Successful Product Launches: A How To Guide

Successful Product Launches: A How To Guide
We have all heard the expression “The Perfect Storm” and it refers to the situation where all weather elements come together at the same time to produce a perfect storm. But is there an equivalent of the perfect storm in the marketing world? A situation where all elements come together to produce “The Perfect Sale?”

For the moment, we will conveniently ignore the current world economic meltdown and look only at positive situations where this event may occur. Perhaps, the closest thing we have to the Perfect Sale is the online product launch. But unlike the natural phenomenon, this event is carefully planned and orchestrated by a whole army of web savvy marketers who know exactly what has to be done to create this Perfect Sale.

For this “sale” doesn’t just happen, professional web marketers create their own system of events that lead up to this Perfect Sale, earning themselves enormous profits in the process. This is an orchestrated marketing effort that bring potential buyers onto their contact lists and into their marketing funnels; heading straight towards their Perfect Sale.

These online marketers use a whole array of marketing tactics to bring potential buyers to their sales page. One of the most effective methods is the JV or joint venture with other established marketers who have long lists of interested buyers, and for a percentage of the sales, the JV partner promotes your sales page or product.

A certain date is set for the release of your product and all potential partners/affiliates promote to their lists and on their sites. A buying frenzy can be whipped up especially if the product is limited and only a certain number of sales will be accepted. Also a high quality free sampling or teaser is usually given away to build up massive contact lists of interested buyers, this freebie is used to pre-sell to these buyers. There may even be a countdown clock to further create excitement and urgency in the mind of the buyer.

On launch day, everything is synchronized. JV partners mail out to their massive contact lists, enticing all their subscribers with extra bonuses to buy the product now before it’s gone. The sales letter page goes live and the sales pour in… creating “The Perfect Sale.”

For the non-marketing reader, this may seem a bit far-fetched but in actual fact these product launches are occurring online every week - creating the “Perfect Sale” over and over again. And these launches have been around for many years, one of the most famous being John Reese’s “Traffic Secrets” which was released in the summer of 2004 and earned over 1 million in revenue in one day.

There are even some savvy marketers who have perfected the product launch system into an art form, mainly Jeff Walker (Product Launch Formula) and Frank Kern (Mass Control) just to mention a few of the top marketers out there teaching and applying this marketing technique.
Key Elements Of A Product Launch

However, just like the Perfect Storm, in order to create this Perfect Sale many factors have to fall into place and come together. Some of these main elements are:

1. A high quality product which is in demand and desired by the potential buyers. It must solve a problem or meet a need within its niche market. Bit obvious but without this demand the product won’t sell in any great numbers, no matter what tactics you use.

2. A perfectly written sales letter that converts. Your sales page must convert into actual sales of your product. Again, quite obvious but if your sales page does not convert, it’s game over.

3. A whole motivated group of JV partners with enormous lists and bonuses to offer to potential buyers. Many product launches now offer special prizes (anywhere from a luxury sports car to the latest tech gadget) for those partners who can bring in the most sales.

4. A whole array of orchestrated, pre-launch tactics building up interest in your product with free high quality giveaways to get your buyer’s attention and contact information. Even a newly created blog to keep everyone informed about your product launch is often used.

5. Most of the above tactics have to do with creating the potential buyer with the right mind-set for buying your product. Creating a limited number of products or setting a certain time-frame for selling, and offering special deals or bonuses will further create demand for your product.

International PhD Program in Regenerative Therapiesat the BSRT/Charite, Berlin

International PhD Program in Regenerative Therapiesat the BSRT/Charite, Berlin
The international PhD program of the Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies (BSRT) offers outstanding interdisciplinary training and research opportunities for students of natural sciences and engineering who want to pursue a career in the field of Regenerative Medicine and aim at translating their scientific discoveries into clinical applications.

The BSRT is a collaboration between the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the Freie Universität zu Berlin, the Technische Universität, the Univeristy of Potsdam, Max Planck and Helmholtz Institutes and other high-ranking research institutions in Berlin and Brandenburg. This collaboration offers top class scientific training leading to the award of a PhD degree for students with a Master’s or equivalent degree in biology, iochemistry, bioengineering, veterinary medicine, chemistry, engineering or physics.The program will start in April 2009.. Students admitted to the PhD program will be supported by stipends. Application deadline is the 15th November 2008. Please use only the online application form provided on our website at www.bsrt.de where you can also find further information about the BSRT and the
application procedure. The online application forms will be available from 20th September 2008.

