I recently read an anonymous comment from a person who is going back to college after spending two years buying expensive products from Internet marketing gurus. He/she writes,

The light at the end of *my* tunnel is that losing two years of my life to these jokers has made me serious for the first time in 10 years about going back to school.

Upon reading this, I felt I had to say this:

If you are considering “going back to school” as an alternative to Internet marketing or any other kind of business, please BE CAREFUL.

Being a perpetual student is a costly endeavor, no matter who you’re paying for your education. At some point, each person has to get down to the business of using their education instead of acquiring more of it.

In my humble opinion, the only difference between expensive Internet marketing courses and college education is… college costs more.

Of course, this isn’t true for all colleges (there are a few good ones), but it’s true of many colleges. The one you especially want to steer clear of is University of Phoenix.

Just search “University of Phoenix scam” on Google to see what I mean.

There have even been recent television programs revealing that University of Phoenix uses predatory practices to squeeze as much money out of each and every student as they can.

Not to mention, a lawsuit alleging University of Phoenix committed fraud was recently settled for $78.5 million, “the second-largest settlement ever in a False Claims Act case in which the federal government declined to intervene.”

Start doing some research and you’ll discover that many students leave UoP with tens of thousands of dollars of debt and a worthless education. Worse still…

First time freshmen have a 7% program completion rate, according to a June 2005 report of the National Consumer Law Center. Hundreds of thousands of former University of Phoenix students without degrees are obligated to pay back high interest loans for decades.

I mention all of this because these days “going back to school” is often synonymous with “going to University of Phoenix.”

Now, I’m all for good education.

In fact, learning and the acquiring of knowledge should be a lifelong pursuit so long as it’s balanced with an equal share of work and implementation.

But “education” shouldn’t cost you a king’s ransom or turn you into an indentured servant.

Unfortunately, many colleges are designed to put you into debt so they can have a claim on your future earnings for much of your life. And if you take the bait (e.g. student loans), you could literally become a slave to your alma mater for decades.

Caveat emptor.

-Ryan M. Healy

It all started as a tweet:

Most gurus surround themselves w/ sycophants to build their egos. And most gurus don’t like me because I’m not a sycophant.

Actually, it started before that.

You see, yesterday (August 11, 2010) I was talking on the phone with a close friend. In a roundabout way, he discovered a certain guru does NOT like me… even though I’ve spent quite a bit of money on his products.

I don’t mind if a guru doesn’t like me. That suits me fine. But I wondered… Was it something I said? I’ve spent a lot of money with this guru and I don’t believe I’ve ever said anything negative about him in public.

That’s when it struck me.

Most of these gurus surround themselves with sycophants so they can perpetuate the belief that they’re little demi-gods. They remind me of King Nebuchadnezzar — a man who believed he had achieved his status through his own strength.

Twelve months later [Nebuchadnezzar] was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. The king reflected and said, “Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:29,30)

When a person becomes overly prideful and takes more credit for his success than he should, he’s in danger of divine correction. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, his correction was one of the more extreme cases:

…and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws. (Daniel 4:33)

Anyway, one of the things that bugs me is how gurus like to take all the credit for their own success. They’re so full of themselves that if anybody says they’re less than all-powerful, you’re anathema.

Guru: What? You won’t bow down to me, the almighty GURU?

Me: No. But thanks for asking.

Guru: Depart from my presence!

Surrounding yourself with sycophants is a recipe for delusion. At first, you may have self-doubt. But that will be washed away by the slobber of your rabid fans faster than you can say “I’m awesome.”

The delusion will be powerful indeed.

A delusion of pride will make you do stupid things. For anybody who has read the Bible, this should come as no surprise. Proverbs 16:18,19 says:

Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before stumbling.
It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly
Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Speaking of doing stupid things… and dividing spoils with the proud… have you read about The Internet Marketing Syndicate?

It’s a syndicate supported by sycophants. If you haven’t read about it yet, you should. (Be forewarned: There are swear words.)

-Ryan M. Healy

Listen to This Blog Post:

Cash flow problems are bad enough in a good economy. But they can be the kiss of death in a bad economy.

So if the recession has you scrambling to come up with money to pay your bills on time, then these four ways to cure cash flow problems quickly should come in handy.

1. Eliminate Unnecessary Business Expenses

Pull out your bank statements. Pull out your credit card statements. What expenses do you notice?

For the biggest return on investment, look for recurring monthly expenses you can cut.

There are often multiple business tool subscriptions, newsletter subscriptions, and software subscriptions in every business.

And probably 5% to 15% of these are no longer being used or serving their original purpose. Identify those and cancel them immediately.

This little exercise alone can increase your cash flow and save you a few thousand dollars a year.

