You’ve come across some ad or link promoting a copywriting course that’s promising you the world and more. It tells you how lucrative of a business copywriting is, and now you’ve dropped all your plans to become the best copywriter around.

A lot of people experience this situation and its not by chance. Remember, copywriters are writing those ads and promoting those courses (Hint: They know exactly how to trigger your psychological hot buttons to get you salivating over the POTENTIAL of becoming a “top-notch” copywriter).

So before you go and max out your credit cards or spend the last bit of life saving you have left on a copywriting course that promises you the best copywriting skills that you will need to become one of the most sought after copywritier, get some FREE knowledge first. This way, you can be sure that copywriting is something that you truly want to to.

Here are two resources that can help you get off to the races and help you decide whether copywriting is the right “home based business” for you:

1. Warrior Forums Copywriting Board

This is where the “who’s who” of Internet Marketing people hang out. They have a great copywriting board that has a lot of valuable insight and resources for both the newbie and seasoned copywritier.

2. Copywriters Board Forum

Founded by Michel Fortin (legendary copywriter who wrote the first sales letter to rake in over $1 million in 24hrs), this forum is dedicated strickly to copywriting. There is a wealth of information and resources available here. And not to mention, it’s FREE.

Both forums provide great insight from people who are already in the copywriting business who contribute insider tips, course reviews, and tested copywriting formulas. These two forums should be the first pit stop on any newbies (or potential copywritiers) to do list.

Best,
Dhane Diesil

Here’s my rendition of the Design Nerd Leopard Tutorial.

Enjoy!

Check out the tutorial here.

About a month ago I found a very good Adobe Photoshop tutorial web site. The best part of it all is the “School of Photoshop” section that offers plenty of tutorials for the old and new Photoshop user. School of Photoshop is the best resources I would recommend for anyone who is interested in learning how to use Adobe Photoshop. You’ll definitely learn the basic.

Starting from Kindergarten all the way up to high school, David Leggett and other guest bloggers walk you through the basics of using Photoshop and its tools.

So dive right in and have fun! I know I do…

Tutorial9

Our imagination is one of our best resources when determining marketing strategies for our business and companies. But some people seldom use it. Here are 5 steps to jump start your marketing creativity:

Brainstorm (Leave The Rain Jacket At Home)

It’s no secret. Two minds are greater than one. If that’s the case, why is it so hard for some of us to do it? Is it fear that someone will steal our ideas? Or is is just pure laziness? Whatever the reason you need to get over it. The best marketing ideas come out during “no holds bar” brainstorming sessions with more people than you, your cat, and your dog.

What we have to realize is that no two minds think a like. The way you view something will be totally different than someone else’s opinion. Exercise and expand your marketing creativity by bouncing ideas off someone else. You’ll never know what you’ll come up with.

Analyze, Analyze, Analyze

It’s not enough to come up with all these marketing ideas during a brainstorming session. Once you have all you marketing ideas on paper, dig deeper. Ask question. Come up with different scenarios to see which ideas are viable (but don’t jump the gun to soon).

The worse thing you can do is come up with brilliant ideas, and not test them. For some people, this is the step most ideas live or die. The extra effort is well worth it. You’ll be be glad you dug deeper in the long run.

Get Inspired

We all have different things that inspire us. Whatever inspires you should be the first resource you reach for when you come to a dead end during your brainstorming session. What inspires you might not necessarily inspire the other people in the room, and vice versa, but don’t let that stop you.

For some people its a walk down the street, a trip to the bookstore, or a Mocha Frappacino at Starbucks with friends. Whatever it is, just do it. You’ll be amazed by the flow of ideas that surge through your mind when you first step back into your brainstorming session.

Trust Your Gut Feeling (More Often At Least)

Sometimes, thinking logically does more harm than good. Some of the best marketing ideas have sprouted from gut feelings. So trust yours. That’s why it’s important to analyze and test your ideas. You could have a sure winner sitting on your list, with your gut telling you to try it. But because it’s not the logically choice, you toss it to the wayside.

