Featured Article:  

The MYTH of Search Engine Optimization, and How To REALLY Get on the FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE… 
by Lunchtime.

  A funny (but true), fast-paced article that really shows you in no uncertain terms why most of the blah blah you hear about getting on the first page of Google doesn’t work.  The article continues with a short step-by-stepplan that will.  Yea, all in under 750 words. Written for Multichannel Merchant Magazine.

     Don’t believe me?  Following this plan, you can actually be up and posted on Google within the hour.  Yea, I didn’t believe it either, but when I tested it…

When to Fire a Customer

    When do you fire a customer… early, before he does some really annoying stuff and gets on your nerves, or later-on after he finds out you’ve been sleeping with his wife?  Here’s a funny look at when to pull the trigger.  Written on assignment for a magazine serving the office products industry.

Buying Newspaper Ads at Discount/Creating Effective Ads

 You can buy newspaper and magazines ads at 40%, 50%, 60% even 70% off the list rates at times, and the key is mentioning the word that all publishers hate: Remnant Space.  OK, the two words they hate.  Remnant space is the white space left over at the end of the selling cycle, just before the issue goes to press.  At this time, most publishers are ready to negotiate – dealing out some incredible offers.  Read this article and find out how and when to negotiate.

For those drifting in the unfamilar waters of direct response advertising and direct-selling ads, this article additionally illustrates how to create a winning ad – one that will make your phone ring.  Because in direct response, if the phone doesn’t ring, the ad didn’t work – and nothing else matters.  This is a meaty article with lots of insider information. 

The Art of a Direct Mail Letter

   It takes me about 8 hours to research, write and edit a direct mail letter.  Then, it takes me another 2 hours to design it so it looks easy to read, even if it isn’t.  So, for you guys who wrote your direct mail letter in 20 minutes and wondered why it didn’t look like mine – go back and put in the other 9 hours and 40 minutes.  
   Here’s a definitive guide to designing your letters.  If you didn’t know letters needed to be designed – better eyeflow, pacing, more white space, better readership to increase effectiveness – even the more reason to read this article.  It’s the companion article to “How to Write a Direct Mail Letter.”  You didn’t get this stuff in college… or anywhere else.  Did you?

The Two-Paragraph Rule of Readership Survival

   Here’s a one page article for my A-D-D friends, and the folks who only need only a short read in a bathroom visit. Well listen up.  It’s the single most common reason your direct mail package failed.  And why your newsletter is losing readership.  And why your ads aren’t working. And even your grandparents aren’t reading your letters.

Winning Promotional Strategies: Cross Pen Promotion

   Using incentives to drive response is a worthwhile marketing strategy.  Using an unusual promotion like this is an awesome marketing strategy.  With this unique promotion we drove over 90% of our top clients/prospects who attended the trade show to our booth on the first day.  And the best part is they all came in with a big smile on their face, and left with a bigger smile.  We had almost 100% brand retention.  And yes, it was just this easy.

How To Sell Office Products

  

Sales is a unique game that everyone plays, and the rich play really well.  It doesn’t really matter what you sell if you follow the simple formula in this article.  Fun and funny, this article was written for a magazine in the office products industry — but contains an important message and sales philosophy for any sales person.  A quick read, just right for a few minutes in the bathroom.

A 75-Point Checklist for Your Direct Mail

   From deep in the darkest regions of Jeff Dobkin’s mind comes this serious 75-point checklist of what you should have in your direct mail package.  It’s a thorough list –  a highly technical piece you should keep handy for all your direct mail packages.

Frequently Asked Questions

   I hear these top 15 questions all the time, so now I can just tell you where to go when you ask them.  I mean this article on the website…

Using Headlines to Increase – and Limit – Response

   Sure, you want to attract everyone to read your ad.  But you don’t want everyone to respond and ask for your expensive literature.  You’d spend all your time on the phone with non-buyers, and go broke sending stuff to tire-kickers who have no intention of purchasing.  Here’s how to draw that thin line – and make your headline completely irresistible to your target market, and yet make everyone else’s eyes glaze over just from reading the title.

The Dobkin Technique to Delay Brain Death in Sudden Cardiac Arrest Victims

A TIME-BUYING PROCEDURE TO DELAY BRAIN DAMAGE.

 “…in a terrifying moment you see her on the bottom of the pool.  You immediately pull her out, but she is completely lifeless.  What do you do?”

    “Unknown to you, your 4 year-old child put a screwdriver into an electrical outlet, and has received a direct current shock.  After several minutes of silence, you come into the room and see her lying on the floor, blue and not breathing.  No other information is available.  You don’t know CPR.  What do you do?” Read this article to find out.

    “You live 20 minutes out in the country.  On a warm summer night you are sitting on the porch when your spouse who has been feeling pale and weak all day has a sudden cardiac arrest.  You call for an ambulance, but you know their are twenty minutes away at best.  You don’t know CPR. 

Read this article to learn what to do until help arrives.

   In all the above examples you have two choices.  You can helplessly watch as irreversible brain damage starts to occur.  Hypoxic (low oxygen), Ischemic (low blood flow) brain injury starts to occur within 4 minutes of each event.

   Or…   you can initiate Dobkin’s Technique to trigger the Mammalian Diving Reflex: an all-natural reflex that delays anoxic brain damage for up to an hour.  It is what saves people from Hypoxic Ischemic brain injury in cold water drownings. 

   Which would you rather do?  

    “Let me be more specific about using the Dobkin Technique. If something isn’t done right now, this person will suffer brain damage and die.”   Jeffrey Dobkin

We hope you’ve enjoyed these direct marketing articles.  There’s more where this came from – please check the links each article page.  Thanks.