5 huge copywriting errors you are STILL making! And it’s costing you BIG!

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Howard Martell

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
You’ve told me over and over again that you want to succeed at marketing, because you know that folks who do reap the greatest rewards in business. You also know that one key area of marketing — copywriting — must be mastered, and as soon as possible.
Copywriting, after all, is the ability to select and present the words that get people to stop, pay attention to what you’re saying and then buy. Master this, and you get the big bucks; fail to do so and you don’t.
This article reviews the 5 top copywriting errors. Stop making these today; start doing things the right way, the customer-centered way,and I guarantee you you’re going to be richer, faster. I know that’s what you want… so let’s get started turning you into the well-heeled marketer you want.
#1 Copywriting is about moving mammals.
Let’s be clear with each other. Copywriting is always about getting the people you are contacting to TAKE ACTION. Either you want these mammals to tell you they are interested in your proposition (providing you with the complete follow up details you require)… OR you want them to buy what you’re selling on the spot.
Often inexperienced copywriters add a third category: telling people what you’ve got, expecting that when the reader knows enough she’ll buy.
AVOID THIS AT ALL COSTS.
The objective is NEVER, EVER merely to tell your customer good stuff about your product. That’s a waste of time and money. As stated, and herewith emphasized, copywriting means selecting and presenting the right words that turn folks either into prospects… or buyers… It’s about selling, never just telling.
#2 Mastering just 4 words delivers copy that sells.
Top copywriters are well paid because they know the secret of getting people to stop what they’re doing… and focus on what you want . Just 4 words can deliver this absolutely crucial result: YOU GET BENEFIT NOW. Let’s look at each crucial word, the better to understand their importance.
YOU — There’s only 1 person who matters when you’re writing copy; that is the person you’re writing to motivate to act. You must ALWAYS know who that person is. There must be an exact fit between the copy you are writing and the person you are writing for. Yes, the fit must be snug as a glove.
GET — People respond and people buy to improve their circumstances. Thus all of marketing is predicated on motivating people to respond to be better off, in other words to “get” the desired benefit.
BENEFIT — To succeed in marketing and in writing copy that sells you MUST understand (and write down) every single benefit your product delivers. AND you must be specific about these benefits. The harder, sharper, clearer your benefits, the faster your customers will respond and in the greater numbers you desire.
NOW — There’s only one time period in marketing and copywriting… and that time frame is — NOW! Yesterday is history; tomorrow doesn’t exist. All there is, then, is NOW…the present, truly a gift to you!
#3 Make an offer… then make a better one.
As I write, the world is in the grip of economic doldrums which frighten customers and make them pause before taking action. Thus, uncertainties create caution; caution creates more caution… and more caution produces more uncertainties. What’s a good marketer to do in such a climate? Sit down and cry?
Certainly not. Make an offer… then improve the offer as often as it takes until you’ve got the offer that will put money in your pocket at once… and carry your business on until better times come.
The offer, the improved offer, the enhanced offer, does this IF you do it right. Here’s what you need to do…
* Keep thorough records of all your offers that worked. Update and use them again.
* Look for good offers constantly, including what your competitors are doing.
* When you find offers (and copy) that look good to you, clip and save them.
Finally, test offers, keep good records on how they worked… then improve the offer to get even better results.
ALL copywriters, all marketers, are in the testing business. That’s how we learn what works (and so use again) and what doesn’t (and so trash).
#4 Before you write a word, breathe deep and stretch.
You are about to start writing the best copy of your life, copy that will ring up response after response and sale after sale… because your skills, thanks to this article, have dramatically improved since the last time you were at this point.
Now, prepare yourself further for what you must do. Get up from your computer. Breathe deep…. stretch… put oxygen in your lungs and thereby assist your brain to prepare for the important work at hand.
Copywriting is an action game. It is all about energy! Motivating! Uplifting! Inspiring! And above all else helping people and improving their lives. This is a great responsibility, and you owe it to your customers to do it right. After all, you are improving their lives… as well as enhancing your own.
Makes sure your energy level is high. Remember, you are all about energy and energizing folks to MOOOOOOOVE and take action. This necessitates fuel. You cannot write high energy copy if your body and mind are hungry, unsatisfied and under fueled.
#5. Now start writing… always remembering that the most important part of writing is re-writing!
Open with your best offer. Make it clean, crisp, motivating, incredible!
Then follow with the benefits, in priority order (leading with the best one). Each benefit should be short, punchy, powerful, persuasive.
Then restate the offer… so you’re sure the prospect gets it. Remember, offers get people to respond who had no intention of doing so.
Follow with product features, always stressing what it can do and how easy it is.
Reprise your offer in two more places… as a post script and also on the envelope if you’re mailing.
Last point: evaluate what happened and why.
Copywriting, like life itself, is an ongoing business needing constant review, analysis, rethinking, improving. Thus, no copywriting you do is actually finished until you scrutinize what happened and why. You may not like doing this, but it is essential and no project is over until this is done. But when it is, it’s time to congratulate yourself. You now know more… and, if you’ve followed these directions, have done better. Keep up the good work… and congratulation: you’re a real copywriter, on the road to being an expert copywriter, with all the rewards. You deserve them!
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. at www.worldprofit.com, providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Instant Traffic Robot -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=ep6SGTie

Of ‘sliders’, ‘cravers,’ and a White Castle where you are monarch of all.

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Howard Martell

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It is the midnight hour here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in Cambridge town. And like my overindulged neighbors, I am in search of something to satisfy a craving, for without satisfaction I shall not sleep. As this is a college town, the ultimate college town, with every kind of taste and flavor readily at hand, all ready to obliterate the hunger pangs of the privileged, voracious herds of students foraging hereabouts, there should be no trouble getting that precise, desired effect.
But the taste I seek cannot be found in Cambridge, or Boston, or even in the whole of New England or even beyond. It is a taste rooted in the Midwest and, thus, I need stratagems to find it… all the while my brain, sharpened by exact desire, screams for the thing, the exact thing, no substitutions, no deceptions, no facsimiles, don’t even try.
This is White Castle… don’t even begin to call it just a ‘hamburger.”
And if you have never had one, do not condescend to judge us who have. We know this thing… and if we are in thrall to a taste… we at least have had it, while you have not and do not know.
This, then, is for my fellow “cravers”… you know who you are… and you know what I am going through now… for you may well be going through it, too…
Born in the heartland.
Harry Truman, sometime president of these United States, once said, “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.” I am going to dish up some of that history now.
The White Castle story begins in Wichita, Kansas. It is 1921… America is confident, striding for the first time on the world stage; a heady adolescent among nations… strong, swaggering, a bull in Europe’s epicene china shop. Such a nation, still raw, required food to match. It needed wheat…. and beef… and onions… it was democratic fare… cheap, pungent, delicious, pay your nickle and, laughing with your buddies, wipe your mouth on your sleeve; (your mother cannot see the infraction, so shocking at home.)
The White Castle story is a story of lean, young men, with big ideas; applying science and brains to the hunger of a nation moving to a jazz beat. In such a nation everything was possible… and a young man in Wichita was free to dream and to build and to triumph. In Wichita that year, in America, there was nothing but exuberance, pulsating energies and panoramas of promise.
White Castle aimed to be the fuel for such a people and their ascendancy. And so it began…
Item: White Castle was the first fast-food hamburger chain in the nation.
Item: The first to sell a million hamburgers.
Item: The first to sell a billion hamburgers.
Item: The first to sell frozen fast food.
Founders Billy Ingram and Walter Anderson had an idol… a man of drive, energy, imagination and, always, the ability and desire to improve, make the product better, and grow.
This was Henry Ford, and the founders of White Castle never stopped scrutinizing the Master for ways they could benefit and, in turn, benefit the nation.
“The Jungle”.
The first problem the founders had to solve was one of perception. In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote one of the signal books of the burgeoning republic, “The Jungle”. It was a book inducing anger and nausea, exposing in sickening detail the revolting conditions of the meat packing industry. America blanched and heaved… cleaning up the noisome menace…
The Wichita boys did their bit. They named their baby “White” for something clean, pure and untainted… and “Castle” for something strong and resolute.
Then they started their life-long mission of mechanizing their work, just as Henry Ford was doing at River Rouge.
Their restaurants, made to resemble the famed Chicago Water Tower, were eye-catching, distinctive, octagonal buttresses, crenelated towers, and a parapet wall. Here, well before Huey Long, “every man was king.” The look was pristine, sparkling white porcelain enamel on steel exteriors, stainless steel interiors, employees outfitted with spotless uniforms… never sprinkled with the blood of what you were eating.
Now they could turn their full attention to the most important thing of all… the taste.
First, Founder Anderson invented the hamburger bun, as well as the kitchen assembly line that gave rise to the modern fast-food industry. Due to White Castle’s innovation of chain-wide standardized methods, customers could be sure they would receive the same product in every one of their restaurants; here, too, they lead the way, as they embarked on sure and certain growth.
Since nothing of the mechanized fast-foot industry existed, it all had to be imagined, attempted, instituted, tried, and re-tried, the tested way of progress for people unafraid to risk, to attempt, to improve, and improve some more. It was the American way, and it was a certain formula for greatness.
White Castle, and the hamburger at its center, was a significant part of this glorious cycle of never-ending improvement.
Anderson developed an efficient method for cooking hamburgers, using freshly ground beef and fresh onions. The ground beef was formed into balls by machine, eighteen to a pound, or forty per kilogram. The balls were placed on a hot grill and topped with a handful of fresh, thinly shredded onion. Then they were flipped so that the onion was under the ball.
The ball was then squashed down, turning the ball into a very thin patty. The bottom of the bun was then placed atop the cooking patty with the other half of the bun on top of that so that the juices and steam from the beef and onion would permeate the bun. After grilling, a slice of dill pickle was inserted before serving on its distinctive square bun available at White Castle only. This was the famous “slider”.
Now, putting it all together, you didn’t just have a burger and fries… you had an event, a feast for nose, eye, tongue and brain. You stopped at other burger joints because you were hungry and couldn’t wait any longer for relief at someplace better. You went to White Castle for satisfaction, gratification, bliss.
On this basis White Castle grew, keeping its price, a dime apiece, fair, affordable. Then, in 1933, Ingram bought out Anderson, moving to Columbus, Ohio. The new owner refused to franchise or take on debt to expand, and so White Castle fell behind other purveyors of burgers, relatively small at 420 White Castle outlets; the one I visited assiduously when I studied at Harvard, in Central Square, bit the dust, to my acute despair.
Somewhere along the line the unyielding insistence on growth, improvement, and no limits whatsoever, died. When I called White Castle’s corporate offices yesterday to see how I could buy the product by mail, the voice at the other end of the line was of the “couldn’t be bothered” variety, dismissive, unhelpful, eager to get me off the line and go back to her nails and jeremiads. Thus the dedicated, devoted “cravers” of company lore are cast aside and dismissed. And so as White Castle goes, the once great nation goes… and we are saddened and bereft.
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About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Traffic Blog Empire -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=nh4VYABW

