She also did a spectacular job of cleaning my house, eating oodles of fabulous fish chowder from the Dolphin Marina in Harpswell, Maine and then cooking a fabulous and hearty pea soup when we entertained several of my other friends on the day after thanksgiving.

So here we have the lovely Aileen O’Donoghue:

Look it's a family portrait

For the best fish chowder anywhere get to the Dophin Marina

Dolphin Marina Dock

I first found the Dolphin Marina, well after getting lost several times. The way there is not well marked but once you do arrive and have a bowl of their fabulous fish chowder with a home made blueberry muffin you won’t soon lose your way.

Grandmas Dishes in the Dining Room

Aileen & Barb - Two dear friends

Professor Party Animal

Sunset in Bowdoinham

Poor Pace Puppy

Pre Bed-time Photo Shoot

Goodnight Ladies

San Francisco, California July 19, 2011

During the middle of July, almost exactly a month ago today I had to opportunity to travel to San Francisco, California. The real purpose of the trip was to attend a Professional Mental Health conference. But of course we arrived a day early and left a day after the conference. And it was really interesting but we managed to get the most perfect weather when we were there. The first day we had glorious sunshine and a cool day. The two days of the conference were overcast, foggy and a little damp. And the final day we were there we again had fabulous sunshine with a lovely cool crisp breeze. It couldn’t have been any better or more appropriate than that.

San Francisco in Bloom

We arrived in the wee hours of the night. I think we actually made it to the hotel at 12:59. But the Sheraton in the Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco has the most comfortable beds and these awesome fluffy pillows. I often have trouble sleeping for any one of a number of different reasons but as soon as I hit the bed I think I was fast asleep and woke refreshed and ready to go the next morning.

Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco

We got a great package deal through Cheapo Air. And we specifically chose to stay in the Fisherman’s Wharf area of the city because while we were really there to attend the conference, the conference wasn’t an all encompassing affair. The would be and was plenty of time for exploring the city and seeing the sights.

I wanted to be as cognizant of money as possible because I am also traveling to Greece this year and just need to be as frugal as possible. So that first morning after a bit of breakfast and a wee chat with the concierge about a tour of  Alcatraz Prison we headed off journeying the streets of San Francisco for a test run to get to the downtown hotel where we would be attending the conference.

Journeying the streets of San Francisco

We walked from the Sheraton to downtown San Francisco where all the big hotels live. And on the way we explored some of the sights. If it wasn’t for the fact that I need to work and have a good job in Maine, I could easily move to San Francisco. Maybe if I could win the powerball then I would do that. That might afford me one of the many really gorgeous homes there.

Fabulous San Francisco Victorian

Since I was but a child I have been interested in Architecture. I just love the creative forms and putting all that together with a structure that is functional as well as attractive. My Aunt Joan, a fabulous interior designer in Florida would say that a certain house  might have good bones. Perhaps it was from her that I got my attention to the finer things in life including Architecture and culture.

I can’t say that every building or house in San Francisco met my standards for incredible and attractive architecture. But often nestled hither and thither there was a house, a doorway, even a colossal building that caught my eye and caused me to pause just long enough to take another picture.

San Fran Victorian

San Fran Victorian-2

Photography is another one of those things that I really get into. Very early on in my childhood my father has one of his colleagues introduce me to the wonderful world of photography. While I can’t recall specifically I believe the man was a physician who worked in the Radiology Department at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado. I was born there in 1957. In one of my last trips to Denver I was taken aback that what once was the place where I was born and subsequently worked as an orderly is not just another parking lot in a sea of parking lots in the downtown area of Denver, Colorado.

Washington Park-Denver, Colorado July 2009

But I digress. Walking the streets of San Francisco is both visually stimulating as well as great exercise. My traveling partner is as yet still twenty-nine. But by the time we actually got back on the airplane to head back to Maine the poor boy was exhausted from all the walking. I was delighted to discover on my return home that I had lost an additional six pounds. Last year I finally managed to find a diet program that works quite well for me and lost 104 pounds altogether.

San Fran -1

Nifty homes San Francisco

This year as I prepare to get to Greece I am wanting to actually get to my goal weight. Just another sixteen pounds and I will be there. It seems like the closer I get to that goal the harder it is to shed those unwanted pounds. When I started the program at the Center for Weight Management in Portland, Maine I was wicked skeptical about their program actually working. I think I had tried everything under the sun and yet I just kept getting bigger and bigger. Yet, I was delighted when in my first month I shed thirty pounds. Now if I can just lose that sixteen more I think I can manage to stay there.