You never know. The idea that seemed logically sound could be a total disaster, while the gut feeling you had about that one idea that everyone else thought was bizarre could be a sure winner.

Study Other Organizations

Yes! Study your competition. Study non-competitors. Study organizations in your industry. Study organizations outside your industry. The goal isn’t to find out how your business is better or worse than theirs. The focus is to find services and/or processes that you can incorporate into your company to strength your marketing plan.

Gas prices are ridiculous! A few weeks ago after spending over $70 to fill up a gas tank that use to take only $35 to fill, I knew I had to start thinking of better ways to save gas and money.

Here are 5 ways that I have been able to save gas and money over the past few weeks:

Walk More

This actually benefits you in two ways. You save gas and you get a little work out every time you need to get something in your immediate area. This is one thing I have seen a lot of people overlook. It’s a shame that we drive places that are a few short steps away.

Carpool More

This takes a little planning, but it’s well worth it. You might still have to contribute a few bucks to the gas tank, but it’s a lot better than having to fill your whole tank up by yourself.

Invest In A Bike Or Scooter

A few years ago the Razor fad was in. It’s fallen off a bit, but they are definitely great forms of transportation. A bike (that’s what I use mostly) helps as well. Most tanks these days are costing people well over $50 to fill, and you can get a bike for about that price at any Wal-Mart or Target. It’s well worth it to pay $50-70 on a bike than $50-70 bucks every week or two.

Plan My Errands And Shopping For The Same Day

This might sound like common sense, but most people still don’t do it. It’s not hard. This does require a little planning, but it to is well worth it. Make your grocery list throughout the week and try to arrange all your errands on the same day. You’ll actually get more done, and in less time.

Use Public Transportation

This might seem far fetched for some people, but it definitely helps. Although the cost of public transportation is going up (because gas is forcing everything to go up), you still can come out on top by using public transportation. In some areas, public transportation will allow students to ride for free. Call up you local transit system to see if these concessions are available in your area.

After coming home from swimming, I was a little bored. So I did what I usually do when that happens…Stumble!

Low and behold, on the first click of my Stumble icon in my newly downloaded Flock browser pops up an incredible resource that I recommend for rookie and veteran Web & Graphic designers.

Have fun!

642 Must Have Web & Graphic Design Resources

After searching YouTube up and down for Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, & Flash video tutorials, my vote is in for the best YouTube Adobe Tutorial Channel.

TutVid by Nathaniel

Nathaniel (the channel owner) decided to create the station after he “saw that not too many video tutorials were available on the web, and the few that were available were usually poorly made and/or hard to follow.”

If you’re eager to learn how to use your Adobe software and wide off the cyber dust your programs have been collecting on your hard drive, subscribe to Nathaniel’s channel.

Two months ago I started using Final Cut Express 4 after using iMovie for the last year and a half. After un-boxing the software, I wanted to get familiar with the Final Cut Express 4 environment.

As usual, I headed over to YouTube to see what I could find. I was amazed by how many tutorials there were available, but one users tutorials outshined them all.

Emeek77

With 358 videos, Emeek77 has the best video content available on YouTube about Final Cut Pro & Final Cut Express (as well as a few things about other Mac Apps).

When you need to learn something new about Final Cut, Emeek77 is the person to subscribe to on YouTube.

Earlier today I was looking for Adobe InDesign tutorials that walked your through designing newsletters, invitations, posters, etc. To my surprise there weren’t that many around.

There were the usual tutorials that introduced the tools, and how to apply certain effects & features. But there weren’t that many that walked you through the step-by-step process of designing invitations, posters, etc.

After doing a little more digging, I finally found two Web site that offered “hands-on” Adobe InDesign tutorials.

1. Layers Magazine

2. IA State College of Design

Both Web sites walk you through designing invitations, newsletters, forms, and much more. This is a great opportunity to learn how to use Adobe InDesign to get you familiar with the controls and features of the program.

Have fun!

It’s me Dhane Diesil!

The goal of this blog is to keep you informed about me, my business progress, and useful resources I find around the Web.