I chose life… and so should you. 347,000,000 adults now diagnosed with diabetes. How one man’s story can help you at once!

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Howard Martell

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
The number of adults with diabetes worldwide has more than doubled in three decades, to an estimated 347 million a new study says. The study, led by Goodarz Danaei of the Harvard School of Public Health and Majid Ezzati of Imperial College, London, analyzed diabetes data from 1980 to 2008. Their analysis found that 153 million people had diabetes in 1980; this number had swelled to 347 million in 2008.
Much of that increase is due to aging populations — since diabetes typically hits in middle age — and population growth, but part of it has also been fueled by rising obesity rates.
With numbers climbing almost everywhere, experts said the disease is no longer limited to rich countries and is now a global problem. Countries in which the numbers rose fastest include Cape Verde, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea, and the United States.
More alarming news.
These figures do not reflect the generations of overweight children and young adults who have yet to reach middle age. This will create a massive burden on already severely challenged health systems.
The most alarming news of all… Each of these people could take charge of their disease, but too often don’t, thereby triggering even graver health problems.
“A disease of the mouth.”
I like to say, tongue firmly in cheek, that diabetes is a disease of the mouth: open mouth, insert enough of the wrong things, get disease and all its myriad of complications. I should know; I’m one of the world’s aging diabetics. Now 64, I was diagnosed about 50.
The day my blunt, most direct physician delivered the news he asked me one question: “Do you want to live longer or shorter?” I chose longer; he then laid on me exactly what I needed to do to achieve the objective of more time and that of the highest quality. While hardly an ideal patient, I was more than willing to make the necessary changes in diet and lifestyle. Not only willing but committed and determined to do so. Once over 205 chunky pounds, my 5? 10 1/2? frame is now a lean 157 pounds… with all other numbers appropriate; something to write home about, especially since I can wear the same trousers I wore in graduate school 40 years ago! Can you?
What I have learned along the way.
I want to say, right from the get-go, that I am NOT playing physician here; you need to consult yours at regular intervals as I do. Still, diabetes seems to me a disease tailor-made for personal management. There are things, lots of things, you can do to improve your situation. Here’s what works for me:
1) Take ownership of your disease and decide whether you want to gamble with your life by doing little or nothing.
The great thing about diabetes is that its improvement or deterioration is very much in your hands. If you take charge in a positive, pro-active manner you are going to improve. if you persist in fighting your diagnosis and what you can do, right at home, too, you won’t. In other words, you can be adult about it… or select adolescent petulance.
2) Don’t try to change everything overnight; do start making changes at once. Remember, diabetes and what you do to manage it is a marathon, not a sprint. This is a disease without (just yet) a cure; it’s a disease that’s with you sleeping and waking. You cannot, therefore, do something today and then ignore it. With diabetes you’re fighting a war, not a battle. Treat it accordingly.
3) Clean out your cupboards… clean out your refrigerator.
If you don’t have readily at hand the destructive things… the high sugar drinks, the cakes and bakery goods… all the things that work against your success and create long-term problems, so much the better.
If you don’t have readily at hand the bad things and have to make a special effort to go out and get them, you will, perforce, ingest less.
4) Don’t think in terms of diets and deprivations. Think in terms of the additional life and time you’re getting.
We live in a culture that screams “I want this and I want this NOW!” We are all influenced by the “I’m worth it and I’m going to have it” mentality. Thus you need practical ways to overcome these insidious influences.
To start with, never call what you’re doing a “diet”. Diets are about depriving yourself; think instead of buying your life back from the pawn shop. When you eat bad things you’re cutting time off your life; when you make the necessary changes, you buy yourself back.
5) Count to 10.
Before you drink that sugary concoction or take another bite of your favorite confection, count to 10. This gives your brain time to remind you that you probably can live without the indiscretion you are about to make. The sequence goes like this: want. stop. count to 10.
Now, if you do this and still eat the offending morsel, even two, don’t collapse with guilt and recrimination. Just resolve to do better next time… because you can be sure there WILL be a next time, and many such.
6) Eat all day.
Still eating big, set meals that leave you breathless and bloated? These constitute an assault on the body. Stop it now!
Instead eat frequently throughout the day, small portions that satisfy and which your previously overworked body can handle.
Start eating fresh fruit… nuts… small snacks of maximum protein and nutrition, minimum sugars, calories, carbohydrates. Make the portions small but make their ingestion frequent. Your body knows its work. Don’t overfeed… graze instead. All day long.
7) Make breakfast your most important meal.
You’ve got a lot to accomplish today. You’re going to need a lot of energy and stamina. Thus, you must make breakfast your most important meal. Don’t even dream of stinting here. Breakfast constitutes the launching pad for a successful day. Treat it accordingly. By comparison never, ever eat your biggest meal at the end of the day or evening. Your body can’t handle it and shouldn’t have to try.
Before bed, give yourself a snack, fruit (raisons are always a treat), popcorn. You get the idea. Go to bed satisfied, sleep satisfied, wake up in productive good humor.
You’ll start seeing — and feeling — results at once.
The great thing about managing your diabetes is that if you follow these sensible suggestions, you’ll start seeing results at once. For one thing (and very gratifying it is) your weight will start to drop… reverting to your body’s natural weight. And as you see and feel that occurring, you’ll be spurred to keep on truckin’, towards the Promised Land.
As you go, as you achieve results, reward yourself. You deserve it, not least because you are doing what every one of the 347 million afflicted should be doing… but aren’t. Now that you are on your way to success, print this article and share it with a friend. It’s one of the privileges of your improved situation and state of mind. Use it… and help someone you know and love. Someday they’ll throw their arms around you and tell you you saved their life. And it’ll be true…
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About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. He is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Traffic Blog Empire -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=nh4VYABW

Internet Businesses are real and here is heartfelt blog about it!

