Many working people, both staff and freelance, hate Sunday night.

There are two reasons why.

First, their weekend is over. So for many their fun, freedom, and
opportunity to sleep late — is also over.

Second, they dread the Monday morning alarm clock, getting back
to the office, and facing the enormous amount of work they have
to do in the new week.

Well, I have developed a simple method of overcoming Sunday night
anxiety, eliminating the stress of the work week ahead, and
feeling calmer and more peaceful.

Now, I want to share my secret for wiping away the Sunday blues
with you in this email. If you will let me.

Okay. My finding is that having a deadline on a big project early
in the week — Monday, Tuesday, and even Wednesday — creates
maximum Sunday night anxiety.

And that in today’s busy business world, many people have big
early-week deadlines almost many weeks of the year!

Therefore, my technique is to rise early on Saturday and Sunday,
finish the project, and handed it in via email to the client no
later than 11am on Sunday.

That way, I feel more free and relaxed for the rest of the
weekend.

Personally, I like working early Saturday and Sunday morning,
while everyone else is asleep and the phone doesn’t ring.

You might not.

But either way, try my method — and see if it doesn’t dial back
your Sunday afternoon blues and Sunday night anxiety by an order
of magnitude.

I bet you it will.

Even if not, your diligence in beating your deadline will put you
in good stead with your boss or client.

So either way, you can’t lose.

The “99/1 rule” of affiliate marketing says that 99% of your
affiliates aren’t going to sell any product for you.

And conversely, the top 1% of your affiliates — the “super
affiliates” — will account for 99% of all your affiliate sales
revenues.

But the super affiliates are rather picky about whom they do
deals with … and they are incredibly difficult just to reach.

So, how do you stand out from the crowd of other newbies asking
super-affiliates to consider them for a JV deal?

Here are 3 proven methods:

1–The “commission bribe.”

On information products in the low to medium-price range, a
common affiliate commission is 50% of gross.

I wanted a marketer with a huge list of 450,000 subscribers to
promote one of my lower priced ebooks to his list.

To get him interested, I raised his affiliate commission to 100%.
And he bit!

Why would I do this and give up all my revenues to him?

Simple. To get new subscribers: everyone who buys becomes a
customer of mine, and therefore is on my e-list — meaning I can
e-mail them any time.

The affiliate promotion generated 989 orders from a single
e-mail, adding nearly a thousand new subscribers to my list
within 24 hours.

For me, that’s a list-building home run.

2–Event marketing.

I am not a fan of internet marketing conferences for several
reasons.

First, I hate to travel.

Second, I don’t have the time, as my copywriting clients and
publishers keep me plenty busy, and I have deadlines.

Third, a lot of the entrepreneurial internet marketing
conferences are a bit too high-testosterone for my taste.

But there is one reason you should go to internet marketing
conferences aside from the obvious one of learning:

To meet in person bigger players than you who can become your
super affiliates.

These are mega-successful marketers who normally don’t give small
fry like you and me the time of day.

But when you make their acquaintance face-to-face at a live
event, you have a much better chance of forging a relationship
that leads to affiliate and joint venture opportunities for a
win-win scenario.

3–A personal note.

There is a major player who is so far ahead of me in level of
online revenues it isn’t funny.

I read his book and liked it so much, I sent him a fan letter.

He responded with thanks and an open invitation to become an
affiliate of his!

By the way, I sent a postal letter, not an e-mail.

Reason: People perceive it as a more personal touch.

And, in a sea of e-mails, it stands out.

Try paper letters. You’ll like it!

Has this ever happened to you?

You are starting or have already started an internet marketing
business.

And you have begun asking some of the other marketers in your
space for information on how you can become an affiliate — so you
can sell their products, for a commission, to your list.

Much to your dismay, the bigger marketers … the ones whose
products you’d really love to sell … have little or no interest
in your offer — and many don’t even get back to you.

With a start, you realize that they don’t really give a fig
whether you become their affiliate or not!

So are they stupid? Well, yes and no.

