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“The world is cheapened and diminished by most of the advertising and marketing that fills our heads with nonsense on every hand.”

Ad agencies degrade women into prostitutes; slogans state that some particular beverage will deepen the meaning of your life and provide soul satisfaction; and most advertisers just talk about THEMSELVES. It’s an exercise in ME – ME – ME and WE – WE – WE. US and OUR and OURS. Our heritage, our technology, our 25 years of quality and service, our methods, our approach, our family tradition, our superiority.

Most of what is said is utterly shallow, predictable and meaningless. It’s like, as soon as someone started writing ads, he shut off his brain and started speaking techno-latin.

There are so many ways to optimize your website and your sales message, it makes your head spin.

There are all manner of split testing programs, like Google site optimizer. There are ultra-sophisticated methods that optimize dozens of elements at a time, like Taguchi.

There are market research systems like Glenn Livingston’s. Surveys via opt-in forms or dedicated web pages.

There are programs like CrazyEgg and ClickTale, that make heat maps of your pages and show what people are clicking on, or even what images their mouse is hovering over.

There are heat maps made from peoples’ eye movements.

There’s Google Analytics, telling you how long people stayed on each page and the most common paths through the site.

All of these are very fine.

But there is a simpler way to find out not only what people are doing right this moment on your website, but ALSO find out exactly what they are thinking while they do it…

“Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.”

I’m at home on a Sunday afternoon and Nick calls me on the phone. Slowly as the conversation develops, he starts grinding me down, twisting the screws tight on me, slowly and methodically bashing my head in.

Today I want to share touching note that I received from Ken Heikkila, a musician turned info publisher and entrepreneur. For years Ken had worked dumb jobs having given up hope on making a living as a classical guitarist. Then he discovered that on the Internet he could capture an audience and not only teach his skills to others, but … Read More

Twice a year Bryan and I offer our personal AdWords coaching “Bobsled Run” which is a high-speed 12-week intensive that accelerates your sales and puts your feet on solid ground. The next session is by application only and starts this Tuesday: http://BobsledRun.com/ Our Fall 2008 session (the one where the US economy jacknifed right in the middle of it) produced … Read More