True story…

I was once interviewed my someone (a serious marketer) who before he started the recording asked if it was OK if he mentioned John Caples.

“Of course!” I replied. “Why do you ask?”

His answer was one of those things that initially shocked but did not surprise me…”Because half of the Internet marketing ‘experts’ I interview these days won’t let me mention anything that they can’t earn a commission from.”

That, sadly, sums up the state-of-affairs in much of what is called Internet marketing “education” today.

It’s a jungle out there. Choose your advisors wisely. Some have a vested interest in you not knowing what’s going on.

Be all you can be. Read.

Whether you’re the rawest new beginner or a seasoned pro with years under your belt, there are two things you need to know about Internet marketing:

1. Internet marketing is direct marketing
2. There is a gold mine of information on the subject contained in the many excellent books real marketing experts have written over the years

I know of no better way to accelerate your progress while at the same time improving your BS detector than to read – and continuously read – the books I call the Classics.

The secret, “they” hope you never find out

I try to spend at least 15 to 20 minutes every day going over one or more of these books.

It may not seem like much time, but it adds up.

Just 20 minutes a day is over two hours a week which is over 100 hours a year. That’s a brain changing (and life changing) chunk of time. I’ve been doing it for over twenty years myself.

As I’ve told all my students since Day One and repeat at every System Seminar: “Soak your brains in these books.They will change your life.”

You can do this – and why you should

This list could be much longer, but ten is plenty. In fact, any one of these books has the power to be life changing for you.

No matter what your budget of time and/or money, you can afford this “program.” In fact, I’d say nobody, no matter how much they already know, can afford not to do it.

The most successful marketers I know are invariably the most serious readers – and the very best ones never stop.

My Top Ten Reading List

1. My Life in Advertising – Claude Hopkins
2. Tested Advertising Methods – John Caples (Fourth edition or earlier)
3. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling – Frank Bettger
4. Scientific Advertising – Claude Hopkins
5. How to Write a Good Advertisement – Victor Schwab
6. My First Sixty Years in Advertising – Maxwell Sackheim
7. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail – Richard Benson
8. Breakthrough Advertising – Eugene Schwartz
9. The Robert Collier Letter Book – Robert Collier
10. Common Sense Direct and Digital Marketing – Drayton Bird

While some of these books are hard to find, many are readily available in low cost editions.

Reading just one will make your year. Making them a part of your day will change your life.

The real secret of marketing success

Successful marketing comes from developing a way of thinking.

It’s not a the result of a bag of tricks and it’s certainly won’t come from a “coaching” program sold out of high pressure telephone boiler room.

Success is largely a do-it-yourself process.

It helps a lot if you have someone close to you who can show you the ropes. I didn’t. So I read.

By reading, I gradually found the real experts who knew what they were talking about.

I’m not saying I never went down a wrong path or was never fooled by a personable con artist. I have been. Plenty of times. But because of these books, even in the worst of times, I’ve always had a reliable rudder which has kept me on course.

Be all you can be. Read.

Best,

Ken

P.S. Our annual System Seminar is rooted in the direct marketing classics.

This year, we’ll be meeting April 9 through 11 and as has been true for the last five years our meeting will be in Chicago.

I picked Chicago as our annual “headquarters” because the Chicago area has the biggest concentration of direct marketers in the world. More even than New York.

It’s the place Claude Hopkins and Maxwell Sackheim, the guys who practically invented direct marketing, cut their teeth.

You can read all about this year’s faculty and the subjects we’ll be covering here: Click here for more information

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Here’s what I mean by copywriting made simple…

A copywriting seminar in just 129 characters (as posted to Twitter):

“Only 3 things matter in copywriting: The reader starts reading, he keeps reading, he takes the action you want him to. That’s it.”

When I posted this last month, I challenged my copywriting colleagues to come up with a more concise set of instructions for writing great copy.

Maybe, they’re holding back because so far no one’s even tried to beat it.

The difference between a pro and and amateur

When it comes to writing ad copy (or any kind of writing really), the difference between an amateur and a pro is this:

A pro understands how vitally import Steps One and Two are in this Three Step process and never takes them for granted.

It’s the mark of an amateur to obsess over Step Three (getting the action you want) exclusively.

Dealers in half-baked copywriting advice count on this.

They load beginners down with masses of “gee-whiz” tricks and techniques (for an unreasonable fee) and then leave them to flounder in the swill. Their hope being you’ll give up and hire them – for yet another unreasonable fee.

Don’t give in – If you focus on the right things, you too can write great ad copy

Getting down to the business of asking for the order (Step Three) is important, but without getting the first two things right, you’ve got nothing.