Another easy way to cut costs is to replace expensive services with cheaper services. For instance, replace your land line phone with a paid Skype account. Or find a free open source solution to replace a paid solution.

Once you start researching, you’ll be amazed by how many good, affordable services are available to you. (Just ask your social network if you need help getting started.)

2. Invoice Faster, Pay Bills Slower

When cash is flowing out faster than it’s coming in, you have to do whatever you can to reverse the trend. Because ultimately you want the cash flowing out slower than it’s coming in.

One easy way to do this is to collect on invoices faster, then “float” your money.

So, for instance:

If you normally invoice on Net 30 terms, see if you can get your clients to pay sooner. Give them a small discount for paying the full amount up front or within a shorter time frame, say 14 days.

The faster you get paid, the better your cash flow will be.

The second step of the process is to keep your money as long as possible. So that means you will want to try to delay paying your vendors.

You can ask for terms or ask for an extension on a specific invoice. Or if you’d rather not negotiate with vendors, you might try paying with a credit card.

By paying with a credit card, you will automatically have an extra 25-30 days to pay. (Just make sure you have enough cash to pay off the balance at the end of the billing cycle.)

3. Outsource Tasks that Are Not the Highest and Best Use of Your Time

If you’re doing data entry when you could be doing work valued at $1,000 an hour, then that’s contributing to your cash flow problems.

You will never have time to work on your business if you’re always stuck doing menial work in your business.

You need to focus all of your time on doing things that maximize the monetary value of your skills. Any task that falls outside of your highest-value skill set should be outsourced to a reliable freelance worker.

For instance, if you’re a solo entrepreneur, you might hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) to take care of some of the mundane and tedious tasks you have to do on a regular basis.

Or you might contract with a company to screen phone calls, take messages, and book appointments. This alone could conservatively save a couple hours a week — freeing you up to do the things that generate more revenue and more profit.

4. Don’t Let a Good Month Ruin Your Cash Flow

If you’ve ever had a really good month in business, then you know how exhilarating it can be. You know how tempting it can be to go out and buy that expensive thing you’ve been lusting for.

Here’s a piece of advice: Don’t buy that thing.

Keep your emotions in check.

Set aside some cash when times are good so you can easily weather the bad months that may (or may not) happen in the future.

Unfortunately, this advice is not usually followed. Just look at the guys running big product launches. The influx of money causes them to do stupid things… like buy six-figure luxury sports cars and 10,000 square foot bachelor pads.

This is a huge mistake.

Because one good month does not a good year make. Past performance is no guarantee of future earnings. The economic conditions of today are not the economic conditions of tomorrow. Etc, etc, etc.

If you become financially over-committed in your personal life, it can very quickly bring down your business.

The most successful business men (and women) I’ve met are those who are willing to forgo a lavish lifestyle so they can make wise investments and keep their businesses running smoothly.

Some of the most wealthy are also the most frugal.

It’s the entrepreneurs who run lean operations — even when the cash flow is good — that survive tough times and achieve longevity in their respective markets.

Follow these four business optimization strategies… be intentional about implementing them in your business… and you’ll cure your cash flow problems quickly.

-Ryan M. Healy

Listen to This Blog Post:

After a few Belgian beers at The Cheeky Monk, my friend Chad and I began to talk about economics.

As we discussed the source and nature of money, we began to zero in on the idea of value. What is value? How is it created? Where does it come from?

Initially, I argued that value is created by humans: a combination of physical labor and intellectual capital. But it turns out, my definition was incomplete.

And, as Chad and I argued our individual points of view, I quickly discovered that defining value is actually a bit harder than I initially expected.

How True Value Is Created

Raw materials — like wood, metal, and even human labor — are created by God. God has given us time, natural resources, bodies, and brains, which we can then translate into all sorts of services and products.

As Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth.”

But does the act of creating something automatically create value? Not necessarily.

If I create a product that nobody wants and is never used, I have not created true value, rather only latent value. And if that latent value is never realized, then my investment of time and effort has been a waste.

For true value to be created, there has to be demand on the other side of the equation. At the moment when latent value meets demand, true value is created.

Of course, there is an additional ingredient in this equation. Because how else can latent value and demand connect except through advertising?

Anybody can create true value by:

1. Identifying demand.
2. Using their God-given abilities to meet the demand with a product or service.
3. Advertising the product or service they’ve created.

What Appears as Value Is Not Always True Value

Any discussion of value wouldn’t be complete without at least touching on the broader societal implications.

For instance, a man may demand a gun to murder somebody with, and another man may manufacture that gun. When the exchange is made, value has only been created on a purely economic level.

The use of the gun to murder does not create value at all, and in fact harms society as whole.

Ultimately, true value can only be realized when the products and services being exchanged are moral in nature and are used in compliance with the law. Otherwise, there is only an illusion of value.

