Mike's Point Of View

It’s time to try and simplify a very complicated subject. Just today, I read a 50+ page PDF ( manifesto ?) from copywriter Michel Fortin.

In it, Michel goes on at length about why long-copy salesletters are less efffective than they used to be. The funny thing here is that he took 50+ pages to say it.

If people aren’t going to read long-copy, why would he take 50+ pages to tell us ?

Because he knows the truth is that people will read 10,000 pages of content that interests them. Salesletter, novel, magazine article … whatever.

Are online salesletters changing ? Yes.

Is long-copy dead ? No.

Direct-mail copywriters will be using long-copy for a long, long time.

Online, the salesletter format is changing, but the length is not. The amount of copy needed to convey a point, to change a mind or to sell a product is as long as it has to be. No less will do. No more is necessary.

The real point here, and Michel makes it around page 25 of his manifesto, is this : Long-copy salesletters are here to stay, long-scrolling salesletters aren’t as effective online as they were 5 years ago.

Why ? Because of stupid people who used them poorly. They knew nothing about sales, persuasion or marketing, but they thought they could get wealthy by using screamin’ headlines, lots of bullet points and 10 colors per page.

Why ? Because of technology. The advent of AJAX, Flash and other means of making the content more interactive.

Why ? Because of evolution. Simple.

Long-copy is still going to be used, it’s just going to be in the form of audio and video. In fact, because it’s audio with or without video, there may be even more copy (text) used.

The amount of text will be the same - as much as is needed to make it work. It’ll just be in the delivered in a form that won’t require you to do all the work yourself. Reading is hard work for humans. That’s why a majority of them don’t do any of it after they leave high school.

Educating and entertaining your prospect, making him/her aware of their problem and presenting a solution will always work, because human nature will never change. It hasn’t since the dawn of time and won’t between now and the end of time.

If that sounds like what a salesman does face-to-face, you’re right. Want to have a more effective website, learn to sell.

If that sounds like what a white paper does, you’re right. If you think that they’ll be growing in popularity in 2007, you’re right.

The online salesletter writer, in the future, will need to simply know more about the sales process, be more credible and experienced in the field he’s writing about, will need to be a more effective speaker ( or user of audio ) and will need to be a better story teller.

Quite frankly, I’m glad.

And I prefer to think of it as the birth of a better sales letter.

Want to learn more about human nature ? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

Want to learn how to sell ? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

Want to learn to be a better story teller ? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

Want to …. whatever, just subscribe to my RSS feed. Simple.

Another wasted trip to Best Buy has gotten me riled up enough to write this post. It’s not a situation that’s singularly theirs, but they do seem to specialize in it … or almost as much as Home Depot, who I thought was the master of this error in advertising.

Here’s how it started -

I grab the Sunday paper and look for bargains in the ad inserts and circulars. Target has a great looking gizmo that toasts muffins, cooks eggs and re-heats my bacon. Looks like a great way to make my own breakfast sandwich and not have to fight the lines at the fast food places.

I drive over, walk in and grab one, head for the checkout and am gone in 60 seconds.

No problems.

Then to the Best Buy, that happens to be about 100 feet away, but eons behind in customer satisfaction.

The circular had a Wacom Graphire4 tablet that i’ve been wanting to get for a certain daughter and her fabulous mother. Both of them are really, really good with Photoshop and this will be a great addition to their arsenal.

I notice that CompUSA has it listed for $99, but it would have to wait til I get to Louisville later this week, as we don’t have a CompUSA.

Best Buy has listed it for $105, $6 more, but who would care about $6 measley dolars when you can get it now.

But wait ! It’s on sale at Best Buy for $69 ! I run over to grab one and think that the savings will pay for the sandwich machine. Cool ! Kinda like a 2-for1 deal.

Except that they don’t seem to have one on the shelves.

I’ll try to flag down one of the dozens of the denizens in blue who seem to congregate in 2’s and 3’s talking to ….uh, each other, not customers.

I look for one of them not using this herd mentality. Kinda like one that the wolves would look for. Culled from the herd because he’s weak.

I find him. Tall and has that mouth that continually hangs open. Perfect. I’ll trick him into going into the back and finding me one.

He leaves and returns the same way. Empty handed.

No deal dude, he says. Not only do we not have any, we can’t even order them.