By Michael Beirens
The start To best understand the team MLM or network marketing we have to go back to between the Thirteenth to the seventeenth century both in England and in Europe.  The people who lived in the villages at that time all did some form of work, and this was known as the Cottage industry.  People who raised sheep would sell the wool to someone who would spin it into tread that could be used to make cloth.  They made the cloth and then usually on Friday’s and Saturday’s all the villagers in a given area would hold a market and there they would buy or sell or barter merchandise.
As we have stated this was called the cottage industry. Between the eighteenth and nineteenth, centuries along came the Industrial revolution and people with money would build factories and offer jobs to the village people who would then work in one large building. We have all heard about the workshops of Charles Dickens era. Child labor and very poor working conditions.
We have now moved forward to the early and middle twentieth century. Your father or grand father worked for say Ford or Kodak or some other large conglomerate. We have now come full circle with the large corporations. They have now either closed or moved off shore.
Full Circle
We, that is the working families of the world, are in a dilemma.  The vast majority of the working families in the world, can either work for a minimum wage, and usually have the husband and wife working or find an alternative, on how to bring money into the household.  It is this quest for the alternative that I have tried to bring together the information that can help all of the people whether employed, underemployed or unemployed.  It is a very simple and easily answer question…
We must now must go back to the cottage industries or as we know it today MLM or working in the home.  The most infamous MLM Company is off course “Amway.”  People who shun this company may not realize, but they paved the way for many other MLM companies/businesses to find the light of day in our society. It should be stated here that Amway has produced more Millionaires than any other company on the face of the earth.  We have now moved even further with the home industry and the computer has made the home worker the wave of the future.
The Wave of the Future
The stigma of MLM is not only misunderstood but it must be grasped by the general populous if we are to lift our heads above the water again. If you talk to a Tax consultant he would advise that every person should have a home based business. When you have time take a look at this site, it’s all about the tax advantages of having a home  business. http://www.homebusinesstaxsavings.com  The Power of network marketing must be explored and then understood if we are to alleviate the unemployment and poverty not only here in America but also in great many other countries of the world.   The economic climate that is prevalent in the world right now can only be lifted if people go back to the cottage industries.  It is too late for a wait and see what the government can do, it must be understood that they don’t care!  Whether you are a democrat or republican or a whatever, the politicians cannot alleviate the economic conditions that are prevalent throughout America and the world. It should be understood here that it is the corporations that really rule the roost.
The Corporate Structure
Let’s take a perfect example and you who are reading this blog should answer the question that I will pose to yourselves.  The question?  Who is one of the largest corporations in the world and the largest employer in the world?  The answer of course is Wal-Mart!  Let’s first state that the purpose of any corporation is to make a profit, it cannot exist in the world without that.
Let’s now look at the structure of Wal-Mart.  The vast majority of workers are paid the minimum wage in whatever state the store is situated.  You get a fixed income to do a job, you are told to do this job because it makes money for the company.  They, the company, also will pay you as little as possible to make sure they generate the most profits possible. Did you know that there are actually companies hired by huge corporations whose sole purpose is to decide how little they can pay people and still retain them as employees!  Remember that the minimum wage is set by law. Yes!! Our representatives who we vote in to either our state legislator or to Washington DC. They help set this wage limit. Maybe you didn’t know that, but it’s a given truth!
So at this point, in time let’s take a look at the Walton’s family. I would state here that I do not begrudge Sam Walton from making a profit, because Wal-Mart as with all companies are there to make a profit, they cannot exist without it.  But we the worker bees are paid a minimum, and yet the Walton families are the riches family in the world.  I believe that it stands at over $120 billion. I am not writing this blog to advocate any particular policy, I am just pointing out why we the people must go back to the cottage industry if we are to keep our heads above water.
You and I, The worker Bee
Maybe here I should mention one great misunderstood point, and that is that general populous does not understand the power that lies within their hands.  People are of the understanding that the companies, Wal-Mart, Safeway, Coca Cola and heaven knows how many others set the price of the commode’s that you and I buy in the market place.  WRONG!!!!  The prices that are set in the market place are set by the consumer. If a dozen eggs cost say $4 a dozen and no one buys, then the store will bring down the price, it has no choice. If it doesn’t sell a certain commodity they can either throw it away or bring down the price.
So, let’s get one thing straight, we the consumers control the price of 90% of products that are sold today.  But we have been brainwashed for want of a better team to accept what price is put before us.  We are told by the store we have no choice.  If we were to say fine, we are not going to pay that price it would come down.  Remember the expression “United we stand, Divided we fall.”   When people are divided they can be controlled and sold a bill of goods, on that I will say no more.
Do not like being sold
Let us now get back to network marketing, how many people reading my blog have been approached or e-mailed about some internet business. We, that is all of humanity hate to be sold anything. Let’s look at an example if we see two people approaching our door, we know straight away that someone is going to try to sell us something, whether they are Mormons, or JW’s or insurance or whatever, so we run and hide if we have time.
The Internet Age
There are millions of homes which now have computers, so we might think that things are worse, because we can be inundated by e-mails. The one great thing about e-mails is we don’t have to refuse anyone in person we just erase the email and move on.  But the other side to the coin, is we also might miss a great business opportunity. When you surf the internet there are so many great opportunities shown that you can get overwhelmed.  You have to be on your toes, as there are a great many scams out there.
Is the Internet a Scam?
When the word scam is brought up, you might automatically think they the business is not legitimate, but that is not entirely true, it could mean that the people who call themselves Guru are scamming you out of money. They usually ask for $47, then when you click away it drops to $27, then if you click away again it goes down to $17 either they sell you the e-book or whatever and they only show you the minimum so if you want more knowledge it cost you yet again.
Don’t pay for something you don’t understand!
The first thing you should ask is does this cost me money, if so how much.  Have you ever noticed how popular the following prices are $17, $27, $47 or even $97  where this guys get the prices from are mentioned in the former paragraph. People will pay because they are reading a well written advertisement, usually written by a company that majors in phycology. They know what the magic words are. Don’t Be Foolish, and don’t give those people your money!
Why is This article in My blog
The main reason I’m writing this small e-book is to advise you that you do not have to pay a great deal of money for any good internet program.  There are many very good internet programs out there and they are free to you to sign up.  My advice is don’t spend money, when you don’t know anything about Network marketing, what you are being sold is as they say a bill of goods. It looks good and they usually have people with strong testimonials, but the majority of the people giving these testimonials have been working the internet for a couple of years.  The ads sometimes go like this.
Would you like to be ** Your Own Boss **, — Work from Home — and achieve **$$ Financial Freedom $$? Would you like to spend more valuable time with Your Family?
Discover the Best Home Based Businesses and Extra Income Ideas.
Start your own Home Based Business now and you can achieve Financial Freedom.
Interested? Click the Link now and set yourself FREE today!
The Realization of Your Dreams!
It should mentioned here, that never in the history of the work place have so many business been available than can make the ordinary Joe, like you and me into multi-millionaires. The digital age is upon us and it is changing the economy right in front of our eyes. These internet programs would have been impossible even five years ago, but with all the changes in ecommerce and the hundreds of millions of people online the impossible has become possible. The world is really our Oster. If you tried with being a worker bee for someone else then an internet business holds your future. You must understand that 97% of the internet programs work but you have to understand all about the different parts that make up the whole.  There are four or five major obstacles that will confront you. But I’m only going to mention a couple.
Understanding MLM!
Let’s take a look at the Amway Founders Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel, they will tell you the story of Amway and if you are really interested in that story I believe there is a number of good books out there.  But basically they will tell you they approached about 1,000 people 900 wouldn’t give then time of day 100 signed up 90 dropped out and the other 10; 5 did nothing and 5 made Amway a billion dollar company.  The second story is just as interesting. You and I know it as KFC.  But did you know that Hartland Sanders started KFC when he was 66 years old,  He took his chicken recipe door to door or actually restaurant to restaurant.  He came out of the 1065 restaurant door, very discouraged, I’m not sure what his mind was saying but I would imagine it was lets go home, no one wants my chicken recipe. But he stopped one more time and the rest as they say is history.  One other person who I find very interesting is Bill Britt, one of Amway’s most successful distributors. His story is the same as the Amway founders, he showed the plan to about 1200 people, 900 said thanks but no thanks, a couple of hundred signed up, and about a dozen made Bill a multi-millionaire.

