Yes, I’ve overbooked myself before. I’ve done it more than once. You’d think I’d learned after the first time I did but I didn’t. It took my second round to accidently overbooking myself to learn my lesson.

It started out innocently enough. I had two projects already on my schedule for the month. Two new clients wanted to hire me. I offered to start their projects the next month. They wanted it sooner. They asked if they paid more if I’d move them up in the line. I countered by asking for 50% more, figuring that they would say no. You can imagine my surprise when they both agreed to pay alot more money to get a quick start date.

That month I worked my butt off. Every spare moment I could come up, I was writing copy for those clients. I didn’t have a day off the entire month. My family wound up having to do a number of family things without me because I needed the time to try to catch up on the projects.

By the end of the month, I felt completely wiped out. Worse, partway through the month, one of my forearms cramped up. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to uncramp. About two months later, I finally was forced to take a week off from doing lots of typing just to break the pain/muscle cramping cycle.

Since then, I’ve learned my mistakes. There’s only been one instance since where I was booked so tightly and those clients did so with the understanding that I would deliver the best possible sales copy I could but I would not guarantee the delivery date.

Here’s my 5 quick tips that have made a world of difference.

I use these every day to help give my schedule some sanity and structure. Feel free to try any or all of them in your copywriting business.

1. Hire a part-time babysitter.

I started out with a few hours each week and as my business grew, added more hours of babysitting. Now I have babysitting coverage 20-25 hours weekdays so I don’t have to work exclusively nights & weekends. Just factor your babysitting costs in to your project bids.

2. A project isn’t booked on my schedule until I have received the client’s deposit.

If it’s a check, I wait until it clears my bank to finalize the bookings. The longer they take to pay their deposit, the further in line they wind up.

I once had a client send me an unsigned check. I sent it back to him with a note saying his project wouldn’t be booked or started until I received his payment. He sent me a new check and during that delay, 2 other clients booked with me. You can imagine his shock when I told him it would be a month later start time because two others had paid while I was waiting for his payment.

After that, he paid in full upfront to ensure his booking spot.

3. Overestimate the time you need to complete a project, then work on delivering it early without sacrificing the quality of your work.

By overestimating the time I need, I’ve been able to work around deaths in the family, my son’s birth, my wife’s major car accident in 2008r, and countless other things that threw scheduling roadblocks in the way. I still meet the client’s deadline because I hadn’t lost time to the unexpected or unavoidable incidents in life.

4. Guard your time against time vampires.

That’s a Dan Kennedy term, not mine. I highly recommend you read his No B.S. book on Time Management. Case in point: I RARELY talk to prospects on the phone about their project. It’s WAY too easy for a 10 minute call to balloon into an hour if you’re not careful. Everything initially is done by email. Paying clients get my office phone number. VIPs get my mobile number as well.

99% of the calls I take or do are by appointment. It’s a lot easily to manage that way.

5. Put your own down time and personal projects into your schedule.

Not only does it recharge your batteries, but it gives you something different to look forward to. All work and no play will make anybody a grumpy soul eventually.

Hope that helps,

Mike

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Last week, Google introduced a new toolbar.  In typical Google fashion, it’s made a huge splash… although it’s probably not the type of feedback that they were looking for.

This new toolbar is called Sidewiki and it gives web browsers the ability to write comments on any website.  Now it doesn’t actually write the comments on the webpage. Instead, they are stored on one of Google’s databases somewhere.  To use an analogy, it’s like someone putting a big sign in front of a retail store without actually entering the store.

According to Google, the idea is people can post their own “reviews” on different websites based on their experiences. In other words, if they have eaten at a local restaurant, then they can post their experiences on the restaurant’s website for everyone using the SideWiki toolbar to read.

It’s another variation of social media… a portable interactive forum thread, if you will, on any website on the internet.  Sounds nice in theory but…

… It creates far more problems than it solves.

First, any comments posted on a webpage are not viewable by that website owner unless they use Google’s Toolbar.  Comments are open-ended and can be whatever people choose to post.  You can literally see anything from customer reviews to links to porn or spam sites.

Second, website owners are not being given a choice to opt-out of their websites being “defaced”.  In addition, website owners are being asked to police their own websites to remove or rebuke any harmful, slanderous, or socially unacceptable statements.  That leads into an even bigger problem.