Beginners don’t get this.

Beginners believe – and they are encouraged to believe this by bogus “gurus” – that copywriting is a matter of learning a long list of manipulative “tricks.”

They’re further misled to believe that copywriting is about being clever and creative and smart (and sometimes even devious.)

Here’ what it really takes

To be a successful copywriter (or to write good ads for your own business), you need to be as creative as a plumber.

No more, no less.

You need to know how to diagnose problems (sales problems), what tools to use and when, and how to link all the pipes (sales processes) together so that the water (prospect attention and action) flows in the direction you want it to flow.

Until you master the art of catching and holding attention – and then guiding action – nothing else will make a difference in your sales.

Simple?

Yes it is simple, but to hit the right target someone has to point you in the right direction from the start.

Does it really matter?

I don’t know how important copywriting is to your business, but I can tell you this:

The difference between understanding the process of creating great ad copy and being lost in a maze of bewildering advice is the difference between struggling and making real money – sometimes incredible money.

(In my case, I doubt I’d have 1% of the money I have today if I hadn’t learned how to write ad copy. It can be that important.)

If copywriting is important to you and you’re frustrated with the copywriting services and trainings you’ve encountered so far, I created a course especially for my System grads which covers this topic.

As far as I know, there’s nothing else like it.

Details here:

http://www.kenscopyclinic.com/

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. If you’ve read this far, think of all the things that had to happen to get you to this point.

1. You had to see the subject line in the original e-mail and be motivated to open it.

2. You had to actually read the e-mail and continue reading it to the point where you saw the link.

3. You had to be motivated enough by what you read to click on the link and start reading this article.

4. Then what you read there had to be interesting enough to keep you reading to this point.

5. In order to get you to this point, I had to: a) catch your attention (get you started reading) and b) hold you attention (keep you reading) all the way to this point.

THAT’S 90% of copywriting and once you learn how to do that, the selling part becomes much, much, much easier.

Details on how you can learn to do this consistently – in any industry, selling any product, and under any market conditions here:

http://www.kenscopyclinic.com/

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So many Jim Rohn quotes to choose from but here are a few I find myself going back to again and again.

These quotes might be particularly useful to Internet marketers and marketers of all kinds. I’ve added commentary to each one to help

Be original

“Don’t borrow someone else’s plan. Develop your own plan and it will lead you to unique places.”

My comment: This is why I don’t sell or promote so-called “businesses in a box.” Even if they work, and they rarely do, they practically guarantee mediocrity.

(more…)

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Why is it so hard to get practical advice on using Internet promotional tools?

Everything in Internet marketing seems to come wrapped in a ton of hype and BS and few appear able or willing to strip things down to their basics. And believe me, it’s no easier for me.

Finding a straight, concise answer about anything in Internet marketing is ridiculously hard whether you’ve been at it for 16 years or 16 minutes.

Twitter is a perfect example of this.

First, the news media made it look ridiculous.

Then, the Internet “gurus” piled on with claims that it’s really the most powerful marketing tool that’s ever been created – but only if you know the “right” way (their way) to use it…which they’ll be glad to teach you for an unreasonable fee.

Everything a serious-minded person needs to know about Twitter

1. Twitter’s popular and it’s been adopted by every major media outlet. A percentage of your customers use it. These facts alone signal that anyone who has anything to promote needs to use it.

2. Twitter is dead easy to use, both for publishers and consumers of information.

3. Twitter’s just another channel with its strengths and weaknesses. It contains no inherent magic. If there is “magic” in it, it comes from using it intelligently.

4. Twitter is not something to build a business on. Yes, it’s easy to “game” the system to generate large numbers of “followers” but, like 99% of the things taught by the Internet marketing fad pimps, this approach is a total waste of time.

5. Twitter is a truly great research tool and a great keeping-in-touch-with-those-who-want-to-hear-from-you-tool.

How to think about Twitter

1. Twitter is a web publishing platform. It’s a free way for people to set up their own easy-to-use web sites. It’s a stripped down version of a blog. (Some people accurately call Twitter a micro-blog.)

2. Twitter limits posts (”tweets”) to 140 characters – about the length of a headline or classified ad. You can say and do a lot in 140 characters. Ask any poet or copywriter. Get over it. Being limited to 140 characters is not an issue.

3. One of the key Twitter skills is to learn how to shrink a long address into a short one so you have more room to get your message across. Here’s the tool I use for that:
http://twtr.us/twtr.html

How to use Twitter

1. As a publisher, the most important thing to keep in mind about Twitter is to have a clear purpose and consistent public face for each of your Twitter channels (assuming you need more than one.)