Yes in the sense that it is just bad business and rude to ignore
people or be nonresponsive to them, regardless of who you are and
who they are.

But no, in the sense that these big marketers have correctly
surmised that the value to them of you promoting their products
is likely going to be zero … or close to it.

The reason is the “99/1 rule” of affiliate marketing.

The 99/1 rule says that 99% of your affiliates aren’t going to
sell hardly any product for you.

And conversely, the top 1% of your affiliates — known as “super
affiliates” — will account for 99% of all your affiliate sales
revenues.

It may seem odd. But it’s virtually always true. And here’s why….

There are countless well-meaning, ambitious internet marketing
newbies — and maybe you are one of them — who figure a good way
to get started is to sell other people’s products.

Unfortunately, because most of these newbies have no list or
traffic to speak of, they also have no means of generating a
significant volume of orders for any products, let whether theirs
or anyone else’s.

On the other hand, there are the “big dogs” — the known major
players in their respective niches and markets.

They make millions in sales … have huge lists … and get massive
web traffic.

So if you can convince these top dogs to become an affiliate of
yours, you stand to generate a lot of new sales, orders, and
customers from their efforts.

The problem is that, because these super affiliates are such
desirable joint venture partners, they are inundated with offers
— and very picky about whom they work with.

Just getting their attention and on their radar is a major
challenge.

So, the problem becomes: how can you recruit some of the big
super affiliate players and get them to offer YOUR products to
their huge and highly profitable lists … when they won’t even
respond to you?

That’s a question we’ll take up in my next article. Stay tuned.

A week or so ago, I received via email a link to an article
titled — “How to Stop Acting Like a Marketer and Start Thinking
Like a Publisher.”

And the misguided ideal it promotes — that we are all publishers,
not marketers — is a sure road to ruin.

The problem with this attitude … that we are educators, not
sellers … is it fools too many unsuspecting content marketers
into believing we are in the business of creating and giving away
free information.

But we are not. No, the business we are really in is that of
marketing and selling our products for a profit — ideally,
products that can help our customers solve their problems and
give them better value than anything else out there.

To that end, content marketing (publishing) — is merely one of
multiple channels we use to promote our business.

But it is not THE business we are in. It is simply a way of
generating leads and sales. The thinking implied in this article
title is fallacious and potentially wasteful and costly.

For instance, if you manufacture valves, pumps, and mixers, you
are in the chemical process equipment business.

You may publish a variety of materials about these products and
their features, design, and application — everything from data
sheets and videos, to technical articles and white papers, to
case studies and installation manuals.

So yes, you are publishing useful content.

But, you are not IN the publishing business. You publish these
materials only to support the real business you are in: the
process equipment business.

If you believe otherwise … that your business is publishing or
brand journalism … you are fooling yourself.

Worse, you may be turning out a ton of publications that, while
interesting and educational, are not supporting the marketing and
selling of your products — and are therefore largely a waste of
time, money, and effort. In other words, content pollution.

Action step: create a marketing plan, and integrate content in
support of the sales funnels, calls to action, marketing
objectives, and the information needs of buyers — overcoming
objections while convincing them that your technology is the best
solution for their problems.

I have two simple and inviolate rules I live my life by: (a)
don’t give unsolicited advice and (b) don’t brag.

TW recently asked me, quite reasonably, “What is wrong with
bragging?”

Well, as my mother once told me, there are 3 types of people you
brag to, and therefore 3 reasons why there is no percentage in it
for you.

>> First, some of the people you brag to are much more
accomplished, successful, or fortunate than even you are.

So what’s the point of bragging to them?

When they hear you boasting, they won’t be impressed.

If anything, they’ll look down on you from their loftier vantage
point.

>> Second, some of the people you brag to are your peers.

So one of 3 things happens when you brag to an equal.

Either (a) they truly see you as an equal, in which case you are
on an even playing field, and therefore they are not impressed.
All they come away with is what you like to brag.

Or (b) they get envious and fearful that they will seem inferior
to you, and so immediately inform you that they have something
equal to or better than what you just said — and the result will
be a pissing contest that nobody wins or enjoys.