Third, many online entrepreneurs own more than one website… sometimes it’s dozens of active websites with hundreds of webpages spread across all of them.  This adds a massive amount of work to moderate all of those pages… time-consuming work that would have to be done by the website owner or outsourced to a paid freelancer.

I wish the bad news ended strictly with website owners… but it doesn’t.

Since the SideWiki has no parental controls and can be installed on any computer, the opportunity for young children to be exposed to pornographic or spam messages and links, on any websites that they visit, is virtually endless.

In my opinion, the amount of damage that could be caused by spammers and unethical folks is unlimited by this toolbar… damage to private website owners and to the general public who will be exposed to all types of spam and other junk.

Think I’m biased? Maybe… but I’m not alone.

Here are the comments already in Google’s forum about this new tool.  You’ll notice the majority of the commentary is very much against this tool being made available. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Toolbar/thread?fid=65cd1ca77affd341000474c9a1a3a04d&hl=en

Steve Diamond, a very sharp programmer pointed out another problem with SideWiki: Unless Google is paying strict attention to every site’s TOS and licensing, every time they create one of these special URLs they’re stealing an entire site’s content and displaying it under the google.com domain.
http://www.google.com/sidewiki/entry/103503649576542905957/id/ca2rkl2nFEAHPhoimCLNWNodXI0

Try the above link. Then click on some internal links in Wikipedia. Works fine, doesn’t it?

Not exactly. Take a look at your browser’s location bar. It still says http://www.google.com.

This is a far cry from the short excerpts Google scrapes for display on their search pages. That’s arguably “fair use” and it’s possible for webmasters to opt out via robots.txt placed in their website’s main directory. But this new practice looks awfully like wholesale theft of entire websites to me.

Personally, as someone who considers himself an ethical online marketer, this toolbar represents a serious threat to my personal and family’s livelihood.  I also view it as potentially harmful to the general public at large.

Here’s what I suggest: Tell Google what YOU think:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Toolbar/thread?fid=65cd1ca77affd341000474c9a1a3a04d&hl=en

With enough constructive feedback, maybe Google will modify their SideWiki so that no one comes out on the losing end.

Until next time,

Mike

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I want to share with you a story.  It’s a story that is a really great example of where networking and developing relationships can really help open doors for your career.

It was May of 2007 when I saw a post in an online marketing forum. It was a post for somebody that had an extra ticket for an Internet marketing seminar called JV Alert that they were looking to sell.  Since JV Alert was in the Philadelphia area that year and I live in the Philly suburbs, I was already planning to attend.

It turns out that jvAlert was running a promotion then that if you signed up early, they’d give you two tickets for the price of one. The problem was, this gentleman wasn’t planning on bringing a guest with him.

So he had an extra ticket that he couldn’t use. If somebody else could use the other ticket, that would be great.  If he could make back a few bucks that he paid for the tickets initially, that would be even better because money was a bit tight for him at the time.

So I mentioned to him about a copywriting forum that might be of interest to him, and where he might want to mention the extra ticket for sale.

The reason being was Michel Fortin, a very famous copywriter, was speaking at JV Alert that year.  I figured there was a good chance that some copywriter would want to see Fortin’s presentation.

Sure enough, someone on the copywriting forum board saw his note and bought the ticket.

That guy whose ticket I helped sell, he bought me a beer on the first night of the seminar.  We talked for awhile and the next day I invited him to join a few other friends for a cheesesteak run to the world famous Pat’s Steaks.

Over lunch, he revealed that he was living in a tiny apartment in Spanish Harlem, and trying to survive on a just as tiny monthly stipend. Before that, he had spent a year in Haiti doing volunteer and humanitarian work.

Right away, I could tell he was different.  He had a real passion when he talked about copywriting and creating his own infoproducts.  He talked about using his infoproducts sales to help worthy charities get the funds they needed to keep up their great work.

I started getting a strong gut feeling that this guy might be onto something.  Here was a guy who had a burning desire for success… and still wanted to help those who were less fortunate than him to enjoy a better life.

Turns out, I was right.

About a month later, I start hearing that he’s really opening the eyes of the top dogs in the internet marketing field.  He’s got created some great products that are selling like hotcakes.  He’s getting quite a buzz as a copywriter too.

