Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Treachery In The Gulf 

Treachery In The Gulf 
By Robbi Skye Campbell
6-29-10
 
What has happened in the Gulf of Mexico was not by accident. It was most likely a design to support an agenda. What that agenda is we do not know exactly but I will try to connect the dots. We may soon know the true extent of its nature by the "solutions" our government imposes on the people in the Gulf area.
 
There are some major problems:
 
The Obama administration allowed BP to drill at an unstable site (highly over pressured) in 5,000 feet of water;
 
BP CEO Tony Hayward dumped his BP stock 2 months before the spill;
 
The well was kicking since they drilled into the production zone, so the drilling fluid or mud was underbalanced (mud weight not quite heavy enough for the upward pressure of the gas);
 
Goldman Sachs dumped 44% of BP stock and went short on Transocean stock the day before the spill;
 
The drilling crew knew that the annular blowout preventer was damaged and BP company man Kazula did not order it repaired;
 
BP company man Kazula was a greenhorn on the Deepwater Horizon (he was inexperienced);
 
The well was cased, cemented and had two cement abandonment plugs in place, so how could the well be kicking (trying to blow out)?;
 
BP company man Kazula sent away the Schlumberger team (supposed to do the cement bond log to check Halliburton's cement job on the casing);
 
Despite this the BP company man made the decision to change the mud over to seawater (seawater is 40% lighter than the drilling mud). This is not logical;
 
Shouting match between the rig superintendent and the company man. Superintendent felt that the order to change over to seawater was irrational and suicidal;
 
During the changeover of the mud to seawater is when the blowout naturally occurred;
 
President Obama stood by but did not take action for at least three weeks after the spill;
 
BP and the White House allowed the spill to continue;
 
The White House allowed BP to spray the highly toxic chemical, Corexit 9500, which is considered to be four to ten times more toxic than the oil itself. EPA told BP not to use Corexit 9500 and BP ignored the federal agency. Corexit is being sprayed at nighttime on coastal residences by the CIA-front, Evergreen Air (which reportedly also sprays chemtrails);
 
Negligible cleanup measures on the shores and at sea;
 
Barack Obama sent SWAT teams to production platforms and drilling rigs;
 
Obama sent the Army and National Guard into the Gulf States ­ for what reason?
 
Suppression of investigative reporting of the spill;
 
BP arrested people taking pictures of the area;
 
BP is allowed to reap the benefit of gathering oil rather than stopping the spill;
 
Interests and livelihood of the residents suppressed and not considered in decisions;
 
President Obama is using the spill to get the "Cap and Trade" bill passed;
 
Twenty-two countries have offered their experience in spill control and cleanup but neither our government nor BP has accepted their offers;
 
BP and Obama have declined to use non-toxic microbes as a clean-up measure;
 
BP company man Kazula invoked the Fifth Amendment under congressional questioning of his orders.
 
 
Where are the environmental groups? The Santa Barbara spill in 1969 was from an offshore drilling rig in the Santa Barbara Channel. It was a blowout on Union Oil's platform A; over ten days it was estimated that 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the channel and onto the beaches from Goleta to Rincon and all four Channel Islands. The oil spill prompted a congressional moratorium in 1981 on new offshore oil leasing with exceptions of the Gulf of Mexico and parts of offshore Alaska that remained in effect until 2008 when Congress did not renew it.
 
This was the coming out of environmental groups. At the same time Friends of the Earth was heavily supported by BP, ARCO, and EXXON in its litigation against those companies to prevent the completion of the Alaska Pipeline until the price of oil was raised by the Ayatollah in 1978. Friends of the Earth then withdrew is lawsuit and the pipeline was allowed to begin transporting much more valuable oil.
 
In 1989 we saw the Exxon Valdez spill which was the largest oil spill at 10.8 million gallons (250,000 barrels) when it hit the Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef. Others estimated a far greater amount, closer to 30 million gallons. It was considered to be one of the most devastating environmental disasters. The tanker's Rayas sonar was not turned on. It was broken and disabled for longer than one year and was considered too expensive to repair or replace. The environmental groups were all over them, and the media piled on.
 
The Exxon Valdez crew was criticized for its slow response. The environmental groups were powerful and their voices were heard. In response to this spill the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) was passed by Congress. It prohibited after 22 MAR 1989 any vessel that has caused a spill of greater than one million US gallons in any marine area from operating in the Prince William Sound. Even though the tanker involved in the spill was double-hulled, this spill resulted in all tankers ordered to be double-hulled. To this day, the spill affects the lives of the people living in the Prince William Sound area. The cleanup has not been successful; more than 26,000 gals of oil remain on the shoreline and the marine life has not recovered. Only 10% of the oil was recovered.
 
