ARTICLE EXCERPTS...
Sample#1: $1.14 Quadrillion in Derivatives
Quadrillion? That’s just a number astronomers use, right? You know...as in the North Star is “just” a couple of quadrillion miles away?
But, ominously enough, Earth’s economists are starting to use the number, too. No, not to refer to the amount of dollars out there (though it might feel like the Fed just pumped a quadrillion greenbacks into the economy). The Bank of International Settlements recently reported that the amount of outstanding derivatives has now reached the $1.14 quadrillion mark ($548 Trillion in listed credit derivatives plus $596 trillion in notional [or face value] OTC derivatives).
Whether you’re an astronomer or an economist, that’s an awfully big number. In case you need a mega-number refresher course, million is followed by billion which is followed by trillion which is followed by quadrillion (and, okay, quintillion and sextillion follow that). Yes, it takes a thousand trillion to make up one quadrillion and, sadly, that’s where we now find ourselves with this whole derivative mess.
Leverage Madness
Derivatives, as you may know, are basically unregulated, high-risk credit bets. Unlike the earnest farmer who might employ a futures contract to hedge the price of the beans he’s toiled so hard to grow, many banking institutions use futures, forwards, options, swaps, swaptions, caps, collars and floors—the whole whacky glossary of leverage devices—to bet the hell out of virtually anything...
Sample#2: Ten Advantages of Sales Letter Websites
Many experienced Web marketers are already familiar with these glorious sales letter Website advantages…
1/ Lifespan? 24/7. Like your corner 7-11, your sales letter Website stays open 24/7. It never sleeps. It never calls in sick. It never looks off in space and daydreams. It’s always on the job.
2/ Can’t Trash-Can It. Visitors may be able to click to another site, but they sure can’t toss this sales letter in the trash. It’ll be up there doing its job for as long as you like.
3/ Immediate Focus. Since a sales letter is usually a site’s home page, it is the immediate focus of every visitor. Granted, a visitor may decide not to hang around, but as long as he or she does linger, there’s that sales letter staring them right in the face.
4/ Nothing to Divert Attention. Along those lines, there aren’t hundreds of ads competing with your sales letter on your Website. It’s the only game in town…at least, on your site.
5/ Supported by Content. Other content on the Website can support the sales letter nicely…and it can be changed often enough to keep attracting visitors and search engines. A sales letter Website doesn’t have to be a one-trick pony.
6/ Easy to Test and Update. Picture this: You have thousands of sales letter leftovers from a direct mail campaign, and now you want to do another mailing…but you’d also like to test some new copy. That’s going to be a problem. You’ll either have to settle for the original letter or start printing up another one. On the other hand, if you had an online sales letter, it would be a cinch to make any changes you want…and you could test copy and offers to your heart’s content.
7/ You Have Zero Space Constraints. Hallelujah! You don’t have to try fitting 16 pages of copy into 4…or, worse, into a quarter-page sized ad. You can luxuriate in the space you’re allowed, which is to say you have unlimited space. Sure, you don’t want to write a book here, but if that complex $1,000 product of yours merits a lengthy sales presentation, you can easily provide it without having to worry about budget-busting printing or postage charges.
8/ Low or No Cost. Speaking of charges, apart from the costs of actually writing a sales letter, coding it and paying your host to keep it up there (and, maybe, doing an email campaign or two), your costs are zilch. Zero. Contrast that with the pricetag of even a nominal one-time direct mail campaign (estimated at $8k for 10,000 prospects). Or a one-time print ad in, say, Fortune magazine ($43k for a third of a page).
9/ Almost Unlimited Analytical Opportunities. In online advertising, you can easily capture all kinds of useful info for your “back-end analysis.” Among other stats, you can determine what your visitors are actually looking at on your site, where your visitors are coming from, things like “click-thru rates” and all kinds of other neat information…stats that just aren't available offline. This amounts to a direct response pro’s paradise.
10/ It’s Interactive! Let’s say you’re referencing some important supportive material in your sales letter. Offline you either have to include printed copies of that material or just ask the reader to trust you. Online, however, you can let readers click on links to as many supportive pages or Websites as you like without it causing you a logistical nightmare. Now, granted, you don’t want to go too far in diverting your reader’s precious attention from your sales letter, but isn’t it good to know that you can now present your “complete case” with absolute ease? Moreover, whenever you involve your prospect in your sales presentation – and having them click on a link is a form of involvement – you up your chances of a good response. Think of sales letter links, then, as key “involvement devices.”=
BUSINESS MINI-BOOK FICTION...
Taylor Rayfield always did a funny little dance whenever he got good news. He found himself dancing a lot lately.
In the summer, he'd sit on a beach in Coronado, near his home in San Diego, and whenever he'd get news over his laptop of the latest financial conquest, he'd jump up, shout, and do a silly sort of Martin Short dance right there on the sand. His skinny knees pumping, his outstretched arms flailing and patrician belly keeping perfect time, Taylor would make a minor spectacle of himself right there on the edge of the Pacific.
In the winter, Taylor would sit in front of a crackling fire in his upscale Park City condo, feet up on the marble coffee table, and perform his investment magic. Whenever he'd hit a financial homerun there, he'd run onto the balcony, do his dance and yowl at the sky like a lovelorn wolf. Skiers walking on the snow-packed street below would look up, laugh, and often yowl back. A yowling match would often ensue, and Taylor found it a moderately effective way of meeting Park City ladies.
Life was good.
On this particular day, Taylor did the dance of his life.
He laid the laptop on the coffee table, patted it lovingly, ran to the slider, jerked it open and hopped onto to the balcony. It was about 28 degrees out there, snowing wildly, and Taylor wasted little time yowling into it, the thick snowflakes finding their way into his tongue. Then he did his dance, faster and more jiggly than ever, even adding a new element -- he circled the balcony faster and faster, round and round, until he slid and took a nearly fatal flop over the railing -- then he slunk to the deck, happily out of breath, sucking a mix of air and snow into lungs better suited for sitting than dancing.
Taylor had just hit a financial grand-slam. =
NOVEL EXCERPT.,.
At the top of his folk's driveway, Harry set the Suburban's parking brake, stepped into the darkening afternoon under a riot of sun-setting skies, a spectacular brawl of rose, orange, purple and bluish hues . . .and a memory of Shannon materialized.
It wasn't quite two years ago. They had been in the Deer Valley parking lot after a frigid and miraculous day skiing some uniquely Park City powder. He felt good, great actually, frozen and warm at the same time. They stood there, her face peeking mystically from behind her visible breath, flush with pink sunset, and heart-achingly beautiful. For the moment, just the moment, the laughter stopped, the wisecracks died, and they stood perfectly still, perfectly open to each other. The veneers were gone now and underneath was all kindness and innocent love; she smiled sweetly, almost shyly, so pleased at what her eyes beheld; swallowing hard, he remembered the trembling smile he returned and the long look down eternity way -- when
a snowplow scraped by and broke the spell
and they laughed and kissed and strapped
down their skis in the limb-numbing wind.
Now his Shannon was dead. And all her
smiles with her.
His muscles lost their tension, and he
slumped against the side of the Suburban,
face sliding down the cold glass. =
