I wrote this arti­cle way back in 1998. It seems to have made a resur­gence, espe­cially with today’s econ­omy. So I said to myself, “Why not repub­lish it?” So here it is. Enjoy!

If there is some­thing about which I’m pretty adamant, it’s the idea of attract­ing qual­i­fied prospects who are will­ing to do busi­ness with you. And this involves many dif­fer­ent things.

Posi­tion­ing is one of them. In fact, it has been one of my favorite mar­ket­ing con­cepts for this very reason.

How­ever, this fun­da­men­tal mag­net­ism is not only based on pure mar­ket­ing prac­tices or strate­gies. It also involves some­thing at a much deeper level that is far more effec­tive than any other mar­ket­ing tool or process in existence.

This “thing” to which I am refer­ring is, I believe, the most impor­tant mar­ket­ing secret I can ever teach you — and it’s far from being a secret at all. It is con­sid­ered as one sim­ply because it is often neglected or ignored by many mar­keters and businesspeople.

What is this “secret” that’s so elusive?

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A stu­dent, who is an upcom­ing copy­writer, recently asked where he could find clients will­ing to pay higher rates for his skills.

Hav­ing built a client base through net­work­ing on Inter­net forums geared towards start-​​up busi­ness own­ers, he now wanted to find oppor­tu­ni­ties that would allow for upward mobil­ity within his craft.

This is a com­mon sce­nario, because local and espe­cially start-​​up busi­nesses are easy to find, and pro­vide plenty of oppor­tu­ni­ties to prac­tice your emerg­ing copy­writ­ing skills.

In a pre­vi­ous arti­cle, I talked about three tips for aspir­ing copy­writ­ers. I rec­om­mend any new copy­writer to fol­low these three tips to start build­ing a track record and get to a level that makes them appeal­ing to higher-​​paying clients.

But after your copy­writ­ing skills are devel­oped, how­ever, it becomes desir­able if not nec­es­sary to seek out clients — bet­ter, more lucra­tive clients — who are estab­lished enough to pay a fair wage for your skills and, above all, your results.

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It’s New Year’s Eve, so I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Happy New Year. Thanks for your con­tin­ued read­er­ship and sup­port in 2008. Your return vis­its, your com­ments, and your sub­scriber­ship are greatly appreciated.

New Year’s is a time when we make res­o­lu­tions. But res­o­lu­tions are often bro­ken. Instead, I pre­fer to set goals, with the sole res­o­lu­tion to meet them. What are my goals for 2009? It all boils down to three sim­ple words…

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I’m back from New Zealand. We had a chance to eat at The Orbit, a rotat­ing restau­rant at the top of the Sky Tower with our friend and copy­writ­ing whiz Alan For­rest Smith.

Now that I’m back, I have a some­thing for you.

You’ve prob­a­bly read my last blog post about this seem­ing “intu­itive skill” some mar­keters seem to have when find­ing red-​​hot niches online — or con­firm­ing if yours is viable and prof­itable, and how to sell more. It’s the first and most impor­tant step in Suc­cess Chef.

It took my wife Sylvie Fortin over nine long months to put together. You get close to five hours of stream­ing lessons with tons of resources. And it’s get­ting rave reviews!

Well, I finally had time to write some copy and put up a rough web page that explains it in much greater detail. I’m still work­ing on it. I’ve added a com­plete course descrip­tion, a list of what’s included, and an extra bonus not men­tioned before.

So please check it out and let us know what you think!

Click here for a course descrip­tion and more.

Why is it that suc­cess­ful mar­keters and online entre­pre­neurs seem to have this vir­tual “6th sense” when it comes to pin­point­ing hot, hun­gry, and highly prof­itable mar­kets they can sell prod­ucts to?

We see this again and again and again.

They seem to have this “Midas touch” when it comes to sell­ing online. Any prod­uct they launch sells like gang­busters. Every pro­mo­tion they do bal­loons their bank accounts. Every new mar­ket they enter becomes a sure­fire winner.

But ask them how they tap these hid­den gold­mines with an almost impec­ca­ble accu­racy, and the likely response you will get is, “I don’t know, it just feels right.”

There’s a reason.

(Stay with me, because in a moment I’m going to show you how you can do this your­self, and you don’t have to be psy­chic or shell out a lot of money!)

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Seems I’m rant­ing a lot these days, and a lit­tle more opin­ion­ated than the norm. Per­haps it’s my bro­ken back, which is killing me, that’s mak­ing me more sen­si­tive or irri­ta­ble. I don’t know.

But some­thing some­one recently said in my copy­writ­ers forum irri­tated me. And it’s not what this per­son said specif­i­cally, but the mind­set behind it that’s both­er­ing me.

In a thread about an Inter­net mar­keter who was recently arrested (yes, it had some­thing to do with forced con­ti­nu­ity, but it had more to do with refus­ing refunds and avoid­ing cus­tomers than it had to do with forced con­ti­nu­ity itself), one mem­ber said:

“There is NO such thing as an hon­est busi­ness man. (…) Ask any accountant.”

Now, I have no clue as to why this per­son said this. And my opin­ion here is not about this per­son specif­i­cally. Again, it’s about the think­ing process that some peo­ple have when they make such assertions.

Per­son­ally, I believe this view of busi­ness peo­ple is skewed, off, and wrong. It’s destruc­tive, too.

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Pre­am­ble: In response to some excel­lent rebut­tals as well as count­less com­ments I’ve received on my pre­vi­ous post, “The Real Sin­is­ter Side of Forced Con­ti­nu­ity,” I believe some peo­ple are miss­ing the point of my argu­ment, and I want to clar­ify a few things.

I’m not a lawyer by any stretch. But as a copy­writer and busi­ness owner, I do know the rules enough to know that there’s a dif­fer­ence between “optional con­ti­nu­ity,” “forced con­ti­nu­ity,” and “hid­den continuity.”

Optional con­ti­nu­ity is self-​​explanatory. Forced con­ti­nu­ity is a very com­mon mar­ket­ing prac­tice (I’m not a fan of it, but I don’t mind it). In fact, there’s noth­ing wrong with forced con­ti­nu­ity in and of itself.

What’s wrong is when it’s used in a wrong way.

The real prob­lem, I believe, is that good mar­keters, includ­ing mar­keters using “forced con­ti­nu­ity” in an eth­i­cal and legit­i­mate way, are get­ting a bad rep­u­ta­tion because some mar­keters unscrupu­lously mis­use forced continuity.

The lack of trans­parency is the real cul­prit — such as hid­ing it or dis­guis­ing it. Espe­cially when it’s done on pur­pose. That annoys me. Because it’s no longer an issue of mis­use. It’s out-​​and-​​out abuse.

But what both­ers me more is how it affects us all. And it affects us all, both cus­tomers and mar­keters alike, in more ways than you think.

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