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'elf Expressions Ezine

Get Hold of Your Elf!

“Get hold of your ‘elf!”


Your weekly collection of marketing tips, hints, and advice interspersed with humor, inspiration, and other goodies to spice things up a bit. Guidance, tutoring, advice, mentoring, coaching, inspiration, English lessons, editing, proofreading services for entrepreneurs and online marketers.

The publisher’s philosophy is that most learn faster by taking small bites, rather than large gulps. Small bites are chewed more thoroughly, swallowed, and digested more readily. Keeping that in mind, many features will be solo items. That way, you will not be bombarded or overwhelmed.



Publisher: Mary Wilkey
Volume 1 - Issue 43X - January 17, 2002
Regular issue published every Tuesday evening


Two superb articles in this issue—no, they're not mine—wish they were! Don't miss 'em!
This greeting will be short, because the rest of this isn't!



In Remembrance of
September 11, 2001


Smile!

If you enjoy this ezine, you can help it grow faster by introducing 'elf Expressions to just one other person—because the faster we grow, the more everyone benefits from the ads. Thank you!

Signature



 

And ye shall seek me, and find me,
when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
—Jeremiah 29:13



CONTENTS:

Guest Article
Today’s Chuckle
Internet Tips & Hints
Guest Article
Inspiration
Classifieds Etcetera


TEN YEARS LOST WITH AGE-LESS


I just had to write and tell you about Kenneth's response to the AGE-less product. EVERYONE is beginning to notice the difference. I personally cannot believe it ... his skin tone has completely changed ... the "sagging" that was just beginning to rear its ugly head in the facial/neck area has COMPLETELY disappeared ... his muscle tone is really beginning to show ... his hair is getting darker ... over-all, he has just lost ten years ... WOW!!!!! ... people are asking us what he's doing ... this is a WONDERFUL product. THANKS!

—Debbie Raynor, Fayetteville NC

If you would like to see what has worked miracles in Kenneth's life, go to:

http://goodbody.healingamerica.com



GUEST ARTICLE


HOW TO CREATE A PROFITABLE LITTLE AD
©2001 by Bob Leduc

A small ad can generate a greater return on your investment than any other type of advertising. You can also use it in a variety of media. For example, I often get profitable results from the same small ad in all of the following:

  • Internet - posted as a classified ad at websites and in email newsletters (ezines).
  • Print - run as a classified or display ad in magazines.
  • Direct Mail - printed on a postcard and sent to targeted mailing lists.
  • Email - added as a "signature" to the bottom of my email messages.

A small classified or display ad doesn't provide enough space to generate sales directly from the ad. Instead, use the ad to generate inquiries from prospects seeking more information or to generate visitors to your store or website. Apply your usual selling procedure to close sales when you get the inquiry or visitor.

A SIMPLE FOUR-STEP PROCEDURE

By trial and error I developed the following four-step procedure for creating successful little classified or display ads. You can follow this same simple procedure to successfully create your own profitable little ads.

STEP 1: PROMOTE ONE PRODUCT TO ONE TARGETED MARKET

Select one product or service to promote and tailor your ad to one targeted market. You can develop ads for many different products and target them to many different markets. But each ad will be most effective when it promotes one product to one targeted market.

STEP 2: DEVELOP A HEADLINE WITH YOUR STRONGEST BENEFIT

The headline is the most important part of your ad. It captures the reader's attention and provides a compelling reason to read your ad. The most effective headline clearly promotes your strongest benefit to readers in your targeted market. For example, "How To Build Your MLM Downline Fast" will immediately attract the attention of most network marketers. It offers the solution to their biggest problem ... how to build their downline sales organization.

STEP 3: REINFORCE YOUR HEADLINE WITH BODY COPY

Keep your body copy brief. Include a few power words to reinforce the benefit promoted in your headline. For example, "Quick! Easy! Immediate results guaranteed!" could be used as body copy to reinforce the sample headline in Step 2.

End your body copy by telling the reader exactly how to respond to your ad. Keep it simple and make it easy. For example, "Call 1-800-123-4567 for FREE information TODAY!"

STEP 4: REVISE AND TEST—OVER AND OVER AGAIN

Keep trying to increase the number of responses from your ad. Test different headlines, different body copy, different media. Test even minor changes in your ad. I've seen ad responses jump dramatically after simply enclosing the headline in quotation marks. I've also seen ad responses to a different ad drop after making the same change. The only way to know if something works is to test it.