For example, if your topic is investing in gold or ski resorts in the Alps, stick to the point. Don’t start ranting about completely unrelated issues, personal or global.

A little “personality” from time to time is fine, but too many off-point posts and too many fragmentary (and incomprehensible) posts of half a conversation are going to confuse and put off busy, serious-minded people (the kind of people who buy and get things done.)

2. A lot of people use Twitter for “personality” marketing. In other words, their posts are chock full of off-topic reports and obscure shout outs to god-only-knows-who.

If you think you’re a fabulously fascinating person and the world can’t get enough of the minutia of your everyday life, have at it, but I don’t recommend it.

3. What I do recommend is making sure that every post (or “tweet”) counts.

Somehow the mistaken idea has spread that Twitter is supposed to be a stream-of-consciousness medium, that whatever is on your mind at any given moment is fair game for a Twitter post. This is not communicating, this is a form of verbal diarrhea.

4. Craft your Twitter posts. Think about them.

Ask yourself: “Is what I’m about to post useful, interesting, on-topic, and in character?”

In other words, run your “tweets” through a filter, the same way you connect your mouth to your brain when you’re speaking.

I’m not saying that each and every post has to be a home run or that you have to agonize over every one, but unless someone is wildly in love with you, be aware random, off-topic, minutia gets old really fast.

How to get readers

The purpose of writing is to have readers.

There are two ways to get readers (called “followers” in Twitter):

1) tell everyone you know about your channel and send them to it (do this consistently) and

2) reach out on Twitter.

If you already have a large circle (you’re a celebrity, you have a big mailing list and/or you have a lot of traffic to your web site), it’s easy to build a big Twitter following fast. Just let people know about it (repeatedly) and don’t publish crap.

If you don’t have any of these things, you’ve got to do it the old fashioned way by reaching out to relevant folks.

Note the word “relevant.” One of the scams currently taught by the Internet marketing “gurus” is to randomly follow thousands of Twitter users. The idea being that some of them will reflexively follow you back and thus you will develop a large “following” and appear to be popular. Not a good idea.

Here’s a better idea: Follow people and info sources that you’re genuinely interested in.

How to reach out on Twitter – and how not to

It’s easy to find Twitter users who might like to be readers of your Twitter channel.

Click on the “find people” link on Twitter and enter keywords that are likely to turn up people and organizations that are in sync with what your Twitter channel is about.

For example, as a hobby (which also makes money), I run a jazz video web site.

After I let my list and site visitors know I have a Twitter channel, I went to the “find people” page and entered logical keywords for my niche: jazz, jazz club, jazz fest, jazz fan etc.

Then whenever I have some spare time, I “follow” another 100 channels in this category. Some will follow me, some won’t. I really don’t care. I only follow channels I’m genuinely interested in or people I’m very certain would find what I’m doing interesting.

One point: I don’t suddenly follow 1,000 or 10,000 channels overnight.

Why?

Two reasons: 1) because that’s not how normal people use Twitter and 2) Twitter doesn’t like it.

You may say – as many Internet marketing “gurus” do – who cares what Twitter likes? Well, there are two reasons:

First, you’re a guest on their service. Why not be a good guest instead of a greedy slob?

Second, you’re a guest on their service which means they can throw you off any time they want for violating their terms of service agreement.

Given how much totally bogus crap has been written about Twitter “how to” – much of which has become “common knowledge” – I recommend reading Twitter’s short, clear and very reasonable Terms of Service agreement.

You can read Twitter’s Terms of Service Agreement here

Summing up

Twitter is, in spite of all the hype and misinformation, definitely worth your time and attention.

It’s a great way to keep up with news on a wide variety of topics, to see what people are thinking and talking about, and to serve your readers.

The key is that writing for Twitter is like writing for any other medium.

Is what you are writing about interesting, useful, and/or entertaining? If it is, you can carve it on a rock and it will work. If it’s not, then neither Twitter nor anything else is going to help you.

Is your Twitter channel focused and consistent so people know what they’re going to get when they sign up for it and then get what they expect when they do?

It’s not rocket science and it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s just Twitter and my hats off to the creators for stumbling on this thing and making it available to the world. It’s a net contribution.

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. This year’s System Seminar will be in Chicago, April 9, 10 and 11.

For more info: The System Seminar

P.P.S. If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can do that here: Follow Ken on Twitter

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I realize that Twitter is a great personal communication tool, but let’s face it: no one ever made money publicly e-mailing back and forth to their friends.

