How to Write Powerful and Niche Relevant Articles in Less Than an Hour
What follows in this Article is a simple “Step-By-Step” formula for writing powerful niche relevant articles in less than 1 hour. It might take you a little while to get to grips with it, but once you've got the hang of it and got yourself over the learning curve, you will be able to produce keyword rich, search engine optimised articles at the drop of a hat. I say this from experience, because I used to be terrified about the thought of writing an article, but, once I understood and applied this formula, I found that they seem to come together quite easily now.
The benefits of writing articles far out-weigh the fear of having to write them, so when reading this article, keep an open mind and ensure you understand it thoroughly, if you have to read it more than once, then so be it.
Writing articles is very powerful and in my opinion, the best way to build trust and credibility with your brand, and within your niche. If people see you as an expert then your views and opinions (expressed through your articles) are seen as valuable pieces of information. So, without further ado, let’s go to Step 1.
Step 1. Targeting Your Audience.
The first thing you need to establish is which audience (target market) are you trying to reach. This is critical to the overall outcome of your article and what actions your reader/customer is to do next, once they’ve read your article. So, make sure you know who you want to target.
Step 2. Your Attention Grabbing “Headline”/"Title".
The "Headline" is probably the single most important step/part when it comes to writing your article because this is what’s used to “entice” your potential reader/customer in to read your article. Let’s use the “Headline” for this article as an example:
"How to Write Powerful and Niche Relevant Articles in Less Than an Hour"
Notice how the main benefit you’ll receive from reading the article, is all contained within the title, this is an absolute MUST, as this is what you want to convey to your potential reader/customer.
Step 3. Explain Your Position Regarding the Article Topic.
This next step is where you Clearly and Completely introduce your article with a couple of sentences that explain your position on the topic contained within the “Headline” of your article. At this point make sure you don’t leave people hanging, but, at the same time, don’t hand them the keys to the store either. Give them the "sizzle" not the "steak" Take a look at how I started out this article as an example.
Step 4. List off the Main Points you Want to Cover.
This is where you list off your main BULLET points. You don’t have to come up with a lot… IT really depends on what you INTEND TO COVER.
Step 5. Elaborate on each point you wrote down.
After you’ve finished writing down your main bullet points, the next step is to elaborate on each of them with a couple of sentences.
Step 6. Finish With a Conclusion.
You’ve established who your target audience is, You’ve created your attention grabbing “Headline” to entice your readers, and you’ve bulleted and elaborated on your main points with a few sentences. Now… it’s time for the “Conclusion”, put simply, your “Conclusion” is your chance to tell your readers why this article is important and to get them to take action.
Step 7. Put Together a Compelling “Resource Box”.
Your “Resource Box” is where you put your copyright info and website contact information. There are many styles of resource box layout so, a good idea is to visit some article directories and have a look at other articles to see how others are putting their resource boxes together or have a look at mine at the end of this article, up to you.
Well, there you are, “How to Write Powerful and Niche Relevant Articles in Less Than An Hour”.
Jon Leuty is a successful Internet Marketer dedicated to helping others achieve online success. To find out more about Jon and to grab some amazing FREE Training go to:-
http://whoisjonleuty.com
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Blogging is booming. Look who's blogging... and why.
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I feel lucky to be alive and on the cutting edge of what is fast becoming The Age of Blogging... and you should feel the same way.
And if, by some chance, you don't know what a blog is and how it works for your benefit, you are lucky again; I'm going to reveal the true importance of blogs and some key observations on how to derive maximum benefit from them.
Why blogging is sweeping the 'net and the globe.
Consider this.
The history of machine publishing begins in 1454 with the preparation of what became known as the Gutenberg Bible. It took over a year before finished copies were available. This was thought to be -- and was -- a great advance; hitherto books had to be copied by hand, a process that resulted in many errors, of omission and commission.
Printing the Gutenburg Bible was a laborious process; as a result today just 21 copies are known.
Over the centuries publishing developed.
Books were easier to print... there were many more publishers to print them (thereby increasing the number of opinions and points of view available).... and in due course publishing advanced to where books could be universally distributed and available.
But all this, important as it was, was as nothing compared to the most signal advance since Gutenburg himself.
This is the blog.
