An American city just got bitch-slapped by Nature, and people are hurting. I hope you’ve been able to send a few bucks to one of the more effective relief agencies. I think the Red Cross learned its lesson after botching up their 9-11 windfall. I’m not big on religion, but the Salvation Army knows what to do during this kind of disaster, too.

Just send something, somewhere.

The guys in charge are still lost. Where the hell do you start, even? The New Orleans I grooved through in the late ’70s is gone forever, apparently. They can, and probably will, rebuild… but it will still be a city below sea level, in the path of Hurricane Alley. At some point, someone’s gonna wonder if the rebuilding is even worth it.

Whatever they decide to do, it ain’t gonna help the folks getting relocated right now. There’s no way new money is going to rebuild joints that will rent out for cheap… and that means a huge percentage of the poorer people being evacuated simply will not have anyplace to “come home” to. No matter how long they and their ancestors have lived in the French Quarter.

The unintended consequences of every act, from here on out, will be felt for generations. The political fallout is just starting. (I’ve read that the feds had cut flood control funds for New Orleans by 80% over the last few years, despite the risk of a hurricane hitting exactly as it did being predicted as one of the top three disasters guaranteed to happen in the US this decade. And developers were only recently given the green light to obliterate the wetlands that, in the past, served to mitigate incoming storms and flooding. This will not be pretty.)

The lesson for the rest of us is clear: No matter what you’ve amassed in your life, materially… it can all be taken away in a heartbeat.

What Nature doesn’t stomp, is still being circled by your vulture-like competition. And the IRS, your ex-wife, and identity-thieves are lurking in the wings, waiting for their shot.

Success isn’t about what you have right now.

True success is about what you can have, when it’s necessary to grit your teeth and get moving. Money and fame are ephemeral, wisps of dreams that can vanish without warning. Your favorite guitar, your best friend, your health… all are temporary possessions.

I’ve known a lot of people who gathered the pretty trappings of success… but weren’t really successful. Because, once they “got theirs”, they lived in fear of losing it.

That fear will not keep bad events at bay. It will only cloud your days.

True success is a state of mind… armed with talent. Not the “potential” kind of talent I talked about a couple of posts ago… but honed talent.

The kind of talent that allows you to get knocked back to zero… and climb back to where you want to be, quickly. Short of a health crisis that requires machines to stay alive, a truly successful person knows how to brush themselves off, and get back into the groove before the dust settles.

I’m not saying everyone in New Orleans should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps. That won’t happen. Most people need outside help, and those of us in a position to help should do so. Generously and without second thought.

What I am saying… is that a few people will come out of this stronger than ever. The tools they will use will all be inside of them — honed talent, an ability to set clear goals, and a willingness to search for the necessary info and shortcuts.

Not all of us get tested like that in life.

However, I have noticed that among my closest friends who possess true success… none have been given an easy time of it by Life.

Grieve for the dead, and help your brothers and sisters as much as you can, when you can.

But don’t be caught speechless in the face of disaster, like so many of the young, clueless talking heads on television.

Success requires action, and skill. Consider how you would handle things down at the bleeding mouth of the Mississippi.

John Carlton
www.marketingrebel.com