Even though the environmental groups may have had some effect on the spill it was the community that took the full brunt of the accident. The Chugach Alaska Corporation had to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Losses included recreational sports, fisheries, reduced tourism and of something economists call "existence value," which is the value to the public of a pristine Prince William Sound. The economy of Cordova, Alaska was adversely affected with damage to the herring and salmon stock. Several residents and the mayor committed suicide.
 
Let's take a look at what happened to the cleanup crew of the Exxon Valdez. Workers stood in oil foam for 18 hours per day. The boats steered through a hydrocarbon haze. The workers came from the area ­ fisherman and sportsmen suddenly jobless. They were hired by Exxon. They were treated for headaches, nausea, chemical burns, breathing problems. Many or all of them were never the same after working the summer for Exxon. Most of the workers died young due to lung disease (asthma, emphysema), liver, pancreatic and spleen problems. Workers went in 100% healthy and came out sick. Well and vibrant, they all became sick after a summer of hard work in Prince William Sound. There were thousands of workers affected by headaches, cancer, rashes, kidney and liver disease ­ all the result of massive chemical exposure to the dispersants, solvents and crude oil mix. We may never know how many people were affected by the Exxon Valdez spill because Exxon and their cleanup company, Velco Inc., denied government investigators the medical records.
 
* * *
 
Russia is another country that has had uncontrollable blowouts. They have had five cratered blowouts. They found that drilling a relief well that intersects the wild well and then placing and detonating a nuclear device (which slid the formation across the wild well bore, choking it off) were successful solutions.
 
In 1963 the Russians had a horrible blowout that lasted three years spewing twelve million cubic meters of flaming gas each day. Albert Vasiliev (nuclear physicist and gas well firefighter) said, "We were acting like surgeons in last resort cases, but it worked." The blowout sounded like 100 jet planes all at once. A nuclear blast choked it off. This method was found to be effective and they used it on similar cases. Vyacheslav Klishin (nuclear physicist, gas well firefighter) said, "One needs to tie up the well where the leak is. There are only two ways: 1. [A relief well to intersect the wild well, injecting mud and cement into the bore]; 2. A nuclear explosion." The Russians and other countries are obviously alarmed by the Gulf catastrophe and have offered their experience and expertise in wild well control, but Barack Obama and BP have ignored their offers. We can only infer from this that our government and BP are not going to control the well. There is an agenda, but what is it?
 
What will happen if the well continues to release 125,000 barrels of oil and at least 9,000 PSI hydrogen sulfide, benzene and methylene chloride gases each day? Benzene is the aromatic hydrocarbon component of crude oil, which is highly toxic and carcinogenic to boot. Acceptable levels are 0 to 4 parts per billion. In Florida, Alabama and Louisiana they have measured 3,000 ppb on shore! Hydrogen sulfide is allowable at 5 to 10 parts per billion. In the above states, H2S has been measured at up to 1,200 ppb. The allowable limit of methylene chloride is 61 parts per billion. The same states have found levels as high as 3,000 to 3,400 ppd!
 
The oil flow in the Gulf is equivalent to the Exxon Valdez every two days. It will follow the currents of the Gulf of Mexico to the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Bahamas and the Caribbean. Russian scientists have said that, once in the Gulf Stream, it will drastically affect the fishing industry globally. There are millions of families that have made their livelihoods on fishing, shrimping and crabbing. The restaurant, hotel and sports businesses based on tourism will be affected. The chemicals have evaporated into the atmosphere and have condensed, falling on the plant life, farms and the entire environment surrounding the Gulf of Mexico causing corrosive lesions on plants and killing the birds. It is now raining chemicals in Louisiana.
 
There may be more that it has affected so far but this is what we have seen on the Internet and YouTube. The currents move around the peninsula of Florida and along the East Coast. This will directly affect more coastal regions in a similar fashion as what we are seeing in the Gulf. We are nearing the hurricane season which will drive the toxic mixture inland. The toxic combination of oil, methane and Corexit will continue to have detrimental effects on our environment and humanity. It is a carcinogen. The hydrocarbon fumes and Corexit are causing symptoms which will manifest in diseases that will afflict plants, animals and humans.
 
People along the coastal regions will become sick and die prematurely.
 
* * *
 
It is ironic that the moral and ethical guidelines for the United Nations' Wildlands Project are based on the philosophy of "Deep Ecology." Our government and BP are creating a famine by letting the blowout continue in its present state. As mentioned above, the EPA objected to the use of Corexit 9500 but Barack Obama did not step in to stop its use. Greenpeace has a boat in the Gulf of Mexico performing research. Research is not the first step that is needed in this life-changing disaster. This is the only NGO environmental group that I have seen in the mainstream media. They have not spoken out on the marine life that is being killed daily, nor have they made any statements on the use of the cancerous chemical Corexit. There is a report from the Sea Turtle Restoration Project that BP has stopped the rescue of Kemp's Ridleys that were trapped in the oil. These sea turtles are being burned with the oil. Burning the oil releases toxic fumes into the atmosphere.
 