A blog is the publishing marvel which enables any person anywhere to post and distribute any message they want any time they want. It expunges the middle man, called the publisher, from the publishing equation and enables the new publishers -- you! -- to set their own agenda and make sure that their message is written just so... and distributed worldwide within minutes.
The implications of this development are staggering. Until just the other day (in historical terms), to get your message out to the world, you either had to persuade a publisher or his designated representative (an editor) to publish your article... or you had to establish your own publication with all the expense and uncertainty that entailed.
These days the process is radically different.
Subscribe to a blogging service. Write your message. Update your message as necessary and desirable, even daily.
And, always and forever, keep building your subscriber lists so that more and more people see what you have written.
No longer must writers cringe like Uriah Heap before publishers; you, not they, control your content and can shape and refine it to the satisfaction of a single individual -- you! This has never happened before in the history of mankind and is an event of the highest significance for our species as a whole and the crucial availability and distribution of information.
So, who's blogging?
Powerful institutions are not always known for their ability to move quickly, understanding change and working at once to use such change to their advantage. But the advent of the blog has caused many to leap into this brave new world. One of many examples is Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, a prince of the Church, beloved of the Pontiff.
O'Malley has become one of his Church's "go to" guys in the pedophile priest scandal and its related sexual issues. Like other Church leaders, I suspect O'Malley has been grievously unhappy about the constant drumbeat of terrible press his beloved church has attracted. You can imagine his eminence's eyes popping as he learned about the blog and grasped its implications. He probably jigged about his office...
O'Malley no longer needs to submit to the impertinent, probing questions of pesky reporters and their insistent editors. Instead, he can shape and nuance his message just the way he wants it, to the very last comma. This is an unadulterated benefit for O'Malley... though not necessarily for truth since those pesky reporters authority figures do not like... are the means of digging, digging and digging some more; now they would be, to a significant degree, cut out of the process. The O'Malley's of the world can breathe easier.
Recently (June, 2011), O'Malley used his blog to deal with a nasty issue that had parishioners of every hue very angry indeed. A liberal priest (no, not a tautology) had announced a "liturgy to commemorate Boston Pride 2011," an annual celebration of the city's gay, lesbian, and transgendered community. Conservative Catholics were enraged, many of them blogging their anger.
This, then, had the result of having the mass "postponed" (church-speak for "it won't happen until hell freezes over, if then"). This, of course, had the predictable result of angering the liberals... and causing their blogs to erupt in a frenzy of vituperation.
What's a poor prince to do?
In years past, his eminence would have been forced by the hostilities of his brethren to go before the media and submit to questioning. That is not a thing princes like to do; in fact they abhor this profoundly irritating and degrading event of lese majeste'.
Now they blog... now no one ever sees them sweat... because they no longer sweat at all!
O'Malley, thanks to his growing proficiency as a frequent blogger, dealt with this more than tempest-in-a-tea-cup when HE wanted, how HE wanted... his blog carefully nuanced to his liking. In due course, working behind the scenes, with the message completely his without having to bother with reporters, the matter was solved.... at least this time.
Not as smart: the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
Whereas Cardinal O'Mallley got the point about blogs and their utility, the Archbishop of Canterbury, senior cleric in the Church of England, did not. In the most recent (June, 2011) issue of the "New Statesman" magazine, his grace lashes out at the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition, which came to power 13 months ago. Williams was appointed in 2002 by Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Willams, way behind the technology curve, missed a grand opportunity not merely to get his message out to a worldwide audience far larger than the readership of a single magazine, but to grow his list (something no serious blogger can overlook).
He opted for the traditional paper method... and that instantly limited the effectiveness of what he had to say. Had he, instead, set up a blog and posted his message there... his readership would have exploded and he would have added a host of new readers to his blog... where he could have worked early and late to convert them to his often irritating point of view.
His grace will learn, however; he really has no choice. No "leader" of any kind does. For all, for each, it's "blog or atrophy and die." The same applies to you... which is why you must blog today, tomorrow, forever, or create your own irrelevance and obsolescence, a state of affairs you would really not relish.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Rahimah Sultan http://SureFireSuccessNow.com
Check out Traffic Travis
If you really want a work-at-home opportunity that’s worthwhile visit: http://www.surefiresuccessnow.com/?rd=fk4if8jz
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
I feel lucky to be alive and on the cutting edge of what is fast becoming The Age of Blogging... and you should feel the same way.