He does mention that a whopping 2 are scheduled to come in this week on one of the two trucks that bring replenishments.

What day do those trucks come, I ask.

I have no idea, dude, he says.

I kinda knew that already.

I leave thinking these few simple things -

1) Do those who create ads have any way to see if it’s worth wasting the ad space on an item ? If you have 6 items spread out over 50 stores, don’t bother putting it in the circular.

2) Have they thought of putting something on sale that they have a lot of and need to move, instead of clearing out just a few items and pissing off those that get the same feeling that I got ?

3) Can they offer to find a store that has some inventory and have the item shipped to where they’re needed ? Think about it. There may be no need for these in New Jersey, but 100 people in Kentucky that want them.

4) Does any other electronics store habitually fare any worse with this type of situation ?

5) Is there any way to get more than one checkout lane open and have fewer blue-clad talkers talking to each other ?

I hate going to Best Buy just because they always have dozens of blue-shirts doing a lot of chit-chatting, but there’s ALWAYS a long line to checkout and only one lane open.

And that dude at the door who watches his fellow employee put my stuff in the bag and then wants to check my register receipt … get rid of him or put him in a lane that has a register, so he can actually accomplish something besides making me feel like you don’t trust me.

Anybody else want to jump on this train ?

I just watched a video, that really was just audio, over at John Reese’s ugly little blog.

John knows how to use Camtasia, but has no idea how to create an audio by itself.

His second video was in response to 203 comments from some followers of Reesism with regards to a prior video.

He’s got a bunch of people stirred up because they think he’s being hypocritical. They have no idea what he’s saying, because they’re to worried about what he said.

Why do people think they have to argue with what somebody said, as if their very lives depend on it ?

Why do people feel the need to try and crush the success of someone more successful than they are ?

Why do they call someone’s blog ugly and disparage their use of video software to make an audio ?

Can we not let people be wrong without having to try and save them from their stupidity ?

That’s the biggest reason I can think of not to visit forums - The Success Crushers.

I read over 100 blogs, a city newspaper or two and a national paper … every single day.

Do I read some conflicting viewpoints about things I believe ? Sure I do.

Do I take time to argue with every one of them. Not only no, hell no.

Take the good, the parts that you know are true and throw out the bad and just … let … it … go.

Try this next time you read something that you don’t believe … repeat after me …. GOOBER !

That’s all you have to do. Call ‘em ( or me ) a GOOBER ! and keep movin’. Don’t waste your valuable time trying to save the world.

Every minute you waste arguing with people on their blog is one you didn’t use CREATING content that you can sell or leverage. That minute is gone forever and you can’t get it back to use towards your own edification or education.

Have I made this mistake in the past ? Uh, … yeah, like 5 minutes ago.

Am I gonna try to do less arguing and more creating in 2007 ? Uh, … yeah.

Think of it this way - how often do you see the uber-successful running from blog to blog, arguing semantics, fighting over nits and twiddles ? Uh, … almost never.

Does Seth Godin run from blog to blog trying to argue semantics and little piddlyass points ?

Do you see Donald Trump’s name in the comment section of every blog on the A-List ?

Is Bill Gates a known blog spammer and frequent commenter on Scobles new blog ?

Where’s all the comments from steve Jobs ?

You know, as well as I do, that the uber-successful spend their time CREATING, not RECREATING.

Let’s take 2007 and try this - if you disagree with a silly, little, minor point that you read, spend the time you’d use arguing, creating a bit of content for an ebook, an article, software or whatever you think will be valuable to the market you sell to.

If the matter is life-threatening or major, feel free to argue a bit. But if we’d just unsubscribe from the blogs that lead us into wasting our time arguing, we’d be more successful within our markets in a shorter period of time.

NOTICE - I never said commenting is bad, in fact I love it when people add to the conversation. I can even go along with sucking up AND praise, heck, I do that. It’s the 3 day bitchfests and long drawn-out aguments over piddlyass things that I’m sick of.

How about it ? Do you have any more ideas for how we can make better use of our time in 2007 ? Can you teach us a lesson that will help us create, rather than recreate, more often in 2007 ? Do we need blog created about this topic ?

Gimme one, single bit-o-advice that will help me create more content in 2007 ?

Or we can do an Ask-type thang in the comments and we’ll look for someone to answer our questions.