Or (c) they feel that they are in fact ahead of you, not behind
you, and are eager to let you know this right away — and so the
pissing contest commences, and you probably lose.

>> Third, some people you brag to are not at your level in terms
of whatever you are bragging about — whether it’s money, career,
possessions, achievements, fitness, looks, or whatever.

And in that case, your bragging, if you are honest with yourself,
has really only two purposes or effects:

It makes you feel better about yourself.

And it makes other people feel inferior or badly about
themselves.

What’s the point of that?

It is either mean and hurtful at worst, or irritating and
annoying at best — and either way causes the other person to like
you less.

So how do you keep your chest-thumping — and the damage it can
do to yourself and others — to a minimum?

>> Step one: do not voice anything that could be considered
boastful or a brag unless the other person asked you about it
first.

For instance, if when we meet, the first thing you say to me is,
“My son just got a free ride on an athletic scholarship for 4
years of college,” I am thinking you are boastful and trying to
make me feel bad that my kids did not.

>> Step two: even if you are asked, frame the boast in a way that
makes you seem modest.

You can do this most easily by not taking credit for it … not
presenting it in its full glory, but rather limiting your brag …
or voicing a small negative along with the positive — for
instance:

“Well, my son was so lucky. We just found out he got an athletic
scholarship to college. It’s amazing, because he barely made the
team in high school, but he worked so hard at it, and I guess got
good enough. Also amazing because you know he didn’t get it from
me — I am a total klutz!”

Notice that the speaker said it was lucky … that it was achieved
by the skin of the kid’s teeth … that it was done through sweat
and not natural talent … and the speaker makes a self-effacing
remark at the end about not being an athlete himself.

TW also said to me in defense of his boasting, “Bob, if you
have done it, then it ain’t bragging.”

Well … yes it is. If you think on it, you already know why.

If not, here’s the answer: because even if you have done it, all
three scenarios above still apply.

And all of them are losing propositions. Right?

Digital marketing has an insatiable thirst for good content and
copy to fuel it and produce results.

And therein lies a problem: companies that lack writing resources
neglect certain digital channels — because they do not have the
time, talent, nor temperament to write the copy these marketing
tactics require.

In my experience, the marketing-related writing tasks that are
most problematic are blogs, e-newsletters, email marketing, and
lead magnets.

>> Blog posts … writing one or two 500 to 1,000-word blog posts
daily is difficult, especially in a corporate environment where
everything published has to go through a review committee.

>> E-newsletters … experienced online marketers know the
importance of having an e-newsletter and building its subscriber
list. But the #1 complaint of marketers I advise in this area is,
“We don’t have the time to write an e-zine or the budget to hire
someone to do so!”

>> Email marketing … not a problem if you send one email blast to
your list a month, but it suddenly becomes a huge burden if you
want to send 2 to 3 email messages a week.

>> Lead magnets … the marketer creates a squeeze or sales page.
They then realize they want to offer a free bonus report. But
they don’t have one. The deadline is around the corner and the
budget has been spent. So they skip the report — and response
suffers because of it.

So how do you get around your resource limitations and get these
things written with sufficient quality and quick turnaround without
breaking your marketing budget?

Here are a few suggestions:

1–Recruit in-house wordsmiths.

At most organizations there are usually some people who, while
not professional writers, are decent “wordsmiths” — as we used to
call them at Westinghouse back in the day.

2–Repurpose and recycle your content.

Don’t reinvent the wheel with every new piece of copy and content
you write.

A blog post can be reworked into an article for your online
newsletter. A series of articles from your e-newsletter can be
compiled and edited into a special report or white paper.

3–Use other people’s content.

You probably already get a ton of material on your topic —
e-newsletters, webinars, trade magazines, and other sources.

As you read them, you can extract and reprint this information,
rephrased in your own words, in your e-newsletter and other
digital marketing. Just be sure to credit the source.

4–Set a schedule to publish regularly.