And if, by some chance, you don't know what a blog is and how it works for your benefit, you are lucky again; I'm going to reveal the true importance of blogs and some key observations on how to derive maximum benefit from them.
Why blogging is sweeping the 'net and the globe.
Consider this.
The history of machine publishing begins in 1454 with the preparation of what became known as the Gutenberg Bible. It took over a year before finished copies were available. This was thought to be -- and was -- a great advance; hitherto books had to be copied by hand, a process that resulted in many errors, of omission and commission.
Printing the Gutenburg Bible was a laborious process; as a result today just 21 copies are known.
Over the centuries publishing developed.
Books were easier to print... there were many more publishers to print them (thereby increasing the number of opinions and points of view available).... and in due course publishing advanced to where books could be universally distributed and available.
But all this, important as it was, was as nothing compared to the most signal advance since Gutenburg himself.
This is the blog.
A blog is the publishing marvel which enables any person anywhere to post and distribute any message they want any time they want. It expunges the middle man, called the publisher, from the publishing equation and enables the new publishers -- you! -- to set their own agenda and make sure that their message is written just so... and distributed worldwide within minutes.
The implications of this development are staggering. Until just the other day (in historical terms), to get your message out to the world, you either had to persuade a publisher or his designated representative (an editor) to publish your article... or you had to establish your own publication with all the expense and uncertainty that entailed.
These days the process is radically different.
Subscribe to a blogging service. Write your message. Update your message as necessary and desirable, even daily.
And, always and forever, keep building your subscriber lists so that more and more people see what you have written.
No longer must writers cringe like Uriah Heap before publishers; you, not they, control your content and can shape and refine it to the satisfaction of a single individual -- you! This has never happened before in the history of mankind and is an event of the highest significance for our species as a whole and the crucial availability and distribution of information.
So, who's blogging?
Powerful institutions are not always known for their ability to move quickly, understanding change and working at once to use such change to their advantage. But the advent of the blog has caused many to leap into this brave new world. One of many examples is Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, a prince of the Church, beloved of the Pontiff.
O'Malley has become one of his Church's "go to" guys in the pedophile priest scandal and its related sexual issues. Like other Church leaders, I suspect O'Malley has been grievously unhappy about the constant drumbeat of terrible press his beloved church has attracted. You can imagine his eminence's eyes popping as he learned about the blog and grasped its implications. He probably jigged about his office...
O'Malley no longer needs to submit to the impertinent, probing questions of pesky reporters and their insistent editors. Instead, he can shape and nuance his message just the way he wants it, to the very last comma. This is an unadulterated benefit for O'Malley... though not necessarily for truth since those pesky reporters authority figures do not like... are the means of digging, digging and digging some more; now they would be, to a significant degree, cut out of the process. The O'Malley's of the world can breathe easier.
Recently (June, 2011), O'Malley used his blog to deal with a nasty issue that had parishioners of every hue very angry indeed. A liberal priest (no, not a tautology) had announced a "liturgy to commemorate Boston Pride 2011," an annual celebration of the city's gay, lesbian, and transgendered community. Conservative Catholics were enraged, many of them blogging their anger.
This, then, had the result of having the mass "postponed" (church-speak for "it won't happen until hell freezes over, if then"). This, of course, had the predictable result of angering the liberals... and causing their blogs to erupt in a frenzy of vituperation.
What's a poor prince to do?
In years past, his eminence would have been forced by the hostilities of his brethren to go before the media and submit to questioning. That is not a thing princes like to do; in fact they abhor this profoundly irritating and degrading event of lese majeste'.
Now they blog... now no one ever sees them sweat... because they no longer sweat at all!
O'Malley, thanks to his growing proficiency as a frequent blogger, dealt with this more than tempest-in-a-tea-cup when HE wanted, how HE wanted... his blog carefully nuanced to his liking. In due course, working behind the scenes, with the message completely his without having to bother with reporters, the matter was solved.... at least this time.