Reasons to Quit before you start
The first and most disheartens enemy then is Rejection, you must be ready to accept this, remember they are not rejecting you they are rejecting an idea that they have no understanding off.  Unfortunately the Amway stigma still hangs about that word, ‘MLM.’  Please understand that people do not know what they are rejecting.  Remember too that there first question if they are listening at all is “How much do you make,”   Then when you say “well I’m just starting out, just like Henry Ford; I’m trying to make my first car.  There answer is “Come back when you made a million bucks.”  You can at this point be sarcastic and say when I’ve made my first million I won’t be living around here then.so you better get in now.”
The second enemy that you have to face is deception, People will say that they will come to your house or where ever the presentation is and off course they won’t turn up. The great difference today is, you don’t have to hold meetings, you just leave them with a video and tell them you’ll watch it with them or you’ll come back tomorrow and pick it up.
To Start a Journey
How many people reading this little blog like to grow stuff  in their garden. Well let’s look at the analogy.
You find a plot of land, you dig the plot, weed out the grass and weeds, hoe the ground and plant you seeds. You pull the weeds and water your garden, and at the end of the growing season, you harvest your crop. If you would take that much care of a garden, why will you not take such care of your mind and life?
The stage is set for you to take hold of your life, there is a saying
“Don’t just take a breath to live, BUT!!! Take a breath to live, grow and learn.”
Another saying that I wrote a few years back.
“It doesn’t take courage to be a dreamer! BUT!!! It does take courage to turn dreams into reality.”
Let’s assume that you have listened to someone about an internet business, at this point let’s not both with a name. The journey that you are about to embark on can be a great adventure, if you want to look at it that way.  There is a saying “To change your life, all you have to do is change your mind,” You will, whether you realize it or not, you are going to have to move out of your comfort zone.  You may ask why I have so many little saying, the reason is that they are positive affirmations and when I feel a negative wave, I try to remember a little saying. You ask does it work, sometimes but, regardless I’m glad I can say them to myself.
Why Have I covered so much area
If you are reading this blog and you may be asking a great many questions. I mean I have taken you from the dark ages up to this internet age.  My purpose in taking you along this road is having you build within yourself, the realization that all of us go through hardships. The hardships of choice, we can either stay a worker bee or we can take life by the horns and give yourselves and your spouse and your children a better life.  I have said it before in this blog and I’ll repeat, never in the history of the world have there been so many opportunities to better ourselves than now.
Conditioned from School age
It’s unfortunate, but whether you realize it or not, we have been conditioned since our school days to fail, some people might say that’s not so, well Government surveys prove this statement, it is a fact that at retirement 67% of the people cannot provide for their own needs, and only 1 or 2 % are independently wealthy.
A Dream in Your heart
Everyone has a vision of themselves in their head, and for most people that vision is identical to their current reality.  They don’t see themselves as anything bigger than what they already are and therefore opportunity doesn’t register as anything of intrinsic value.  They may work in a convenience store and in their head they are a convenience store worker.  Most of what is sold to good people these days is a bunch of bad advice and general information.
If you read this far it means that you are searching for something.   You want to be more that a worker bee.  So a little exercise, sit and close your eyes.  Visualize what it is you want with all your heart, mind and soul. Build the dream in your mind. If you don’t dream, how do you think your dreams will come true?  But! It should be emphasized that your success is directly related to how hard you work, as it is in any business.
Helping others along the road to success
But with an Internet Business one other element should be added and that is your success is hinged a great deal on how much you help others. As you build your business do not look on others as dollar bills. Remember they are people who also have dreams.  Numbers never lie, pick your goal and then go into overdrive and massive action. If you talk to enough people you will succeed.  Bill Britt made a tape years ago, remember he’s a millionaire from Amway.  The tape is called “Would you search a year for someone like me.”
Why both writing this article
The main reason for writing this blog is to help you make logical and wise decisions, I have been burned so many times when I started out, that I am determent to stop as many people as I can from being burned and lead astray. There is no need to scam people but the so called gurus want to give enough that you will buy but keep enough from you that you are never a threat to their market place.
What not to look for in an Internet Business
We are now ready to look at a number of Internet businesses; the first item on the agenda is minimum cost, like $1 up to say $25 no more than that.  We don’t want to be hit by the so called guru’s; you know we have mentioned the $47 gang. You would not believe how many people rush through things, sign up to every new program in pre-launch and expect thousands by the morning.  I am going to put this bluntly…  The fact is you are being programmed to buy, Buy, and BUY, over and over again, without asking any serious questions about WHAT it is you actually need to succeed. You are being kept in the dark in regards to the ONLY things you actually have to learn to achieve success online.
Don’t Ever Give up
What I mean by that is you are being programmed to seek and purchase only the “HOPE” of achieving your goals, not the actual knowledge and education needed to help you DO IT!
This is not your fault, but is the natural direction the mind moves into when it reaches a point of saturation and information overload.
This is not some vast conspiracy mind you; it is just how marketing works. The problem is you need to learn HOW it works or it will work you over pretty bad, and you will continue to suspend your logic and reason without even realizing it is happening.
You need to be working for YOU, not some Internet or MLM “guru” who is grooming you to be their retirement fund.
Can I get Rich Quick
There are NO free rides to a successful business.
The truth is this…You CAN get rich quick! Don’t let anyone tell you it is not possible, because it is. You just have to KNOW what to do and what to expect, and that is where my marketing team comes in.
You have to start out with a realistic expectation of what “Quick” means first, or you will get burned time and time again online.
If you can completely replace your current income and then some in 12 months, that is quick! If you do not think that is quick then I know of a few slick marketers that have a product or two to sell you at around $97 a pop…or just go to Clickbank and take your pick!
Let’s Get Real Here…
You are reading this blog because you have already come to the realization that you don’t need to work for someone else your entire life to be financially stable and successful. We all know how that kind of plan works (or doesn’t work).
Remember not to speed read through this blog or skim over it. If you read slowly and let it soak in you won’t be confused afterwards or have to read it over and over again. This is YOUR future we are talking about here so do yourself a favor and Pay Attention!
What type of Business  is a Good Business
The type of business that you should look for and I’m going to mention a few, but the choice of which or any that you join is off course your final decision. I cannot and will not make that decision for you. Please understand that. The reason that I do not make those kinds of decisions is because I don’t know how you think and what you present circumstances are.
I give you an internet business address and you must read and think about what you need and what you see. But as I have stated any internet business that you visit from my referrals will not cost a great deal of money. Also they are very easy to understand and if you sign up for a business there are no hidden cost that you will be asked to pay for, so that you can obtain more information.
Always remember the choices that you make will determine the course of your future. No more no less!  To finish this blog, I want you remember this; success always comes down to one thing. “Am I willing to pay the price for my personal financial freedom”?
A life full of Stress
Before I mention a number of Internet Businesses, let’s look at what Forbes Magazine has stated that over the next 3 to 5 years 79 million people will be exactly where you are now looking for a home based business.  There is nothing worse than having to decide which bills to pay and
which ones you can get away with not paying until next month. Just like you, millions of people will have become tired of just getting by and of being forced to live in “fight/flight-survival mode” each and every day.  Let that go for a minute and imagine this…
Finally Life without Stress
Imagine having the time to do exactly what you want to do when you want to do it…Imagine you don’t have to selectively choose to pay your mortgage over your power bill this month…Imagine not having to make a quick payment to your credit card just to keep it from going over the limit!  Then answer me this question…How would your life change if 12 months from now, you could have replaced your entire income online through your own business, AND positioned yourself to be able to make as much money as you  want to, whenever you want to, from that point on?
Types of Internet Businesses
I now going to mention a number of businesses and give there internet address.  If you sign up for one of them or all of them you will find that I am your direct sponsor or up line. How they are listed is in no way telling you which the best is or the worst. As I have stated and will repeat I am not advising on which to join if any, because I believe that is your choice. I will certainly give you guidance and advice but that’s all.   So here is a list and brief description of each internet business.
This internet business is run by a great guy Howard Martell, if you wish to know more about this guy please read about him on his sites. His internet business address is http://blog.homeprofitcoach.com/?p=1136 and after reading a little on this site go to the bottom of the page and you will see two other address  http://HomeProfitCoach.com and http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=hi76Cl4e You may contact him for further information and help via skype at homeprofitcoach.   You will find that when you become involved with good people on the internet they tent to help as much as they can. They will not do the work for you but will help point you in the right direction.  You will see on the right hand side a number of other internet businesses, please check these out for your own interest.
This next business is actually an extension of the former business run by Howard Martell. The name of this internet business is Worldprofit Inc., the internet address for this business is http://www.worldprofit.com/default.cfm?id=5235375 this is my web site but feel free to read and investigate this business. Another address to visit is  http://worldprofithome.wordpress.com/   Sign up for a Free Associate Member account now! You’ll see that Worldprofit is a very different kind of company.  If after reading and studying about the company, you wish to sign up for a silver membership, the cost may be a little prohibitive, but, after you study it and maybe talk to my upline Howard Martell you’ll understand what is included, the price to join is very low, when you compare what you are being given, and the help that is available to you after you become you are a member.  The business was founded in 1994 by Dr. Jeffrey Lant, George Kosch and Sandi Hunter as a home business on a kitchen table in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  Today Worldprofit Inc. is the number one choice for people who want to learn how to build a successful home business. Worldprofit is one of the largest website hosting providers in Western Canada, providing design, software, training, software, support, marketing, education and e-business tools for small and home based customers around the globe.  Worldprofit Inc offers home business owners a complete system for growing a successful online business – ANY online business.
The next internet business is run by a great guy Stefan Berg and his wife. Their business address is   http://globalnpn.com/freereport/   my advice here is read and reread don’t just look at the words but understand what he is telling you. His information is very clear and very, very important for you and others that you may sponsor as you grow in the knowledge. The other address is http://theleadmagnet.com/refmail.php?userid=coollimey&id=10083 as I stated this business states at $10.75 and there are no hidden costs, as you will see as you read.
About the Author: Michael Beirens
I am  from England originally but I am very Patriotic and love America and wrote this to wake up  the America’s  and  give the power to the people! They have the power to change there future.
Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell MCEC
http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Fast Fan Pages ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=ij7eb90h

Quirk. n. A personal peculiarity. We’ve all got ‘em.

