Archive for November, 2009

Hear & Meet Shel, November 2009

Thursday, November 5th, 2009
  • Environmental journalist Diane Tegarden interviews me December 8, 1 pm ET/10 a.m. ET, for her monthly 30-minute Renewable Energy Radio Show (I imagine we’ll be talking both about Painless Green on the consumer side and Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green on the business side). Listen in: 712-338-8710, PIN number 618#
  • March 24, I’m doing a teleseminar for Stacy Karacostas: stacy (at) success-stream.com
  • April 25, I’ll be speaking on collaborating with a co-author at the American Society of Journalists and Authors conference in New York. http://asja.org/wc/2010/

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New on the Sites, November 2009

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Down to Business Magazine

Global Travel Review

Global Arts Review

Peace & Politics Magazine

Frugal & Fashionable Living

Ethics Articles

Good Business Blog

Very Important: The Sustainability of My Newsletters—Please Read

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Don’t panic—I’m not getting rid of the newsletters. But I *am* changing the business model. Please read on for the reasons why, the important details of what happens next, and how you can participate most effectively for your own needs.

—Shel

Sustainability, the idea that something can maintain itself, has been important to me for decades. I’ve been part of the environmental movement since at least 1972, and writing about it since at least 1974.

When something is sustainable,

  • The energy that comes out of it at least compensates for the energy that goes in—whether that energy is represented by money, time, solar, wind, oil, coal, etc.
  • The materials and labor that go into it can be regenerated in ways that don’t deplete or damage the environment
  • The end product does not pollute, and wastes created in its production, use, and disposal don’t have a negative impact

When I’ve written and spoken about sustainability, I’ve tended to focus on environmental sustainability. But as you see above, economic sustainability is also important. In fact, environmental and economic sustainability go hand-in-hand; when looking at the big picture, you really can’t have one without the other.

And the unfortunate truth is that these newsletters are currently not economically sustainable. I’ve been writing four complete newsletters a month, basically for free. And I can’t do that any more.

Most people with long-running free-subscription newsletters fund them with some mix of ad sales, affiliate commissions, and their own product sales. For a few years, I was able to cover the costs of hosting and maintaining all my sites and newsletter lists with Google ad sales, and the only area that I was losing money was in my uncompensated time to write the newsletters and put them together (a significant amount of time that could otherwise be used for income-producing activity). But in the last couple of years, Google has fallen away to about one-third of previous revenues, as people become inured to the ads and stop clicking on them.

Affiliate commissions have never been more than a pittance, with one exception for a one-time event that I promoted very heavily, and even that was not exactly a ticket to the moon. And while I do sell a few of my own books to my readers, once again, it’s not a large number and usually involves some kind of discount.

If I am to continue spending many hours writing and organizing these newsletters, it has to be economically sustainable. Income has to cover (at a bare minimum) the cost of the domains, the e-mail service, and the person I pay to keep the sites maintained. Ideally, it would also cover my time. And to date, neither of those have happened.

So…here’s what we’re going to do. November and December will continue as they’ve always been. Beginning with the January issues, I’m going to experiment with three different models: (more…)

A Life-Changing $11.95 Gift for the Entrepreneurs in Your Life

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

A one-time deep-discount (minimum 32 percent) offer from now through December 31 that WILL NOT be repeated, ever. And the more you buy, the bigger the discount, all the way down to 77 percent in case quantities, or 86 percent if you buy all remaining cases (nine, at this writing). Your perfect chance to snap up inexpensive but extremely valuable gifts for business owners, key staff, colleagues, and customers

By Shel Horowitz

This may be the perfect gift for the entrepreneurs and marketers in your life, especially those who’ve been hit hard by the recession. Imagine a roadmap to business success that shows how to:

FRONT-89K-PP

  • Build win-win partnerships with other businesses (even competitors) that can open up new audiences and markets, gain credibility from the endorsement of a trusted third party, and slash marketing costs
  • Turn marketing from an expense that generates sales at great effort…into a revenue stream that generates sales more easily—while actually bringing in money directly
  • Get inside the mind of the customer and anticipate that customer’s desires and needs
  • Harness the Magic Triangle of Business Success, at no cost
  • Run a business that demonstrates at every turn that business doesn’t have to be bad, and that businesspeople who have the community’s best interests at heart will continue to succeed

Already convinced? Click here to get the discount codes and order link.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Many more life-changing concepts of business success are outlined in my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First.

This book has been endorsed by 82 entrepreneurs and marketers around the world, including

  • Chicken Soup for the Soul co-creator Jack Canfield
  • Internet marketing pioneer Mark Joyner of Simpleology, who invented such innovations as the upsell thank-you page and may have been the first to create meaningful revenue with e-books
  • Anne Holland, founder of MarketingSherpa.com
  • Jay Conrad Levinson, inventor of Guerrilla Marketing and co-developer of genius advertising campaigns from United’s Friendly Skies to the Marlboro Man (and my co-author on my next book)

A book that was republished by major publishers in India and Mexico. Winner of the Apex Award for best book in the marketing/PR field.

  • Southwest Airlines was so excited about this book, the company bought 1000 copies to give to VIPs whom the president wanted to impress; maybe it’s not surprising that Southwest was the only US airline to stay profitable in the 2001-02 recession.