What’s your one, most burning question about creating content that you can leverage or sell ?

As my good friend Tone-Loc said, ” Let’s do it. “

BTW - the image above is from the good folks over at www.despair.com, where you can find some really great stuff, like the poster above.

Over the last 2 years, I’ve spent about 50 nights in a hotel in Louisville, KY. Every one of those has been at a Hilton franchise, namely a Hampton Inn.

On the road in Knoxville, Hampton Inn. Nashville, Hampton Inn. Horse Cave, Hampton Inn. There have been other cities, but the one constant has been the franchise … Hampton Inn.

Over the last 2 years, my Hilton Honors account has gone to Diamond VIP, which is as high as it goes for their customers.

I’ve always enjoyed their cleanliness, their business services, the great, hot breakfasts and USA Today newspapers, the fine service, etc.

The one thing I haven’t enjoyed is their rates which fluctuate too much for my comfort.

Right now, 7:20 PM on Sunday nite, December 3rd, 2006, on their website there are 13 different hotels listed and there are 10 different rates. They range from $79 a nite to $179 a nite.

10 rates for 13 hotels is just plain crazy. Those hotels are blocks away from each other in some cases and on different ends of the same city in other cases.

I can drive for 20 minutes or less and save my company $100 a nite. That’s dumber than a box-o-rocks to make me make that choice.

Why can’t a diamond VIP get a rate that doesn’t fluctuate and consistently stay at the same hotel every week ?

3 weeks ago, I was waiting to check in and the young lady who was attempting to help me with that answered the phone, instead of finishing my check in, because she was the only one here, she said.

She told the caller that his rate would be $79 per nite. I was standing in front of her at the time. She never asked if he was a Hilton Honors customer or not, so he could have been a first time customer. It might be the only time he ever stays in one of their hotels.

She then proceeded to try to charge me $99, but I pointed out that she just gave the guy on the phone a better rate. She said that was because he was staying 5 straight nights.

I pointed out that I would stay in that very hotel for 26 to 50 times in a year, so she dropped my rate to $84.60.

This last week I called for a reservation and the same young lady wanted $109 for a room. That’s $30 more than a month ago. It amounts to a 38% increase in 30 days.

Does your industry raise it’s prices 1% a month ? Mine neither.

Same room. Same newspaper. Same bedspread. Same breakfast. Nothing new. 38% more.

No deal Hilton. No deal Hampton Inn. I won’t play.

I have a blog that reached over 40,691 visitors last month. Those people viewed 78,020 pages.

I work for a corporation that has 18 locations in 4 states. We have “several” sales people who stay in hotels each and every week.

We attend forums, seminars and training several times a year, nationwide, and spends thousands upon thousands of dollars in hotel bills.

I’m ready to make a deal and get a consistent rate for my stays … or I send out a memo and eliminate all stays at Hilton franchises.

What’s it gonna be Hilton/Hampton ?

Deal or no deal ?

I’m sending a link to this post to my Diamond rep and I’ll let you know what we agree on.

If we can’t work this out, I’ll be asking for recommendations on hotel chains.

Either way, you’ll know how it ends.

It’s getting near year end, so I had to start looking for a way to store data for our personal use, our media network and for the corporate clients we serve.

I had begun my search about two days ago and had been a little put off by some of the solutions out there.

Tonite I came home to find an email alerting me to the services provided by Data Deposit Box, so I thought I’d look into the matter a bit more deeply, while writing a sponsored post for them.

You probably feel that all online data storage solutions are about equal, as I did, so I wanted to find out why the solutions provided by Data Deposit Box are different.

What are the Top 10 reasons they should be your online data storage provider ?

1) They encrypt your data as it’s transferred AND when it’s stored. I read the terms of service for several other potential providers and they clearly did not do this. Personally, I want my data encrypted. I’ll feel safer. Safer makes my sleep sweeter.

They also use 448 bit encryption. I’d bet your bank only uses 128 bit, so how safe must this be ?

2) You don’t have to be an IT expert to use their service. They purposely made it so that everyday, common, simple folks can use their service and be successful in securing and retrieving their data.

3) You never have to wonder when you last backed up your data. You don’t have to set a reminder. You don’t need another calendar notation.

They have a continuous process that makes new backups as you change you files. How cool is that. No more drag-n-drop. No more wondering. No more worries.

