News By Tom Brownsword

Thanks again for nothing, Microsoft. Again, you cost me hours of research work yesterday when you arbitrarily decided to reboot my computer after downloading patches.

Denial of service is a computer security problem, Microsoft, and every time you do your forced reboot, it’s a denial of service. You take pride in the way you promote security, but the bottom line is that a tool must do the work that it was designed to do or it’s fit only for the scrap heap.

By that definition, since you are constantly causing me lost work — i.e. a denial of service — your operating system is only fit for the scrap heap.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — GET RID OF THAT AUTOMATIC REBOOT FUNCTION! PROFESSIONALS WHO DO REAL WORK DON’T LIKE IT WHEN YOU REBOOT AND TRASH THE WORK THEY’VE DONE!

Do you understand? Or are you stuck in your “we know what’s best for you” mode? NO, YOU DON’T! And if you continue to insist on being this way, a different operating system will be what’s “best for me”. And I’ll hope that this blog will take a whole lot of people with me.

My next laptop will not have a Microsoft operating system on it unless you get rid of that auto reboot function. I’ve already started my research. And I strongly urge anybody who depends on their computer to not lose work to NOT consider a Microsoft operating system for this reason.

–Tom

Just wanted to dash off a quick note to welcome Maja to the world, born around 10:00 AM this morning to Tomek (my brother in law) and Agnieszka in Poland.

Congrats to both of you, and do take care of that littlest one!

–Tom

I recently purchased the new version of StomperNet. Good stuff, good guys, but since my primary focus is copywriting, I don’t want that distraction coming into my life right now. Plus it’s been almost a month and I’m still waiting for my package, but I blame that on the military’s postal system, which seems to get slower and less efficient with each passing day — and not on the StomperNet team (hope I’m right…). And Christmas is coming. Oh, Joy!

Anyway, one of things I do when signing up for an offer that includes a continuity program (the new StomperNet has a monthly magazine / newsletter that’s included with the package) is save the cancellation instructions. If I can’t find them, I don’t sign up or purchase the product, regardless of how badly I want it. In this case (and I’m posting it here in case others are wondering), you can cancel your Net Effect / Stompernet subscription by clicking here. Just fill out the form (you’ll need your email address and the last four digits of the credit card you used to pay the shipping on the original product) and you’re done. They do ask “why”, but it’s an optional question.

Nice job, Brandy. Nice and easy and even pleasant.

Frank Kern also did a nice job in the cancellation department on his recent Mass Control Monthly launch. I came, I saw, I bought, and I cancelled (hey, he told me to go ahead and rip him off — I think?). I even received a copy of the monthly continuity product (it arrived before I was first billed) and his support team told me to keep it. Again, a nice experience. Thanks, Frank. I don’t have any Viking hats in the house, but I did wear the hat I picked up when I visited Venice during Carnival while canceling. Is that close enough?

Joel Comm also comes to mind when it comes to pleasant cancellation experiences. No hassles, no problems — just a polite “we’re sorry to see you go”. Knowing Joel a bit better than Frank or Brandy (after last year’s Underground conference), I’d expect nothing less.

And while I didn’t order Mike Filsaime’s recent free product that had a back-end continuity program, I’m 100% confident that Mike also has an easy way to terminate the subscription and has honored every single request (I’ve talked to Mike at a few conferences, at least in passing, and he at least knows who I am — as does his support staff! Long story, but to make it short, Mike taught me a HUGE lesson about customer service that I won’t forget. Thanks again, Mike). Heck, I should go back and try to buy it just so I can test his cancellation system! (Don’t worry, Mike, I won’t do that…)

We’re always quick to talk about the bad things that happen on the Internet and the things we don’t like; in keeping with my desire to be more grateful, I decided to mention these pleasant experiences. And while I didn’t intend to overlook others who are perfectly honest and who operate with the highest level of integrity, there’s no way I can cover the hundreds, if not thousands, of others who would do the same.

In mentioning these few with whom I have personal experience, I hope it will give a few more people the confidence to order these programs. I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to do business with any of them again.

