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- Archive: January, 2012
How to Declare a Winner in a Direct Mail Test
When you are testing two direct mail pieces against each other, it is not always easy to determine a winner. Unless, of course, you are basing it solely on initial responses. One piece brings in 42 orders; the other brings in 55. You have a winner! Or do you?
Continue readingTry Your Hardest, Then Let It Go
I’m reading Bossypants by Tina Fey. It’s hilarious, but also includes some useful lessons and anecdotes about life as a writer. On page 123, Fey writes about “Things I Learned from Lorne Michaels.” (In case you don’t know, Lorne Michaels is the creator and producer of Saturday Night Live. He is the guy who hired […]
Continue readingTrite Headlines and Old Virgins
The headlines and copy used in big brand ads are often so ridiculous they’re hardly worth commenting on. But I found this post by Nancy Friedman both funny and interesting. She writes: “X just got better” [is] a formula frequently employed by headline writers short on time and imagination. She then lists 18 specific examples […]
Continue readingCreativity and Constraints
In my early twenties, I wrote a number of “philosophical fragments.” These thought-fragments were inspired by Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Blaise Pascal’s Pensées, and Søren Kierkegaard’s Philosphical Fragments. Fragment #92 I wrote says this: Creativity thrives under limits, be they natural or imposed. Since then, I’ve seen this principle at work time and time again.
Continue readingCommentLuv Internal Server Error
If you’ve installed CommentLuv on your blog and are seeing an Internal Server Error when leaving a comment, here’s the problem. First of all, your site is probably hosted with Hostmonster or BlueHost. These two hosting companies have the same owner. Both hosting companies use CPU throttling if a script or chron job is taking […]
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