These are my thoughts on the nature and creation of value. If you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment below.

-Ryan M. Healy

Is the Internet making us stupid?

This is the question Michael Brown asks in his recent article about Nicholas Carr’s new book, The Shallows.

My take:

The Internet (and the portability of technology in general) is making us more distracted than ever. When it’s harder to focus, your ability to maintain a single line of thought is extremely inhibited, if not impossible.

One distraction leads to another. Interruptions pile on. Next thing you know, you can’t remember what you set out to accomplish in the first place.

So is the Internet to blame? Yes and no.

The Internet itself isn’t necessarily the problem — it’s the lack of boundaries. Without boundaries, there’s very little to control our behavior.

Therefore, I would argue that the heavy, undisciplined use of the Internet (and cell phones, iPads, etc.) is indeed making us stupid.

Want to kick your IQ up a few points? It’s simple, really.

Just turn off all your electronic devices that could distract you and focus on a single task for an hour or two straight. I dare you.

-Ryan M. Healy

I’m reading a great book called Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

Rework is a collection of brief one-page and two-page business lessons. You can plow through five or 10 chapters at a time and feel inspired, stimulated, and rejuvenated. It’s time well spent.

Keep in mind, Fried and Heinemeier are the founders and creators of Basecamp, a project management tool used by millions of people around the world (including me!).

So the business lessons and anecdotes in the book come directly from Fried’s and Heinemeier’s experience building a successful, multi-million dollar business.

What They Say on Page 118

On page 118 begins the chapter titled “Don’t Be a Hero.”

Their premise is simple: When you get stuck, or your unsure of your work, don’t try to be a hero. Get another person’s input instead of trying to muscle your way through it.

“Even heroes need a fresh pair of eyes sometimes — someone else to give them a reality check,” they say.

I agree. That’s one reason I offer copy critiques: So you can get a fresh pair of eyes looking at your work.

Eyeballs for Sale

For the last few months, I’ve been offering to do up to 8 copy critiques at a significant discount. Six of them have been claimed.

In fact, one guy bought a second critique after he saw the results from the first. He writes:

PS – that last copy critique you did for us… We combined your suggestions with a couple minor design tweaks and ended up with a 55% lift in conversion. Nice job :)

Do you have a sales letter or landing page that could use an in-depth critique? Then I invite you to order your copy critique here. (Only 2 left at the discounted price.)

-Ryan M. Healy

If you’ve studied business models, you’re probably familiar with the strategy of planned obsolescence.

It’s a strategy where you plan for products that you release today to automatically become outdated a few years down the road.

Planned obsolescence is how the software industry works. Every few years, software programs (and operating systems) get a face lift. Eventually, old versions of the software are no longer supported, which forces people to upgrade.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Without planned obsolescence, I’d probably be stuck in the computing stone age. Plus, planned obsolescence forces innovation — which can be a very positive force.

Here’s an exercise worth doing:

Plan Your Own Obsolescence

Imagine that whatever you do today to generate money is no longer a viable option one year from now. What would you do to replace your income?

At any given time, and in any given industry, there are trends away from certain things and toward other things.

If your income is generated from an activity, product, or service that is in a downtrend, then you really need to be planning for your own obsolescence. Because it will happen whether you’re prepared or not.

Consider:

• The automobile brought about the demise of the railroad barons.
• The invention of fuel injection put carburetor mechanics out of work.
• Online journalism is putting traditional journalists out of work — and killing newspapers by the dozen.

And these are just a handful of obvious examples. There are thousands of subtle trends that are always shifting power (and money) from one area to another. Few people detect these trends until it’s too late.

Keep Your Eyes Open and Your Ear to the Ground

Always be watching the changes happening in your industry and in your area of expertise — both the big changes and the small ones. Sometimes small changes become big quickly (because of new legislation, policy changes, tipping points, etc.).

But most of all, plan for your own obsolescence. How can you maintain (or grow) your business if you’re forced to do something completely different than you’re doing today?

Even better, how can you maintain (or grow) your business without being directly involved in the day-to-day operations?

These are good questions to consider, especially in a day and age when there is so much change and uncertainty.

Here’s your assignment: Start planning for your own obsolescence. Begin making strategic changes now, while you have time and flexibility, instead of later, when you’ll be racing against the clock.

-Ryan M. Healy

I’ve recently been on a book binge, buying up some volumes I’ve been intending to buy, but postponing.

Part of my reasoning is I’d rather pay $20 to get a used classic book now, than pay hundreds of dollars later when it’s considered a rare book.

Perfect example:

For the last year, I’ve been searching for a copy of This One Mad Act by Izola Forrester, the granddaughter of the infamous John Wilkes Booth, alleged assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.

There are currently only 3 copies of this book available for purchase. It is a rare book indeed. The cheapest copy is $294; the most expensive is $357.

