How Does Spellchecker make you Lazy? by David Parton

How Does Spellchecker make you Lazy? by David Parton

It's a crime what laziness can do. That's the downside of automation and software tools. People get lazy.

Don't get me wrong, I love technology and I depend on Spell-checking software to help with my writing. It finds the typos but it does not find all the spelling mistakes.It does not find the contextual mistakes. What do I mean by that?

Here's an example: "The kid's got heat."

Maybe, the "kid" is a pitcher with a really wicked fastball. Or maybe, I meant to type "heart" as in:

"The kid's got heart."

The absence of one letter can give you two wildly different interpretations. Ol' Robodunce, spellchecker won't spot gaffs like that.

Remember, in school how you used to struggle over the proper usage of "there, they're, and their?" Some people still struggle with those. Grammar can be pretty tricky, so tricky that a computer designed solely to correct grammatical mistakes would have to be the size of a Pontiac, or even a cruise ship. It would take a truckload of Einsteins to program it.

That leaves you, my friend, You, the author- the last line of defense.

For the sake of your readers, for the sake of clarity and for the sake of personal pride...Proofread it! Read it out loud. Read it again and again just to be sure. Do you want potentially millions of people to think you are a bonehead?

Every day surfing the web I encounter site after site with so many errors; obvious stuff that a 3rd Grader could pick up on. These people are just too darned busy building pop-ups to proofread their copy. Rush, rush, rush.

And these are people trying to sell me things! Do I want to buy from a Bonehead? Not bloody likely.

You may have noticed this is a pet peeve of mine. That being said, a person that does not pay attention to the little details of publishing online may not pay attention to all the little details of good service. I can't imagine that I am the only one that jumps to that conclusion.

It could cost you a lot in sales and/or credibility.
Proofread. Take the time before you upload. Don't be a Bonehead.
About the Author
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How To Test Your Headlines Without Spending A Fortune In Advertising Fees by Thomas A. Hilton, Jr.

How To Test Your Headlines Without Spending A Fortune In Advertising Fees by Thomas A. Hilton, Jr.

So, you've spent all this time on creating your product and you've read all the advice from every marketing expert on the internet. You've discovered one common ground among them all. And they all do agree on this one thing.

Testing the headlines is critical.

They all say that it's the absolute one critical element to any successful marketing campaign. Whether it's the headline on your website, your subject line in your email or the first words you speak over the phone in a sales call. It's the most important feature and you should spend 80% of your time coming up with just the right one.

It's the difference between success or failure in any campaign.

If you're lucky to find an expert that is willing to share with you the exact details as to how he tests his headlines. You discover that it's the basic A/B split run test in newspapers.

Sounds simple. But did you know that most newspapers will not even consider going through the trouble of running A/B splits unless you are a major account paying for those high dollar advertising spots.

What's the answer for the average marketer that can't build up a huge marketing budget if he can't increase his sales in the first place.

Well, one answer that I've found is to copy the big boys in the corporate world. Use a focus group technique. Where you ask a number of people to look over a select group of your headlines and let them tell you which ones they prefer.

Let me tell you a story of one famous CEO.

His name is Fred Smith of Federal Express and when he hired a marketing executive to come in and help him with some of his branding issues... here's what happened.

He suggested that Fred Smith post sketches of 10 or more different color schemes for his airplanes on the wall of an office. He then asked numerous people to come in and look at all of them. He quietly sat back and watched which sketch actually attracted the most attention... one particular drawing kept bringing people back to it over and over again...

They didn't know what it was about that one particular color scheme but something kept them coming back to review it more than once... that's how he pre-tested the color scheme for that famous branded image of an airplane we all know and recognize as FedEx today.

A small focus group of people sharing their thoughts on what caught their eye.

If you have a small group of friends, co-workers or even a small email list that you can run a survey by then it could do wonders for your marketing campaign. I can recall receiving a email from a newsletter publisher that did that very thing about every portion of his newsletter.

He wanted to know which font his readers preferred over another.

He asked which font size was best for his readers over another.

He continued to ask these questions and he even posted the results and now his entire newsletter is -- you guessed it -- exactly like what the majority of his readers recommended and preferred.

A focus group could even do wonders for your headlines. The experts say you should write out at least 100 headlines and only then begin to start narrowing your list down to the most power pulling headline possible. Naturally your best headline would be the one that makes you the most sales...

But... after you've written 100 headlines -- which one do you spend money on in advertisements that actually charge you to run the ad. That could become a very expensive test. A focus group could help you tremendously save literally hundreds even thousands of dollars determining which headlines you should avoid and which ones you should work with.

Yes, headlines are the most critical part of any marketing campaign - so don't put money into any advertisement without first testing the Headline.


About the Author
Thomas A. Hilton, Jr. - entrepreneur, ineternet marketing consultant, entrepreneurial investor. Co-Founder of http://www.headlines2go.com -- Author of "An Entrepreneur's Approach to Buying & Selling on Wall Street" at http://www.entrepreneurial-investor.com

How To Write Powerful Headlines by Al Martinovic

How To Write Powerful Headlines by Al Martinovic

How To Write Powerful Headlines
By Al Martinovic

I want to tell you how I go about writing headlines. I like to keep swap files of headlines around for future use. And how I go about doing it goes something like this...

I'll find a headline I like, wherever it may be, and then I don't copy it word for word, instead I'll use a "fill in the blank" approach. That way I get a generic headline that I can apply to almost any business.

For example, I find a headline I like that goes something like this:

"Give Me 5 Minutes And I'll Show You How To Put An Extra $1000 Into Your Pocket!"

In my swap file I would write it down using a "fill in the blank" approach:

"Give Me _____ And I'll _____!"

I could now take this generic headline and apply it to almost any business...

Car insurance for example:

"Give Me 60 Seconds And I'll Show You How To Slash Your Car Insurance Cost In Half Every Single Month!"

Do you follow me...?

You don't want to steal any headline word for word. That would be a bad thing. But you can recycle headlines by using a "fill in the blank" approach, and then applying that to whatever business you may be are a part of.

I mean gee... why reinvent the wheel? There are a ton of great headlines out there already!

Here's another example:

"Great New Discovery Kills Kitchen Odors Quick... Makes Indoor Air Country Fresh!

In my swap file I would write it down using a fill in the blank approach:

"Great New _____ .... Makes _____!"

I could now take this generic headline and apply it to almost any business...

Weight loss for example:

"Great New Diet Pill Burns Unwanted Fat... Makes Dieting Easy!"

So the moral of the story is... The next time you come across a headline that grabs your attention, don't just stare at it! Write it down in your swap file using a fill in the blank approach.

And over time, the next thing you know, you'll have so many fill in the blank generic headlines to choose from in your swap file....

You'll never be stuck for a headline to write ever again!


About the Author
Al Martinovic publishes an internet marketing newsletter at http://www.milleniummarketers.com and runs a successful home business at http://www.ineedsmokes.com