I also know Twitter is good for research and a handy way to see who’s active in a given niche and what they’re up to. But these are support functions, not put money-in-the-bank functions.

So then, how can Twitter become a cash producer?

The Secret

The same way every medium does it: by producing things that people find interesting, useful, entertaining or inspirational.

But, realistically, can you you really say anything worthwhile in just 140 characters?

I didn’t think so until I tried my hand at it.

Here’s what inspired me

At least once a week, I encounter someone who wants to learn or get better at copywriting.

Very often, they’re at the very beginning of their careers and all I can do is recommend a stack of real copywriting books by the giants (Hopkins, Caples, Schwab, Schwartz, Bird etc.) and urge them to read one or more of them.

But I realize that doesn’t help the person right now which is when most people, including me, want when they’re seeking help.

Help is on its way

I’ve thought about this a lot and decided the world needs a copywriting seminar that tells you everything you need to know about copywriting in 140 characters or less.

Much to surprise I was able to create one.

I’m deadly serious.

If you keep these 140 characters in mind you will always know exactly what to focus on when you sit down to write an ad or sales letter. You’ll also never waste another minute on gimmicks or BS advice that doesn’t work.

Sounds impossible, doesn’t it?

I tested this 140 character seminar on two very experienced copywriters and both gave it a double thumbs up.

It’s one of those things that might not seem like much to a beginner, but the more copywriting experience you have, the more you’re realize that the three-step process I lay out is the Holy Grail.

For myself, I’ve been writing ad copy for over 20 years and I’ve found these 140 characters valuable enough to put on an index card and post by my computer.

It may even be as powerful as my “traffic + conversion = profits” formula which has clarified Internet marketing for so many now-successful entrepreneurs, but only time will tell on that one.

So where is this seminar in a tweet?

On Twitter, of course.

Something you can use…in 140 characters or less:

http://twitter.com/kenmccarthy/status/5624862016

Ken

P.S. If you’re not a Twitter user, it’s a snap to register.

You need an e-mail address, a user name and a password and you’re on.

Posting is just like posting to a blog – only 100 times easier.

The interesting part is it allows you to easily follow writers you admire with the single push of button.

And that’s it. 90% of what you need to know about Twitter.

http://twitter.com/kenmccarthy/status/5624862016

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. This year’s System Seminar will be in Chicago, April 9, 10 and 11.

For more info: The System Seminar

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Comments(0)

Note: This started as a “tweet” but I couldn’t fit it all into 140 characters

But I recommend you test my channel and see if you like it anyway: http://www.Twitter.com/kenmccarthy

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Out from the jungle

Right through the 1980s, every now and then a Japanese soldier would be discovered in some remote part of Asia (usually Indonesia or Papua New Guinea) “holding down the fort.”

These guys were told to hold their positions until the bitter end, and they did – for forty years after the war was over!

I’ve been kind of that way with Twitter.

Today, I wandered out of the jungle into the bright lights of Twitter Land.

My tipping point

Recently, I heard the term “micro-blogging.”

I know, I know. People have been using it for years already.

But, I didn’t really HEAR it until now.

I “get” blogging (which is really just writing a column and publishing it online yourself.)

And I get “micro.” I mean who has time to read long stuff anymore (unless it’s one of my e-mails).

Short and punchy is good and you can say a lot in 140 characters. (That took 75 characters)

See?

I just did – and I had 65 characters to spare.

Another thing that lured me from my vine-covered cave was talking to one of my System Eagles who has a serious marketing problem:

He created a product without asking the market if it wanted it – and it doesn’t. Actually, it doesn’t know it wants it and it doesn’t have time to do the homework to find out that it does.

When you find yourself in a situation like this…

You have two choices

1. Throw in the towel, or

2. Establish yourself as a celebrity expert in the niche in the minds of people who are candidates for your product and then use that position to get a hearing.

(There’s a million dollars in marketing advice in that last sentence. Someone could create a $5,000 a seat seminar around it – but not me. I just gave it to you.)

Being an expert is a matter of studying a subject to the point that you actually have something interesting, useful and maybe even entertaining to say about it.

It’s a very straightforward process

You can become a “talking” expert in ANYTHING in six months or less, six weeks if you’re good, and six days if you’re really good. But regardless of the time frame, it’s doable.

But what about the celebrity part?

How the heck do you do that?

And really, what sane person would actually want to become a celebrity?

I mean…Paris Hilton. WTF is that all about?

The not-so-secret secret

Master copywriter and educator Ben Settle recently reminded me of why being a celebrity is a good thing while I was reading his excellent new book, “Crackerjack Selling Secrets.”