Contact
Prof. Dr. Georg Duda
Scientific Coordinator
Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Volk
Deputy-Scientific Coordinator
Dr. Sabine Bartosch
Administrative Coordinator
Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies
Charité • Campus Virchow-Klinikum
Augustenburger Platz 1
13353 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 450539418
Fax: +49 30 450539918
E-Mail: info[ at ]bsrt.de
Web: www.bsrt.de

Portable FantasyDVD Platinum 9.40.1108

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WinZip Pro 12.0 Build 8252 Portable | 8.34 MB WinZip® is the most trusted way to work with compressed files. No other compression utility is as easy-to-use or offers the comprehensive and productivity-enhancing approach that has made WinZip the gold standard for file-compression tools. With the new WinZip 12, you can quickly and securely zip and unzip files to conserve storage space, speed up

Beasiswa S2 USA: Master Programme in Advance Management Studies at JAIMS

Beasiswa S2 USA: Master Programme in Advance Management Studies at JAIMS
THE FUJITSU ASIA PACIFIC SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
A full-tuition Scholarship For Management Training in Hawaii.

Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace, established the Fujitsu Asia Pacific Scholarship Program in 1985. The Scholarship was established to enhance international understanding and cross-cultural communication through management education and training. Fujitsu is committed to promoting the development of both technology and human resources at global level.

East-West Knowledge Leader Program (EWKLP)
An intensive three-month Graduate diploma program at JAIMS in Honolulu, Hawaii. JAIMS is a nonprofit postgraduate institute that has been a pioneer in intercultural management education since 1972. Over 22,000 participants from 59 countries have come to JAIMS to learn skill essential for success in the international arena.
JAIMS

* Intercultural Business Leadership
* Global Marketing
* Cross-Cultural negotiation and Problem-solving
* Business Plan Development and Entrepreneurship
* Business Communication
* One-week field study in Japan

Program Information: www.jaims.org

Application Deadline: January 31st, 2009

Please send your application letter and CV to:
PT. FUJITSU INDONESIA
Wisma Kyoei Prince 10thFloor
Jl. Jend Sudirman Kav.3-4
Jakarta 10220
Indonesia
Attn: Mr. Raditya Padmawangsa
Ms. Ella Lamzia
E-mail: scholarship@id.fujitsu.com
Scholarship information: www.fujitsu.com/scholarship

Duke and the Police
by Jason Trumpbour, FODU spokesperson

Duke and the Police

I have been keeping a low profile recently and that is deliberate. Mike Nifong had tried to make an issue of FODU’s efforts to call attention to his misdeeds. Now that the relevant authorities have taken the matter up, I am content to let them handle it. I will have much to say about the bar hearing, removal proceeding and contempt hearing in due course. In the meantime, I want to call attention to some disturbing information brought to light by the folks at LieStoppers concerning Duke. See also this timeline and the hearing transcript.

If you will recall, last May Mike Nifong requested the court issue a subpoena to Duke University to provide records of card key activity by all members of the Duke lacrosse team and also provide their home addresses. This information is protected by a federal statute called the Family Educational Right to Privacy Act and cannot be disclosed without a showing of need. Nifong’s request was patently overbroad, but Duke University refused to challenge it. Instead, Duke told the lacrosse players that it would comply with the request and that, if they did not like it, they could do something about it themselves. Attorneys for the lacrosse players challenged the request on their own and a hearing was held in July. The judge then handling the case, Kenneth Titus denied the request. It turns out that Nifong’s request was a complete fraud on the court because, as LieSoppers discovered, Duke University had already turned these records over to police months earlier in March evidently in violation of FERPA.

This new information is disturbing as it relates to Duke on several levels.

First, the Duke administration chose to supply personal information about its students to a manifestly unethical and corrupt district attorney in connection with a politically motivated investigation. Do not be fooled by the administration’s story that they did not know what to believe or that they instinctively trust public officials. Duke had been told by the police that the case was bogus and the file would likely be closed after the police had interviewed that alleged victim. How the police later came to aggressively investigate the case is an interesting story. I will have to tell it to you sometime, but not now. Suffice it to say that these circumstances were an additional reason for them to be very suspicious of the motives of Mike Nifong and the police.

Second, the principle beneficiary of this bit of theater would not have been Mike Nifong. He already had indictments against three defendants and he could have subpoenaed their records with no difficulty. Nifong had no need to use the records of the other players at trial, because his position at that point in time was that they had been exculpated by the April 4 lineup. Nor would there have likely been any repercussions for him or the police for merely soliciting a violation of FERPA. The real beneficiary would seem to be Duke University because it would provide a legal fig leaf to cover its apparent violation of federal law. Worse, Nifong’s apparent willingness to cover for Duke shows that Duke, through its own misconduct, had found itself entangled in Nifong’s malicious prosecution to the point that its interests had started to overlap with those of Nifong.

Third, even if the leak of personal information had not been illegal, it was extremely prejudicial to the players. Judge Titus found that Nifong had failed to show any legitimate reason for the police to have this information. Indeed, just as with the Ryan McFadyen e-mail, police used it to as part of a fishing expedition.

Finally, and probably most disturbing of all, this surreptitious leak of private information occurred at a time when Duke was pretending to support the players, had encouraged them to talk to Duke officials citing a totally fictitious student/teacher privilege and had even hired a local attorney who they offered to the players in an ambiguous relationship meant to approximate that of a defense attorney. Now we see what kind of “help” Duke was providing the players. No person truly acting in the role of defense counsel would have volunteered this information without a subpeona.

