VOLUME 24, ISSUE 1 – JANUARY 2025
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. 3 SWIMMING “LESSONS” FOR 2025
How Lap Swimming is Like Business-Building
II. THE SECRET TO REACHING MORE GOALS
Replace Yearly with Quarterly (& Pick ONE Goal NOW!)
III. GOT WEBSITE CLUTTER?
SEO Pro: De-Clutter Pages, NOT the Whole Site
I. 3 SWIMMING “LESSONS” FOR 2025
How Lap Swimming is Like Business-Building
I’ve been diligently hitting my local aquatic center lately, trying to counteract the cornucopia of holiday-season sweets calling my name from every table.
As I swam, several lessons with relevance for commercial writers struck me. I’ve touched on one or two before, but thought I’d collect three of them here.
1) Befriend Tedium: When I tell friends I’m a lap swimmer, many reply, “Oh, I tried that, but it was so boring.” My ability to swim for an extended stretch—even turning it into a mediation of sorts—has a parallel for our business.
Building or rejuvenating a writing practice, by definition, means many hundreds of contacts to new and existing clients—hardly an enjoyable task.
Yet, that grunt work never bothered me. In fact, once in a groove, I enjoyed it. Making tedium your friend helps develop persistence.
2) Create “Structures for Fulfillment”: To eliminate several potential excuses to NOT go swimming, I simply prepare my gym bag in advance, so when the time comes, I just grab the bag and go.
What do you do to make it more likely that you’ll take the required actions to propel your business forward? Possible examples…
a) Setting a low-impact goal of making X contacts a day (vs. anxiety-producing goals like “Landing three new clients today“). Or perhaps…
b) Creating one simple direct mail postcard (vs. a more elaborate package) that you send out to a cultivated mailing list 2 to 4 times a year.
Making something easier to do makes it more likely it’ll happen.
3) A Bite at a Time: When I swim, I don’t think about the WHOLE task (i.e., 40-50 lengths of the pool). Rather, I break it down, and focus on one smaller chunk at a time.
Same with business. Starting and growing a copywriting practice involves many individual components. Focus on everything you’ve got to get done, and you’ll freak out.
Instead, remember: “How do you eat an elephant? A bite at a time.”
Here’s to a wonderful 2025 – a true “well-fed” new year!
II. THE SECRET TO REACHING MORE GOALS
Replace Yearly with Quarterly (& Pick ONE Goal NOW!)
Solid practical advice on effective goal-setting (AND goal achieving) from Ed Gandia, friend, colleague, business coach for writers, and regular contributor to the E-PUB. Thanks, Ed!
For years, I’d use the first week of the new year to set goals for the year – a fun process that would leave me feeling hopeful and energized.
But, typically, by year’s end, I’d only accomplished about 20% of my goals.
The problem soon became obvious: A full year’s list of goals was huge, and way too optimistic. A few years ago, I made a big change:
I shifted to a quarterly goal-setting and planning model. By definition, I set fewer goals.
The result? My accomplishment rate shot up to over 80%.
So, here’s my challenge: Ask yourself: “What are the 2-3 most important things I need to accomplish in the next 90 days?”
Then watch how much more you get done. One more thing:
Don’t give New Year’s Day some magical power.
Today is just the day after yesterday. Sure, the calendar says it’s a new year, but our habits, mindset and actions crossed that midnight threshold with us.
See this truth as liberating, not discouraging. Because January 1st holds no special power, you’re free to make changes on ANY day you choose.
So instead of falling for the “new year, new me” myth, ask yourself: What am I willing to really commit to, to ensure things are different this year?
And make it real by asking, “What ONE thing will I start with? Not tomorrow. Not next week. Today.”
III. GOT WEBSITE CLUTTER?
SEO Pro: De-Clutter Pages, NOT the Whole Site
I periodically run an “Easy Web Tip” from CA-based web optimization/SEO pro Katherine Andes. Her stuff is always quick and useful. This month, she serves up good advice on strategic website de-cluttering.
Is your website cluttered? Maybe. Maybe not.
I am not a minimalist in my home. But I am tidy. I certainly understand a home with too much stuff is claustrophobic.
When a house gets cluttered, often the advice is to clear one room at a time. That’s good advice. For your home.
Sometimes folks worry their websites are “too cluttered” just because they have lots of pages. But websites are another banana.
When a viewer comes to your website, he is seeing just one page. He or she isn’t seeing, say, a 4,000-page website. Clutter is not determined by the number of pages on a website.
However, individual pages may be cluttered, confusing, messy. In those cases, it’s important to tidy them up. Be ruthless. Strip out unnecessary items.
Sometimes the problem is cluttered and confusing Menu and SubMenu options. Rethink the logic of their organization and untangle them.
Again, just because a site has numerous pages, doesn’t mean there’s a problem.
In fact, don’t delete pages if they bring any value to your website. Why? Because each page is like a fishing hook with bait in the form of keyword phrases. A unique keyword phrase just may bring a big catch to your site.
The Internet, like the ocean, is vast. So, the more hooks and bait you can get out there, the better.
See more EWTs (and subscribe) here.