Test only one change at a time or you won't know which change produced the new result. Be sure to code each version of your ad so you can track the results from it. Whenever a new "test" version of your ad produces better results than your standard version, make it your new standard version.

Continual testing enables you to gradually increase the response rate and profitability of your little ad. I once built the response to a recruiting ad printed on a postcard from three percent to over twenty percent this way.

Use this simple four-step procedure to create your own small ads. If you already use small ads, apply this procedure to your existing ads to increase their effectiveness and profitability. The results will surprise you.

****************

Bob Leduc retired from a thirty-year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a sales consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business owners titled "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more information ... Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards." Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10am Pacific time) Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas NV 89133





It is better to try something spectacular and fail—
than to try nothing and succeed!






 

No man can rise above that at which he aims.



 

A BIBLE RIDDLE

What is it that no man can tame??

ANSWER: His tongue, according to James 3:8 which says:
"But the tongue can no man tame."






Somebody listens to every prayer
When you are ill and burdened with care,
When your soul is bent with its weight of woe,
Tell it to Someone who loves you so.

Someone will tell you that He understands,
He'll hold your heart in His gentle hands,
Just like a child when the father's near,
With God at your side, there's nothing to fear.

When days are long and nights have no end,
When things go wrong, there's always one friend.
Just lift your eyes and you'll see Him there,
With His gentle smile as He hears your prayer.




TODAY'S CHUCKLE


Original Thinking

Three contractors were visiting a tourist attraction on the same day. One was from New York, another from Texas, and the third from Florida.

At the end of the tour, the guard asked them what they did for a living. When they all replied that they were contractors, the guard said, "Hey, we need one of the rear fences redone. Why don't you guys take a look at it and give me a bid?" So, to the back fence they all went to check it out.

First to step up was the Florida contractor. He took out his tape measure and pencil, did some measuring, and said, "Well I figure the job will run about $900. $400 for materials, $400 for my crew, and $100 profit for me."

Next was the Texas contractor. He also took out his tape measure and pencil, did some quick figuring, and said, "Looks like I can do this job for $700. $300 for materials, $300 for my crew, and $100 profit for me."

Without so much as moving, the New York contractor said, "$2,700."

The guard, incredulous, looked at him and said, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"

"Easy," he said. "$1,000 for me, $1,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Texas"!



CIGARETTES

  • Waste your time
  • Squander your money
  • Reduce your efficiency
  • Impair your success
  • Jeopardize your safety
  • Tarnish your skin
  • Shatter your nerves
  • Deprave your senses
  • Stupefy your mind
  • Defile your body
  • Undermine your health
  • Endanger your life
  • Corrupt your manners
  • Enslave your conscience
  • Demoralize your character
  • Paralyze your will
  • Nullify your influence
  • Destroy your testimony
  • Insult your friends
  • Degrade your family
  • Disgrace your home
  • Dishonor your God





Four things come not back:

  • the spoken word,
  • the spent arrow,
  • the past, and
  • the neglected opportunity.
—Omar Idn Al-Halif



INTERNET HINTS & TIPS


Are you looking for something to add to your website to create more value—another reason for your visitors to return to your site? Consider adding your own personalized virtual cards.

http://www.resource-a-day.com/resources/addvalue.html





Another instance of original thinking—this one saved millions!

During the heat of the space race in the 1960s, NASA decided it needed a ballpoint pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules.

After considerable research and evelopment, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of about $241 million US. The pen worked and enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on Earth. The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil!





The Lord's Prayer is 66 words,
the Gettysburg Address is 286 words,
there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence,
but US Government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words!



GUEST ARTICLE


Prosperity: The Choice Is Yours
©2001 by Dave Cole

One day Annette Gantz saw a lady driving a big pink car. That pink car eventually became the beginning of a tremendously satisfying career for this Wheeling, West Virginia resident.

After finishing high school, Annette spent eleven months as a missionary in Thailand. The experiences she encountered there led her to come back to the states and get her college degree in nursing. She became a successful nurse and worked hard at her job while her husband finished his schooling.

When her husband graduated and got a good job as a computer programmer, along with the addition of Annette's first of four children, she was able to finally quit the nursing job to be a full time mom and homemaker.