For those who insisted that our criticism of the Duke administration for its lack of public support for its falsely accused students was unfair because Duke was probably concerned about its students and was probably working behind the scenes to help them, guess again. For those who have insisted that speaking out against the conduct of Mike Nifong might work against the University’s interests and expose it to unacceptable risks, look at the risks the administration was willing to take in order to further the interests of those working against the players.

Speaking of the Ryan McFadyen e-mail, the claim by Sergeant Gottlieb in his post dated notes prepared in July that the police received a copy of the Ryan McFadyen e-mail through a Crimestoppers tip always sounded suspect to me. The affidavit in support of the search warrant application recites that “On 3/27/2006 Sgt. Gottlieb was contacted by a confidential source. The source provided Sgt. Gottlieb a copy of an e-mail sent by email address. . . .” The Ryan McFadyen e-mail was widely distributed because, aside from being tasteless, there was need to conceal its contents. It is possible that some private individual unconnected to the team came across a copy of it. However, the only other people who had access to the e-mail and its chain of replies were Duke University employees. Is Sergeant Gottlieb’s new version of events in July 2006, which characteristically contradicts an earlier document produced by the police, one supplied to a judge no less, an attempt to conceal another surreptitious leak of private information by Duke officials? In his deposition for the bar hearing, Benjamin Himan indicated that, on March 27, 2006, he, Sergeant Gottlieb and Nifong met and among the topics discussed was obtaining “e-mails and stuff like that.” However, we do not see the police or Nifong actually making a formal request for the e-mail records of the players.

I do not believe that the administration actually wanted to help frame its own students. There is some indication that members of the administration initially believed the charges based on their own personal prejudices rather than objective facts. However, the one common denominator present is that there was always some other priority for the administration that was greater than the welfare of its students. They wanted to be on the right side in the eyes of the public regardless of the facts or law. They wanted to maintain their cozy working relationships with local officials. They wanted to appease small, vocal constituencies within their faculty. They did not think the lacrosse players deserved their help.

People, particularly lawyers, keep asking me, “Doesn’t Duke have access to legal advice?” They are puzzled at how a major university with its own legal staff and a top ten law school on campus could continuously make such horrible mistakes and seemingly lack any appreciation for what was going on in the lacrosse case. Duke does have access to plenty of legal advice. The reality is that the administration does not care. I found this out first hand. In settling with several of the players, particularly in the Dowd case, the Duke administration essentially used University resources to pay for the privilege of doing whatever it wanted. They were not mistaken about the consequences of their actions. It was never going to be any other way.

It is impossible to defend the administration’s motives in violating FERPA as somehow a well intentioned attempt to further the cause of justice as it understood it to be at the time. If the administration had truly been committed to justice, it would have pursued it without regard to where it might take them and which side it might be found to lay. Yet, when the time came for speaking up for the due process rights of its students, the administration was silent and remained silent until late December. No, there was never any commitment by the administration to seeing justice done in the lacrosse case at least through December and certainly not in March. In the absence of such a commitment, there was only self interest and playing favorites.

Collin Leaves Duke as Well

In other news, Collin Finnerty has announced that he is transferring to Loyola College. As with Reade Seligmann, it is disgraceful that Duke has not done more to retain a student who suffered because of his Duke affiliation and did so with dignity and character. Reade, Collin and David represented the University well and made us proud.

I live not too far from Loyola College. It is an excellent school with a top notch lacrosse program (they beat Duke last year). The people there are glad to have him and I am sure that they will take good care of him in a way that the Duke administration was unwilling to do. Welcome to Baltimore Collin!

Joan Collins

I do not want Joan Collins’s latest article to be overlooked by bumping it from the top place with this update so, after reading this, keep reading below. I would just like to add that it is not surprising to me that faith was important to all of the lacrosse team members, their families and the Presslers and that it helped them through their ordeal. The deep faith she describes them having was certainly apparent to me by their conduct all along, especially that of Reade, Collin and David. I am sure that there were many, many moments of despair for them. However, they did not give up. They did not let themselves be paralyzed with self pity. They did not give in to hatred. They never lost the ability to see beyond their own concerns and now want to use their experience to help others in similar situations.

St. Louis de Montfort, in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross, described the proper way for people to confront and even embrace the vicissitudes of life, which provide opportunities for spiritual growth and a closer, more uncomplicated and uncluttered relationship with God. To suffer setbacks without hope and without faith is to suffer as the damned do. However, to suffer with hope and with faith is to suffer as Christ and the holy martyrs did. What the three families went through was horrible and they are still suffering materially for it. However, not only were they not destroyed by the experience, as Joan points out, they are better people for it. St. Louis emphasizes that there is nothing meritorious about suffering in and of itself. Recently, someone wrote a letter to the Herald-Sun complaining about all of the legal actions against Mike Nifong and compared him to Jesus. I wish I were kidding. However, to suffer for an evil or unjust cause is to be a martyr not for God, but for Satan. If Mike Nifong would only embrace the, in his case, just suffering he brought on himself, as the penitent thief at Christ’s side did, he too could be a better person for this experience and actually would be like Christ.