Not as smart: the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
Whereas Cardinal O'Mallley got the point about blogs and their utility, the Archbishop of Canterbury, senior cleric in the Church of England, did not. In the most recent (June, 2011) issue of the "New Statesman" magazine, his grace lashes out at the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition, which came to power 13 months ago. Williams was appointed in 2002 by Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Willams, way behind the technology curve, missed a grand opportunity not merely to get his message out to a worldwide audience far larger than the readership of a single magazine, but to grow his list (something no serious blogger can overlook).
He opted for the traditional paper method... and that instantly limited the effectiveness of what he had to say. Had he, instead, set up a blog and posted his message there... his readership would have exploded and he would have added a host of new readers to his blog... where he could have worked early and late to convert them to his often irritating point of view.
His grace will learn, however; he really has no choice. No "leader" of any kind does. For all, for each, it's "blog or atrophy and die." The same applies to you... which is why you must blog today, tomorrow, forever, or create your own irrelevance and obsolescence, a state of affairs you would really not relish.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Rahimah Sultan http://SureFireSuccessNow.com
Check out Traffic Travis
If you really want a work-at-home opportunity that’s worthwhile visit: http://www.surefiresuccessnow.com/?rd=fk4if8jz
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
How to write the kind of blog copy that turns readers into fans who cannot live without you!
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
This is an article for people who want to be smart bloggers! Bloggers who change lives! Bloggers who get people to sit up, take notice and say, "Wow! That guy is right! That guy is on the money!" Bloggers who don't just want readers...
... but fans who sit next to their computers waiting for your next blog post.
In this article I am going to show you the secret to becoming a producer of "must read" copy.... and becoming, in the process, a person who goes way beyond having readers... instead creating fans.
400,000+ words in the last year.
This article celebrates achieving a "personal best" goal for me... a goal I challenged myself to make one year ago.... and which I have, with the publication of this article, now achieved. I wanted to see if I could write at least 400,000 words of copy in 365 days; not just drab, undistinguished, pedestrian copy either, but copy that's timely! Intellectually distinguished! Lyric! Insightful! Yes, the kind of copy that stops people worldwide in their tracks and forces them to sit up! Take notice! And pay attention... because they just couldn't bear to miss a single word!
And I am pleased to tell you that this is precisely what has happened! My blog, where you can find all my articles, now generates millions of hits and a stream of gratifying comments from people worldwide who feed my ego and make my day.
This is me!
And it can be you!
1) Tell stories.
The greatest communicators on earth -- Jesus! Abraham Lincoln! Mark Twain! were story tellers. They used the power of stories to make things easy for their audience to understand... and to drive home their points, no matter how difficult and complicated.
You must become a story teller, too, not just a finder and disseminator of facts. Facts alone don't move people. Mere facts don't capture minds. Facts, no matter how important, don't touch hearts. But stories do... they always do... and that is why your blog posts must rely on stories that capture people and leave them begging for more...
2) Today's successful article starts with yesterday's motivating "heads up".
If you want readers today, titillate them yesterday. You see, the power of yesterday is to entice readers today.
People will only be moved to the extent that you move them. If you want readers tomorrow... the crucial process of exciting them starts today.
"Tomorrow! A story of love! Power! Treachery and despair! A story that will move you! Outrage you! And, if there's a tear in you, cause it to fall! All coming tomorrow to a computer near you!"
This'll get 'em!
3) Write short sentences where every word counts.
Thanks to the marvelous technical tools writers have nowadays, most don't write; they "typewrite", in the withering phrase of Truman Capote. He was masterful, and he knew that writers could kill their points, their stories and their readers by pouring out too many words and sentences straining to digest them.
Don't make this mistake.
Look at the sentence length in this article... short, punchy, easy to take in at a glance...
Your sentences should move accordingly.
Moreover, prune your articles mercilessly. A sentence that exceeds just a few words is a sentence smothering itself. And dead sentences will never move live people.
4) Short paragraphs give a story the air and space they need.
Today's readers are restless readers. They are overwhelmed with information... but have the same number of hours in a day as Caesar. In short, they are looking for a reason to put your copy down... never to be picked up again.
Short paragraphs and airy lay-out forestall this tragedy.
Look at this article... short, often real short, paragraphs with pages that look inviting, easy, not prolix and hard.