No more data loss because you weren’t scheduled to do a backup for 2 more days when your hard drive crashes.

4) They keep multiple versions of each file. I wondered what would happen if a file got corrupted and during the continuous update process I corrupted my data, so I searched their FAQ’s and found that they keep multiple versions, so I can revert back to an earlier version if I want to. That’s the first time I’ve found a online data storage service that does that.

5) They only backup the changes to files, not the whole file every time there’s a change. Think about some of your larger files, say 500 MB to 1 GB. Do you want to wait for that puppy to backup every time theres a small change, or would you be happier to just have only the changes backed up ? Yeah, me too.

6) You’ll be okay if you lose your internet connection. Their software remembers where it was and restarts the next time you’re online, if you happen to lose your connection during a backup. How likely is that to be a factor ? For me and my connection, probably a dang good thing they do this.

7) Most errors are human errors. If you delete a file, it’ll be there waiting on you. They will never delete a file, just because it’s not on your PC anymore. Some online data storage solutions will do this to try and save space. Not Data Deposit Box. Never.

Instead, they have a Clean-Up Wizard that you can use to reconsile your files and find out what you can safely delete.

You don’t get charged extra for multiple PC’s or multiple users. With most services you get to backup a single PC or a a single user. At Data Deposit Box, you can do multiple PC’s, multiple users, multiple networks, whatever. It’s your space and you get to use it like you want to.

9) You can access your data from anywhere. Some online storage solutions only let you access your data from the unit that you used to upload it. That kind of defeats the purpose of a backup, doesn’t it ? So the good folks at Data Deposit Box made your data available to you from wherever you are, on whatever machine you’re on. You’d have thought this would have gone without saying, wouldn’t you ? Me too, but it doesn’t always work this way. Be careful who you trust your data to.

10) Last, but maybe the most important is price, value to the customer. Some online data storage providers make you buy more space than you need. If you think you’ll need 100 MB of space, you better buy 105 MB or 110 MB, so the backup won’t fail when you go over your limit.

At data Deposit Box, you pay for what you use and not one kb more. If you use one GB, you pay $2. If you use 1.1 GB, you pay only $2.20. Pay for what you use, not for what makes them the most money.

I’ve found the online data storage solution I need and I hope this review has helped open your eyes to the solution provided by Data Deposit Box. They sponsored this post and they hope to help you, just like they did me and my network. If you’d like to see all the reviews of their service, just click here.

Have you seen the newest, phattest idea to come around these here parts ?

Pete, The Toast Guy, is using toast to raise dollars for charity and do some link leak’s too.

I got a piece of toast for me and one for my wife.

They both look great and the toasty dollars are really starting to pour in.

Drop by and buy a piece of Pete’s fine toast and help the world become a better place.

… the best Bond film ever.

Ok fine. I admit it. I love James Bond movies. I’m a tad bit over 40 and I’ve been watching them since I was in grade school. I’ve seen ‘em all, except for that George Lazenby thang, and Casino Royale is the best ever.

There. I said it out loud.

Daniel Craig is a Bond’s Bond.

And dammit, I didn’t want to like the little blue-eyed bugger.

Too short, I said.

Too blonde, I said.

Looks too feral, I thought.

I was wrong. There. I said that out loud too.

I was wrong because he wasn’t too short or too blonde, nor did he look anything like a weasel.

He was all-man, a man’s man, a bad boy, faster’n any Bond ever. A helluva fighter. Looked damn good in those tailored suits, too.

As Cowboy Troy would say,

” He ain’t no John Travolta, but he’s slicker than grease ! “

The effects are very 2006, which means they’re way better than waht Sean Connery had available to him.

The story required a badass, muscled up thug, which leaves out Roger Moore, who I dearly loved as Bond.

He had to endure some serious pain, and Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan weren’t quite the suffering type, me thinks.

This is a new Bond and it works very well in 2006 … and beyond I hope.

Who’d have thought you could like a blue-eyed Bond ?

Who’d have thought I would have to come home and search for the final scene’s villian, because I had forgotten who he was and where he came from.

Thanks to the power of the net, I don’t have to go watch it again just to find out.

But I may go see it again anyway.

Because it’s the best Bond film ever.

There. I said it out loud … again.