Already convinced? Click here to get the discount codes and order link.

This book will give thousands of times the value of its tiny purchase price. Implement just one of the dozens of strategies and tactics outlined in clear language, and profits could soar. In fact,

by following my own advice, I transformed my own business (now in its 28th year). At the time the book was published, the vast majority of my copywriting and consulting clients spent between $150 and $500, and then I’d have to go out and hustle more business. Yes, I’m still serving many of those smaller kinds of clients—but I also opened up a whole new profit center and am attracting several clients a year who spend $3000 to as much as $15,000. Let me tell you, that makes profitability a whole lot easier, especially during this very soft economy.

Already convinced? Click here to get the discount codes and order link.

While I certainly can’t guarantee that readers of this book will experience those kinds of successes, I can tell you that if I hadn’t switched my model based on the principles of this book, I might have had to go out and find an actual job. While I’ve had the principles all along, I’ve attracted some incredible business partnerships, opportunities and clients by being very public about supporting the principles I write about in Principled Profit. (I know this because several of those clients have flat-out told me that’s why they chose me.)

What will you pay to buy this gift (or buy it for yourself)? Not the $49.95 I probably should have charged for this kind of a quantum leap business success toolkit…not even the $17.50 list price…How about just $11.95 each for one to four copies, $9.95 each for five to nine copies, $7.95 each for 10 or more…and a $280 case price that works out to just $4 a book (based on an average of 70 copies per case; some have had 72, and one or two have had 68). Buy the temaining nine cases, and pay an incredible $2.50 per book. (Shipping on cases is at actual cost.)

Imagine the growth in your own business if you gave a copy of this book to everyone working in sales, marketing, and customer service—and imagine the goodwill you’ll create by giving it to your own best customers. And don’t forget to keep a copy for yourself! The two hours you spend reading it could open up completely new ways of thinking about how to achieve business success much more easily and profitably.

If you’d like your books autographed and personally inscribed, just tell me the inscription you want, using the comment field. Think how easy this is going to make your holiday shopping!

To get this special, not-to-be-repeated pricing, visit our order form and use one of these codes:

  • For one copy at $11.95 enter HOLIDAY1
  • For two to four copies at $11.95 each enter HOLIDAY2
  • For five to nine copies at $9.95 each enter HOLIDAY3
  • For ten or more copies at $7.95 each enter HOLIDAY4
  • To order by the case contact Shel directly

Supplies are limited, and this book will not be reprinted. I am taking it off the market forever on January 1, or when I run out, whichever comes first. (This is not hyperbole and not an idle threat; it’s written into the contract with John Wiley & Sons for my next book.)

P.S. Hire me to speak or train for $5000 or more, and I’ll *give* a copy to every attender, as long as I still have books.

Revisiting Postal Direct Mail, Part 2: Holding Down Costs: Frugal Marketing Tip, Nov. ’09

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
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Master Classes: Shel Horowitz’s Frugal Fun Tip, November 2009

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Here’s a Frugal Fun idea I hadn’t thought about until this past Monday, when I had the amazing privilege of sitting in on a master class with superstar cellist Yo Yo Ma, coaching three different teenage chamber groups.

My 16-year-old son, who plays violin and oboe and is very serious about both, was one of eight students chosen to participate. And all the parents got to come, too.

Ma is warm, gracious, funny, and has no ego hangups. He greeted each musician personally and asked their names. He also shook hands with all the parents. His musical advice was extremely perceptive, and focused not on technique but on how to feel the piece. He even had one of the players “channel” the composer and talk about “his” feelings while writing it. And he joked a lot; he clearly didn’t want the students to get awestruck and tense, and made a point of coming across as a regular person with some skills, insights, and enthusiasm to share.

As a non-musician, I felt I got a whole lot out of the session. And that’s when I decided that master classes would make a good topic in this newsletter, because you don’t have to be a serious student or even in the genre to get a lot out of watching (save actual participation for those who are serious, and just watch). OK, so you may not get too many chances to sit in when one of the top classical musicians in the world is teaching—but plenty of people, in all the arts, do master classes. Musicians, actors, painters, and dancers often come to colleges to deliver a lecture, and a lot of the time, offer an advanced-level training while they’re in the neighborhood. I’ve seen a number of these events listed in calendars of local newspapers and entertainment weeklies, open to the public. Many of them have no fee. Even for those who do charge, it’s worth asking if you can audit and not participate, for free.

I googled “master class” plus the name of a nearby town and found master classes have been offered locally by

  • The a cappela singing group The Bobs
  • Separate offerings by a dance troupe and a choreographer
  • Actress Vanessa Redgrave
  • A professional film scorer

That was just Page 1. There were more than 3000 others. Try it for your town.





Note: As is the case for most professional reviewers, many of the books I review on this site have been provided by the publisher or author, at no cost to me. I've also reviewed books that I bought, because they were worthy of your time. And I've also received dozens of review copies at no charge that do not get reviewed, either because they are not worthy or because they don't meet the subject criteria for this column, or simply because I haven't gotten around to them yet, since I only review one book per month. I have far more books in my office than I will ever read, and the receipt of a free book does not affect my review.