So we continue to stay in touch by e-mail, even talk by phone at times too. In 2008, he interviewed me for one of his infoproducts… an interview that has generated alot of free publicity for my business.

He’s continued to do even bigger and more amazing things, to the point where now, I’m happy to tell people that I’m glad I became friends with Brian McElroy long before many people started calling him one of the fastest up-and-coming stars in the online information marketing arena.

Here are some of the results Brian produced in less than 2 years:

- Raised $3000 for a local charity simply by running a special offer in the Warrior Forum

- Generated over half a million dollars in revenue in his FIRST YEAR as a copywriter

- Made over $34,000 on a product launch from the Amazon rainforest… without internet access!

- Helped raise over $100,000 for the village where he lived in Haiti

- Created $156,598.00 in revenue from a brand new niche business… in just 3 months!

If it sounds like Brian is an amazing person, you would be right.

In fact, he decided to give back to the online marketing field that has helped him so much… and he’s doing it by offering some free training.

You can get Brian’s free training here:

http://michaelhumphreys.com/recommends/BrianInfo

You’ll discover things like…

- How Brian went from learning HTML by candlelight to generating over $500,000 in sales in his first year
as a copywriter

- How to get paid for everything you do, anytime you want, faster and easier than you ever thought possible!

- How one successful offer can literally change your life!

- How to create VALUABLE information products in 24 hours or less… even if you’re NOT an expert!

This training is still available as I type this email…

… but I know it’s coming down soon!

To get access to Brian’s free training, make sure you go
here now:

http://michaelhumphreys.com/recommends/BrianInfo

Enjoy!

To Your Success,

Mike

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I was straightening up my desk today and happened to look at my desk calendar.  That was when I realized that 2009 is almost halfway over.

I quickly did a mental review of the goals I set for this year.  A few of them I had already achieved.  I’m on pace to meet some additional ones before years-end.  There’s also a few goals that I’m miles away from reaching this year.

The goals that you have already achieved can be a tremendous confidence booster. So can the ones that you can honestly say you’re on track to reaching.

It’s the ones that you set the bar too high that can really squash your spirits… if you let them.

Many people will automatically put themselves down for missing the mark… that’s why the cliche “I am my own worst enemy” holds a lot of truth for them.

That’s a huge mistake!

Tearing yourself down will only knock your self-confidence even lower and make it much more difficult to achieve all of your goals.

Instead, take the time to reassess each goal that looks like you won’t meet this year.

Ask yourself these questions:

1) Did I set an unrealistic goal? If so, readjusting the goal to a more realistic level could be a great decision to make.

2) Did something happen that was out of my control and prevented me from reaching my goal? Don’t put the blame on yourself for missing a goal if it wasn’t your fault.  Sometimes life truly does hand us lemons.  It’s best to acknowledge that something happened that was out of your control.

Let me give you a great example.

When 2008 started, I had set a big goal for my personal income.  My consulting and info-product businesses were doing very well, so I honestly felt I had a really good chance to have my best year ever financially.

That was before my then-pregnant wife was in a really bad car accident in March. Then she gave birth to our son in May.  The good news is both of them are completely fine.

Unfortunately, I had to massively cut down my work load for almost 5 months to help my wife care for our children and assist her recovery.  That meant I had literally no shot of reaching my big yearly goal.  While I felt “bad” about missing my big goal, I quickly dismissed the bad feelings because I knew I did the right thing by being there for my wife and children during their time of need.  After all, it wasn’t my fault that some idiot slid his car across the highway and in front of my wife’s Honda Odyssey.  It wasn’t my fault that his recklessness caused a major accident that totaled both vehicles and could have killed several people, including the idiot driver.

This was truly something that happened that was 100% out of my control so I made the best of a bad situation.  Truth be told, my family means more to me than making any amount of money in the world.  I was actually more upset about my loved ones being hurt by someone else than my big goal being placed out of my reach.

3) What can I do or do differently to reach that goal? Ask yourself: is it a matter of needing more information or a better strategy to reach your goal?  If it’s needing more information, then start looking for that information.

