Webalize Your Business

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 where this headline formula was used, each one as dull as the last.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. Among her examples there is one exception that stands out like Christmas lights in July:

My favorite variation, though, comes from the dead trademark database: “The Oldest Virgin Around Just Got Better.” It was registered to the California Olive Corporation between 1997 and 2005.

I don’t know how many bottles of virgin olive oil this headline sold, but at least it’s interesting. If I saw that headline while flipping through a magazine, I’m pretty sure I’d at least read the first sentence to discover the tie-in.

Nevertheless, you ought to avoid trite formulas like “X just got better” or “X just got easier.” It’s not specific and it requires the reader to think too much.

Instead of saying that your product just got better, why not tell your over-stimulated reader precisely how your product is better — right there in the headline!

I know, it’s a novel thought.

But that’s why you read this blog, right?

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• David Ogilvy’s Great Headline Heist!
• Turning Research into Sales Copy
• Glyphius Predicts Winners 70.1% of the Time?
• Should a Direct Marketing Magazine Have Boring Headlines?
• Do Questions Work as Headlines?

In my early twenties, I wrote a number of “philosophical fragments.” These thought-fragments were inspired by Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations 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.

So it was no surprise when I came across similar sentiments in The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Michalowicz.

We Are Innovative When Resources Are Scarce

“It’s awe-inspiring how careful, thoughtful, and innovative we are when our supplies are scarce. But it’s also confounding how quickly we use and abuse our resources when we perceivably have a lot.”

Lack of Money Forces You to Grow the Right Way

“Money covers up problems and weaknesses. Without money, you’ve got to bring your A-game every day. Lack of funds forces you to optimize everywhere and grow the right way.”

Conclusion

Do you lack resources?

Don’t despair.

It may be a big blessing in disguise.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• Your Lack of Money Is a Money Problem (Or at Least You Think It Is)
• Planning for Obsolescence
• Attracting Business Resources
• This May Surprise You, But…
• Product Creation Work Group

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 too long to process.

Unfortunately, I did not know this until now. This site is hosted on Hostmonster. When I checked my Control Panel, I discovered my host is throttling my site more than normal, probably because of high traffic volumes.

Anyway, there will sometimes be a conflict between caching plugins and CommentLuv. It seems like this conflict is more common if your site is on Hostmonster or BlueHost. (Ironically, I switched this site from GoDaddy hosting to Hostmonster last year because I thought Hostmonster would be better.)

Fortunately for me, another CommentLuv customer discovered that WP Super Cache was causing the Internal Server Error. When he disabled that plugin, CommentLuv worked just fine.

As it turns out, I was also using WP Super Cache, so I disabled it. Problem solved!

I tried installing the Quick Cache plugin in place of WP Super Cache, but the Internal Server Error returned. So, for now, I am not using any caching plugin on this site.

To sum up, you might get an Internal Server Error when one or both of the following conditions are met:

1. Your site is hosted by Hostmonster or Bluehost.
2. You use any cache plugin with CommentLuv at the same time.

Andy Bailey, the creator of the CommentLuv plugin, responded to me in the support forum. I thought his response was quite helpful:

cache plugins are notoriously troublesome for anything that requires a dynamic site. there are plenty of blogs that have commentluv and use cache plugins but because there are so many options and configurations of hosting I cannot give an exact set of settings to use. the truth is, if you are not completely familiar with cache plugins settings and what they do then it is pretty much hit and miss when you install one if it will work or not.

there are also many users on bluehost that use commentluv with no issues. it is possible that your site is saying internal server error because an error is happening when commentluv tries to fetch posts.

there is no way to tell what is going on in your case until you check your error log. that should show you what is going wrong.

I hope this post helps you solve any Internal Server Error you get with the CommentLuv plugin.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Click here if you’d like to add CommentLuv Premium to your blog.Similar Posts:

• CommentLuv: Get Keyword Backlinks Every Time You Leave a Comment
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I bought and installed the CommentLuv Premium plugin over the weekend.

Now, every time you leave a comment, CommentLuv will automatically pull in your latest blog post and create a link to it.

Because I have the Premium plugin, there are some additional things you should know:

• Once you’ve left 10 approved comments, you’ll be able to choose any of your last 10 blog posts to be linked instead of only the most recent.

• If you’ve left fewer than 10 approved comments, you can Tweet, Like, or +1 the post to get more posts to appear as options to be linked.

Even better, I’ve reverted back to the standard WordPress Comment system. I’ve also installed and reactivated the DoFollow plugin, which means all CommentLuv links will pass PageRank back to your site.

If you’re looking to improve your site’s search engine rankings, you’ll benefit simply by commenting on the posts I write.

I hope you like the new commenting features.

And I look forward to more of your comments.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• How to Generate Traffic from Blog Comments
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Old media is still a powerful tool that influences millions of people every single day.

Yet the media is far from objective in its coverage of political issues. Reporting is dead; but putting spin on information is alive and well (even if you’re in the “No-Spin Zone”).

With that in mind, let’s talk about this issue of “electability.” Why is it being repeated so much by the talking heads on TV?

The reason is simple:

They’re trying to convince you that it’s better to vote for a bad candidate who might be able to beat Obama than a good candidate whom the establishment would like you to believe doesn’t have a chance.

But this is the underlying message: There is a better candidate!

His name is Ron Paul.

And if people stopped believing the lie that they must vote “for the lesser of two evils,” then Ron Paul would beat Obama by a landslide.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• An Ancient Copywriting Lesson for Modern Times, Courtesy of Rick Santorum’s Nephew
• Obama as the Joker: Bad Marketing?
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• The Eight-Month Letter Revealed