While we are on the subject, this was the thought for the week during Mike Nifong’s bar hearing on a site run by Irish Jesuits called Sacred Space:

Jesus urged us not to swear at all: “All you need say is ‘Yes’ if you mean yes, ‘No’ if you mean no.” Only constant honesty with ourselves can make us really sincere. The world knows an honest person. Many would not tell a downright lie, but few, even of the pious, always tell the truth. It was the truth in Jesus that devastated his enemies. In proportion as we live a recollected life, with Jesus as model, we attain a simplicity and lucidity of character which has less and less need for untruth.

I thought the coincidence was remarkable. That should be the lesson for all of us in the lacrosse case, not just Mike Nifong.

Maybe It’s Time to Upgrade Your Company Website

Maybe It’s Time to Upgrade Your Company Website
Dealing with website development issues can be an overwhelming task. There are many things your marketing team must consider, in fact, there are so many things to bear in mind that many of the most important ones never get dealt with, or are buried under competing interests.

To avoid project paralysis you should focus on certain key areas of concern from which all other issues flow. Whether upgrading your existing website or developing a new webmedia initiative from scratch, consider these four vital questions that need to be answered:

-What content should be included?
-How should content be delivered?
-How is your website going to be marketed?
-What will visitors remember?
-What content should be included?

Content is a function of purpose. Unfortunately many websites don’t have a clearly thought-out realistic purpose; and orders alone, is not an adequate website objective. Obviously every company needs sales, that’s a given, but sales are a result of all the marketing elements you put in place, and the degree to which your presentation distinguishes you from your competition.

There is a prevailing view that traffic translates into sales; this viewpoint may be valid for websites whose economic model is commodity or advertising-based, but businesses that don’t compete on price alone, or are more than an excuse to deliver advertising, must be structured around a purpose that is more meaningful, and far more compelling than ‘give me an order or don’t bother me.’

An over-emphasis on search engine friendly site design ignores the fact that when someone does a search for what you do, they’ll not only find you, they’ll also find many of your competitors as well. And even if you appear first in the search, nothing will stop potential clients from clicking on any of the other organic or advertised listings, or even the numerous Adword links on the side of the page.

The biggest website design problem companies have is not the amount of traffic generated from search engines, but rather how visitors react to your content. Are visitors engaged, enlightened, and entertained so that they stay on your site long enough to get your marketing message, and is that message compelling enough for them to remember it?

There are many misconceptions about advertising content, one of the biggest is that people hate it, but the truth is, what people hate is bad ad content; qualified clients actually look forward to good advertising because it presents a relevant problem, and provides a believable solution, in a distinctive memorable presentation.

If your content doesn’t engage your audience with a persuasive, memorable presentation then you’ll never achieve whatever website marketing goals you’ve set.

How should content be delivered?

We know the vast majority of people don’t like to read text on a computer screen, so they scan for relevant information concentrating on bulleted points, captions, and headlines, but does that truncated information really get your message across? Website text is really designed for search engine spiders, which is fine, but how about paying a little attention to people and how they absorb and remember information?

We also know people are impatient and are ready to abandon your website with the click of mouse, often in mid sentence before they ever get to the point you are trying to make. Your clients are sophisticated media consumers raised on video games and television, and are used to making quick decisions on limited information; this kind of leap-of-logic protocol demands a clever focused presentation.

Your audience will be gone in seconds no matter how convincing you think your content is, if it is not presented in a media-savvy manner that holds viewer attention, otherwise your website is nothing more than a glorified Yellow Page ad.

Audio and video has the potential to deliver information in a form and format that attracts and holds viewer interest while it makes a memorable impression. But even audio and video will fail if it is badly conceived, poorly written, and amateurishly performed.

How is your website going to be marketed?

Everyone is concerned with traffic and how to drive it to their websites. Search engine optimization is only one marketing technique, and it’s one that ignores the impact of content on your audience in favor of attracting the attention of search engine robots. By all means, build search engine friendly elements into your site but don’t ignore people-friendly elements as well.

Having text-based articles on your site is an excellent way to provide search friendly information, but presenting that same information as a professionally produced audio option, or a lively video presentation is certainly more memorable.

An entertaining webmedia presentation makes a lasting impression that viewers are more likely to recommend to colleagues, thereby increasing your traffic and reputation. Word-of-mouth is the best way to generate qualified traffic, and the best way to generate interest in your site is to make your site’s presentation a rewarding experience.
What will visitors remember?

In a brick-and-mortar environment, visitors are more likely to make a decision to purchase on the spot, simply to avoid driving halfway across town to save a few dollars, but on the Web jumping from New York to California is as easy as the click of a mouse. People are just more likely to shop-around because it’s so easy.

