The Random Blogger

I have long believed that if you buy anything, no matter how much you want it, from a spam email, then you are contributing to the problem.

It costs very little to send out millions of spam emails, and the commission or profit from just one sale will keep these idiots in business, flooding yet more people’s inboxes with yet more spam, for another day or two.

If you really want to buy something advertised in a spam email, whether that be a watch, pills (of the “blue” kind as well as others), or any other item you may find, then please, do NOT click on the link.

Instead, go and do a search for the product using Google, or another search engine, and buy it from a legitimate website (or from somebody who conducts their business ethically and support permission email marketing).

After all, if nobody bought from a high street store, that store would soon go out of business, and the same applies to spammers. The solution is simple: don’t buy from them - ever!

So, I am pleased to say that I fully support the “Spam. Don’t Buy It.” website:

Be part of the solution, and not part of the problem: please, don’t buy from spammers, and help to spread the word - the sooner people stop buying from spammers, the sooner the problem will go away, because legislation alone won’t solve it.

WordPress has changed over the years and grown
People have embraced it and clearly shown
That technology simply won’t stand still
Hungry to ensure it bends to their will
Every bell and whistle that springs to mind
May now be found - it will not be confined
Easier interface, thousands of themes
Small acorn to giant oak tree, it seems

I wasn’t going to write another post so soon after the last one, but something unbelievable happened that I have to tell you about!

I published my post about the Whynter SNO Ice Cream Maker at 00:02 (i.e. two minutes past midnight) on 4 March 2010.

Three minutes later, at 00:05, I ran a search on Google looking to see if the post had been indexed yet - not that I was expecting it to have been that quickly, but I was setting it up so I could refresh the page occasionally to see how long it took (I was hoping for around 30 minutes).

And I have to say that I was absolutely amazed!

The post was showing as having been indexed two minutes previously, which means that Google picked up that post in just one single minute!

Wow!

I only wish I could claim that this was due to my superlative SEO skills! (I’m more than well-versed in this area, but I couldn’t honestly say that it was because of this that my post was indexed so quickly - not with a straight face, at any rate!)

We tend to get through quite a bit of ice cream, even though there’s just the two of us (not forgetting our seven dogs, of course), and as we never drive anywhere, it all has to be delivered.

Now, the good news is that we have a frozen food home delivery service that calls round every fortnight; the bad news is that there are very few flavours that my wife is able to eat.

So, after doing a lot of research, we decided to splash out and buy our own soft serve ice cream maker - a Whynter SNO Ice Cream Maker to be precise - so that we could make whatever flavours work best for us.

Originally, we were going to go for the Lello 4090 Gelato Pro, but after reading some of the reviews on Amazon.com, we decided not to bother. To be fair, there are plenty of people who have found it to be a great machine, but there are also enough saying that they have had significant problems.

The machine arrived a couple of days ago, although owing to various diversions, we’ve not even unpacked the box yet.

However, we are looking forward to trying it out (having also bought several recipe books and other accessories / ingredients), and I’ll report back once we’ve tasted the results.

Knowing the speed of the Karlovic serve
A good return needs a degree of nerve
Reactions faster than speeding bullets
Lithe footwork – it’s no time to be a klutz
On top of your form and with a keen eye
Virtually no mistakes, just do, don’t try
It will be hard, although it can be done
Conquer all that and the match will be won

Like many Internet marketers, I’ve read my fair share of books on copywriting, and it can be a confusing subject, just because there are so many opinions on what works and what doesn’t, depending on the author.

So, I was very intrigued to come across a product called The Copywriter’s Brain, which is Derek Franklin’s concise summary of everything he’s read and learned about the skill of copywriting (although that probably doesn’t do it justice).

Now, Derek is somebody I’ve worked with before and respect greatly - his products are always simple to use yet meet a real need - and in fact he created The Daily Goal Machine for me, which is one of those “Victor Kiam” products (i.e. I liked it so much, I asked Derek to create one for me to sell too).

So, what exactly is The Copywriter’s Brain?

Well, it would be easiest to let Derek tell you in his own words, via this short video:

So, what do I like about The Copywriter’s Brain?

Firstly, it’s incredibly succinct - all you need to know about copywriting, information gleaned from the world’s best copywriters, really is on a single page.

Secondly, it’s easy to use, but in case you have any problems, Derek provides four videos to help you get the best of it, both in terms of navigating the tool and strategies for making best use of it.

And thirdly, it does come with two bonus pieces of useful software that are written in Derek’s inimitable style.

Are there any downsides?

Well, the product is delivered as a mind map, which requires you to download some Mindjet MindManager software, although the good news is that this mind map viewer software is free (and available for both Windows and Mac).

So, no deal-breaker there then.

In conclusion, this is a great tool that will help you get your head around copywriting in a unique and powerful way, and the price is a drop in the ocean compared to what you would spend if you were to try to sift through all of the traditional information on something that often been perceived as a “black art” .

I therefore highly recommend The Copywriter’s Brain.

When I moved to the US from England in 2005, I learned that a US gallon is smaller than a UK (or Imperial) gallon: the UK gallon is 160 fluid ounces, whereas the US gallon is only 128 fluid ounces.

And that’s because there are only 16 fluid ounces in a US pint, compared to the 20 that are in an Imperial pint.

But what I hadn’t realised, until today, when I was working on one of our new websites, is that a US fluid ounce is actually equivalent to 1.0408423 Imperial fluid ounces.

I’d always assumed that a fluid ounce is a fluid ounce, but apparently this isn’t the case.

So now you know!

I’ve been involved in various aspects of Internet marketing since 2004, at a guess, and I’ve seen many so-called “gurus” come and go.

I’ve subscribed, at one time or another, to most of their lists, and for reasons I’ll explain here, I’ve also unsubscribed from most of them.

You see, to me, it seems that most of these people might originally come out with something useful and/or good (although many don’t), but after that, and they’ve nothing else to offer, they all bombard you with the same emails promoting the latest “big thing”, just to try to make some affiliate commissions and get to the top of the league tables.

To me, if you’ve one thing to say, and you’ve said it, then that’s it. I really don’t want to receive dozens of emails all promoting the same product launch.

This is even more true when you realise that the stuff that has always worked will always work - without the need for loopholes and fads and fancy scripts, etc.

So after all this time, and after wading through (and mainly deleting) what must be thousands of emails, who do I still listen to?

Sadly, not very many of them.

But there is one person who is genuinely different (well, there are a few, but I may have to write about them some other time) …

… and his name is Paul Myers.

What makes Paul different?

Well:

1. He doesn’t send you a load of junk mail (aka spam) promoting stuff that he clearly hasn’t tested for himself.
2. He doesn’t send you one or more emails every single day, clogging up your inbox.
3. When he does email you, what he says is well-written, unique content that’s useful, educational, often humorous, and that offers a perspective that nobody else seems to offer.
4. When he does promote his own products, of which he has quite a few, then you can guarantee that they will be reasonably-priced (I think the most I’ve paid for anything is probably $27), and yet they offer much more value than most everything else I’ve bought (including the really expensive stuff too).

In fact, I positively look forward to receiving Paul’s emails - to the point that I wish he would write more frequently (although I accept that if he did that, the quality may not be sustainable, not that I feel that this would be a real problem for him).

So, do yourself a favour, head on over to TalkBiz News, and sign up for his newsletter.

Not only will you be glad you did, but you’ll also receive a free copy of his highly-acclaimed book, “Need To Know“.

(See my previous post, My Internal Jukebox for what this category is all about.)

(See my previous post, My Internal Jukebox for what this category is all about.)