Contemporary readers demand ease... and if you don't give it to them, they walk... fast.
5) Make your people real, not caricatures.
The reason volumes of commentary don't work is because its authors create card board characters. They then laud the characters they like and demolish the ones they don't. Not only is this unfair... but it makes for lousy copy.
What distinguishes the best commentary is the way you handle people whose opinions you may not only dislike, but actually abhor. Do you give them the courtesy of presenting their point of view fairly, objectively, honestly... or do you want just a cheap shot that not only misrepresents the people you're writing about... but proves you're a writer not worth reading?
This point is worth elucidating because it's one too many commentators miss.
One reason writers like writing commentary is because it turns them from word peddlers into gods, omniscient, all-powerful, always right, never wrong, with the ability to access every human heart and brain at will.
Such people of course become insufferable in short order.
Your job as a commentator is to be sure you have done everything possible to ensure that all the people you write about are presented without prejudice, honestly, completely, with sincerity and with care.
This does not mean you necessarily agree with their positions or actions. It means you intend to give your readers the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth... even if you strenuously disagree.
Only when you have done this can you in good conscience and to best effect proceed to your opinion. Because only if you have allowed even your most pernicious characters their say... can your say be meaningful, insightful, and worth reading.
Use these recommendations.
The best commentators can have enormous influence... which is why you must use your commentating position wisely, not least by producing copy that moves your readers, with every word you write.
These suggestions will help.
By using them you will produce copy -- starting today -- that changes your readers' outlook, opinion, point of view, one apt word at a time. When you do this not only will you have a legion of readers, followers and fans.... but you'll deserve them!
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. He is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Rahimah Sultan
http://SureFireSuccessNow.com
Check out Copy Paste Systems
SEO Professionals Use This
If you really want a work-at-home opportunity that’s worthwhile visit: http://www.surefiresuccessnow.com/?rd=fk4if8jz
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
This is an article for people who want to be smart bloggers! Bloggers who change lives! Bloggers who get people to sit up, take notice and say, "Wow! That guy is right! That guy is on the money!" Bloggers who don't just want readers...
... but fans who sit next to their computers waiting for your next blog post.
In this article I am going to show you the secret to becoming a producer of "must read" copy.... and becoming, in the process, a person who goes way beyond having readers... instead creating fans.
400,000+ words in the last year.
This article celebrates achieving a "personal best" goal for me... a goal I challenged myself to make one year ago.... and which I have, with the publication of this article, now achieved. I wanted to see if I could write at least 400,000 words of copy in 365 days; not just drab, undistinguished, pedestrian copy either, but copy that's timely! Intellectually distinguished! Lyric! Insightful! Yes, the kind of copy that stops people worldwide in their tracks and forces them to sit up! Take notice! And pay attention... because they just couldn't bear to miss a single word!
And I am pleased to tell you that this is precisely what has happened! My blog, where you can find all my articles, now generates millions of hits and a stream of gratifying comments from people worldwide who feed my ego and make my day.
This is me!
And it can be you!
1) Tell stories.
The greatest communicators on earth -- Jesus! Abraham Lincoln! Mark Twain! were story tellers. They used the power of stories to make things easy for their audience to understand... and to drive home their points, no matter how difficult and complicated.
You must become a story teller, too, not just a finder and disseminator of facts. Facts alone don't move people. Mere facts don't capture minds. Facts, no matter how important, don't touch hearts. But stories do... they always do... and that is why your blog posts must rely on stories that capture people and leave them begging for more...
2) Today's successful article starts with yesterday's motivating "heads up".
If you want readers today, titillate them yesterday. You see, the power of yesterday is to entice readers today.
People will only be moved to the extent that you move them. If you want readers tomorrow... the crucial process of exciting them starts today.
"Tomorrow! A story of love! Power! Treachery and despair! A story that will move you! Outrage you! And, if there's a tear in you, cause it to fall! All coming tomorrow to a computer near you!"
This'll get 'em!
3) Write short sentences where every word counts.
Thanks to the marvelous technical tools writers have nowadays, most don't write; they "typewrite", in the withering phrase of Truman Capote. He was masterful, and he knew that writers could kill their points, their stories and their readers by pouring out too many words and sentences straining to digest them.
