ETR Insider Report: Copywriting Is Not About How Well You Write

By Suzanne Richardson

I have something to confess to you: I was an English major. And one thing English majors are good at (whether they like to admit it or not) is overwriting. Words are important to us, and we like to show off how well we can use them.

I'm cognizant it may sound supercilious, but allow me to communicate what transpired...

Last week, I e-mailed the draft of a sales letter I was working on to Michael Masterson. He sent back my elaborate, carefully crafted copy, heavily marked with red ink. He'd reduced it to a few sentences. One original sentence, for example, went from "Now you can procure Michael Masterson's secret methodology for obviating unnecessary business expenditures" to "Get Michael Masterson's Top 10 business-expense eliminators."

At the top of the first page, heavily underlined, Michael had scrawled the words, "Write to sell, not impress."

For all of my fellow word lovers out there, this is a lesson that bears repeating. In fact, I'm going to tack that five-word phrase right above my computer so I see it every day.

Obscure literary references, complex metaphors, mythological allusions - all of these have their place in the world of writing. But not in your sales copy.

"Don't try to impress your prospect with your fancy writing style or your intelligence," says Michael in AWAI's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting program, "Your goal is to force him to take action, not to win the Nobel Prize for literature."

That's a hard pill to swallow, especially for someone who loves to write and loves the power and complexity of the written word. But your customer doesn't want to be wowed by your writing skills. He wants to know what your product or service can do for him. So keep the literary acrobatics in check, and turn up the heat on your product's benefits.
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The No. 1 Exercise Excuse

By Craig Ballantyne

The number one reason people give for not exercising is "lack of time." With work, family, and friends, who has 60 extra minutes to hit the gym? We can blame the aerobics fanatics in the 70s and 80s for this marathon-workout mindset. That's where we got the idea that if we aren't doing a full hour of exercise, there really isn't any point to it.

Recent research has shown otherwise. We now know that, with interval training and strength training, you can boost your fitness, burn fat, and build muscle in only minutes per day.

Here are five ways to get more results in less time:

1. Use a warm-up that works you out. Don't waste 10 minutes walking on the treadmill. Instead, use a total body circuit of bodyweight exercises as a general warm-up, and then move directly into specific warm-up sets for your first two exercises.

2. Use strength-training supersets (two exercises back to back, without rest). Choose two exercises for different muscle groups - preferably completely opposite movements. For example, choose a push-up and a pull-up. That way, one muscle group rests while the other works... and you cut the rest time you need between sets.

3. Pair dumbbell and bodyweight exercises in your supersets. For instance, you could do squats while holding dumbbells. This saves you time at home (you won't need to change the dumbbell weight between exercises) and in the gym (you won't need to fight for two sets of dumbbells).

4. Limit isolation exercises (such as bicep curls and tricep press-downs) in favor of multi-muscle exercises (such as squats, pulls, pushes, and rows). In addition, don't spend more than 10 minutes per week on abdominal exercises. They just aren't worth your time.

5. Finish your workouts with interval training, not a long aerobic session. Recent research shows that you can lose more weight with interval exercises, and intervals take half as much time as traditional cardio.

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is an expert consultant for Men's Health magazine.]
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It's Good to Know: The "Encyclopedia of Life"

Scientists around the world are collaborating on the "Encyclopedia of Life," an online collection of information about Earth's 1.8 million species. The encyclopedia, which will have its own website, is expected to fill 300 million pages and will feature text, pictures, maps, videos, sounds, and links to scientific papers and journals. The effort will take about 10 years.

(Source: Associated Press)
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Word to the Wise: Moribund

Someone or something that's "moribund" (MOR-uh-bund) - from the Latin for "to die" - is dying or at the point of death.

Example (as used by Kathryn Harrison in The Binding Chair): "Perhaps this explained his solicitousness, his tender careful moist gaze, as if she were moribund."

Michael Masterson
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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2059, 06-04-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.