Here’s the punch line: You want to become a celebrity because becoming a celebrity is valuable.

And here’s why

People are exponentially more interested in what a celebrity has to say than what anyone else has to say, even an expert.

To prove this to yourself, do this simple mental experiment:

Imagine two people on stage. The first knows a ton, but no one has ever heard of him. The other is someone they’ve seen and heard from over and over again -so much so that the audience feels they “know” him and like him.

Assuming both speakers have about the same skill in presenting, who is going to be listened to with more attention? The guy who knows a lot or the guy everyone has been trained to listen to?

This, strangely enough, is “celebrity”

It’s the result of training, or conditioning, to use a term from the psychology lab.

Celebrity also means attention and attention means M-O-N-E-Y.

Consult the old AIDA formula if you’re confused about this.

Selling starts – and ends – with attention

There is no selling without attention. Period. End of story.

Once you “get” this definition of celebrity, you’ll know what you need to do. You need to become one – in the eyes of your prospects and customers.

That’s right. In the eyes of your prospects and customers.

You don’t have to worry about taking on Paris Hilton in the super celebrity sweepstakes. You just have to become a “celebrity” to the people you want to listen to your pitch.

Why?

Because people listen to celebrities. Strange but true.

So how do you become a celebrity, someone people listen to and talk about?

Seems hard, right? It must involve some kind of magical powers -some kind of inborn charisma.

Well, charm doesn’t hurt. And everyone can become more charming. But charm and charisma are not the issue.

What’s the “secret” then?

Exposure.

Are people seeing you? Are they hearing you? Is this happening over and over again?

That, my friends, is what builds celebrity. At the end of the day, there really isn’t that much more to it than that.

So if repeated exposures are the building blocks to celebrity, how do you get them?

Here are the three methods people use – one works

Method #1: Wait for it to happen “naturally.” You know, be discovered. People will see how great you are and then devote their lives to making you famous.

Actually this can happen.

The problem is the odds. How about 500 million to 1? That’s how likely it is that you’ll be “discovered.”

Method #2: Beg people and institutions that have celebrity to let you have some of theirs by writing about you, interviewing you, and inviting you to present at their events.

Begging can work, but it too has a very low probability of success. Besides, you need lots and lots of exposures to become a celebrity and begging just doesn’t produce opportunity fast enough.

Method #3: Create your own celebrity

Elsom Eldridge, marketing wizard and author of “The Obvious Expert” has a great saying about this:

“Build your structure to build your stature.’

In other words, your “celebrity” – call it stature, call it profile, call it visibility – is entirely in your hands.

You CREATE it

No one can give it to you.

How do you create it?

By talking and writing and appearing. In short by being visible and making sure that every appearance you make (in text, in audio, in video, in person) produces a worthwhile experience for your readers, listeners, viewers and audience.

Dollars and common sense

Whatever business you’re in, if you want maximum results, you have to also be in the celebrity business and to be in the celebrity business you have to be in the media business.

Pre-Internet, it used to be bloody hard to be in the celebrity building media business.

Printing was expensive, postage was expensive, audio and video production was expensive and outlets were very limited.

For example, when I was a little kid, if you wanted to appear on the TV set in someone’s home, you had three options: ABC, CBS, and NBC – and that was it.

Then cable appeared and that was an improvement. You could actually buy 30 minute slots fairly cheap late at night. But that didn’t last too long.

Then the VCR came along.

Fantastic!

Now, if you could just produce a video cassette, convince someone to buy or ask for it, and then actually sit down and watch it, you too could appear on someone’s television set.

Great, but look at all the things you had to do – and all the money you had to spend – to make that blessed event occur.

The reason our time is the “age of marketing miracles” – and it is – is that you can now put text, audio and video in front of your prospects faces for nada. Nothing. Zilch.

Once you produce your message, all the old world costs of duplication, packaging, and shipping are gone.

But there’s always a catch and I did leave something out of this equation.

You need something for all this to work

You need a list

You need a list of people who want to hear from you, who want to know what you have to say and who want to know what you’re up to on a regular basis.

In the old days, it was a direct mail mailing list (still a very good thing to have, by the way).

Then along came e-mail. Magical, marvelous, magnificent e-mail. People can sign up for your list without leaving their keyboard and you can mail to them over and over and over again for nothing.

I LOVE e-mail.

In the past seven days, I did a little promotion that brought me a very nice chunk of change (more than I used to make in a whole year) all thanks entirely to the magic of e-mail. My risk? ZERO. My investment: my time and ingenuity.