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Howard Martell

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It is now mid-June, 2011 here in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The Harvard
students have left town, some for good having just graduated; others making
the trek to where all true Harvard students go in summer, to Washington, D.C. –
and Power.
The town is now filling up with summer school students who want to buff up
their resumes by studying at Hahvud. Of course, bona fide Harvard grads
always know the difference… and make you feel your presumption.
… but I’m not here to write about these folks, though they no doubt bring
plenty of tales. I am here to comment on all the June weddings taking place
in the many churches clustered around the Cambridge Common.
The Puritans who created the Commonwealth designated Cambridge as
the theological center of their new land. And while they wanted conformity,
they reluctantly accepted multiplicity… so on any given Sunday there is a plethora of
ideological choices.
But doctrine isn’t my story. My story today concerns, as stated, the many weddings
taking place just now… and just what bride and groom, bride and bride and
groom and groom (for Cambridge celebrates its progressive attitude so)
really know about each other…
…. their quirks.
Quirks are the peculiarities each of us  has collected over the years.
Passion may quell. Desire wane. Love transmute. But quirks are forever.
And ever… and ever. Which, so often, drive your Significant Other to
estrangement and Judge Judy.
Be honest with your mate… they’re going to find out anyway.
Along with blood tests and other marriage pre-requisites there should be a
full disclosure of one’s quirks… and a frank, honest discussion about whether
you can stand the quirks you are about to live with. In the interest of fair
play and total truth, I shall write here, right now, a few of my own personal
quirks.
Item: I have been known to take 3 showers or more in a day, day after day. If
cleanliness is next to godliness, I am sitting in His lap.
Item: I detest face cloths and regard their very presence as provocative, as
likely repositories of germs and bad smells.
Item: If I use a spoon when eating my breakfast, I will use it with only one
thing, and must then get another.  It means more spoon washing but the clear
separation of food tastes and textures is worth it.
Getting the picture?
Since I am in the vanguard of quirk acknowledgement and disclosure,  I want to push
the envelope further, aiming to make the subject a must ingredient in the selection
of mates.
As we all know, 50% of marriages, all of which commence in bliss and fairy
tales, end in divorce. I feel sure that open acknowledgement and acceptance
of partner quirks would cause these lamentable numbers to fall, even plummet.
Let me show you how that could be done.
Each partner is required to submit to the marrying authority, justice of the peace or
archbishop, a list of ten of their quirks.
Note: we know that at first go both partners, enraptured by love remember, will not be
as thorough and honest as required. So, regard this first list as practice; the fullest
disclosure yet to come.
You suggest a quirk: “I run my fingers through my hair dozens of times a day and never have
a comb handy”.
Your partner must then rate the quirk: on a scale of 1-10, (1 meaning “no problem”;
10 meaning “absolute deal breaker. Get out”.
Once each of you has run through your first list, it’s time to get serious. Each of
you must list 10 quirks of your beloved… and, the key, rate them on that 1-10 scale.
Geronimo!
GIs jumpiing out of airplanes in WWII used to shout the name of the great Apache
chief as they leapt out. It signified one wild ride was about to begin. Seems appropriate
to say it here, too…
Okay, let’s get started.
Partner 1: “When you eat M&Ms (which is every friggin’ day),you count them to make
sure you only eat an even number. What’s that all about anyway?”
Now tell your partner (scale of 1-10) just how you feel about that quirk? The lower the
score, the less noxious; the higher, the more.
This is a game sure to while away an otherwise unexceptional evening.
Share and share alike.
Remember, good manners and good cheer help this exercise move along.
Take turns identifying and rating quirks.
Remember, honesty is everything.
If the fact that your darlin’ has to count the M&Ms (and line up all the colors, too)
really bugs you, say so. And if your partner says, “so what, that’s just the way I
am”, that’s good, too. ALL perfect relationships are founded on perfect, total
disclosure. What could be better?
Now switch. Identify a particularly aggravating partner quirk?
“You hum ‘Rule Britannia’ in your sleep and have a tendency to kick me when
you reach “Britons never, never will be slaves.”
This being a nocturnal habit, partner may not even know. That’s why it’s so
helpful to talk these matters out and why Full Quirk Disclosure is sure to catch on.
Nothing but benefits.
By now I feel sure the benefits of ‘fessing up on quirks holds nothing but benefits
for all. That’s why this beneficial exercise must be expanded to parents and
children; grandparents and grand children; members of Congress and all presidential
candidates. You get the idea.
Start now. And never stint in your remarks. After all, love means never  having
to say you’re sorry.

About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.  He is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell MCEC http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Cash Renegade ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=to0kJkVU

Lizzie and Johnny Edwards were lovers. Swore to be true to each other, true as stars above….

5, 2011 | Author: Jeffrey Lant | Posted in Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s Article Archive

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. To get you in the right mood for this honky-tonk tale of adolescent passion and its sordid conclusion, search for Elvis Presley’s version of “Frankie and Johnny, or You’ll Miss Me In the Days to Come.” Written by the Leighton Bros. and Ren Shields (1912); it was the title song in the 1966 film starring Elvis. It exactly conveys the right mood for this article.
Cute, cute, so temptingly, dangerously cute.
This is the story of a cute Southern boy named Johnny Reid Edwards to whom the gods gave everything… except the self-control he needed to keep all his treasures together. You find such boys everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line. Dressed in polo shirts and shorts, they’re quick with a quip and that dazzling smile, the smile whose power they soon understand and use with devastating effect.That smile is the royal road to everything… including the women who love them, not wisely (as they all come to discover), but too well.
This is the story of one such boy, Johnny Reid Edwards, the boy with enough wattage in that smile to take him to the top. Or so he reckoned. For now he stands indicted. The man who might have had the White House… now faces the possibility of the Big House.
Born June 10, 1953 in Seneca, South Carolina, a good place to get out of.
Johnny Reid Edwards’ parents were Wallace Reid Edwards and Catharine Juanita “Bobbie” Edwards (nee Wade). The family moved frequently during Edwards’ childhood, eventually settling in Robbins, North Carolina. There his father worked as a textile mill floor worker, eventually promoted to supervisor; his mother had a roadside antique finishing business, featuring the kind of dusty bric-a-brac without value where a smart passerby hopes to make a discovery for “Antiques Roadshow”… but never does. She later became a postal letter carrier. It at least paid regular.
Johnny Reid Edwards, a boy who looked up.
Johnny Edwards was a high school football star. That, and always remember that mega- watt smile, gave him what he wanted… what he always wanted… attention. And lots of it, as any American knows who has ever watched (and envied) the staged swagger of these adolescent lords of the gridiron as they enter their kingdoms each day. He learned what he had to do to move out… and move up.
Edwards was the first person in his family to attend college. He attended Clemson University and transferred to North Carolina State University. Edwards graduated with high honors earning a degree in textile technology in 1974 and later earned his Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law (UNC) with honors.
The girl of his dreams?
A man has dreams of the person he wants to marry, but only he knows whether the girl he marries is that dream. Did he get what he wanted… or did he just settle for less? His wife assumes she is his beloved… only to discover, sooner or later, she was merely a facsimile, and therein are the seeds of dissension.
While at UNC met Elizabeth Anania. They married in 1977; they were both cute as bugs in a rug… but Edwards was clearly cuter, and of course he was always festooned with the mega-watt Southern boy smile that just wouldn’t quit.
The couple had 4 children (Wade in 1979, Cate in 1982, Emma Claire in 1998,and Jack in 2000.) Elizabeth matured into an ample matron during these years… John Edwards stayed as young and cute as ever, the very picture of Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1891) where the portrait ages, not the man. When a man comes to learn that he retains the secret of adolescence, of what mayhem and conquests may he not dream, and more than dream? For who would be sensible in the face of such a boon?
Malpractice millions.
After law school, Edwards clerked for a federal judge and in 1978 became an associate of the Nashville law firm of Dearborn & Ewing, doing primarily trial work, defending a Nashville bank and other corporate clients. The Edwards family returned to North Carolina in 1981, settling in the capital of Raleigh where he joined the firm of Tharrington, Smith & Hargrove.
He was about to break through to the big money, the really big money.
In 1984, Edwards was assigned to a medical malpractice lawsuit that had been perceived as unwinnable; the firm had only accepted it as a favor to an attorney and state senator who did not want to keep it. Nevertheless, Edwards, assisted by that all-powerful smile, won a $3.7 million verdict on behalf of his client, who had suffered permanent brain and nerve damage after a doctor prescribed an overdose of the anti- alcoholism drug Antabuse during alcohol aversion therapy. It was his first big victory… but only the first of huge, multi-million dollar victories and the huge sums he made. In due course, Edwards developed a winning formula that established him as the unstoppable rainmaker… the most important lawyer in any law firm, for they were the ones who had mastered the art of getting the serious money.
Edwards soon became a legend for this money. He had an eye for which cases would deliver the big bucks… and of course he knew, a combination of instinct and experience, how turn the woes of the little people into a cascade of cash, how to squeeze the big guys and rise high.
The tragedy of his life.
And so it might have gone, with the silver-tongued orator able to take the jury to just where he wanted them to go, showing them their power… and showing them how to wield it for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. But in 1996 his first-born child Wade was killed in a freak jeep accident. It was perhaps the only true tragedy of his life, for here the gods took what he so loved… and here, for once, words failed Edwards; the reality of too-soon death too real, too distressing.
A few weeks after Wade’s death, the words were his to command again. Edwards in his 90 minute closing to the jury referenced his great personal tragedy. Mark Dayton, editor of “North Carolina Lawyers Weekly,” called it the “most impressive legal performance I have ever seen.” The jury awarded the family $25 million, the largest personal injury award in North Carolina history… And so, with great irony, his son’s death helped Edwards rise high and higher still…. senator from North Carolina (1998); vice presidential nominee (2004) and, until his implosion in 2008, candidate for president.
Through it all, he still had that Southern boy cuteness; looking like the sunny side of 30 that he wasn’t. Acting like it, too. Which is how ex-senator John Edwards,husband, father, respected statesman, found himself, June 3, 2011, in a North Carolina court charged with violating federal campaign finance laws, using contributions from wealthy benefactors to conceal his mistress and their baby while he was running for president in 2008. That boyish demeanor, handsome face, lithe body, and that smile had at last gotten him into deep trouble.
Elizabeth Edwards, the loyal wife who shielded him, divorced him, then died (2011). American voters who had believed in him now reviled. The big money had stopped. Only one thing remained: he looked absolutely terrific when he walked into the courtroom, the result of forgetting something: Lizzie and Johnny Edwards were lovers. Swore to be true to each other, true as stars above…. he was her man, and he did her wrong.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses.
Republished with author's permission by Howard Martell <a http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Killer Content ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=hh3oNjiJ
* * * * *

