I spent the day at Google’s San Francisco offices today and came away with a fresh perspective on not only their business but mine. Google's San Francisco Offices I am excited about getting back to my office and applying both what I learned and discovered.
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Google’s San Francisco Offices
“The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts the moment you get up and doesn’t stop until you get into the office.” ~ Robert Frost It’s a myth that only highly intelligent people are creative. In fact, research shows that once you get beyond an I.Q. of about 120, which is just a little above average, intelligence and creativity are not at all related. That means that even if you’re no smarter than most people, you still have the potential to wield amazing creative powers. So why are so few people highly creative? Because there are bad habits people learn as they grow up which crush the creative pathways in the brain. And like all bad habits, they can be broken if you are willing to work at it. Here are eight of the very worst bad habits that could be holding you back every day: 1. Creating and evaluating at the same time You can’t drive a car in first gear and reverse at the same time. Likewise, you shouldn’t try to use different types of thinking simultaneously. You’ll strip your mental gears. Creating means generating new ideas, visualizing, looking ahead, considering the possibilities. Evaluating means analyzing and judging, picking apart ideas and sorting them into piles of good and bad, useful and useless. Most people evaluate too soon and too often, and therefore create less. In order to create more and better ideas, you must separate creation from evaluation, coming up with lots of ideas first, then judging their worth later. 2. The Expert Syndrome This a big problem in any field where there are lots of gurus who tell you their secrets of success. It’s wise to listen, but unwise to follow without question. Some of the most successful people in the world did what others told them would never work. They knew something about their own idea that even the gurus didn’t know. Every path to success is different. 3. Fear of failure Most people remember baseball legend Babe Ruth as one of the great hitters of all time, with a career record of 714 home runs. However, he was also a master of the strike out. That’s because he always swung for home runs, not singles or doubles. Ruth either succeeded big or failed spectacularly. No one wants to make mistakes or fail. But if you try too hard to avoid failure, you’ll also avoid success. It has been said that to increase your success rate, you should aim to make more mistakes. In other words, take more chances and you’ll succeed more often. Those few really great ideas you come up with will more than compensate for all the dumb mistakes you make. 4. Fear of ambiguity Most people like things to make sense. Unfortunately, life is not neat and tidy. There are some things you’ll never understand and some problems you’ll never solve. I once had a client who sold a product by direct mail. His order form broke every rule in the book. But it worked better than any other order form he had ever tried. Why? I don’t know. What I do know is that most great creative ideas emerge from a swirl of chaos. You must develop a part of yourself that is comfortable with mess and confusion. You should become comfortable with things that work even when you don’t understand why. 5. Lack of confidence A certain level of uncertainly accompanies every creative act. A small measure of self-doubt is healthy. However, you must have confidence in your abilities in order to create and carry out effective solutions to problems. Much of this comes from experience, but confidence also comes from familiarity with how creativity works. When you understand that ideas often seem crazy at first, that failure is just a learning experience, and that nothing is impossible, you are on your way to becoming more confident and more creative. Instead of dividing the world into the possible and impossible, divide it into what you’ve tried and what you haven’t tried. There are a million pathways to success. 6. Discouragement from other people Even if you have a wide-open mind and the ability to see what’s possible, most people around you will not. They will tell you in various and often subtle ways to conform, be sensible, and not rock the boat. Ignore them. The path to every victory is paved with predictions of failure . And once you have a big win under your belt, all the naysayers will shut their noise and see you for what you are — a creative force to be reckoned with. 7. Being overwhelmed by information It’s called “analysis paralysis,” the condition of spending so much time thinking about a problem and cramming your brain with so much information that you lose the ability to act. It’s been said that information is to the brain what food is to the body. True enough. But just as you can overeat, you can also overthink. Every successful person I’ve ever met has the ability to know when to stop collecting information and start taking action . Many subscribe to the “ready – fire – aim” philosophy of business success, knowing that acting on a good plan today is better than waiting for a perfect plan tomorrow. 8. Being trapped by false limits Ask a writer for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves words. Ask a designer for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves visuals. Ask a blogger for a great idea, and you’ll get a solution that involves a blog. We’re all a product of our experience. But the limitations we have are self-imposed. They are false limits. Only when you force yourself to look past what you know and feel comfortable with can you come up with the breakthrough ideas you’re looking for. Be open to anything. Step outside your comfort zone. Consider how those in unrelated areas do what they do. What seems impossible today may seem surprisingly doable tomorrow. If you recognize some of these problems in yourself, don’t fret. In fact, rejoice! Knowing what’s holding you back is the first step toward breaking down the barriers of creativity. How about you? What mental habit has been hardest on your creativity? Let us know in the comments how you’ve handled it. About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s most creative advertising copywriters. He shares his writing and freelancing experience at Pro Copy Tips .