What made it work is that I had a list…which is why I spend a lot of my time thinking about how to build my lists and make the people on my lists happy – and working my tail off to make those things happen.

Out of my cave

As I said at the very beginning of this article, I am a traditionalist. I’m conservative. I like new things, but I generally don’t like things that make me work or think too hard.

Twitter (and Facebook, which I’m only just starting to see the light on) seemed like work to me. And worse than that, they seemed like work without a pay off.

I mean who wants to spend all day typing away little Tweets to people on the off chance that someone might actually find what you have to say, read it and do something about it.

Just give me a mailing list and I’ll write a proper sales letter, thank you very much.

Then it dawned on me…

The folks who follow you on Twitter ARE a mailing list.

What’s more, they’re people who, for whatever odd reason, want to hear from you a lot, as in several times a day, as long as…

…as long as you have something interesting, entertaining, useful, and/or helpful to say.

Hey! I can do that.

And I can write worthwhile stuff in bursts of 140 characters or less.

(At first, I didn’t think I could, but then I just jumped in and tried. Lo and behold, it’s not hard at all…if you can write.)

Also – and this is very important – there’s a lot of stuff that will not work in an e-mail that works great in Twitter and will make a positive impression on your prospects and customers….which at the end of the day is what it’s all about.

To recap

If celebrity is money because celebrity generates attention and attention generates sales…

And celebrity is built by exposure and exposure is built by media…

And it’s YOUR job as the entrepreneur to use media to raise your profile, increase your visibility, build your stature and create your celebrity…

If all this is true, then you and I need to go where ever the people are and communicate with them using the channels that they want to communicate with.

And Twitter, this new-fangled thing with the silly name is how a lot people like to consume media these days…and, amazingly enough, now that I’ve crawled out of the cave, I’m now one of them.

The truth about Twitter

If Twitter is new to you – or if you’ve been taught how to abuse Twitter by one of the slime ball Internet gurus who strive mightily to poison everything in their path – let me explain what Twitter is and how to be entertained and informed by it.

Step #1. Open an account at Twitter.com It’s free and truly easy. Took me about 60 seconds once I got down to it.

Step #2. Pick a user name you’re going to be happy living with a long, long time. If your own name is available, grab it. God bless the person who did this for me a year or more ago. If your name is taken, come up with a relevant handle.

Step #3. Fill out your profile. Again, simple and easy. 60 seconds maybe, even for me.

OK, now you have an account and a profile.

It’s time to play…

Here’s how you play Twitter

1. Go to “Find People” and search for friends, colleagues, “celebrities,” news outlets, media, businesses and institutions who are Twitter publishers that you may want to hear from on a regular basis

2. When you see someone you want to hear from, just push the “Follow” button.

When you open your Twitter page, you’ll see SHORT messages from these folks, sometimes self-contained, sometimes pointing to other web resources (articles, videos, interviews) for you to check out.

3. Choosing friends and colleagues to follow is easy. I have friends who I LOVE and don’t get to see anywhere near much as I’d like. What could be better than hearing from them more often? On any subject really.

Celebrities are pretty easy too. You know who you like. You want to hear from Shaquille O’Neil? He’ll drop you a line or two or more every day. Paris Hilton? Ditto. (Though please tell me there’s no one reading this who actually wants to hear from Paris Hilton.)

News outlets?

Personally, I “follow” the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the BBC. All stuff that I follow every day anyway.

I also follow entertainment publications like the Village Voice, Offbeat Magazine (from New Orleans), and the Onion (humor.)

Now instead of going TO this stuff, it comes to me.

“Hmmm…that looks interesting.” Click.

You know what Twitter really is?

It’s an RSS reader that you actually want to use.

(If you don’t know what an RSS reader is, don’t worry. Just use Twitter. For everyone else, I’ve always said that RSS readers were the greatest idea in the world with the worst name ever invented. The Twitter folks, god bless, didn’t make the same mistake.)

OK, now you’re getting all this great entertainment – news items, jokes, notes from your buddies, pointers to interesting articles, now what?

“Now what?” is you start publishing which on Twitter is called “tweeting.”

Tweeting is a stupid name and it’s 90% of the reason I wrongly assumed Twitter was ridiculous

But Twitter is not ridiculous.

It’s a tool for sending good stuff – in short bursts – to people who want to hear from you.

What to say?

Now that you’re ready to start writing, the million dollar question is “what do you write?”

This is the tricky part which is why I suggest that you become a Twitter reader first, before you start writing (or tweeting) anything.

The best way to get good at anything is to find people whose style you like, “follow” them and take the parts of what they do that you like and mash them together into a style you’re comfortable with.