Don't make this mistake.
Look at the sentence length in this article... short, punchy, easy to take in at a glance...
Your sentences should move accordingly.
Moreover, prune your articles mercilessly. A sentence that exceeds just a few words is a sentence smothering itself. And dead sentences will never move live people.
4) Short paragraphs give a story the air and space they need.
Today's readers are restless readers. They are overwhelmed with information... but have the same number of hours in a day as Caesar. In short, they are looking for a reason to put your copy down... never to be picked up again.
Short paragraphs and airy lay-out forestall this tragedy.
Look at this article... short, often real short, paragraphs with pages that look inviting, easy, not prolix and hard.
Contemporary readers demand ease... and if you don't give it to them, they walk... fast.
5) Make your people real, not caricatures.
The reason volumes of commentary don't work is because its authors create card board characters. They then laud the characters they like and demolish the ones they don't. Not only is this unfair... but it makes for lousy copy.
What distinguishes the best commentary is the way you handle people whose opinions you may not only dislike, but actually abhor. Do you give them the courtesy of presenting their point of view fairly, objectively, honestly... or do you want just a cheap shot that not only misrepresents the people you're writing about... but proves you're a writer not worth reading?
This point is worth elucidating because it's one too many commentators miss.
One reason writers like writing commentary is because it turns them from word peddlers into gods, omniscient, all-powerful, always right, never wrong, with the ability to access every human heart and brain at will.
Such people of course become insufferable in short order.
Your job as a commentator is to be sure you have done everything possible to ensure that all the people you write about are presented without prejudice, honestly, completely, with sincerity and with care.
This does not mean you necessarily agree with their positions or actions. It means you intend to give your readers the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth... even if you strenuously disagree.
Only when you have done this can you in good conscience and to best effect proceed to your opinion. Because only if you have allowed even your most pernicious characters their say... can your say be meaningful, insightful, and worth reading.
Use these recommendations.
The best commentators can have enormous influence... which is why you must use your commentating position wisely, not least by producing copy that moves your readers, with every word you write.
These suggestions will help.
By using them you will produce copy -- starting today -- that changes your readers' outlook, opinion, point of view, one apt word at a time. When you do this not only will you have a legion of readers, followers and fans.... but you'll deserve them!
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. He is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.
Republished with author's permission by Rahimah Sultan
http://SureFireSuccessNow.com
Check out Copy Paste Systems
SEO Professionals Use This
If you really want a work-at-home opportunity that’s worthwhile visit: http://www.surefiresuccessnow.com/?rd=fk4if8jz
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
It's time for your bonfire of excuses. Reflections on getting out of your own way, seizing success today
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
One way and another I have been in business for, what, over 40 years.
I have created and run businesses, right up to the present.
Taught thousands of business students of every age.
Written 18 business books and thousands of business articles.
Had a nationally syndicated radio program on business.
But you get the point. Having now established, I trust, my bone fides, I am going to have my say about why so many people who say they want to be entrepreneurs will never, ever succeed in business.
Hint: it's something millions of entrepreneurs do daily that keeps them firmly amongst the also-rans.
It's the matter of excuses. The better you are at making them, the less good you are at making money and the less success overall.
Thus, today I want to propose a new and absolutely essential project for yourself... retiring your characteristic excuses, one at a time, and then burning them in the most important fire of your life, the bonfire of excuses.
First, hear what you say and perceive how deeply ingrained excuses are in your conversation.
Language is made up of building blocks, starting from letters of the alphabet, through words, phrases, etc. By the time we're adults most of us have long since stopped paying attention to the building blocks of communication; we talk, we hope others listen to what we say because we're not listening to it ourselves. Why should we? We know what we mean, right?
Your first task today is to put yourself and your daily attempts to communicate under a microscope. To root out excuses you must first know you make them. Are you aware, for instance, how often you blame lack of time to invest in your business for your failure get ahead?
This is a classic excuse, with innumerable variations.
Here excuse means to cite as a cause for failure or inaction an event, person, or thing which in point of fact has absolutely nothing to do with the matter; to excuse yourself from responsibility and provide a spurious reason for lack of progress, growth, success. In the process you deceive all and sundry; most importantly you deceive yourself.