Thanks for listening,
Tom

I’m about to commit blogicide. Again. Except this time I’m going to be doing it differently:

• Last time, I just did it with no warning. This time there’s warning. I’ll be doing it sometime during the next couple of weeks, but I won’t start before Sunday, October 12, 2008..
• Last time, I blew away everything. This time I’ll be replacing the text of the posts I want to kill with the word “Blogicided”, which will link to this post. There are a few posts that I want to keep up for various reasons. I learned last time that a 100% deletion means the good stuff goes away forever.

And kind of like the last time, there’s a reason for this.

I now know what I want to do with the next several years of my life. I am going to be a copywriter. Blogicide will allow me to weed out the stuff that isn’t pertinent to the new direction for this blog — and my business.

If you’ve been following this blog (and perhaps you have even subscribed to the notification list) you deserve to know this. I’m changing focus for the last time (at least for now… how’s that for wishy-washy commitment?) and I simply don’t want you to waste time checking out a blog that isn’t going to be of interest and use to you. So if you go away or even unsubscribe, no hard feelings — and I do hope you will still stop by and say “hi” every once in a while.

What about product creation? I’ll still be creating lots of products (or having them created for me); the main difference is that I’m really going to be focused on writing the best sales letters for them and on making those letters the absolute best they can be.

Some day soon I’ll talk about how I came to this decision, but for now, suffice it to say that the fundamental necessity of good copywriting has been driven into my head over the past couple of weeks, and the message finally came through (there are several layers of “thick skull”, as my mother used to say, that such things must pass through before my otherwise quite useful and fertile brain can pass them off to my sub-conscious mind for action… It finally got through.).

No more flitting from project to project. It’s copywriting, and I’m going to be as good as I can get.

And while poking about my basement office over the past day or so, looking for copywriting stuff I have lying around, I found the following materials that will me get started:

* Chapter 3 of Yanik Silver’s “Instant Internet Profits” course. It’s a six week course, and Week 3 is entitled “Creating A Winning Sales Letter”. I figure that this short chapter will be the best way to get my feet wet fast (plus I really do like Yanik. He calls me by name every time I see him, and it’s not because he has me on speed dial on his personal cell phone. Yet.).

* Dan Kennedy’s “Copywriting Seminar In A Box”. This came with his “Mother Of All Offers” (I think that’s what it was called), which I purchased a couple of years ago, unpacked, and pretty much ignored. No more.

* “My Life In Advertising & Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins. This is going to be my “light reading” book, i.e. bedtime and bathtub time (plus when I’m playing taxi driver for the family). But it’s far from light reading; I’ve already learned from Chapter 1 of “Scientific Advertising” that there’s LOTS more to copywriting than just writing. LOTS more.

I’m also going to be following the late Gary Halbert’s suggestion; I’m going to start writing out sales letters by hand, as time permits. Click here to learn more about that. And while you’re there, check out the rest of the site, and if nothing else, grab all of the chapters in The Boron Letters. If you at all care about copywriting, that is.

And here is my short “Wish List” of future purchases:

* John Carlton’s Marketing Rebel package. I’m hoping to get a free copy of it; I should know if I got it within a day or three.

* Gary Bencivenga’s “7 Master Secrets of Wealth Creation for Marketers and Copywriters”. I’ve liked Gary ever since I listened to an interview he did with Ken McCarthy some time ago and have wanted more than just his Bencivenga Bullets ever since.

When I heard that interview, I promised that I would buy anything major ticket item he produces if he ever does offer something. While researching some stuff earlier today, I discovered that he has released something; a $5,000, no-disclosure course that is based on a private seminar he held with 100 other marketers.

Gary’s good, and that course is worth the $5,000 to me. I’m going to buy it, but I’ve promised myself that I’m going to EARN the money to buy it via my copywriting efforts.

So there it is. I’m a copywriter. Stay tuned; more to come.

Thanks for listening,
Tom

P.S. — One more reason I mentioned the blogicide… If there are any posts on this blog that are important to you, please save a copy of them to your computer or print it out SOON. I can’t promise that they will be here after Sunday, October 12, 2008, and I won’t respond to requests for “older” posts unless they come from coaching clients. Thanks for understanding.