Irony of ironies: Direct Marketing News has the most boring headlines ever.

Here are samples from the cover of the August 2011 issue…

• Occasion for change
• Making a commitment
• Email front and center
• Furnished dwellings

That’s it! Those are the cover headlines. The first one in the list is the “Spotlight” article; the other three are in the sidebar.

Inside you’ll find equally boring pabulum. For example:

• Retailers save on swipe fees with discounts
• Tailor marketing strategies to customer preferences
• Mobile tagging extends TV ads for brands
• New accounting rules will improve your loyalty books
• Drive e-commerce with tailored email tactics
• Marketers leverage Facebook for email acquisition and consumer engagement

As I look through the magazine, it’s actually difficult to find anything at all that catches my attention.

Now, I realize it’s a news magazine, but given that it’s DIRECT MARKETING news, couldn’t it be just a little bit more interesting than “Occasion for change”?

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• Tell Me Your Favorite Brands
• Direct Mail for Newsletters
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• Jason Fried on Selling
• Do Questions Work as Headlines?

A common theme I’m seeing come up over and over again among the customers of my clients’ businesses is this: “I’m broke. I can’t order/register/subscribe because I don’t have any money.”

I guess I can’t blame people for tossing out financial objections. After all, a lot of people are hurting financially, and we all have to face economic reality at some point. If there’s no money, there’s just no money!

When this happens, people are likely to think they have a money problem. They may even say things like “I have big money problems” or “We’re struggling because of our financial problems.”

But is a lack of money a “money problem”?

I don’t think so.

Usually, a lack of money is merely a symptom of some deeper condition. For instance, you may have:

• A procrastination problem – Always waiting until tomorrow to do what could be done today.

• A laziness problem – Never being able to bring yourself to WORK, much less WORK HARD.

• A negativity problem – Always focusing on the bad things in life to the point where you are paralyzed by fear or hopelessness.

• An attention problem – Glued to the boob tube, YouTube, cell phone, or Internet so often that you don’t have enough time to pursue your entrepreneurial dreams.

• A discipline problem – Always starting things, never finishing them. Or working a lot on a project one week, then ignoring it for a month or more at a stretch.

Rarely do we actually have money problems. What we have are character problems.

Our bank accounts are often a reflection of how disciplined we are, how much value we give to other people.

Therefore: If you shift your focus away from the outward manifestation of money and turn that focus inward to see how you can improve yourself, then the pay-off will be far greater than you might expect.

Perhaps you’ll even be able to say goodbye to your so-called “money problems.”

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• The Curse of Opportunity
• Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?
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