Gary North Saves Me $400 on Christmas!

Gary North has the best advice on how to save money! I highly recommend subscribing to his free weekly newsletter. It has saved me tons of money in this last year!

Go here to sign up for Gary's free tip of the week: www.garynorth.com

Gary North's Tip of the Week - December 04, 2010 #1 Christmas
Gift
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  So, you want to get a present for your parents.  You don't
want to spend much money.  Free is best of all.  You want it to
be appreciated.  You want it to be used.  You want it to hold its
value.

  Best of all, what if you could use it yourself?

  I have a suggestion.  But there is a trade-off between time
and money.  The longer you delay, the less likely you will decide
to give it.  That's because it's a do-it-yourself present.

  Produce a DVD of the family videos that you have taken this
year.  You have a camcorder, right?  But have you sat down to
edit the videos?  Probably not.  You just never seem to get
around to it.

  Get around to it.  Next week.  Maybe even today.

  Grandparents like videos of the grandchildren, but parents
never seem to produce them.  Parents don't view them.  They never
get made.  Yet they are useless in a chip.  Even if they are
online on Facebook, they are scattered snippets.

   A DVD will satisfy both sets of grandparents.

   A 20-minute video is OK.  It does not have to be longer than
this.  If you put in only the really fun things, you can keep it
short.  But you will have to spend time editing.  There is still
time to do it before Christmas.

   You probably have video editing software in your computer.

   If not, it's free as a download.  Microsoft offers Movie
Maker 2.6 for free.  It's for Vista and Windows 7.

               http://bit.ly/FreeVidEd

   If you won't do it for grandparents, you probably won't do it
for yourself.  So, why not do it?

   There is a great side benefit.  Both sets of grandparents
will then nag their other children unmercifully.  "Why don't you
make us a DVD, too?"  So, they will have to ask you how you did
it.  When was the last time they asked your opinion?  It's about
time!

Gary "Cheap Gifts" North
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Recent articles posted at www.garynorth.com

Marketing Japan: Introducing the Next Rock Superstar: Hatsune Miku - Pre-view Feature on Lew Rockwell

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Introducing the Next Rock Superstar: Hatsune Miku.

I will have another new article on Lew Rockwell (LRC) Monday. The article will be about something that is happening in Japan that has to do with culture and music. It's implications are frightening.

I have the article, links, and videos all ready for your pleasure.

Seriously, be prepared for a shock. Remember the name Hatsune Miku... She is going to turn our world upside down. She is huge in Japan, becoming big in Europe and I hear popular in France already!

People over 30 will probably misunderstand her. People over 50 will hate her. But here's the problem!Teenagers go crazy over her - and it is not a flash in the pan! Some of her videos have more views in Japan than Lady Gaga does... Some are nearing 10 million views!

My Facebook friends and blog followers get to pre-view read the entire article here. This is one of the best pieces I have ever written. Frightening in its implications. Beautiful for today's lonely youth.

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO PRE-VIEW ARTICLE ABOUT HATSUNE MIKU.

Lew Rockwell is the spiritual leader of a massive an anti-war, anti-state, pro-business web site that is the most read Libertarian news site in the world. I am most honored to be a columnist there. Lew Rockwell  (www.lewrockwell.com) is one of three sites that I read religiously everyday. You should too.

At LRC, you can get the real news and not some government sponsored propaganda.

LRC podcasts are also a must listen!

Some famous writers at LRC are Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, Patrick Buchanan, Gary North, Fred Reed and so many other great writers that I just cannot mention them all.

Check out LRC everyday!

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Keywords:
LRC, Mike Rogers, Mike in Tokyo, Lew Rockwell, Gary North, Fred Reed, Ron Paul, Patrick Buchanan, Libertarian

Offline Marketing With a Better Business Card

If you are doing any sort of publicity, advertising or marketing in Japan, then you need a business card. In this country, a business card is a must. 


But is your business card boring and forgettable?

I think I have one of the best business cards around...

One of my favorite writers is a guy named Gary North. Gary writes for Lew Rockwell and he also sends out a weekly newsletter with tips on making and saving money. I highly recommend it. Gary gives out great information in his articles and newsletter for free! You can find it at the link above.

Divorce Lawyer's business card

Interestingly, Gary's newsletter this week was about a topic that I had written on yet never posted, yet I think about it every time I hand out my business card. Gary's weekly newsletter had great advice about business cards. I had never posted the article I wrote and it sat in my "edit bin" for months, because I thought what I had written was only half the equation. I was right. Gary had it pin-pointed precisely in this week's newsletter. 

He writes:

If you are in business, you have a business card.

I'll bet your card features you.  Mistake!

Why is this a mistake?  Because a stranger does not care about you.  He cares about himself.

Your card has your name in bold print in the upper left-hand corner.  Why?  "So that he will remember me."  But why should be bother to remember you?  "Because I can help him."

Conclusion: design your card to help him.

The #1 goal of your card should be this: to let him find the card readily when he wants a problem solved that you solve for a fee.

The upper left-hand bold-faced words should relate to the problem.  Example: Car repairs.  Example: Lawn mowing.

He will not recall your name.  He may recall the card because of the topic.  When he thinks, "Where did I file that card?" the card's topic may pop into his mind.  Your card's topic had better trigger this response. 

This is excellent advice. The only thing that I would add is that if you are going to make a card that is about you, then you had better stop to think of how you will leave your mark on the person you hand it to. In my former profession, nobody really thinks, "I need a disc jockey or a producer." So I had to make a card that people see once and they never forget me. I did.

The front and back of my "show business" business card* 

In Japan, there is a sports-card collecting boom going on. It's not just professional sports athletes, it's Star Wars, Pocket Monsters, Harry Potter, you name it, they are collecting it. I made my card to look like a sports card.

Now, when everyone else gets a standard white business card and then, two months later, they look at that card and wonder, "Who is this?" With my card, people keep it and show it to their friends and say, "Look at this cool card I got." Now, that is having people run around and promoting me when I'm not around. And that is smart.

Click here for a bunch of other good ideas for cards.  

Now some of you might be thinking that my silly card would be too expensive to design and make. Not true. I hired a professional designer and calculated the cost to where I got the per card cost down to the same price of a standard white card in lots of 100. (In Japan, 100 standard white business cards cost about ¥3,000 - ¥30 each). I printed up 3,000 cards and they were even cheaper than ¥30 each! 

So make a card that says what the customer wants in an easy-to-find place like Gary North advises. Or, if you can afford to go crazy due to your work, then GO crazy.

Stand out and be noticed. Do that online and offline.

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*My business card was designed by Tsuchiya san at G-Love... One of the best design companies in Tokyo. I highly recommend them!

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Keywords: publicity, advertising, marketing, Japan, business card, Gary North, Lew Rockwell, information, articles, newsletter, Tsuchiya, G-Love, design