Write to be read. What you need to know and do to turn everyword you write into the word that gets results.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Allow me to  introduce myself. I am a writing machine. My first article was published when I was 5 years old, 59 years ago; I’ve been a writing machine ever since. I’ve made a fortune knowing how to manipulate the incredible English language.
Sadly, I am in the minority. Having taught writing courses at many institutions of higher learning, including Harvard, I long ago came to the conclusion that most people would rather get a root canal than struggle with the dicey business of writing so people will read, understand and respond to what they write. Needless to say this costs them big bucks, since if you cannot use your own language, the lingua franca of the world,as the essential tool it is for business and life success, you lose much of the value of that language. And that is a crying shame.
I want to help you out, and I’ve therefore created the list below of key points which when mastered dramatically improve the way you write and the results you get.
1) Just because you’re a native English speaker doesn’t know you know anything about writing our complicated, sophisticated, absolutely splendid language. Speaking and writing are two separate, though related, things, and must be seen as such.
Start from the proposition that you are, shall we say, “challenged” by writing in English. There are many reasons why this could occur: you weren’t properly taught. Although teachers unions may strongly disagree, the fact is most teachers are not trained to write words that get results. Thus, they are unable to teach their students, who thereby start off their life-long relationship with writing the right words on the wrong foot. What’s more, most never manage to overcome this poor start; instead of trying to overcome the problem, they find ways to minimize or even avoid writing altogether. That is surely what throwing the baby out with the bath water means.
2) Admit you have a problem that’s not going to get better on its own.
As a business writer for my entire (now long in the tooth) adult life, one of the saddest things I see is respected business leaders not only unable to write the Queen’s English proficiently but proud of themselves because they mangle it in both its spoken and written manifestations. Yes, proud of themselves… each embarrassing misusage and mistake proving their warped satisfaction that they are therefore “people of the people”, thereby immune from proper usage. Just to state this proposition is to prove what a zany idea that is… yet it is common.
3) Force yourself to write more and better.
Like so many things in life, the more you write, the better you’ll get. Most business people are poor writers because, being VIPs, they delegate such “minor” tasks to others. What seems at first glance to be something rational and efficient, upon second glance proves to be nothing more than a means to slough off something you strongly dislike. Now hear this: even if you are the Chief Poobah of the world, indeed because you are that self-same Poobah, you need the ability to write the right words to get the results you must have to expand your clientele and business  altogether.
This means no longer delegating all writing projects which ordinarily accrue to people of your dignity and position, but accepting at least some of them, not least to give yourself necessary practice… with the clear understanding that practice does most assuredly make perfect.
4) Less is always more.
Brevity, it is said on the highest authority, is the soul of wit. It’s also the key to ensuring that what you write will be carefully read and easily understood.
Poor writers are prolix writers; they write too much, edit too little, and manage to kill any fruitful results that might come by burying the objective in verbosity thereby suffocating the writing and ensuring its failure.
When you sit down to write any document whatsoever, your objective, 100% of the time, is to
state what you aim to achieve
Then, succinctly, marshal your arguments, with the preeminent and clear focus on what the recipient gets from you by taking the promptest possible action.
This means that if you want results, your invariable focus must be on the “you” you are writing to; getting this person’s attention, interest, then action is what all good business writing is about… such writing may never win the Nobel Prize for Literature… but who cares? It can make you rich.
5) Use numbers to structure what you write.
Good writers, particularly good writers in a hurry (are there any others?) use numbers to ensure readership and clarity. Thus,
“I have three reasons for contacting you today….”
“There are 6 major reasons why you must respond today….”
“Here are the 5 reasons you’ll want to take advantage of this offer now….”
Get the picture? Numbering provides structure, and it makes both writing and reading of what you write easier.  Remember, you do not need to win prizes for your prose; it need only be good enough to get the results you desire.
6) Always write for the “you” receiving your writing.
Good writers, and by that I mean fast, efficient, easy to read writers, know a secret which, until now, has been unknown by you: that English prose sings when you make it “you” centered, the you in question being the person you are addressing your words to.
All people are egotistically and I-centered. Don’t fight City Hall on this one; take advantage of this fact, to your substantial advantage. The words you write should always be about, for, directed at and done (whether explicitly or not) for “you”, the person you must never forget you are writing for.
7) Read your words aloud… and save your breath!
Want to know whether what you’ve written will achieve your purpose? Read it aloud to yourself. If you find yourself meandering through dense thickets of words and punishing verbosity, difficult “show off” words and elusive meaning and directions, you need re-write (as every Hollywood director knows).
Sentences should never be longer than you can comfortably read in a single breath, no fudging either.
Key points should be made, emphasized, stressed… but always in short sentences.
Your writing should have a cadence which reading aloud will demonstrate. The best writing is writing that moves you briskly through the subject at hand, without a single superfluous word.
Start today.
As you implement these steps and begin to see tangible results which will only improve, you will be glad, even blissful, that the bugaboo of being a poor writer is now gone… never to return.
What will fill its place is one result after another achieved by deft use of the written word you feared at the beginning of this article… and now rejoice as one of the absolutely essential tools for enhanced business success. And that’s a fact you can write home about!
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Killer Content ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=hh3oNjiJ

In the good old summertime. How to keep your profits sky-high in June, August, and July.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. To get you in just the proper state of bliss for this article, search any search engine for that peppy Gay ‘Nineties style toe tapper, “In the good old summertime.” Released in1949 George Evans — music; Ren Shields — lyrics. I like Nat King Cole’s snazzy rendition.
Admit it, with Summer of 2011 at hand, you’re happy… especially if you’ve been suffering through a particularly bad and prolonged winter and punk spring as we in New England have. Yeah, catching a few rays at the beach looks real good about now… as does some Jimmy Buffett margaritas while doing absolutely nothing except swing in the hammock. Sign me up!
There is, of course, one fly in the ointment; there always is. And that fly is the little matter of your business… and the usual expenses that never seem to take a vacation. The question before this (beach) house is this: what can you do to make cool profits when the temperature’s hot. Dude, you’ve come to the right place for some sure-fire ways to sell your cake and eat it, too.
1) Recognize you’ve got a problem.
Most businesses (except seasonal ones) experience sales slow-downs and slumps after Memorial Day up to about a week or so after Labor Day; that is for non-USA readers from the last week-end of May until the first couple weeks of September. Your customers are planning on doing some of the same Buffett-style cavorting that you’ve got in mind… and if that diminishes your profits and gives you some cash problems, so what! They want to parteeee, just like you!
2) Check your sales stats for the previous summer.
Get the hard numbers. How bad was last year’s summer doldrums? That’ll give you a helpful benchmark for what you need this summer… and the dimensions of the seasonable slow-down you need to make up, for the sake of your peace of mind, to say nothing else.
3) Get your stats together ASAP.
You’re already behind the eight ball for these data; Memorial Day, after all, has come and gone and that is the unofficial start of summer. If you haven’t got your profit rescue plan together by now, you’ve got some midnight oil to burn to catch up. Remember, if you’re like most businesses (even the best established and successful), the advent of Memorial Day signifies the advent of those (gently we trust) slack profits that make us all nervous, especially in these economically soft times, the result of our last great recession.
4) Check the great (buy now) sales offers you made for last summer and the summer before.
You’ve got detailed information on the sales they made for you, don’t you? Well? The first rule of business life is never, ever re-invent the wheel. Check out your offers; what worked for bringing in the bucks? It may well make sense to re-use what you’ve already successfully done. Unless circumstances have dramatically changed, revise ads that have worked for you, bringing them up to date.
5) Offers, offers, better offers.
The key to your summer sales and keeping profits high is making good, limited time offers. This doesn’t mean just good offers; it means the best offers you can make. That’s where the money is.
You may think the customer is getting a deal that’s “too good”. Get rid of that pesky thought at once. I’m not going to hand you some sanctimonious line about the crucial importance of keeping customers happy and getting them to buy over and over again. You already know that.
No, the reason for making extraordinary, never-seen-before offers, is — you. You need the money and the peace of mind that accompanies it. So spectacular offers throughout the summer are mandatory. From right now!
6) Make more offers.
Yah, I told you this already. Why then am I repeating myself? Because the offer is absolutely crucial, and you must treat it as such.
Towards this end, make sure you keep all the special offers you make this summer; make sure each is accompanied by the exact sales stats. That’s your clue about whether you should offer them again towards the end of summer; or for your consideration next year.
7) Offer “best customer” deals… and be aggressive about promoting them.
Chances are if your business is in pretty good shape, you’ve become (sad to say) a tad lazy about marketing. You may even have “take-it-for-granted — itis”, and that costs you, especially during the summer when, whatever the temperature in your neck of the woods, you’ve got to hustle! “Best customer” deals are tailor-made for this situation.
Take the time, now (remember unofficial summer has already begun), to brainstorm extra good offers for your best customers. The more the merrier. Remember, you need cash and you need it yesterday. Your best customers already support you liberally; they can support you even more liberally. That is, if you make the really motivating offers that get them to take notice — and spend!
Call your best customers… and make time every day to talk live to and give these people your dazzling customer service (and, of course)… offers.
These days lots of businesses, use the phone for nothing more than taking incoming calls and calling the cleaner to see if they’ve got fresh clothes for tomorrow. In other words, old style personal treatment via the phone is about as dead as thank-you notes. But not chez vouz. It’s time to prove that you never forget how to ride a bike, er, make sales on the phone. Note: in case I forgot to mention… every phone conversation should, at the very least, be followed by some dazzling offers made via email. But you already know that.
9) Get a jump on your (probably) busier fall sales season. With the best will in the world and lots of action, you may still come up a few bucks short of your usual quarterly profits Be prepared!
If you can’t keep your profits up during the summer months to their accustomed levels, don’t despond. Prepare now; improve fall sales. This means, you guessed it, even more offers. You need to be one busy locomotive, dreaming up great offers, seeing what your competitors are doing, keeping the necessary stats, and also preparing to re-use what works.
10) Use any doldrums to perfect your sales machine.
When I go out and about, I am an inveterate scrutinizer of ad copy and whatever the establishment in question is doing for marketing. You must do the same, always anxious and eager to upgrade your crucial marketing machine. Become a marketing snoop; remember, even the tiniest and most lackluster business is doing something right. Your job is to find out what that is… then see whether your business could benefit from such techniques. You’ll get a ton of great ideas this way… and the money that follows your implementation.
Follow these sensible recommendations and your summer of 2011 will reach or even exceed some of those good old summertimes you have known… especially if you’ve got that tootie wootsie on your arm, for that is indeed a very good thing!
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Fast Fan Pages -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=ij7eb90h