If you decide to blog or write e-newsletter issues sporadically,
then you have no commitment to get the material done by a
specific date — and therefore the writing is in danger of being
continually put off as more pressing tasks come up.

On the other hand, when people sign up for and you promise them a
weekly e-newsletter, you have an obligation to deliver — and you
somehow get it done.

5–Carry a smart phone, digital recorder, or pen and note pad.

Copy and content ideas will pop into your head when you least
expect them to.

Write them down. Capture ideas immediately. If you don’t, by the
time you get to your desk, you will have forgotten that great
idea or content tidbit you wanted to use in your next blog post
or podcast.

By the way, the problem companies have with getting blog posts,
online newsletters, email blasts, and lead magnets written seems
not to apply to bigger writing projects — including websites,
landing pages, and video sales letters.

That’s because these can usually be planned, and that plan
includes a production schedule the team agrees on and finds
reasonable — or at least possible.

Also because these projects are perhaps bigger, more critical,
and less frequent than the blogging or online newsletters,
marketers are comfortable devoting more time and effort to their
creation.

So they can afford and are willing to pay qualified professionals
higher fees to write these bigger pieces.

In a recent dinner conversation — it happened to be at my best
friend’s wedding — the subject of an option trading course
promoted by Mr. X, a successful trader, came up.

ML, the person sitting at my table who was next to me, said:

“I doubt he is really successful as an option trader. After all,
if he was really making money at it, Mr. X. wouldn’t bother to
sell a course in it.

“The fact that he does so tells me X makes his money teaching his
subject rather than doing it.”

On the surface this may seem like a logical conclusion. But in
fact, ML and others who believe this old saw are wrong.

Nearly everyone in the Information Age has within his or her
grasp at least 2 revenue streams today.

The first is doing the skill or thing they are good at.

The second is teaching the skill or field to others.

And they are not mutually exclusive.

To answer ML, there are 3 reasons why someone who is making a lot
of money as an active practitioner in a skill — be it option
trading or copywriting — would actively create and market a
training program teaching that skill to others:

1–Teaching is a compulsion.

As a species, we are wired to teach, communicate, and pass what
we know on to others.

It’s in our DNA.

Perhaps it’s preservation of the species or our shot at a kind of
immortality beyond our physical lives.

When you teach, write, or speak, your knowledge continues to
benefit people even after you pass on to the next world (if there
is one).

If people did not teach others what they know, our society would
slowly but surely grind to a halt and cease to exist.

2–Development.

The world is dynamic, ever-changing.

So even experts cannot rest on their laurels.

When you teach — whether through speaking or writing — you have
to do two things that make you a better professional.

First, you are forced to organize your knowledge better — a
requirement of presenting it clearly to students.

And doing so gives you a greater grasp of your subject … and
fixes the principles even more firmly in your mind.

Second, you must, through ongoing study and research, stay
current in your field.

Which in turn maximizes your success and earnings — because the
more you know about a thing, the better you are at doing the
thing well.

This is why “continuing education credits” are a requirement of
staying licensed in many fields: the powers that be know that
without continual study to update their knowledge, practitioners
risk becoming subpar and even obsolete.

3–Money.

Even if Mr. X makes a fortune trading option contracts, many of
us really like money.

So if he can make even more by adding the selling of courses to
his business, more power to him.

I love copywriting, but if I wrote copy for the whole of my 12-hour
work day, I’d risk burn-out and fatigue.

So I write copy for clients 90% of the time, but also teach,
write, and speak for a welcome change of pace — which keeps me
fresh and mentally stimulated — as well as producing multiple
streams of income.

So about this idea that if someone is good at something and makes
money at it, they wouldn’t also sell courses or coaching in it?

Yeah, it makes a little sense on the surface. But dig deeper, and
you see it’s mostly hogwash.

That being said, I only buy courses from authors who either
are currently practicing the discipline they teach or have been
practitioners in the past.

And I mostly buy only from current practitioners. Because the
longer a guru has been away from participating in the actual
game, the less up-to-date and relevant his teachings will be.