Top of Mason Street, San Francisco

So journeying the streets of San Francisco while I was there was perfect. I have to admit though that there is this one street, I think it was Mason street where we discovered was essentially a straight shot from the hotel where we stayed to the hotel for the conference which was pretty brutal at one point. As I am sure you may know, San Francisco is a series of hills. And generally as well left the hotel we would be walking up towards anything that wasn’t already at the wharf area level.

Fairmont Hotel-San Francisco, California

At some point Mason street goes from a steady slant upwards to an almost vertical slant to the crest of the hill where we then found the Fairmont hotel in all it’s resplendent glory. Interestingly it was the only street where I had to slow my pace and catch my breath before I could make it all the way to the top. I noticed and commented to Alex both on the way up one side and down the other that the pavement was scored so that people walking could get adequate traction. I surely wouldn’t want to have to haul anything with wheels up that street. One little mishap and whatever was on wheels would gain considerable speed rolling to the bottom.

Precarious Parking in San Francisco

We also noted that while on many streets cars were parked parallel to the curbs with their tires turned toward the curb if facing downward that cars on Mason street and other similarly steep hills were parked perpendicular to the curb. There was one small jeep at the bottom of such a hill that looked as though one could roll it over with just a little push.

Penthouse San Francisco

It’s a really good thing that San Francisco never gets weather that would cause the streets to be coated with freezing rain or snow. The result would be nothing short of catastrophic.

In Part II we will continue to explore the sights in San Francisco. Stay tuned.

Have a look at what he’s doing and if you like them send him some business.  He calls his business Davis Eco Candles. Best of luck in your new business Sean.

Here is the website address

www.davisecocandles.com

Earn Extra Money & Travel the World

1. Eating out? Restaurant portions tend to be enormous, and if it’s on the plate, we tend to eat it. But this seems to be an American thing. If you travel outside the US portion sizes are more in keeping with what you really NEED to eat and not the supersize it mentality. But if you live in the USA, and it’s possible, order from the kid’s menu, where portions are more reasonably sized. Or you can always slpit a meal between two people. And stay away from the salad bar if you intend on drenching your veggies in salad dressings.

2. Keep healthy snacks around and easily accessible. If you’re really serious about dropping the extra weight try keeping a bowl of fruit on the kitchen table, or a container of celery or carrot sticks in the refrigerator. Try to stay away from junk food, extra sodium and sugar in and/or on anything is an absolute no no. In other words, you’ll be more likely to grab something low-calorie and good for you if it’s easy to eat.

3. If you can’t get fresh vegetables then it’s acceptable to substitute frozen vegetables for canned. Canned veggies tend to be high in sodium, which you don’t need, and low in real nutrition, which you do. And you want to steer clear of the vegetables that are high in starch. Yeah yeah, I love them too, but I’ve really loved buying smaller clothes and hearing people tell me how fabulous and young I look a whole lot better.

4. If you must cook your vegetables invest in a vegetable steamer. Steaming is much healthier than boiling anything…and stay away from the microwave. Steamed food retains nearly all of its natural nutrients. An added benefit is always that steaming also retains more flavor which then makes it easier to consume vegetables as opposed to junk food. But I advocate for raw fresh vegetables the most. Have you ever had asparagus that was merely chopped and not cooked? Try it.

5. Lots of those of us who are or have been overweight have also not given eating the sort of time and respect it needs. So, try not to eat standing up and do dry to have a sit down meal, and definitely not in front of the TV. You really want to get out of the habit of just popping food into your mouth, which is something we do in fast food joints, when we’re flying from one point to another and almost always when we are sitting in front of the boob tube.

6. Now this next is somewhat hard to gauge. Some say graze as with six or more smaller meals a day and some say not to. I think I’d read up about the theory, ask your physician or dietary expert first and then make an informed decision that works best for you. I’ve tried both and the three meals a day works fine for me. Grazing just made me fatter.

7. As difficult as it may sound you’re going to have to give up the soda. Soda is essentially oodles of empty calories and lots of sugar. Even the fake sugar is bad for you. So either grab a fruit juice or flavored water instead of soda. You might even try unflavored water. It can be quite tasty.

8. Drink water. Even the FDA recommends at least 8 full 8 ounce glasses of water a day to keep your body working right. My food plan calls for a gallon of water a day. I have often been drinking more than that. Of course that means a lot of extra trips up and down the stairs, but that’s not all that bad for me either. And all that water does wash out a lot of excess fat. When you’re dieting, you should drink even more. It’s not just that full feeling – water helps your body digest foods properly and cleans out your system.