Thoughts about Sunday and our threatened leisure time.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Today is Sunday, May 29, 2011. I shall celebrate it like millions of people worldwide by going to work, leaving me at the end of the day with only a tiny sliver of the leisure time my grandparents had every Sunday for their long lives. This continuing labor is not necessarily entirely beneficial… although many good things do in fact come from the Sunday tasks performed by its workers worldwide.
Today, therefore, I examine Sunday, its uses and, some suggested better uses. The objective, which I set for myself as clearly as for you, is to examine a problem that grows larger for more people every year: cannibalizing Sunday for the time that should be used for your necessary refreshment and revitalization; sadly each year less of it is. In our frenetic times, we no longer, like Ponce de Leon (1474-1521), search for eternal youth. But we, who are prone to think Don Ponce a bit of a fool, are engaged in our version of his odyssey. We know we need more time, and we are engaged in the never-ending pursuit of ways to get it.
We are victims of work creep and leisure drain, two insidious, inter-related conditions that threaten to turn us into drones who use improving their economic condition as their reason for changing Sunday from free time to work time. “We have to,” they insist.
When I hear this, I think of how monkeys are captured, by a very clever and inexpensive method. The hunter uses no guns or bullets; he wants his monkeys in good condition. Instead, he uses a narrow-lipped jar packed with cookies and other primate delights. This jar is placed in an area frequented by the curious creatures; when they see piles of the sweet things they love best they thrust a paw down the jar… and are trapped.
Now here’s the ironic thing: to regain their freedom, all the monkeys must do is open their paw and let the delicious but dangerous goodie fall to the bottom of the jar. Their clenched paw and the goodie inside have made them prisoners; merely opening their paw will free them. But the monkeys will not unclench their paws, for that would cost them the dainties. And so they are well and truly captured by their own avarice and their desire for more.
And so we, too, are well and truly trapped and captured by the work we must do every day, work we call completely urgent and necessary so as to preserve our life style. But at what cost? We are as trapped and baffled as the monkeys, and like them we might have chosen a less perilous way; one above all else preserving our own freedom.
How the concept of Sunday has evolved over the last 200 years.
Since the sweeping success of both the British and American evangelical movements at the end of the 18th century, three distinctly different Sundays have existed.
First was the evangelical Sunday, strictly reserved for God’s Sabbath with absolutely no work of any kind permitted. England’s Lord’s Day Observance Society (founded 1831) epitomized the thinking that lead to strict Sabbatarianism. God had rested on the seventh day; you would therefore rest, and humbly so, whether you wanted to or not.
As the widely believed verities of the evangelicals began to wane at the end of the nineteenth century (later in America) Sunday changed, too. Progressive humanists argued that strict Sabbartarianism discriminated against the poor and laboring classes who had just Sunday and Sunday only to enjoy all the educational and other amenities. Criticism now centered on the people who advocated a strict and unyielding Sabbath, spent extolling God’s virtues, to the neglect of everything else.This new view saw Sunday as desirable and deserved leisure time, not merely the occasion for weary strictness and total biblical focus.
This trend produced what came to be known as the “Continental Sunday”, where leisure, all kinds of leisure, was wanted and indulged, the general sentiment being that the common folks worked hard for this day and deserved its delights and amenities. And delights and amenities they got as the golden days of the Continental Sunday with its laissez fair ways and relaxed conditions freed the nation from stringent rules and restrictions, mostly emanating from churches of an evangelical persuasion.
So matters might have stayed if matters of this kind are ever unchanging. But the leisured, recreational, family-centered delights of Continental Sundays were changed and challenged by such cultural factors as the desire to make more money to acquire the things money can buy. In periods of economic difficulty this factor changed again; in such periods people had to take Sunday and turn it into additional income, never mind the leisure that was thereby sacrificed — and was so desirable and needed.
Now the nibbling process is at work on the grand, happy, burden-lifting Continental Sunday, an institution so needed by the hard-working folk on Planet Earth you might be excused for thinking this new, third phase had to be an improvement on what we already had.
But is it?
It is a sign of the times that otherwise sensible earthlings swap leisure and necessary recreation for money, money, and more money… and mountains of things we (for I include myself) do not need… but must acquire notwithstanding.
This is a deal made with the devil…. and you are one of the prime signatories… as I am.
It is time, here and now, to launch our bid for freedom… our July 4, Cinco de Mayo, Bastille Day… for we are as oppressed, burdened and weary of abuse as they for all that we have done this to ourselves.
We, like our revolutionary brethren of yore, must strike now, not a moment later, whilst we still have the good sense and strong arm to bring back, to all who desire and need it, our beloved Continental Sunday and the necessary leisure and relief we must have to live a life of balance and equilibrium, not killing stress in all its destructiveness.
All this is no small thing, nothing to be considered casually, without your full attention and concern. We humans are so finely crafted that we need leisure to reach our full potential and maintain our health and splendid spirits which are now and will always be the foundation of our success.
So, now, take the pledge.
Pledge! To fight work creep and leisure drain. Pledge!
Pledge! To think whether the work and its emoluments are more important than the revitalizing leisure you give up. Pledge!
Pledge! To resolve to use leisure as a means of strengthening your life, increasing its span and its quality. Pledge!
Pledge! To keep sacrosanct your special time apart from work, your carefree zone. It is essential for life’s highest quality. Pledge!
Now sign and date this manifesto of common sense and resolute purpose. Your life in all its aspects will improve as soon as you do… the very moment you do!
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author  of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Fast Fan Pages ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=ij7eb90h