Let's look at one crucial area where your facility with making excuses is killing your profits and growth: ad copy. When was the last time you reviewed each and every ad you're paying good money to run? I bet it's been a long, long time (if at all). Instead of reviewing your ads, keeping track of all your responses and profits, knowing how much these ads cost, and then retiring the losers, you instead say "I would have done it, but I was too busy."
This is, of course, rubbish.
The long and short of the matter is that you
1) didn't budget time;
2) let lesser activities take precedence, in part because you were slothful and they were easier;
3) therefore let unresponsive, unremunerative ad copy continue without a plan for reviewing, removing, re-doing.
If you are to stop and permanently eradicate from your business life the crippling excuses which are so damaging to your success, you must be willing to see yourself as the clear problem... and do what it takes to radically change your ways.
As regards the above matter of reviewing ad copy, you need to scrutinize your current daily activities (how many hours did you say you took for "breaks"?) and ruthlessly drop the activities which aren't paying and rigorously substitute those that either save you money, make you money, or both.
"I don't have the money."
Think of the machines, the personnel, the training, the marketing and advertising, the research and development your business requires. It can be, and for many is, daunting.
Thus when asked why you have an outmoded computer or Internet services, etc. you offer without thinking that you "don't have the money". More rubbish.
The truth is you most likely have not reviewed each and every dollar you spend, to determine (with the most severe scrutiny) just where it all goes... and, taking the matter one step further, to where it ought to go.
Thus, your knee-jerk response, offered over and over again, is that you lack the funds.
"My computer is old, but I just don't have the money..."
"My delivery van needs to be traded in for a new one and the correct, updated advertising information painted on it, but I just don't have the money..."
"I know I look like a homeless person, but I just don't have the money for suitable clothes..."
Each and every one of these commonly-used excuses spurns the truth in favor of this very popular excuse. And so, daily, you hobble your business... by your own failure to review your situation, see things as they are, and make the necessary decisions accordingly. You don't need an excuse... you need a psychiatrist.
Why do you do it? Whatever your reasons, excuses are anathema... the bane of business success... the root of diminished expectations and realities.
Fortunately, you can start the necessary changes.... today!
You now have a choice: to continue making excuses, passing them off as facts when they are anything but... or ruthlessly eradicating them, from this moment. Some of you, through inaction, will keep your current situation; making excuses, not money.
But if you're determined to grasp maximum success, you'll thank me for this necessary wake-up call and follow these steps to the letter:
1) As stated, review what you say and how you say it.
2) Don't create excuses which attempt to pass off as facts your faulty suppositions, unproven deductions, and general inaccuracies.
3) Put the harshest light on what you do and say; determine whether it makes you money, or not, and reform accordingly.
4) Beginning today, now, keep a pad with you at all times, and as you hear yourself making an excuse, any excuse, write it on your pad as a configuration of words due to be expunged.
5) Try to remove at least one excuse from your speech every day. As you do so, write the inhibiting phrase on a page. Then take it out to your barbecue and burn it.... burn it completely, thoroughly, until absolutely nothing is left. This marks your transition from excuse maker to problem solver. You are already on the heady road to... MORE of what you want, rather than excuses for what you didn't have and could never get under your old regime. Happily, you are about to be a better and a richer person. Let me be the first to congratulate you.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.
Republished with author's permission by Rahimah Sultan
http://SureFireSuccessNow.com
Check out Traffic Travis
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
One way and another I have been in business for, what, over 40 years.
I have created and run businesses, right up to the present.
Taught thousands of business students of every age.
Written 18 business books and thousands of business articles.
Had a nationally syndicated radio program on business.
But you get the point. Having now established, I trust, my bone fides, I am going to have my say about why so many people who say they want to be entrepreneurs will never, ever succeed in business.
Hint: it's something millions of entrepreneurs do daily that keeps them firmly amongst the also-rans.
It's the matter of excuses. The better you are at making them, the less good you are at making money and the less success overall.
Thus, today I want to propose a new and absolutely essential project for yourself... retiring your characteristic excuses, one at a time, and then burning them in the most important fire of your life, the bonfire of excuses.
First, hear what you say and perceive how deeply ingrained excuses are in your conversation.