As for courses by authors who have slim or no experience in what
they teach, I avoid them like the plague.

In particular, never buy a course on how to get rich in internet
marketing from anyone who has sold absolutely nothing except
courses in how to get rich in internet marketing.

To close with a quote from Forrest Gump, “And that’s all I have
to say about that.”

In his book “Far and Away,” Andrew Solomon writes:

“I cherished travel for the way it stopped time, forcing me to
inhabit the present tense.”

Solomon loves travel. I loathe it.

I travel as little as possible and would be happy never to do it
again.

Why?

Here are 7 things I hate about travel:

1–Travel stops time.

Solomon says travel stops time for him.

It does for me too, except not in good way.

When I am in my home office happily working away, the time just
flies by … and so I am never bored.

But for me, being in a strange place, especially overseas in an
unfamiliar country, is a bit surreal.

Times moves at glacial speed, and I chomp at the bit until I can
finally get on a plane and go home.

I’d just rather be home.

2–Travel interferes with work.

Because I am only at my full writing productivity when at my
desktop computer in my home office, travel interferes with my
work.

I hate that.

I am a high-speed touch typist, so laptops are not an option for
me.

On the plane, when the guy in front of me leans his seat all the
way back, it pushes the screen down so I can barely see it or get
my fingers between it and the keyboard.

If two obese people are sitting on either side of me, my arms are
shoved close to my body, which also interferes with my keyboard.

3–Travel puts me out of reach of my stuff.

At home, I have everything I need — food, a refrigerator, books,
papers, files, computer, landline phone, umbrella, coat, boots,
medicine cabinet.

When you travel you must make the choice between having the stuff
you want with you vs. having just one suitcase small enough to
put in the overheads.

Hence I never have all I want and need … and feel deprived, like
a hobo carrying his worldly possessions in a sack on the end of a
stick.

4–Travel is inconvenient.

I long for the days when I didn’t have to take off my belt and my
shoes, or carry only tiny bottles of needed liquids in a clear
plastic case, to get on a plane.

On a recent trip, when I removed my belt, I realized I was
wearing pants that fit when I was 30lbs heavier, and without a belt,
I had to hold them up with my hand to prevent them from falling
below my knees.

Then in the scanner the airport security guard says — “Both hands
up in the air.”

And there are other inconveniences.

When I traveled on business as a young man, all I needed was my
briefcase, a legal pad, and a pen.

Now we carry so many electronic devices and their adapters and
power cards, I feel like I am lugging the Apple store with me.

5–Travel is risky.

I’m not afraid to travel, either of flying itself or of airplane
malfunctions, hijacking, terrorists, or whatever.

But because there is very little pleasure in travel for me … I
completely lack the desire and do not enjoy it … even a little
danger makes for a lopsided risk/reward ratio.

And I dislike the risk of my schedule being at the mercy of the
weather, which may suddenly strand me for a too-long period in a
place I do not want to be.

6–Travel is uncomfortable.

This discomfort has ranged from being in a hot, stuffy cabin
while the airplane sat on the tarmac for an hour delay before
take-off …

…to having to run across a huge airport from one end to another,
because my connecting flight is at the most distant gate
possible.

I also dislike cramped airplane bathrooms and the fact that the
planes are virtually always a full flight …

…which in turn puts in doubt whether I’m going to get overhead
space for my bag.

7–Travel wastes my time.

Flight delays for me are intolerable, as I am in a rush to get
home, back to my office, and back to work.

On a flight from the USA to Ukraine, I had a 3 ½ layover in
Munich between connecting flights.

“So what? Don’t you like to read Bob?” you may ask.

Yes, but in my favorite chair in the comfort and privacy of my
living room — not surrounding by masses of people in a noisy,
crowded airport.

A Kindle reader, then? Not for me, thank you anyway.

I love speaking and giving seminars so much that in the 80s I
considered making training my primary business — but because of
the travel requirements, I quickly abandoned the notion.

Now, thanks to the internet, I can write copy for clients all
over the world without leaving my house — giving me precisely the
lifestyle I seek.