Today's business news & commentary: Susanna's Online Magazine: copywriting, Internet marketing, direct response.

Search for:

Tuesday, August 17th

People Who Take Up Your Time --- Drop 'em!

For years I got people who would call me on the phone saying they needed copywriting service and they would talk and talk and talk. People love to discuss themselves and their business. I used to listen and not charge for my time. Duh! How dumb was that?

Few of these time-wasters turned into clients. Oh, one out of a hundred perhaps. Not a good thing. So now I charge for access to me and my time. Period. Is it worth it? Damn straight. That is if you're a serious potential client and not a time-waster would-be if you could-be.

People would call and ask my fees. Now I'll tell you a little secret. The fees are on my site. Guess where? Under a very easy-to-see link called (guess what) "Fees"! This is what I call wasting my time. Everything a person could possibly want to know about me and my service is on my site. My site contains many pages but the basic information is on four or five pages, which are fast reads.

So now I charge $1000 for a consultation on the phone. Gone are the free consultations.

I know it's easy for some folks to pick up the phone and make a call. But hey, my time is damn valuable. I don't have time to answer questions. That's why I have a site.

So you call. You pay. And that, my friend, is the Duh of the Day.

Susanna on 08.17.04 @ 08:41 AM CDT [link]

Sunday, August 15th

The Music of Our Lives

Music has always been special to me. It connects my thoughts with events --- some painful, some wonderful but all worth remembering. Yesterday I was in a restaurant with a deaf friend. The music that filled the air was from the fifties and sixties and it swept me back to my high school days, my youth. Youth, that special, fleeting time full of self-doubt, pain and wonder; full of fun and free of care and daring do.

The flight back in time was warm and fuzzy and wonderful and I thought how awful it would be not to be able to hear those haunting sounds of yesterday. Music is such a major part of our lives. The music we hear at special points of life and death. The music that's playing when we fall in love, the music at our mother's funeral, the music at a special wedding, the music . . . oh the music.

Music can make us feel alive and young again. Music can make us sad. Music can make us gay and happy. Oh the music.

So I thought how awful not to have ever heard that wonderful music of my life. My deaf friend has never heard a sound. I think that's sad. For it is in sound, in music, in the rush of emotion evolving from the sound of birds and wind and music that puts us in that special place and in that special time --- the music of our lives.

Susanna on 08.15.04 @ 05:53 AM CDT [link]

Sunday, August 1st

Surviving a Terrorist Attack

With the current day's news, you might was to go to this site and download this valuable information on surviving a terrorist attack.

We should, I think, keep in mind that because of the pre-emptive type of reporting this has caused, the terrorists may look for soft targets that are not expected to be hit. So no one is safe.

Susanna on 08.01.04 @ 01:16 PM CDT [link]

Press Releases are Powerful, I know.

I just unleashed my credit card and popped over to buy a Alera Technologies DVD/CD Shredder. Now thirty minutes ago I had never heard of this item nor knew anything like it existed. However, for several years I wanted to do what this little machines does. I would have given my right thumb for it.

So how did I hear about it? I was reading the news on Yahoo. The company had prepared a news release that was on a number of sites and I went over, read the press release, looked for the best price and the easiest place to buy it, and the deed was done.

So what does this tell us about marketing? Simply put, it tells us that the simple, humble press release is a very powerful tool in the hands of someone who knows how to write one and get it placed in the right places.

So you out there is doo dah land, if you want to sell something, get a press release.

<MAP NAME="boxmap-p8"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="14, 200, 103, 207" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/powerwritingcom" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x240.gif" width="120" height="240" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p8" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">
Susanna on 08.01.04 @ 08:39 AM CDT [link]