Of course what people think they want is the lowest price, but providing the lowest price only attracts the least profitable buyers and ignores the biggest obstacle website businesses need to overcome, and that’s credibility. Who are you, and can you be trusted? And after visiting ten different websites all selling the same thing, can they even remember who you are?

Your presentation has to be memorable and establish credibility so that when all the searching and browsing is finished, your site is the one they remember and go back to; your site must be the one visitors can trust to deliver what’s promised.
How to Hire A Web Video Firm

The ability to produce an effective video or audio presentation requires more than the possession of some cool hardware and software. Owning an expensive camera doesn’t make you a producer, and even the technical ability to edit doesn’t qualified you as a commercial marketing expert. When the time comes to hire someone to add video and/or audio to your website what should you be looking for? Below are eight things you should consider when hiring someone to create webmedia.

-Can the webmedia provider deliver a turnkey solution from concept to implementation, or do you have to act as your own producer hiring different people with different skills complicating the project and creating both technical and conceptual implementation problems?

-Can the webmedia provider produce everything from scripts to custom music in-house, or do they have to farm-out some of the work increasing costs?

-Does the webmedia provider understand how to use verbal and visual performance to create a convincing, memorable presentation, or do they substitute expensive production techniques for cost-effective psychological persuasion?

-Does the webmedia provider just shoot video, or do they have the ability to analyze your offering and purpose, and focus it into a consistent, meaningful, branded presentation?

-Does the webmedia provider have the ability to think strategically as well as tactically? Can they implement and repurpose your investment into your existing website, create a targeted mini campaign site, and provide alternative versions ready for ad implementation?

-Does the webmedia provider have the ability to create lasting campaigns that can be rolled out and built upon, or are they just interested in making a quick buck from a one-off effort? Are they willing and able to be your ongoing webmedia marketing advisor?

-Does the webmedia provider have the ability to turn advertising into content, and content into an experience, or can they only produce nondescript infomercials?

-Does the webmedia provider understand business, marketing, branding, and what can and can’t be achieved so that you have appropriate achievable expectations?

Commercial presentation production requires a multitude of skills and talents. Big companies solve the problem by hiring advertising agencies that drive the cost of production beyond what most businesses can afford. By understanding what’s needed to create an effective webmedia presentation, you can look for a firm that possesses all the necessary talents in-house; an approach that keeps costs down, while producing an exciting Web video campaign that achieves corporate marketing objectives.

This post provided by Jerry Bader who is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads
Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

The Power of Postcards

The Power of Postcards
What’s the fastest, simplest and cheapest way to promote just about any business? The answer is postcards sent by direct mail. You can get your message to a targeted group of prospects or to your existing customers for a cost of about 25 to 30 cents each including postage. You can actually send someone a postcard every 30 days for only three dollars a year. You can generate leads, create sales, ask prospects to give you a try or convince existing customers to buy more or buy more often.

What are the 2 biggest secrets of marketing with postcards?

1. Regular, repeated mailings are the way to create big predictable results. When you mail every 30 days for a year you will cause a dramatic growth in your business. People respond to repetition. If you are a parent you know how hard it is to refuse repeated requests for a cookie or a desperately wanted toy. If you are not a parent, I’m sure you remember asking, even begging for a toy, treat or permission to stay up past your bedtime until your parents finally gave in. Your customers and prospective customers are similar. They need to be asked repeatedly too.

2. There are really only 4 reasons people don’t buy your products and services. Look at your own buying behavior and see for yourself if you believe me when I tell you these 4 apply to you too.

a) No need.

When people don’t buy from you, it’s because they don’t want what you are offering. They may need what you are offering and not know or acknowledge that need, but the bottom line is they don’t want it. Save lots of time, effort and money by targeting your postcard mailings to groups of people who have demonstrated they want your product or service or one’s similar to yours and then mail to them. Follow at least this one piece of advice and become more profitable immediately.

Examples of those who have demonstrated they want your products and services are:
1. your own customers,
2. your competitor’s customers and
3. people who have bought products and services which your products and services supplement or complement.

Target your marketing. Promote your business exclusively to people likely to have a strong desire for the benefits provided by your product or service.

b) No money

Businesses and consumers don’t usually avoid purchases because they don’t have or can’t get the money necessary to purchase. They usually don’t buy because they decide buying something else is more important to them (like food). You can get them to buy from you by making it clear to them that buying your product or service will get rid of something they don’t want or will get them something they do want or will get them more of something they already have that they like having.

It is your job to get your people and businesses to see that your products and services give or get them what they really want. Consumers and businesses rarely avoid buying something because they don’t have (or can’t get) the money needed to make the purchase. They avoid buying what you offer because they place a higher priority on spending money for something else. What is the most nagging problem you can solve for prospects in your targeted market? Make it real to them how they’ll feel when your product or service eliminates that problem. Use postcards to communicate how they can get their problem solved.

c) No hurry

People tend to drag their feet after they decide to buy something. The longer they wait to purchase the more likely they are to forget why your product or service is valuable or even absolutely necessary to them. Keep your message in front of them with repetitive mailings. If you don’t…You’ll lose the business.