Credit goes to Sony for the photo I used to help promote their tremendous film. It came from the link I gave you to the movie.

Thanks to a loyal reader, I just found out about the new Fresh Shirt Club at Mens Wearhouse ( Yes, I guarantee it…. you’ve seen the commercials).

How great is that for those of us who go thru shirts like ducks go thru junebugs ? There’s a million of those clubs that send you something every month, why not something you can use and something you need ?

Every month, you get one of their best 100% cotton, non-iron dress shirts, delivered direct to your mailbox. Or you can order a shirt and tie combo.

While there’s wine, book, flower, chocolate, and even BBQ sauce of the month clubs, this is the first monthly club focused on dress clothing for us businessmen.

For businessmen who are far more interested in looking good than in shopping, like me, this is a convenient, time-saving way to stay up-to-date, keep my look fresh and seasonally updated, without having to step one foot in a store. I love not going in to a store to shop. Love.

The shirts and ties are great quality, like everything in Mens Wearhose, and are selected by their business wardrobe style experts. I like not having to try to read GQ every month to see what’s what about colors and textures.

I need all the help I can get and am looking forward to saving time and staying up-to-date, without a lot of wasted effort.

Thanks to Jennifer for alerting me to this ! This is ANOTHER reason blogs rule.

Here’s one for any of you within driving distance of Louisville.

The second coming of the Louisville Geek Dinner will be held on Thursday, November 16th 2006 @ 6:00pm EST.

It’s a social networking event for those who love technology.

And it will be held at the Fox and Hound Pub and Grille, close to Oxmoor Mall.

There’s no cost, except for whatever you choose to spend on food.

Forgive me for being a little behind, but I’ve been a little behind most of my life, in more ways than one. Sometimes a BIG behind.

I’m going thru my Feed Demon 2 feed reader, which I love, and I notice Seth Godin’s post from earlier today. It’s called Clarifications and in it he basically said that yes, he knew it was an affiliate link that was in a post he linked to and for those that wasted his and their time emailing him to get over it.

” 2. In response to my post on baby bottles, several readers pointed out that the writer has an Amazon affiliate account. So what? She’s not recommending Amazon, she’s recommending a product sold on Amazon… out of the millions to choose from. Amazon’s affiliate deal is brilliant precisely because it enables you to make strong recommendations without feeling like the commission has anything at all to do with it.

3. And finally, just because I note something on my blog (like a marketing program that might be a little scammy for example), it doesn’t mean I’m recommending it. Just noting it! Your mileage will certainly vary. “

I totally agree. Totally.

Why is everybody so afraid of affiliate links ? If you see something you want, buy it. If you don’t, don’t buy it.

I wonder if Paul Harvey gets email and phone calls every time he talks about products in his radio show ? I’ll bet he doesn’t.

He’s a running dialogue of affiliate products, one after another after another. And everybody loves him and radio stations pay big dollars to syndicte his affiliate spiels.

Do people not think that someone should get paid for suggesting a product ?

Everything you buy, you bought because someone suggested it to you.

Think about it for a minute before you grab the cloak of indignancy and wrap your pure hearts against the evils of someone selling and making a few pennies to do so.

Do you not think the guy in the tire shop gets paid to help you pick out tires ?

Do you not think the lady in the Men’s Department at Kohl’s gets paid to suggest that you buy a light green tie to go with your gray suit ?

Does the young lady that asks me if I want cream and sugar at McDonald’s not get paid ? Is she any less worthy of my undying thanks because she’s not a volunteer ?

Here’s my take - I have more money than time and I have more to do than look for every freakin’ possible upsell and option. Suggest something to me and save me from looking for it and I’ll put you in my prayers.

If all you have to do is look at every link and see if it’s an affiliate link or not … you need a life and more to do.

Don’t even start with the sillyass crap I’ve read about bloggers needing to be transparent.

” We’ll unsubscribe if we even think you’re trying to make money off of us “, you say.

Good. See ya.

Did you sell your TV because they played a commercial ?

Did you take out your radio because of the commercials ?

Did you cancel your newspaper subscription because of ads ?

If so, you need a life and to take a sabbatical from the ‘net for a few weeks. We’ll all live fine without you and the snow white horse you galloped in on.

Where would your paycheck come from if nobody in your organization ever sold anything ?