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8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity And Stifle Your Success
This is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. Baolin Liu wants to help fellow office workers stay strong and fit, both in and out of the office. He’s developed an exercise program designed to assist even the most sedentary office worker … or micropreneur who puts in too much tush-time in her comfy, almost-ergonomic desk lounge. But I digress … Baolin is using article marketing to drive prospects to his page. But his bounce rate is nearly 91%. And sales? Well, they’re not happening. The Goal : Reduce bounce rate, increase sales. The Problem: Very high bounce rates; non-existent conversion from the 9% who do stick around a little longer. The Current Landing Page (homepage): http://www.inshapeattheoffice.com . Value: $17.00 Click image for larger view The Maven’s 10-Point Critique #1 — Be clear about the product you’re selling. I think I know what you’re selling, but even after reading your long-form sales letter, I’m still not sure on the specifics. That’s why your bounce rate is high. Your visitors aren’t clear about what you’re selling because you’re trying to sell/promote too much, when what you need to do is paint a clearer picture of what you have to offer. Here’s what I mean: if your URL is “inshapeatheoffice,” it’s reasonable to think you’re offering an inexpensive, easy exercise and nutrition program that office workers can do while they’re at the office. That’s your hook. But your copy — and my guess is your product — tries to grow the topic “beyond the cubicle.” And when you do, you’re in competition with EVERYONE in the fitness space. #2 — Be clear about your prospect’s “pain point” in the headline. Here’s your current headline: Time for a reality check … Are your 2010 weight loss goals on track? Can you EVER return to your “fighting” weight doing the things you are doing now … sitting for long hours at a desk? How many of your fitness goals have you actually reached working your desk job? If any of those questions challenge you, GREAT! You have landed on the right page. Yikes. Maybe I don’t have any weight loss or fitness goals, or feel driven to return to my fighting weight. It’s not that I don’t care about these things, because I do. But … At the other side of that “but” for your prospect is his pain point: … But with long hours at a desk job it’s hard for me to find the time outside of the office to work out. It’s hard enough to even eat right. I’m too busy! Once you understand your prospect’s pain point, the rest of your copy begins to flow in the right direction. #3 — Be clear about your product’s big promise in your headline. Having identified the pain point: “I care about my health and appearance, but spend too many hours at my desk to eat right and get enough exercise” — now we have to identify and promote the product’s big promise . Again, your current copy doesn’t address the promise at all. Your prospects don’t care about challenging questions. They want relief from their pain point, and they want it in a big, palpable and dramatic way. Here’s your big promise: You CAN get stronger, leaner and healthier right at your desk during regular working hours — in just XX minutes a day — and your boss and co-workers will never know! All they’ll see is how good you look and wonder about your secret. #4 — Identify your primary target right off the bat. And that means your salutation. “Dear Fitness Enthusiast” is all wrong since someone who IS an enthusiast makes time for exercise. However, “Dear I Wish I Could Be Leaner, but Who Has the Freaking Time to Exercise” hits the mark square. Feel free to edit. Click image for larger view #5 – Tell your story in a way that is genuine and builds identification. Consider video to tell a portion of it. Here’s an excerpt from your story: After several years of working at the office, I noticed that I began to lack muscle tone. I was steadily gaining weight and I had lost the attractive youthful appearance that I had entered the workforce with. Does this sound like a real person? “I began to lack muscle tone?” Compare to: I was getting soft in the middle … I was beginning to loosen my belt a notch here, another notch there. Pants I had just bought were feeling tight — and not in a good way. Not at all. Here’s another example: “I had lost the attractive youthful appearance that I had entered the workforce with.” Compare to: I wasn’t looking like myself anymore . I