The reason repetitive mailings are so effective is that they remind your customers and prospects of what they are missing by not having your product or service working for them in their life. You can avoid losing sales because of “no hurry” by rewarding customers for taking immediate action and penalizing those who don’t. For example, offer a special discount price or a special bonus for ordering before a deadline. Do repetitive mailings to targeted customers and prospects and you will make more sales.

d) No trust

Most people’s fear of losing something is a bigger concern than getting something that they want. This fear causes them to frequently avoid buying something they truly want. They don’t want to buy and then find out that your product or service won’t solve their problem. They don’t want to be or even feel ripped off or still at a loss over the solution to their problem. You must take away their risk in doing business with you. You must provide a way that they can “trust” you. If you don’t they won’t buy and you will lose business.

Most peoples’ fear of losing something is a bigger concern than getting something that they want. This fear causes them to frequently avoid buying something they truly want. They don’t want to buy and then find out that your product or service won’t solve their problem. They don’t want to be ripped off, feel cheated or even feel at a loss for not getting a solution to their problem. You must take away their risk in doing business with you.

You must provide a way that they can “trust” you. If you don’t they won’t buy and you will lose business. 1. Eliminate the risk with an unconditional money back guarantee. 2. Give them testimonials from satisfied customers and/or provide references that prove the quality and reliability of your product or service. 3. Make it easy for your prospects and customers to communicate with you and get their questions and concerns answered. Let them see you and your business are real and that you value getting and keeping their trust and present and future business. These are really the only 4 reasons why people don’t buy from you.

You can increase your sales and profits by knowing them and doing everything you can to mail your postcards to the people and businesses most likely to want and benefit from your products and services, make it clear to them how valuable the benefits of your products and services are to them, get them to see the urgency of getting the value of your products and services now and finally that they can trust you to help them get the benefits you promised your products and services would give them. When you do all these things, guess what? People will buy from you like crazy.

Postcards are a perfect low cost medium to overcome the 4 reasons people don’t buy from you. Use postcards in repetitive mailings and make your business soar.

This post provided by Joy Gendusa. Using a powerful, simple, extremely cost effective way of communicating with customers has earned Joy Gendusa Inc. Magazine’s recognition as the nation’s fastest growing direct mail postcard-marketing firm with year 2007 revenues close to $19,000,000. Gendusa began in 1998 with zero investment capital. Today, her Clearwater, FL firm called PostcardMania, employs over 150 people and prints 4 million and mails 2 million postcards representing 31,000-plus customers in over 350 industries each week. Visit at www.PostcardMania.com

English & Neurolinguistics: Post Doc, UK Medical Research Council, Cambridge, UK

English & Neurolinguistics: Post Doc, UK Medical Research Council, Cambridge, UK
University or Organization: UK Medical Research Council Department: Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit Job Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom Web Address: http://www.mrc- cbu.cam.ac. uk

Job Rank: Post Doc
Specialty Areas: Neurolinguistics; Neurocognition of Language and NLP
Required Language(s): English (eng)
Description:
Ref CBSU08/347

Applications are invited for a three year post-doctoral position, based at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, to conduct neuro-imaging research into the dynamic neural systems underlying human language comprehension, working in an interdisciplinary cross-linguistic research environment, with access to state-of-the art MEG (306-channel Elekta/Neuromag VectorView) and MRI (Siemens Trio 3T) imaging facilities.

This position is funded by an interdisciplinary EPSRC (UK) grant to Lorraine Tyler (Centre for Speech Language and Brain, Cambridge), William Marslen-Wilson (MRC-CBSU), Anna Korhonen (Computing Lab, Cambridge) and Paula Buttery (Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics) , which aims to integrate research in cognitive neuroscience, experimental psycholinguistics and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Modern advances in NLP provide much more realistic analyses of the statistical properties of language use. The aim of the project is to integrate these analyses with neuro-imaging investigations of how brain systems respond to variations in the statistical properties of linguistic inputs at different levels of description (morphological, syntactic, semantic).

You should have doctoral training in neuro-imaging with a strong interest in studying the neuro-cognition of language, and a willingness to take on the challenge of systematically relating the statistical properties of linguistic inputs to the statistical properties of the dynamic neural
response to these inputs.

The starting salary will be in the range of £25,368 - £31,048 per annum, depending upon qualifications and experience. This is supported by a flexible pay and reward policy, and optional MRC final salary Pension Scheme. We offer 30 days annual leave entitlement. On site parking is
available.

For informal discussion, contact William Marslen-Wilson, CBSU Director, by email provided below. Further information on the unit can be found on our website.

Applications for this role must now be made online (see application URL below). Please ensure that you upload a current CV and covering letter with your application. If you do not have internet access or experience technical difficulties please call 01793 301158.