9. For the first several months of my diet program I was advised not to exercise as muscle tends to weigh more than fat, and they didn’t want me bulking up with a lot of muscle initially. And while I do belong to a local gym I often just do the minimal sorts of exercise I can do out of the gym. I also enjoy walking and to walk around my block takes me two miles. The funny thing is that without that 100 pounds it seems to go faster and easier.

10. One of the things that really helped me the best is accepting that I had had all of those fattening foods before and realizing that I could have them again just not in the sheer quantities that I had had them before.

Losing 100 pounds has been awesome. Keeping it off will be more of a challenge because there are so many good things out there to enjoy. And I have succumb to some cravings along the way. But nothing is insurmountable and getting back to the program is a good feeling too.

I was wearing a men’s size 40 pants. Now I am wearing a size 30 and they are loose and comfortable. Another really fabulous result is that I no longer have sleep apnea, and I also feel great.

If you live in Maine and are interested in knowing the program drop me an email or a comment on the blog and I will be happy to send them to you.

Creating text that aims for the heart, or the emotional response, is the number one way to form an immediate and lasting connection with your readers, clients, or prospects. This is a great way for you to communicate your unique and valuable message. When you’re able to provide material that has moved people by eliviting an emotional response, you are establishing a deep connection that allows readers to remember you as a fellow human being who cares about the same things they do.

Most prospects are really looking to be inspired by some emotional connection that affects them acutely. More often than not it’s the emotional response that eill inspire a prospect to action. The best example of the power of creating copy that solicits an enthusiastic emotional response is found in brand marketing.

When a soft drink consumer enjoys a Coca Cola, they aren’t necessarily thinking about carbonated water and high fructose corn syrup. More often they are identifying with all of the fun experiences they either have had or anticipate having in association with the product.

There is an emotional response associated with people enjoying things like summer fun, downing a cold drink after an intense sporting activity, or a hot day at the beach playing in the ocean with friends and family. These are the sorts of messages that good copy writers craft in their advertising copy that aims for the heart and ultimately that emotional response.

One of the most significant skills to learn in writing such compelling material is also one of the most basic ground rules in sales: Believing in your product. In this case, your product is your message. This is the reason that you’re writing copy. Ultimately if you don’t believe in your message, then your customers will sense that.

Consider starting off the way professional advertisers do. Before ever getting started do some brainstorming or research on why it is that anyone would be inspired about that product. Take all the time you need to get into their heads and feel what it is they feel and think. Please don’t skip this step. When you do it right you will have found that same inspiration in yourself. The next step is to genuinely get excited about the product and what it can do for YOU as the customer. This will help you to confidently inspire others to take action. You will have touched them at their very core. You will have zeroed in on their hearts and subsequently managed to touch their desires with an emotional response.

Once you have the same feelings and desires as your prospects this is what will resonate as the heart of your copy. Take those images and craft them into copy that inspires your prospect towards the call to action by identifying with their passionate needs and desires. Do this, and you know that you’ll be writing copy that aims for the emotional response.

When you set out to write your copy make sure that, you are addressing the mind of your prospect and understand that you are speaking to their emotional side. We all make our purchasing decisions from an emotional stance. We are looking to solve some pain or increase some pleasure. Isn’t it really the little boy who is living out a childhood fantasy when he buys that high performance BMW fully loaded with all the lights whistles and gadgets?

You may be selling to professionals that you think have awesome sophisticated vocabularies. That may indeed be true in their professional lives. However, when selling a product you are really selling to the emotional mind and that can be the mindset of a ninth grader or below.

I know it sounds somewhat crass, but when you are creating your copy, you really want to write at a ninth grade level or below. Once upon a time, I worked in a place where the COO instructed all his staff to write memos to the professional staff that an elementary school kid could understand.

When I heard that that is what they were doing, I was a little insulted. But when I really think about it from an educated stance, I can see that the best way to communicate to a bunch of professionals who are often overwhelmed in a world that includes a lot of high stress and responsibility is to talk to their inner child in a much simpler style. After all, what do most of us do when we get home from work? Engage in some intense academic pursuit or kickback, watch some TV and relax.

It is that relaxed, chilled out prospect that you want to attract and it will be easier for you to do that if you are using simple understandable language.

You might be asking yourself how it is that you would know at what level a ninth grader reads. If you use Microsoft word, then you probably have a great tool readily available. It is called the Readability Index and you can set it to tell you at what level you are writing.

