I recently replaced my main PC, and as I set up my new machine, I started thinking about the software I use on a day-to-day basis.

There are many paid apps I use frequently; here is a list of the first 8 freeware apps I installed:

1. Firefox browser. I really like Google Chrome too.

2. Antivir antivirus. I’ve alternated between AVG and this one. Antivir seems less “bloated”.

3. LastPass password manager. So cool.

4. Delicious bookmark plugin for Firefox. I like this almost as much as Lastpass.

5. McAfee Site Advisor plugin for Firefox. Sort of a first line of defense against the bad guys online

6. Jing. Helpful software that doesn’t try to do anything. I sprung for the Pro version, but the free one works great.

7. Dropbox. Very easy method of syncing, sharing, and backing up files.

8. Faststone Capture. Good screen capture program. Free and paid versions exist.

A persistent debate among marketers is the question of whether long copy is sometimes used in place of short copy. While top copywriters generally affirm the favorable results of long copy, it’s helpful to get some perspective to see why this is the case.

The general rule of thumb for the length of copy is this: your sales letter should be just long enough to get the job done. If you think about this carefully, the majority of the objections to long copy evaporate. Just think about what we are asking the sales letter to accomplish for us.

We need to explain as much as we can about the product, and most importantly the benefits of our product, with the goal of every benefit appealing the prospect is made plain. Especially in the case of information products, these explanations can be quite lengthy!

Additionally, we need to cover every likely objection the prospect might have. If we were talking with the prospect in person or over the phone, we could simply ask them if they had questions… or respond to any reasons they gave for not buying the product. In our sales letter, we don’t have that luxury. Therefore, we must give the entire laundry list of all possible objections, and demolish them one by one.

Although we have not explained every reason for the superiority of long copy, we are back to where we started: your copy must be just long enough to do its job, and no longer. Factors that will come into play are the target market, the complexity associated with the product or service, and the cost of that product or service.

This is pure gold for any copywriter:

Any time Jay has something to teach me… that directly affects my business… I pay attention! I hope you do too.

Whenever I sign up for webinars, I like to add it to my calendar so I don’t miss it.

I use Google calendar, and it takes several steps to get the info in one the correct date and time. Once I even added a webinar on the wrong day! Smart…

I’ve often wondered if there was an easier way.

In the webinar info, there is often a link to add to add the event to an Outlook calendar.

With so many people using Google calendar, you would think they would have a way to add it to Google too. But…there’s a workaround!

Here’s how to add the event in your Google calendar “automatically” and make sure you have the details right. I’m looking at a GoToWebinar email right now; other services may be similar.

1. Click on the link in the email that says “Add to your Outlook calendar”.

2. Select “Save File” and save it to your desktop. In this case, the file is webinar.ics.

3. Go to your Google calendar and find the “Add” link. On my calendar, it is on the bottom right of the “Other Calendar” section on the left side of the screen.

4. Select “Import Calendar”.

5. Select the appropriate file (the one you just downloaded) and click the Import button.

6. You’re done! The event will now appear on your calendar.

The whole process takes less than a minute, and you have all the info accurately placed on your calendar. Simple.

Of course, this procedure works for any Outlook invite.

A domain name is essential to marketing online. But how to you select a good name?

First, in almost all cases, you will want to choose the .com name. There are three reasons for this. A) some browsers will automatically put in the .com if the person types a domain without the extension. B) many people put in the .com unconsciously, so if you choose a different extension, you will be sending traffic to someone else’s site. C) Some experts argue that the .com has a slight search engine benefit.

There are some exceptions, the main one being if you are doing business in another country and you primarily sell to people in that country, then you will likely want to choose that country’s extension. For example, in the United Kingdom, the extension is .co.uk. In Australia, it’s com.au, and so forth.

Now why are people sometimes tempted to use something other than the .com? Well the reason is that many of the good .com names are taken, and so people look at the .net, .org, or other extension. While that might be acceptable for an informational type site or if you’re not a commercial enterprise, for your company’s main web site you should go with the .com.

The second factor in choosing a domain name is you want it to be easy to spell. In other words, you will want to avoid words which have multiple ways of spelling, or are easily confused with other words. Examples of these words would include the word, “to”. Is the word “t-o”, “t-o-o”, or “t-w-o”? If someone types in your domain name but gets even one character wrong, the traffic will not go to your site and may even end up at another person’s site. So you can see that selecting a name with easy to spell words is a must.

The third factor in choosing a domain name is you want it to be easy to say over the phone. If you’re talking with someone on the phone, or you have a radio ad, or a recorded interview and you mention your domain name, the person will have to write it down or remember it later if they are going to visit your site. Therefore, easy to spell words are important, as I just mentioned, but also consider things like having words that end in the same letter that the next word begins with, like SamsSports.com. This can be confusing for the end user, is there one “s” after “Sam” or two? Also avoid the use of dashes for the same reason. It’s difficult to convey to someone unless in print.

The fourth factor, and this is a little harder to get a handle on, is the domain should be memorable. If you can include some alliteration, anything to make is stand out, it will be to your advantage. A great example is Ralph Wilson’s site WilsonWeb.com.

And that is also why domain names that are too long can be a mistake; they are simply too hard to remember…. particularly those with several words.

There you have it: four rules for selecting a good domain name.

I should add that there are some exceptions to these rules… basically applicable if you get all of your traffic from search engine traffic or pay-per-click.

On the other hand, if you are trying to brand your website at all, the four rules listed above will help you narrow down the possibilities when selecting a domain name.

After all, you want your domain to give you credibility and make it as easy as possible for people to find your website and not reach your competitor’s website by mistake.

Impactful quote from the book: Napoleon Hill’s Positive Action Plan.

Here is the reading for today, April 10:

THE SUCCESSFUL MAN KEEPS HIS MIND FIXED ON WHAT HE WANTS IN LIFE — NOT ON WHAT HE DOES NOT WANT.

It is virtually impossible not to become what you think about most. If you concentrate on something long enough, it becomes part of your psyche. Use this knowledge to your advantage. If you think about problems, you will find problems. If you think about solutions, you will find solutions. It’s normal to have doubts, fears, and insecurities. The successful person understands this and learns to overcome them by focusing on the desirable objective, not on undesirable distractions.

Great video by Mark Joyner:

As he says, many times we stumble when giving our “elevator speech”… a short summary of the work we do.

Bly – a master copywriter – suggests breaking it up into three parts:

1. Start with a question, one relevant to the person you are speaking with. Always start with “Do you know how…”
2. “What we do is…”
3. “So that they…”

If you do this, if the person is a good prospect, they will start asking questions and may become a new client.

Let’s analyze this in more detail.

The first part: I believe what is happening is simply “framing”: it’s shifting the focus onto your prospect and their hopes, dreams, and problems.

The second part: reminds them of a specific pain they have.

The third part: shows how you can fix that pain.