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Bullets, Bullets, Bullets.....

Have you ever been to those freeware clipart sites that have all kinds of web graphic stuff? And to add insult to injury they are horribly organized. Page after page of silly stupid, insipid stuff that your kids wouldn't dare to put on their site.

But wait a minute! copywriting is about getting attention.... so you need something to grab the reader's eye

You need something that stands out.....

You need something that lets them know this is an important point in the presentation

By now you're getting the point. Stop using those regular simple bullets you find in the regular web or text editor. Standard Bullets don't work nearly as well as using somthing with some interest in it. Find an image with a Different color, shape or visual texture to give any bullet the eyecatching effect you are after.

Long ago I started capturing all kinds of images to use as bullets and saved them in a special place so I could go back to them easliy. So start grabbing all the great bullets you see and save them in your own bullets directory for later use.

Next time I"ll have some ideas on those breakout boxes called "Johnson Boxes". You know the ones used to highlight testamonials, guarantees and the like.

Until then,,,,
It's time to Get Started (using bullets)
Andrew

P.S. dont forget to use the RSS feed so you get AeNews as soon as you login

It's been a while since I presented something to you as a software product. I know you are thinking 'here it comes. he's going to ask for money.....' And you know, your are right. It's what makes this all possible. I don't have a rich uncle giving me a bucket of money each month to do this, just because I like to. Nope I rely on the kindness of my friends to help support me while I provide them with something they can use.

Back early last year there was a big buzz about using the Public Domain as a source for material you can use to create new products. Well the big hype has pretty much died down, but the market for Public Domain products is still just as strong as it ever was.

A lot of it is available through the web, even more is lying all around you. How many of you like to go to garage sales? I"ll bet many of you do. Do you ever take the time to sift through the piles of books? No? Shame on you! There is gold in those old stacks of hard backs.If you know what to look for, those stacks could be Public Domain Source Books.

A marketing friend and mentor, David Valleries has written one of the best guides to learning about and using Public Domain source material. I negotiated a package from him that I can pass along to you. It includes the resale rights to the package, so you can make some spending change with it two ways -- Personal use and reselling the package.

You need to take the time to check out the information site and think about the possibilities this quietly growing niche market can provide.

And thanks for the time.

Andrew

Yesterday I showed you DropCaps. I forgot to give you a resource on DropCaps. If you want to get some of these special graphic alphabets you should visit www.dropcapitals.com
they have a collection of these available for purchase. But the one I used yesterday was one from an alphabet I created and use on the Put It iN Thought web page. they aren't hard to create if you have a simple graphics package.

But I digress..... Today we are looking at the highlight. You used this one in college. In fact a whole line of products was introduced in the marker industry back in the 70's when those water-soluable transparent markers first made it to the shelves of the stationary and art stores. Pretty soon they were everywhere. It was a hit and everyone wanted to use a "highlighter" to emphasise text.

Copywriters in the hard copy world followed suit very soon after and you have been seeing this technique ever since. Today, it is a little more difficult to get this effect. I have done it by limiting it to areas where I can completely control the text appearance, such as in emphasis boxes or teadings and inserting these as graphic inserts. Usually you can control how the page reads well enough to make this work well.

or the next few days I'll be sharing with you a few techniques that you are probably seeing more and more in web based copy. A lot of them are being copied from hard copy mailer pieces you have been seeing for a long time. As web copywriters, we are still playing catchup.

I just used the first one - the DropCap. Newspapers and book publishers have been using this eye-catching effect for ages. Go back to the illustrated hand made copies from the second century and you will see the height of this method. Monks took hours of care highlighting the handwritten text for effect and instruction. They did it for a reason. focus attention. You should too.

Quotes Of The Week:
"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."
Alexander Hamilton, born in 1757. Secretary of Treasury

"Lack of proper prior planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine." In other words, if you failed to plan, you planned to fail. -- Unknown.

I'm not too sure how to follow through on this one....so many opportunities abound!

At PINT the byline is not only thinking, but planning to think. You see an intentional plan to change how you think and what you will think about is a core concept of the program.

It follows that if
You don't think of anything---you won't get anything done.

and corollary is:

Don't blame society for the bad times you have when you failed to take responsibility for your life when you didn't think of the consequences of your actions (thoughts).

I know it sounds kind of harsh, but the cold, hard reality is we are responsible for our lives and we might as well start now if we want more from life than what everyone else dishes out to us.

It's time to get Started (thinking)! !
Andrew

I was just catching up on some email and I came across this little gem from Paul Meyers. I don't know how Paul come up with this one, or if he stole it from somewhere else. I do know it it right on target.

.....

"Myers' Marketing Maxim"

Benefits exist in the head and the heart.
Everything else is a feature.

....

The collorary of this is

We validate what we desire.

Remember, those who don't have probably never got started....
It's time to get Started.

Andrew
Your Editor

BTW If you find this handy, buy Paul a beer, evidently he likes the stuff.

http://www.buy-paul-a-beer.com

Blog Readers,
Many of you know by now that I pass along tidbits of information that I have either recently discovered that I have found to be valuable, or other resources that confirm what I have proven in life to work over and over again.

This time the resource I am sending is of the latter category. This is a concept that has worked since mankind began living together in social groups. I think that began from the time of the First Family, before the Age of Sin.

It's both who and what you know that counts and Jim Straw is a perfect example of that maxim. The following link is a download of a letter Jim wrote last year, so it is both timely and valuable.

I urge you to read it from top to bottom and think about the truths revealed in his letter. If you are in business, you can't go wrong using his advice. If you work for someone else, or are a housewife or dad, you still can't go wrong either. Jim reveals one of the basic life lessons to leading an easier and more successful life.

Here is the link
The Most Powerful Secret

All of us enjoy a good movie. More and more we are experiencing the movies on our PC's, even our cell phones can receive short movie clips. What if you could make movies quickly and easily? Would you try?

Well there is a company out there in the ethosphere who has been working with this market segment for a while and they have just released autoProducer 4. It's muvee Technologies.

Their new product makes it even easier than before to take digital movies from your digital moviecam, web cam or other still formats and combine them along with a music sound track (of your choice or making!) and produce your own great looking movies.

Since movies are so powerful at communicating a message by putting both sound and sight together, this is a no-brainer for enhancing your website. Now I know there are other services out there that host your audio and video clips for you, making it easy to put them on your website. But consider this...with a product like autoProducer 4 you can use that webcam and create your own movie with professional titles, music, trailers, fades and credits and then put it up on your site with just a little bit of html code.

Now you produce movies for almost free. No more continuing monthly subscription costs or bandwidth charges. If you are serious about getting started with video production on your website you owe it to yourself to check out autoProducer 4.

Andrew

P.S. I don't get anything when you buy this product. This review is presented as an informational service by AeNews.

All of us who run businesses need to borrow money from time to time. Most of us have found advice about borrowing is often sketchy or even bad. I've found a few places that consistently give good business advice. One of them is BizJournals.com. I've included the link below for an article entitled "Have a plan before applying for a bank loan" written by the staff at bizwomen.com

An official at the US Small Business Administration (SBA) is quoted as saying "All businesses, no matter what size, will at some time need to raise more money. For small businesses the owner may be able to dip into his or her personal savings, or friends may be able to lend the needed money. Usually, however, the owner will have to look to outside sources for financing."

Since I sincerely adhere to Poor Richard's Almanac when admonished to never to borrow from friends; the SBA is often a great place to start. Business Development needs planning and persistence, like everthing else in life.

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