Reflections on Harvard’s 360th Commencement, May 26, 2011.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Today, for the 360th time in its exalted history, a history far older than the republic itself, Harvard will, with all the colorful paraphernalia of the Academy, send a goodly percentage of the brightest young people on earth on their way to kismet.
Some of these people will become heads of state, women too; that is why the address of Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of the Republic of Liberia is so important. It proves that even in territories inclement towards women, women may rise high indeed.
Some of these people will head corporations and reap billions, some of which will undoubtedly be given to Harvard in the form of very public generosities.
Some of these people will buck the capitalist trend and found worthy causes of every kind. The world has need for every one of them and the people who give up much, the better able to give more.
Others will rise high in the military, in governments of every nation on earth, in education, science, medicine, the arts… there will even be a movie star or two but, perhaps, no rap musician. Not, however, because Harvard would not welcome one; it would. Rappers, however, may demur; it’s a matter of image…. and no people on earth are as stringent about image as they are.
One more category may well appear: terrorist, revolutionary. Harvard does not go out seeking such people, but Harvard has helped shape many such. Red John Reed, Bolshevik, (class of 1910 ) is buried in the Kremlin wall… a signal honor for a gentleman of Crimson. Like so many Harvard graduates he rose high, though this time for a cause most every other Harvard graduate loathed and disdained. John Reed wouldn’t have cared about that; Harvard graduates are above such trivia. They know that what they do is important, even if no one else on this planet agrees. This profound conviction is part of what the graduates take away today… you can be sure of it. It is one of the best reasons for the very existence of Harvard.
Many of today’s graduates will write about their Harvard experiences; I am one of them. Most will cherish happy memories and say so, fudging the truth on which Harvard prides itself and pruning things not quite happy enough. In truth, their classmates were probably never as bright as they will remember, as bright or as dedicated. The faculty never as welcoming and helpful as they will recall. And the university overall not as profoundly influential. But embroidering your Harvard past is winked at since happy memories beget handsome legacies. And there is no need to remind so many, and in print, too, that their time here was not as sun-kissed as they ardently desire it to be. You were young, vibrant, surrounded by possibilities, and you’d been marked with the most winning brand of all. Under the circumstances, the utmost joy and contentment are understandable; indeed mandatory.
There will be some of course, but just a handful who will write otherwise, telling, years from now, of painful isolation, alienation and the persistent thought that they never were, not for a moment, good enough to have gone to Harvard in the first place, that they were a fluke, a sport of nature. Perhaps. But they will write such sentiments in a ringing style, lyric, too, that shows in its careful refinement and clarity another benefit of a Harvard education.
This day, the most important day in the life of virtually every graduate, save only the day on which they were born, will start early; the ceremony commences in Harvard Yard at 9:45 a.m., but Harvard Square is awash with the camera-totting hours before, even from first light. A sign of the times: persons unable to be present can see it all, and clearer, on the Web. There is not a one who so watches that does not wish to be in Cambridge instead… for all that they see more and better than the audience shaded by the great trees in Tercentenary Theater.
Graduates, at once shy and proud, will move today surrounded by their personal claques, the lucky ones invited to see and venerate. Proud parents, who often dipped deep to make this happen, have been admonished, several times, to be prompt and organized. Graduates have conflicting feelings about these folks. They are grateful, of course, though never as grateful perhaps as they should be. It would not do to slight them, but, this is the last day, the very last day, they can see their classmates and friends, similarly burdened, as they will never be again: present, accounted for, resoundingly young; friends, colleagues, lovers, too. This recognition, this sadness is palpable. The pull of the golden past, slipping away forever, against the dawning future, ardently desired… but not this day. This is why the tears fall today for this must be a bittersweet moment for all. In these precincts the past and future truly collide today, to roil emotions. Parting is indeed such sweet sorrow… and now they truly know it.
It is now just 5 a.m., the dawn of this day of days is nigh. It is a day of memories, memories retrieved, memories born. Parents will recall memories unbeckoned of their beloved graduates and their brief lives. They will have, for themselves alone, moments poignant and keenly felt, the more so if they had, once upon a time, a Harvard Commencement of their own. Then Cambridge becomes the best it can be: an ever- renewing place of reverie and remembrance, a place where you are always welcome, for you are part of what has shaped this special place.
The trickle of early comers, seeking parking spaces more valued than gold, will soon grow into serious traffic. Ladies in hats otherwise known only at weddings and gentlemen in ties they will later shake off as gladly as a noose begin to appear as do the marked men of the day… the sheriff of the county who will ride in on white horse to declare the proceedings open; officials in their always ill-fitting cuttaways and top hats… and of course and always the brightly garbed graduates in mortar boards they never wear quite right. With their gowns a Rosetta Stone clearly indicating just where the graduates have been and where they are going, these players gather together, together to march into the ceremonies where they shall become, so the University’s president will pronounce, members of the company of educated men and women.
This is what every graduate has earned… and everyone has come to hear. And it is a marvelous thing, not just for those present but for the entire world, soon to benefit from the skills, dedications,and hard work of this renewed company, the company we all rely upon so much.
Think of these new members of this company today. They have much to accomplish and many lives to touch and improve. We must all be glad they have such a day as this to start them on their way, for they go forward for us all.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Massive Auto Traffic -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=hi76Cl4e

‘…. there’s nothing so good for a pobble’s toes.’ The comfort and friendshipof amiable lavender.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s note. To set the mood for this article, be sure to search any search engine for “Ladies in Lavender”, composer Nigel Hess, violinist Joshua Bell, recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 2004. It is based on a short story by William Locke (1916), filmed in 2004.

Before starting this music, put aside all the cares of your day, make yourself comfortable, and allow yourself the shear bliss of indulgence in this most lyric and evocative of scores.
There is a famous quotation that one always finds the particular England  one goes in search of. Today we are en route, via the unrelenting power of remembrance, to the most loved England of all…
You are walking in the springtime of May through a woodland dappled with sunlight, repository of ancient secrets and long-ago laughter. Everything about this wood sings of a special place, a place of beauty and serenity, a place where there is peace, and to spare, for the weary traveler… without knowing why, you feel at home here, at once… every step taking you in a direction you now know you have always wanted to go…  you cannot say why, but this is home… the home you have always wanted and cherish.
Every fibre of your being is happy… such is your joy in  this place, a world apart where you are expected, as if everything about this place knows you and has been waiting, forever and patiently, for you…. and now rejoices at your arrival.
You are walking up a hillock… and in a moment you are at the top and then you know, no one needs tell you, why you are happy, at ease, serene…
On every side, you see — and then inhale — the sweet lavender. Fields of beauty! Acres so rich in flower you catch your breath… for there is such abundance that you are sure there is comfort enough here for the world burdened by its dismays and distractions.
You are glad that on such a day as this, glorious in every way,  this last glory, too, has been vouch-safed you, to live forever in your heart..
Lavender has done its healing work again, certain balm for the troubled soul, your soul.
“We shall find a cleanly room lavender in the windows and twenty ballads stuck about the wall.”
Izaak Walton, “The Compleat Angler”. 1653-55.
Facts about lavender.
The lavenders are a genus of 39 species of flowering plants in the mint family. An Old World genus, distributed from Cape Verde and Canary Islands and Madeira, across Africa, the Mediterranean, South-West Asia, Arabia, Western Iran and South- East India. There is some reason for thinking the genus originated in India.
The leaves are long and narrow in most species. In other species they are pinnately toothed, or pinnate, sometimes multiple pinnate and dissected. Flowers are borne in whorls, held on spikes rising above the foliage. Flowers may be blue, violet, or lilac.The calyx is tubular, with five lobes. The corolla is often asymmetric. All  this readies us for the most beloved lavender of all….
Lavandula angustifolia, English lavender.
Those without a drop of poetry in their veins call it “common” lavender, but wiser folk know there is nothing common about our relationship to lavender and the many ways it eases our lives.
Culinary uses.
Flowers yield abundant nectar from which bees, insightful and industrious, make a high-quality honey. Flowers can be candied and are sometimes used as cake decorations. Lavender flavors baked goods and desserts; it pairs especially well with chocolate and is also used to make “lavender sugar”. Lavender flowers are occasionally blended with black, green, or herbal tea, adding a fresh, relaxing scent and flavor.
Lavender lends a floral and slightly sweet flavor to most dishes, and is sometimes paired with sheep’s-milk and goat’s-milk cheeses. For most cooking applications the dried buds (also referred to as flowers) are used, though some chefs experiment with the leaves as well. Only the buds contain the essential oil of lavender, from which the scent and flavor of lavender are best derived.
The French are also known for their lavender soup, most commonly made from an extract of lavender. In the United States, both French lavender syrup and dried lavender buds are used to make lavender scones and marshmallows.
Medicinal uses.
Lavender is used extensively with herbs and aromatherapy.
English lavender yields an essential oil with sweet overtones, and can be used in balms, salves, perfumes, cosmetics, and topical applications. Essential oil of lavender has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. It was used in hospitals during World War I to disinfect floors and walls. These extracts are also used as fragrances by bath products.
According to folk wisdom, lavender has many uses. Infusions of lavender soothe and heal insect bites and burns. Bunches of lavender repel insects. If applied to the temples, lavender oil soothes headaches. In pillows lavender seeds and flowers aid sleep and relaxation. An  infusion of three flowerheads added to a cup of boiling water soothes and relaxes at bedtime. Lavender oil (or extract of lavender) heals acne when used diluted 1:10 with water, rosewater or witch hazel; it also treats burns and inflammatory conditions.
More uses.
Flower spikes are used for dried flower arrangements. The fragrant, pale purple flowers and flower buds are used in potpourris. Lavender is also used extensively as herbal filler inside sachets used to freshen linens. Dried and sealed in pouches, lavender flowers are placed among stored items of clothing to give a fresh fragrance and to deter moths. Dried  lavender flowers have become recently popular for wedding confetti.
Our constant friend and solace, humble despite such great gifts.
Ancient peoples were well aware of lavender’s bounty and succor. So well regarded, it was one of the holy herbs used in the biblical Temple to prepare the holy essence. It was a plant, a scent that never intruded. It lifted! Soothed!  Gave respite and release! As such it helped deliver the peace of God.
The magnificent English poet Edward Lear (1812-1888), partaker of lavender’s solace, wrote characteristic nonsense more revealing than lucid prose:
“… his aunt jobiska made him drink lavender water tinged with pink, for she said, ‘the world in general knows there’s nothing so good for a pobble’s toes!’”
This is why when you are weary, sore oppressed, make your way, if only in memory, to the place of these amiable and most hospitable of flowers. Sit down and drink in their beauty, given to you at the moment you most need it, for these are the good Samaritans, offering you in all humility what they most embody –  the enduring comfort of God Himself.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc.,  providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com”>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Massive Auto Traffic ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=hi76Cl4e