If it’s a matter of strategy, then take 30 minutes and sit down in a quiet place and brainstorm.  You’ll be surprised by the number of great ideas or even a step-by-step plan your mind will produce.

In closing, I’d like to encourage you to use the last “half” of 2009 to do your best and reach even more of your goals. Because if you do, it’s a massive confidence builder and a great way to begin 2010!

Until next time,

Mike

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For the longest time, I used to carry a paper and pencil daytimer. Then I tried using email to send needed tasks lists to myself from one computer to another.

I’m happy to say that I found a much better system. Best of all, it’s a web-based one which I can access anywhere called GTD Agenda.

It’s based on David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” and it gives you a ton of powerful features like To-Do List, Goals, and more which can be modified in mere mouse clicks fast.

Best of all, you can try it out for free. Or if you’re like me, I used the free system for about 10 minutes and then immediately grabbed a paid membership for a year. Even that’s a great deal – about $3 per month as I type this.

Check it out :

This tool should help simplify things for you and your business.

Until next time,

Michael

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Just by entering the contest, everyone was given a free prize. I wrote up my entry in about 2 hours and entered the email division. I was happy to help promote Clayton’s site because he offers a ton of great copywriting and marketing information free which has helped many people, including me.

You can imagine my surprise when I got the email from Clayton’s ezine that I had won the Grand Prize in the email division! Here’s a link to that email which I’ve uploaded on my copywriting site:

http://www.superbcopywriting.com/Contest%20winners%20revealed!.htm

Here’s a link to my entry:

http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/wendy-makepeace/urgent-deadline-midnight-tonight.html#comment-8591

Congrats to the other winners of the contest: Tim and Jen, Dean Kennedy, Jim Rodante, Dan Curriden, and Tian Yan.

Finally, I want to thank Clayton and his entire staff for doing this contest. They took something that can be hard work (writing copy) and made it fun and for a cause that I’m happy to support (Clayton’s site).

Until next time,

Mike

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Michel wrote an emotional letter which he posted on the front of his forum explaining his reasons behind making this decision. After reading the letter, my reaction was mixed.

Let me explain.

On one hand, Michel’s forum was one of my favorite places to hang out. Over the years, I had developed a number of friendships through that forum.

It was also a great resource of copywriting and marketing knowledge, shared by thousands of people over the years.

Unfortunately, I understood much of what Michel said he was feeling because I’ve been there before myself. When I decided to close my massage therapy center, I had had enough. I was completely burnt out with the day-to-day stressors that came with running a business of that size.

In fact, I was so burned out that I opted to close the business rather than try to find a buyer. Trying to sell the business would have meant that I would have been forced to stick around for another 6-24 months to find a suitable buyer and then help transition the center to the new owner. I didn’t want to wait 1-2 years to get out… I wanted out IMMEDIATELY.

Do I think Michel has closed his copywriting forum temporarily?

Probably not.

I know Michel a little better than the average online marketer or copywriter… having talked with him numerous times by email and by phone. I’ve even ghostwritten copy for him.

I don’t believe Michel would reopen that forum unless he had a burning desire to do so once again. I can’t see Michel reopening it and just going through the motions of running it the way he’d want to see it run.

I don’t have any proof. I don’t know what Michel has planned for the future either. I’ll probably find out what Michel does next at the same time as the rest of the world and that’s okay with me.

In my opinion, Michel is one of the best copywriters in the world. He’s probably even better as a marketer which doesn’t always get the public recognition.

My point is Michel needs to do what is best for Michel. As a former business burn-out myself, I support his decision even if isn’t one that doesn’t benefit me the most.

So what does benefit me? Moving forward with my career and my life. I’ll still periodically check in with Michel by email to see how he’s doing but providing for my family will always be my top priority.

As for missing the social lounge for copywriters, I got some great news a few days ago. It seems my buddy & fellow copywriter Bruce Wedding opened a new forum for copywriters. It’s growing quickly and has a strong chance to become the new hang-out for copywriting dudes like me. I even decided to be a moderator there after Bruce asked me if I would.

You can check it out at: http://www.copywritingboard.com/

So come stop by. Get a sales letter critique while you’re at it. It’s a free copywriting and marketing resource that grows stronger by the day. Your bank account may wind up thanking you for joining this new forum.

Until next time,

Michael

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