As I write this, I’ve been a Twitter user for less than 12 hours and I can already see what I like and don’t like.

What NOT to do

The thing that I loathe – and it’s a fatal turn off – is people who tell me about their latest product all breathless-like with exclamation points.

Even more offensive is people who recommend something they’re obviously earning an affiliate commission on.

I don’t begrudge anyone earning a commission, but don’t clutter up my Twitter channel with spam so you can play the law of large numbers and grind out a few bucks.

I know there’s already a flock of thieves charging people a fortune to “learn” how to do this. Don’t you be one of them.

On Twitter you’re a publisher – that’s what you are, a micro-publisher, but a publisher nonetheless. Your job is to inform, educate, entertain and amuse and point people to resources that do the same.

If you do this people will read you and they will tell others about you.

This is better than the alternative which is they click “unfollow” and make you disappear forever.

If you’ve got a business, let your prospects and customers know you have a Twitter channel and what your address is. (My personal Twitter channel is: http://www.Twitter.com/kenmccarthy

The question is if you tweet will anyone even care?

Here’s the answer:

It’s the old SW4 rule.

Some will, some won’t, so what? Someone’s waiting.

There’s no accounting for taste and some folks are just plain going to like you. Take the ball when they give it to you and run with it.

If anything I’ve said has struck your fancy, give Twitter a whirl – as a normal user, not as some super slick “social marketer.”

Personally, I already see Twitter as invaluable.

I’m a reader. I’m a news follower. Nothing is more attractive to me than having a steady stream of interesting new stuff cross my desk all day long. Especially since I can read as much of it or as little of it as I want.

As you actually use Twitter (as opposed to cooking up schemes to exploit it), watch and see who is doing it right. Doing it right to YOUR standards. Using the medium in a way YOU enjoy – and then use it the same way.

Guaranteed, you can make millions without ever opening a Twitter account…

But you might LIKE what Twitter does and if you like it, you might figure how to become a contributor to it and if you’re a contributor to it, this will contribute to you raising your profile, increasing your visibility, and adding to the celebrity structure you’re creating. A virtuous cycle.

Bottom line

Twitter is a medium.

It’s a medium some people like – just as some people like newspapers, while others like radio, and still others like TV.

It’s a medium some folks pay close attention to throughout their day.

It costs nothing.

If you personally like the medium and use it – and use it the way you would like it used on you – then odds are you’ll have a good experience with it.

It will never replace sales letters and “old fashioned” offers. No way.

And don’t even dream of starting a business without the “back end” of having things to sell and sales systems to sell them with.

But Twitter will ultimately help you create more readers for your sales letters and deliver them to you in a state of mind in which they’re receptive to what you have to say.

Start by enjoying it.

If you enjoy it you’ll figure out what you need to know to make it work for you.

Ken

P.S. If you can get yourself to Manchester, UK on November 16 (it’s a Monday), a bunch of the smartest Internet folks I know will be meeting for a seminar.

It will feature a talk by Ben Hunt, the web designer, and a lot of “peanut gallery” comments from people like yours truly, Lloyd Irvin, Greg Davis, and Ben Moskel. We’re going to talk about blogs and Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and how they can be used to create and leverage celebrity for any business.

If you can’t make it, we share all sorts of useful stuff with you for free here:

http://www.systemintensive.com/mark

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With all the gloom and doom, it’s good to be reminded that in spite of the endless, over-the-top blundering and thievery of those “at the top,” normal human beings have incredible resilience and ingenuity.

Every worthwhile advance in human history that I’m aware of has come from a small group of passionate people – and that trend continues.

Just when you think there’s nothing new under the sun, creative human beings come along and change the world with amazing new ideas. The personal computer, the web browser, broadcasting – all these huge industries started with a handful of passionate tinkering.

I have no idea where this particular idea will lead, but is this amazing or what?

Check it out:

More: http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome

Why I’m heading to England this fall

There’s a lot of innovation in the UK and it’s not just limited to the RepRap.

I’m finding that some of the sharpest, most innovative Internet marketers today are based in the UK.

They’re too busy making money to be on the seminar circuit. That’s why I go to them.

This September 26-27, we’ll be doing a System Intensive together in London.

Last year, we had several American Internet entrepreneurs make the trip to join us as students. It was well worth the trip for them and this year’s meeting will be even richer.

Details here: http://www.SystemIntensive.com

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If you want advice on how to make money and how to invest, you’ll find mountains of material online and off.

Some of it’s good, some of it’s not so good, and some of it is so bad it’s dangerous.

Finding good advice in these areas is a big challenge, but there’s even a bigger structural problem.