But in 1996 her husband lost his job and Annette was faced with a tough decision. Either go back to work or find some means of providing an income.

Although she had been a successful nurse, the work was very stressful. Going back to work would also mean she would be away from her family and too, she never really had a passion for nursing to begin with.

Thinking about going back to work actually gave Annette nightmares, until the day she saw that big pink car. The lady driving that car was a very successful distributor for Mary Kay Cosmetics.

The lady driving that big pink car began to show Annette the tremendous benefits that Mary Kay and network marketing offered. Annette's interest was sparked, but still she was very skeptical and cynical about being a network marketer.

And, Annette was afraid ... afraid of having people run the other way. Plus too, Annette had always been a quitter. She just didn't think she had what it took to do this with any degree of success.

Finally her husband said to her, "Annette, why don't you try this, what do you have to lose?"

Annette found real encouragement in her husband's support, in her sponsor's support, and in the company. After only a short year and a half, Annette Gantz had earned her first car by being a distributor for Mary Kay.

This time, with a big grin on his face, her husband asked, "Annette, when are you going to quit?" But Annette had finally found out she really wasn't a quitter, she only had been seeking her real life's work.

Besides the money, she was attracted to Mary Kay because of their high standards and Mary Kay's principles of putting your faith first, family second, and career third.

She also loves the flexibility to have the time to home school her children and spend time with her husband, plus she is actively involved in her church.

As successful in network marketing as Annette is, still those old nagging thoughts of being a quitter creep back now and then. When she gets discouraged, Annette finds great comfort in listening to motivational tapes and reading motivational stories.

She also finds great comfort in her faith and knows that what she is doing is God's will for her to be out there helping other women feel and look better and also helping them attain their own desires in life.

Annette says there are a few things she's learned in the past six years about being a successful network marketer. "Treat people with respect, believe in people, and believe in your product. If it's worthwhile, it's not always easy, but have persistence and patience."

Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, taught her success is made up of three things:

  1. Have a plan of action
  2. Be persistent
  3. Work hard to build your business.

Mary Kay Cosmetics has been in business for over thirty years. For the past eight years they are the best selling brand of skin care and color cosmetics on the market.

If you would like to learn more about these great products and how they can benefit you, or are interested in a professional career with Mary Kay, Annette would be pleased to be of assistance. You can contact her here: mailto:annettegantz@hotmail.com?Subject=M.K._InfoPlease
http://marykay.com/agantz

Dave Cole, Editor - Prosperity: The Choice Is Yours
http://PetOpp.com

Dave's E-zine provides you with valuable info on how to market your online business and how to make money online. All subscribers get one Free ad every week. Get your FREE subscription today: http://choosetoprosper.com

This article may be reproduced or distributed, on the condition it be left unchanged from its original content.



INSPIRATION


The Difference

I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day;
I had too much to accomplish that I didn't have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task.
"Why doesn't God help me?" I wondered. He answered, "You didn't ask."

I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak.
I wondered why God didn't show me. He said, "But you didn't seek."

I tried to come into God's presence; I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided, "My child, you didn't knock."

I woke up early this morning and paused before entering the day;
I had too much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.




ETCETERA

Contact publisher at:
elfbutter@erinet.com

To advertise, please send your 7-line, 65-character classified (including URL or email address) 20-lines for sponsor ads, up to 50 for SOLO ads—pay thru PayPal by check or credit card or send money order or cashier's check to PO Box 854, Franklin OH 45005. Email ads to: advertising@elfexpressionsezine.com
All classified ads are free for right now and are for subscribers only. The top sponsor ad is $10/issue. SOLO ads are $25/issue.

To subscribe, send email to: subscribe@elfexpressionsezine.com. To unsubscribe, send email to:unsubscribe@elfexpressionsezine.com

To submit an article for publication or to make suggestions or comments, just email me at readermail@elfexpressionsezine.com

To use our editing/proofreading service, send a blank email to: editingservice@elfexpressionsezine.com

"DISCLAIMER: We disclaim any liability for the use of any contributed information contained herein. We also claim no responsibility for the legality or accuracy of advertisements or articles submitted and reprinted by permission. It is the contributor's and/or advertiser's responsibility to abide by all pertinent jurisdictional laws and regulations pertaining to that person's business."

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Mary Wilkey
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