Application Deadline: 10-Oct-2008

Web Address for Applications: http://jobs. mrc.ac.uk
Contact Information:
William Marslen-Wilson
Email: w.marslen-wilson@ mrc-cbu.cam. ac.uk

New Opportunities at The University of Sydney (lecturer)
The School of Mathematics and Statistics is a large School with diverse research strengths. We invite applications for two positions in* ** Statistics* (Ref No. 139797) and one position in *Financial Mathematics* (Ref No. 139804). These are opportunities to contribute to the growth of the School and its international research standing in these areas.

The current areas of research in Statistics and Probability are asymptotic approximations and limit theorems, applied probability, including applications in financial mathematics, time series, extreme value theory, generalized linear models, bioinformatics and biological models. Current research interests related to Financial Mathematics include asymptotic methods, computational mathematics, dynamical systems, ordinary differentialequations and partial differential equations.

For more information or to apply online, please visit:

- Statistics (Ref No. 139797) -http://positions. usyd.edu. au/steam139797em ail

- Financial Mathematics (Ref No. 139804) - http://positions. usyd.edu. au/steam139804em ail

*Closing Date:* 24 October 2008

Warm Regards,

*Natalia Rosa*| Junior Researcher

*SYDNEYRECRUITMENT*

The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006

Level 3 | The Box Factory| 1-3 Ross St

P 61 2 9561 9117 | 9351 5880

E n.rosa@usyd. edu.au

File #58647C190C2E25

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Marketing Made Simple in Tough Times

Marketing Made Simple in Tough Times

How to Write a Better Headline than This One - eBay Sales Rely on Title Hooks

How to Write a Better Headline than This One - eBay Sales Rely on Title Hooks

When selling on eBay, your keyword description isn’t the only chance you have at creating a title. You can also create benefit-oriented titles that emphasize keywords much less in the body of your description. Just use HTML to create larger fonts and dark colors if you insist on using color in the title.

Why do this? Because titles draw in readers and buyers. As David Ogilvy is famous for putting it, “Your headline is the ticket on the meat.” (paraphrased) The headline draws in those who would be interested, compelled, in need, etc. It’s the first test that filters out those who are hungry for meat and those who are not.

The headline needs to include benefits that pertain directly to the needs of the reader and the features of the product, of course. That’s the practical side of the process. The creative side involves catching the attention of passers by.

I read a headline in the newspaper this morning that stopped me in my tracks. It was very creative and it got me to read an article that I wouldn’t have read in a million years given another less interesting headline. Here it is: “Women Get Shot at Hunting.” Clever, ay? The article was about how a national program gives females a chance to learn about the sport.

You might say that the title isn’t selling anything… but I’d say otherwise. Newspapers sell entertainment and information to curious readers. If they don’t make the reader curious, they fail. They succeeded in this instance.

So.. I urge you to get creative, test out headlines and track your eBay sales to figure out which headlines draw in your meat buyers. Do simple A-B testing to test headlines against non-headline descriptions. Or test distinctly different titles head-to-head. Even the smallest insights will offer tremendous value and move you toward more sales and profits.

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
This fall [Lawrence Lessig is] coming out with his latest book,

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

which argues that the legal system is making criminals out of young people who produce entertaining or informative videos, music, and other art works through piecing together parts of others’ works. He advocates a new type of economy that allows both market competition and people to freely share their art.

Source

[http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3220/in-a-new-book-lessig-says-society-is-turning-artists-into-criminals]

Amazon

The author of Free Culture shows how we harm our children—and almost anyone who creates, enjoys, or sells any art form—with a restrictive copyright system driven by corporate interests. Lessig reveals the solutions to this impasse offered by a collaborative yet profitable “hybrid economy”.

Lawrence Lessig, the reigning authority on intellectual property in the Internet age, spotlights the newest and possibly the most harmful culture war—a war waged against our kids and others who create and consume art. America’s copyright laws have ceased to perform their original, beneficial role: protecting artists’ creations while allowing them to build on previous creative works. In fact, our system now criminalizes those very actions.For many, new technologies have made it irresistible to flout these unreasonable and ultimately untenable laws.

Some of today’s most talented artists are felons, and so are our kids, who see no reason why they shouldn’t do what their computers and the Web let them do, from burning a copyrighted CD for a friend to “biting” riffs from films, videos, songs, etc and making new art from them.Criminalizing our children and others is exactly what our society should not do, and Lessig shows how we can and must end this conflict—a war as ill conceived and unwinnable as the war on drugs. By embracing “read-write culture,” which allows its users to create art as readily as they consume it, we can ensure that creators get the support—artistic, commercial, and ethical—that they deserve and need. Indeed, we can already see glimmers of a new hybrid economy that combines the profit motives of traditional business with the “sharing economy” evident in such Web sites as Wikipedia and YouTube.