I’ve got a thing for books, so price usually isn’t an objection. But I do think twice before dropping $300 on a used book.

The most expensive book I’ve purchased to date is How to Make More Money with Your Direct Mail by Ed Mayer. I paid $199.99 for that.

The second most expensive book I’ve bought is Reality in Advertising by Rosser Reeves. That only set me back $108.99.

So when I got a first edition 1983 copy of How to Make Your Advertising Make Money by John Caples for just $28.89 this week, I thought that was a pretty good deal. (Some copies are selling for twice that.)

Anyway, the whole point of this post is this…

When it comes to used books that are no longer in print, better to buy them sooner than later.

As copies disappear from circulation, what were once considered classics become rare books. And rare books command top dollar in the used market.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Speaking of rare, I may soon be removing Copywriting Code from the market to add some additional content and training.

When I open up membership again, it may not be as affordable as it is now. If you’re interested, I suggest joining now.

On Tuesday, I took my parents to the airport.

As we drove up, we joked about mom getting stopped by airport security. We had a good laugh. But little did we know how prescient our joking was: my mom was about to have an encounter with federal security agents.

You see, I had driven to my parents’ house to pick them up. As I waited for them to finish packing, I stood at the kitchen island. I noticed a couple boxes of old bullets on the counter.

Strange, I thought.

I picked up one of the boxes.

Unfortunately, the boxes were so old that the flaps didn’t stay closed any more. So even with a just a slight tilt, all the bullets came tumbling out.

Bullets have a way of scattering quickly when they collide with granite countertops and hardwood floors.

It Was a Mess…

And not the best timing either. My parents were in a hurry to get out the door.

Anyway, I gathered up all the bullets I could find, put them back in the box, and apologized to my dad. (Plus, I politely recommended he tape the boxes shut.)

I thought that was the end of the story. But, in fact, it was just the beginning.

I did not know it at the time, but my mom’s purse had been lying on the floor at my feet. And a few stray bullets had slipped inside.

So when my mom’s purse was passing through the x-ray machine, federal agents quickly pulled her aside for questioning. They detained her for more than an hour as they did the routine background check, interrogation, etc.

Thankfully, my parents came out clean. Plus, they had arrived early enough that they were still able to catch their flight — although they were a bit angry and frustrated with the whole situation.

Here’s the lesson:

Always Plan for the Unexpected!

Who could have ever imagined that such a sequence of events would play out like they did?

Not me.

And I guess that’s the point. In business — as in life — you need to always plan for the unexpected.

• What if you lose an anchor account?
• What if your market is hard-hit by the recession?
• What if an employee (or two, or three) unexpectedly quits?
• What if a vendor you rely on goes bankrupt?
• What if your merchant account gets shut down?

And so forth.

Always be anticipating what could go wrong in your business and plan accordingly.

You just never know when “bullets” may appear out of nowhere to try to shoot your business down.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Speaking of bullets, I’ll be adding a new lesson about how to write bullets to Copywriting Code in the next week or two. Become a member now to get access to this new lesson — plus nearly 20 in-depth copywriting lessons that are already available.

If you’ve been a reader for any length of time, you know that my blog here is the “main course,” so to speak.

In other words, this is where I share a lot of my controversial ideas, as well as tips, strategies, and techniques for writing sales copy, getting traffic, and growing business.

Now, I even have a regularly updated web site that is focused exclusively on the art of written persuasion: Copywriting Code

But there’s another outlet for those who want to know what I’m thinking and reading outside of copywriting, marketing, and business growth.

“A Side of @HealyMonster”

Today, as I was reading Terry Dean’s blog, I came across the post “Building Momentum in Your Life.”

In this post, Terry talks about the importance of routine and being productive even when you’re not in the mood to be productive.

But what made me chuckle was this paragraph toward the end of the article:

Instead of wanting to be the “overnight social media sensation,” just get involved. Setup your Twitter account. Subscribe to some great people like that wonderful @TerryDean or perhaps a little @BenSettle with a side of @healymonster.

My Tweets Are Not for Everybody

Obviously, if you’re on Twitter, I’d love to have you as a follower.

But based on Terry’s wording, I can only assume that this “HealyMonster” guy is an acquired taste, kind of like fine wine. ;-)

Seriously, though, my tweets are often like my blog posts; they’re polarizing because I’m not afraid to stir the pot (so to speak).

So if you can handle some contrarian, sometimes off-the-wall thoughts and ideas, join me on Twitter.

And don’t forget to follow Terry Dean and Ben Settle as well. They always share good stuff, and they’re not hyperactive so they’ll never monopolize your tweet stream.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. The name “Healy Monster” was an old wrestling nickname I resurrected when I discovered my name was already taken on Twitter. Just in case you were wondering…