Language is made up of building blocks, starting from letters of the alphabet, through words, phrases, etc. By the time we're adults most of us have long since stopped paying attention to the building blocks of communication; we talk, we hope others listen to what we say because we're not listening to it ourselves. Why should we? We know what we mean, right?
Your first task today is to put yourself and your daily attempts to communicate under a microscope. To root out excuses you must first know you make them. Are you aware, for instance, how often you blame lack of time to invest in your business for your failure get ahead?
This is a classic excuse, with innumerable variations.
Here excuse means to cite as a cause for failure or inaction an event, person, or thing which in point of fact has absolutely nothing to do with the matter; to excuse yourself from responsibility and provide a spurious reason for lack of progress, growth, success. In the process you deceive all and sundry; most importantly you deceive yourself.
Let's look at one crucial area where your facility with making excuses is killing your profits and growth: ad copy. When was the last time you reviewed each and every ad you're paying good money to run? I bet it's been a long, long time (if at all). Instead of reviewing your ads, keeping track of all your responses and profits, knowing how much these ads cost, and then retiring the losers, you instead say "I would have done it, but I was too busy."
This is, of course, rubbish.
The long and short of the matter is that you
1) didn't budget time;
2) let lesser activities take precedence, in part because you were slothful and they were easier;
3) therefore let unresponsive, unremunerative ad copy continue without a plan for reviewing, removing, re-doing.
If you are to stop and permanently eradicate from your business life the crippling excuses which are so damaging to your success, you must be willing to see yourself as the clear problem... and do what it takes to radically change your ways.
As regards the above matter of reviewing ad copy, you need to scrutinize your current daily activities (how many hours did you say you took for "breaks"?) and ruthlessly drop the activities which aren't paying and rigorously substitute those that either save you money, make you money, or both.
"I don't have the money."
Think of the machines, the personnel, the training, the marketing and advertising, the research and development your business requires. It can be, and for many is, daunting.
Thus when asked why you have an outmoded computer or Internet services, etc. you offer without thinking that you "don't have the money". More rubbish.
The truth is you most likely have not reviewed each and every dollar you spend, to determine (with the most severe scrutiny) just where it all goes... and, taking the matter one step further, to where it ought to go.
Thus, your knee-jerk response, offered over and over again, is that you lack the funds.
"My computer is old, but I just don't have the money..."
"My delivery van needs to be traded in for a new one and the correct, updated advertising information painted on it, but I just don't have the money..."
"I know I look like a homeless person, but I just don't have the money for suitable clothes..."
Each and every one of these commonly-used excuses spurns the truth in favor of this very popular excuse. And so, daily, you hobble your business... by your own failure to review your situation, see things as they are, and make the necessary decisions accordingly. You don't need an excuse... you need a psychiatrist.
Why do you do it? Whatever your reasons, excuses are anathema... the bane of business success... the root of diminished expectations and realities.
Fortunately, you can start the necessary changes.... today!
You now have a choice: to continue making excuses, passing them off as facts when they are anything but... or ruthlessly eradicating them, from this moment. Some of you, through inaction, will keep your current situation; making excuses, not money.
But if you're determined to grasp maximum success, you'll thank me for this necessary wake-up call and follow these steps to the letter:
1) As stated, review what you say and how you say it.
2) Don't create excuses which attempt to pass off as facts your faulty suppositions, unproven deductions, and general inaccuracies.
3) Put the harshest light on what you do and say; determine whether it makes you money, or not, and reform accordingly.
4) Beginning today, now, keep a pad with you at all times, and as you hear yourself making an excuse, any excuse, write it on your pad as a configuration of words due to be expunged.
5) Try to remove at least one excuse from your speech every day. As you do so, write the inhibiting phrase on a page. Then take it out to your barbecue and burn it.... burn it completely, thoroughly, until absolutely nothing is left. This marks your transition from excuse maker to problem solver. You are already on the heady road to... MORE of what you want, rather than excuses for what you didn't have and could never get under your old regime. Happily, you are about to be a better and a richer person. Let me be the first to congratulate you.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.
Republished with author's permission by Rahimah Sultan
http://SureFireSuccessNow.com
Check out Traffic Travis
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