The hybrid economy will become ever more prominent in every creative realm—from news to music—and Lessig shows how we can and should use it to benefit those who make and consume culture.Remix is an urgent, eloquent plea to end a war that harms our children and other intrepid creative users of new technologies. It also offers an inspiring vision of the post-war world where enormous opportunities await those who view art as a resource to be shared openly rather than a commodity to be hoarded.

[http://www.amazon.com/Remix-Making-Commerce-Thrive-Economy/dp/1594201722]

Durham District Attorney Election
Today is election day in North Carolina and voters will choose the next District Attorney for Durham County. The Herald-Sun, the great defender of the status quo, predictably endorsed current Assistant District Attorney Tracy Cline. In doing so, it presented a variation of the Durham government party line that Mike Nifong and Mike Nifong alone is to blame for the Lacrosse Hoax stating, “[Nifong’s] actions did not reflect deep flaws within the DA’s office.” On the contrary, the Lacrosse Hoax revealed some very deep flaws within the District Attorney’s office indeed.

Tracy Cline’s problems are well known. She was Nifong’s second chair in the lacrosse case and would have helped him try the case had it gone to trial. In October, however, she claimed that she had very little role in the hoax. According to the Herald-Sun,

Some suggested during the lacrosse meltdown that Nifong’s assistants dropped the ball by not reining in their boss, halting the scandal in its tracks.

Cline agreed last week that attorneys have a duty to report unethical conduct among their colleagues.

But she said she lacked insights into what Nifong was doing.

“I didn’t have any personal information about what went on in the lacrosse case, other than what the media reported,” she said. “My job was to keep the courtrooms running. That is what I was focused on.”

First, the assertion that she did not know the facts of the case is almost certainly false. Having worked as second chair, I can tell you that the second chair knows as much about the case as the lead attorney and often knows more. In fact, in the normal course of things, the second chair handles the day to day chores and basic prep work. Evidence presented at Nifong’s bar hearings suggests that was the case here.

More importantly, Cline did not need to know one thing about the Lacrosse case to know that Mike Nifong was an unethical attorney and that he should have been reported to the bar. From the very beginning of the hoax, I tried to make the distinction between Nifong’s conduct and the facts of the case. Even if one could plausibly claim not to know all of the facts of the case, all of Nifong’s misconduct took place in public for all to see. Anyone with a television set could watch him do it.

North Carolina Rule or Professional Conduct 8.3(a) states,

A lawyer who knows that another lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct that raises a substantial question as to that lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects, shall inform the North Carolina State Bar or the court having jurisdiction over the matter.

It is no exaggeration in the least to say that every single lawyer in the District Attorney’s office is an unethical attorney. Mitchell Garrell, another assistant district attorney who is running against Cline tried to make an issue of Cline’s involvement in the hoax at a candidates forum. However, Garrell has some explaining of his own to do.

In any event, the problems with the assistant district attorneys during the Lacrosse Hoax go beyond a passive refusal to report Nifong to the bar. Many actively supported his bid for election and worked on his campaign. They did so with the full knowledge that he was an unethical and corrupt attorney. At a polling place during the 2006 general election, Nifong supporters who claimed to be attorneys in his office were falsely claiming that Nifong had a “smoking gun” that he would reveal at trial. That night, when the results were announced at the courthouse, an assistant district attorney taunted Duke students who were there to support Lewis Cheek saying, “poor little Duke kids didn’t get your way.”

Even after Nifong was disbarred, assistant district attorneys continued to support him and defend his actions. ADA Stormy Ellis pronounced herself “shocked that he has been tainted as a ‘rogue prosecutor.’ It scares me to think that one case can mar you for the rest of your life.” At Nifong’s contempt hearing, I heard a male voice behind me mutter, “Objection!” to a prosecution question it evidently did not like. I did not see who said it, but moments later David Saacks, who is now the acting District Attorney, stood up from directly behind me when he was called as a witness. At this same hearing, ADA Jan Paul, who had come to the hearing to support Nifong, refused to speak with investigative reporter Joe Neff of the News and Observer because she blamed him for Nifong’s downfall.

I do not endorse either of the remaining candidates, Freda Black or Keith Bishop. I just hope the people of Durham can find someone who is willing to provide ethical leadership and surround his or herself with ethical people.

While the ethics and moral outlook of assistant district attorneys might not seem that important, consider that the Lacrosse Hoax was not the work of a criminal mastermind. Instead, it was what happened when a venal and small minded career assistant found himself in a situation that tested his character. Consider also, that he likely developed the habits and attitudes he displayed during the Lacrosse Hoax working in that office for 27 years and who knows what other misconduct he might have committed before his actions became subject to public scrutiny.

Unfortunately, the best chance for positive change in the Durham County District Attorney’s Office was when Governor Easley had the opportunity to appoint Nifong’s successor. What Easley needed to do was appoint someone from outside the Durham legal community who would go into that office with an eye toward firing most of the people there. Instead, he turned Jim Hardin, Nifong’s predecessor back into the office apparently with an eye toward stabilizing the current situation there.

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