would look in the mirror and wonder whose pudgy, bloated face was looking back at me … Someone guessed my age today — and they guessed 10 years older than I am! Your copy has to sound genuine, like two friends meeting and chatting over coffee — especially if you’re using a personal story to sell your message. Video could be very effective for you as an adjunct to your main letter copy. #6 — Show your story with before and after pictures. In the weight loss/fitness space, you’ve GOT to show before/after pictures — and lots of them — because they, even more than the copy, show the results that people are most interested in. And since you’re selling your plan with your personal story, your before/after shots are the most important, so get them in there and in the first screen. #7 — Tell enough of your story to inspire your prospects and get them to identify with you … then stop. Your personal story goes on and on. Baolin, your reader doesn’t care about your story except how it ultimately relates to him or her. So tell enough of it — and show enough of it with pictures — and then write to the interests/needs/wishes/desires of your reader as they relate to your product. Write in the ‘you’ and not the ‘I/me.’ #8 – Strengthen your subheads by having them tell their own story and keep the momentum going. Subheads are mini-headlines that help orient and pull your readers along as they scan through your message. Ideally, if your reader reads only your headline and your subheads, he/she should be able to get enough of the general story to understand what you’re selling and resonate with the emotions you’re hoping to elicit. #9 — Punch up and quantify the features of your product. After wading through your letter, I realized that there’s simply not enough about what your prospect will get, learn, discover, and benefit from. Go through your e-book and make lists. Count the number of tips per exercise, etc. Organize them and get them into your letter. If you have charts and illustrations, I’d include them, too. You’re looking to create a tidal wave of emotionally resonant “stuff” that’s so compelling that your prospect won’t be able to resist it. Click image for larger view #10 — Bolster your satisfaction guarantee. You can’t just throw a graphic on your letter and call it done. You’ve gotta say it, too. Stand behind your product with a strong, explicit guarantee and you’ve just removed a key obstacle to your fence-sitting prospect who’s ready to purchase, but paralyzed by, “What if I don’t like it?” Make your guarantee as strong as possible. Few will call you on it. BONUS TIP: Add credibility to your copy. Personal stories are a great jumping off point, but then you need to take it to the next level and build credibility and authority, as well — for your content as well as for you. So try to incorporate outside medical/science evidence for your product claims. To bolster your own credibility, share testimonials from not only e-book readers, but fitness trainers, nutritionists, etc. My thanks to Baolin Liu for his patience and support of Heifer International. Look for my next makeover in about 4 weeks. About the Author: Roberta Rosenberg is The Copywriting Maven at MGP Direct, Inc . Find her @CopywriterMaven on Twitter. If you’re interested in a private page makeover, site audit, or other services, please email Roberta directly . P.S. If you want more specific advice about what works and what doesn’t in online marketing, be sure you’re getting the Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter from Copyblogger. It’s free, and kicks off with a 20-part course on the essentials of marketing in the online world.
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Landing Page Makeover Clinic #29: InShapeAtTheOffice.com
I have been out of the office for a few day and noticed a new feature in Twitter – Who To Follow. Twitter Who To Follow Clicking through on their suggested users link produces a list of Twitter accounts who share similar interests. Users You May Be Interested In I haven’t followed any of the “User you may be interested in” and don’t whether I will yet or not.
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Twitter Who To Follow
Linkshare is an affiliate marketing third-party company that manages the affiliate programs of a lot of well-known brands, such as Office Depot, Lego, and Toshiba. Linkshare has been a leader in affiliate marketing programs since 1996, and has a solid reputation.
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Linkshare