First, open your Microsoft word program. Go to tools then to options then to spelling and grammar. Check the box that says, “Show readability Statistics.” Then, when you are ready, have spell check run through your piece, correct or change what you think you want and when you are done you will get a little pop up screen that will give you all the statistics about that piece including the readability scale. Oddly enough, this blog post has a readability scale for the ninth grader.

In your copywriting approach you need to be specific about needs and desires so that you are attracting your targeted customer base. You will want to have an intimate knowledge and expeiereince of the people in this group. Therefore you will want to do some serious research and even testing to attain that knowledge and feel. Being too general in copywriting can be disastrous.

2.) Headlines Must Grab Attention:

It’s a known fact that you have mere seconds to grab the attention of your reader. It is therefore imperitive that your headlines shock your reader out of his mundane life. If you fail to write headlines that shock and grab, you may lose the sale. Spend as much time as you need to crafting headlines that really grab attention.

3.) You! :

One of the best ways for you to connect with your customer is to speak directly to him. When you use the word you, you are using a powerful method to attract the attention of your reader. We all like to have individual attention and using “you” creates this sense of personalized attention.

4.) Benefits not Features:

When connecting with your reader you will want to answer the question “What’s in it for me?” or “So what?” So you want to employ personal benefits that will resonate with them causing them to heed that call to action you are ultimately after.

5.) Order Now!

If you don’t ask for the desired action you may not get it. State what you want your reader to do. Be bold about it and make it really simple. “Click on the ‘Order Button’ below and fill out the information on the next page.” Make it really easy to follow your instructions and then make them feel really right about their taking this action by removing all their hesitations with a money back guarantee.

6.) 100% Money Back Guarantee:

The best guarantee is the 100% lifetime money back guarantee. Now I know what you are thinking and I was there once too. But if you offer just a thirty day guarantee your customer will be more likely to ask for his money back because he will have his attention on that thirty days. But if you make it a lifetime guarantee you are less likely to have a lot of people asking for their money back because, well really, they’ve forgotten all about it.

As I progress on my copywriting journey I am venturing into the video and more technologically advanced arenas. Today I am posting my first ever video presentation about copywriting using techniques of persuasion. There are a few bugs, but I suspect that as I do more of this that the videos will get better.

So join me on this adventure as I explore copywriting and all it ha to offer through the various forms of advanced media. And if there is some subject you’d care to learn more about let me know and we can explore that toghter.

The first trick is to identify sales letters that spark an interest or an emotional response and thus are income producing. Take the letter of your choice and first copy it in your own handwriting, line by line. You want to pay special attention to the rhythm of the letter. Notice the words that are used and how the writer puts those words together. Pay attention to the style and flow. Examine each sentence for it’s structure and how it relates to the overall message of the sales letter. Also pay attention to how the letter makes you feel. What sort of emotional response comes up for you.

Now go back and do it again. You can use the same letter or find others that are good sales copy letters.

Another method for learning the best copy techniques is something that I first used  long ago when I was in college. What you want to do is read some of these great sales letters aloud while you are listening to baroque music. I believe you want music that maintains 60 beats per minute. Try a piece you like from Bach, Mozart or Vivaldi.

The next step is to record yourself reading the copy along with the music. Later you will listen to the recordings while studying the flow of the copy, paying attention to the use of words and how the author uses those words to evoke an emotional response, usually a call to action.

What educators have found is that there is an association between the music and the item being studied. The baroque music helps to maximizes the learning of new material and our ability to retain that new information.It has a lot to do with engaging both the right and left brains simultaneously. Evidently the human mind works better when listening to this sort of music. Try listening to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Piano’s in D Major

What happens later when you go to write copy of your own is that through an association with the baroque music you are able to better recall the copy patterns that sell.

What’s in it for me?

The very first thing you want to do is grab the attention of your prospect. You will want to spend a considerable amount of dedicated time  creating the ideal headline. A common mistake amongst copywriters is that they write just one headline. But they’re missing out. Just as creating optimal copy takes time and many re-writes, so too does your headline. Take your time and create some great headlines. You’ll be glad you did.

After you identify your target market and your Unique Selling Point (USP) you will want to write at least a couple hundred headlines. Yes, that’s what I said, you want to write a couple hunderd headlines for just this one assignment. In the end you will use several of those headlines. One will be that great attention grabber at the beginning of your copy. The others may serve as sub-headlines in the body of your copy.

For your headlines you want to be using words such as:

* Announcing
* Breakthrough
* Now
* New
* Free
* Discover How
* You
* How to

You then want to capitalize on the benefits that your product or service offers. And make sure that you are talking benefits and not features. This will help you to awnser the question that your prospect has on his mind.

What’s in it for ME ?