#1 – There are three essential steps you should take after you start making money and before you start investing that no one talks about.

These three steps are not sexy so you can’t build a sexy “get rich quick” course around them, but they are as fundamental to wealth building as eating, breathing and drinking water.

#2 – Investing money is not an easy way to make money, certainly not as easy as the “get rich quick” by investing courses make it out to be

I know this flies in the face of popular beliefs, but here’s the fact:

Among the world’s top gun money managers, a 15% annual return on your money is considered a home run. Stringing several years like this together is considered a god-like performance.

The lucky money managers who reach these heights WORK with world class resources at their disposal along with good sized staffs of razor sharp people who clock in at least 9 to 5 every day (usually a lot more)

Is it really likely that you’re going to do as well as them or better than them in getting a return on your money?

That being said, it is possible, but infomercial BS aside, it’s not going to happen without a ton of work on your part. And here’s the kicker: even if you are really, really good and work really, really hard, the markets are hazardous places and you can get blown up. It happens to the best of traders.

A better way…

This is why I advise people to focus on creating businesses with customers who come back over and over again to buy.

First, starting a business the smart way (the System way) is extremely low risk. If your first idea doesn’t fly, you can live to try again and again and again until you get it right.

Second, when you get something that works – a body of customers, a solid product, a compelling offer – you’ve got a System that makes money week in and week out.

Third, a business that works can be safely leveraged through excellent marketing. So-so money makers can be tweaked to become cash cows. Cash cows can be tweaked to be Godzillas.

In contrast, traders have to re-invent the wheel every day as markets shift and can make big mistakes in the process. Business owners push product over the counter to regular buyers and count their daily receipts. Having done both, I can tell you owning a solid business is a much better deal.

There’s a another big problem with the “get rich quick” investment courses.

Generally, I don’t believe in the “it takes money to make money” philosophy. There are all kinds of way to get started making money with just the spare change in your pocket and if you can’t do it at that level, you probably won’t be able to do it with a lot of capital either.

However, I do believe there is one exception to this rule: trading.

You need ample money to trade and that money needs to be calm and patient money in order for it to get the best results. Taking too small a stake to the market and trying to make your rent with this week’s trading opportunities is a recipe for disaster.

When I was a young guy with no money just getting started I really didn’t want to hear this. It seemed downright un-American. How come only guys who already have money have all the odds stacked in their favor when it comes to trading? Shouldn’t the little guy be able to make smart moves and leverage his $1,000 into a million?

It might happen, but more people win the lottery than pull that off.

The correct sequence is make money – save money – save even more money – put the bulk of your savings in bullet-proof, bomb-proof instruments (like short term Treasuries) – and then take a small piece of your net worth to the markets and make small bets with it.

None of this prevents you from studying investing, paper trading, and maybe even taking micro-positions now to learn how things really work while you’re building your stake, but the idea of “on the job” training in the markets with thin capitalization and no other serious source of income is just not optimal.

And yet, all the “get rich quick” through trading courses are essentially recommending this approach. Great for the course sellers, not so great for the course buyers.

Better idea:

Build a business. Make that business great. Take cash off the table on a regular basis and stack it up in Treasuries. Then take a small piece of that and roll the dice – if you must.

Get rich slow.

Follow the sequence that’s worked over and over again for the people who’ve actually gotten there.

It works.

If you really think it through and talk to lots of people who have “made” it, you’ll see that that’s the way it’s done.

If it’s still July 4, 2009, you can get the complete Blueprint here for free:

http://www.TheSystemSeminar.com/july4/download.html

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We’ve talked a lot about Google over the years, so it’s great to see them talk about us on one of their official blogs.

Tom Leung who is product manager for Google’s Website Optimizer tool was kind enough to come to Chicago to System 2008 and walk us through this extremely powerful and relatively new testing tool.

It’s the same one Google uses in-house for its own testing – and it’s free.

One of our faculty members Sean D’Souza, who is a wizard of info marketing, happens to have been a professional cartoonist in an earlier career and drew some cartoons illustrating big points in Tom’s talk.

I’m thinking of making Tom’s entire talk at System 2008 available for free to everyone in the Internet marketing world. Since it’ll take an investment of time and money on my part, if you’re interested in this, definitely let me know by posting below.

Meanwhile, here are Sean’s System 2008 cartoons on Google’s blog: click here for the cartoons

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This presentation came from the chief health statistician of Sweden. Even if you’re not interested in global income growth statistics (and if you’re an Internet marketer and you’re not, you’re nuts), there’s a lot to learn hear about the value of good data.

Listen and learn…

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