We seem to be witnessing the collapse of the environmental organizations, none of which has an expected strident position regarding the worst ecological disaster that the modern world has ever known. Hasn't it been their self-appointed responsibility to speak out? Are the environmental organizations taking money from the big polluters?
 
Every step during this disaster appears to be controlled by an unprecedented amount of greed. Even greed does not figure because so much natural wealth is being destroyed. What is really going on here?
 
Barack Obama spoke to the nation for the first time last week with confident assurances that the Gulf coast would be restored to its original condition eventually. There was no method mentioned. He has made four photo ops trips to the Gulf region, conferring mainly with BP and local leaders. He did not speak to the people who reside in the area. The last one I saw was a silent video showing Obama with a BP cleanup crew relaxing at a picnic table. A local resident commented, "The cleanup crew was there for appearances only; their garbage bags were empty. When Obama left, they got on a bus and left, too."
 
Why do we have a media blackout on a catastrophe that will affect the whole world? BP has hired the CIA-front company, Wackenhut, to patrol the shoreline and prevent reporters, residents and visitors from witnessing, describing and recording the damage. Private thugs are forcing the public off public beaches.
 
In 1966, The Report from Iron Mountain asked the question: How do you duplicate the total control over the population in peacetime that you have during wartime? Written by Leonard Lewin and immediately branded a satire by government spokesmen, it nevertheless had the ring of truth. We have since seen all of its extreme programs brought to life by the US government. The most notable example is the 1992 Agenda for the 21st Century. Agenda 21 is a United Nations program but it was spearheaded and directly sponsored by President George H.W. Bush at the Rio Conference. President Bush promised the attendees that Americans would one day pledge their allegiance to the United Nations as he made Agenda 21 de facto US policy.
 
Once in office, one of the first things President Clinton did by executive order was establish the Presidents Council for Sustainable Development. All aspects of life were covered, though no one in Congress complained or demanded hearings or any sort of debate. Seventeen years later we see Agenda 21 being quietly enforced in federal, state and local laws and regulations. Agenda 21 is the framework for world government, imposed on us by our own town and city councils, our own county supervisors. But it's not called "Agenda 21" by the planners. It's called "Sustainable Development."
 
"Sustainable Development" is a code word for world government. The term "world government" is a euphemism for merciless dictatorship. The excuses are the issues of environmental protection, preservation of water and anti-pollution. For example, most of America will be designated as "wildlands" and will be off-limits to Americans. After a severe reduction of the population, survivors will be highly concentrated into "Smart Growth" cities, stacked and packed into high-rise housing projects.
 
By reducing the population to the numbers found around the Dark Ages (five hundred million), government control is thought by the planners to be manageable. To get down to five hundred million people from our present population of six billion people will require a ninety-two percent reduction. The reliable methods of population reduction we saw in the last century ­ Capitalist world wars and Communism ­ only achieved reductions in the hundreds of millions. Famine and genocide in Africa were not sufficiently destructive. Agenda 21 calls for the slaughter of five and a half billion people.
 
AIDS has affected its target populations here and in Africa but the Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Ebola, Lyme disease, BSE (mad cow disease) have not taken the numbers wanted. These are all, in my opinion, government-created weapons. Government vaccine programs have not been successful in creating disease and mortality in the numbers needed. The right combination, however, of disease and famine could accomplish the goal.
 
The oil flow, blown inland by storms, will create water shortages by poisoning fresh water sources. People who have been subsistence-living will no longer have ways to live as they had been doing for generations. Farmers will lose production due to chemical rain, thus creating food shortages and famine across America and possibly Mexico and South America. People living on seafood will have the most difficulty and may die off quickly. Oil residue has already been seen in seafood in restaurants and grocery stores. More economic alternative food sources will be sought as the price of seafood skyrockets.
 
Genetically-altered food sources created by Monsanto will cause disease and early death. Already the use of Monsanto "suicide seeds" in America has adversely affected the honey bees. Our honey bee population has been drastically reduced. Scientists have found that the genetically-altered DNA has affected bee nervous systems, causing a die off, which is now called "colony collapse disorder." Without honey bees, pollination ceases and this will be the end of a natural way of life.
 
There will be migrations to urban areas as the coastal people lose everything that made their lives worth living. The "Smart Growth" collectivization of stacking and packing will begin. A single family home with a yard will be something of the past and longed for. Actually the packing of people into small areas will increase the spread of diseases and violence. Two of the tenets of Deep Ecology philosophy in the Wildlands Project are: The human population must be reduced; western civilization must radically change its present economic, technological and ideological structures. Independent entrepreneurs will be things of the past.
 
To support the Wildlands Project we find the American Lands Alliance group and, at the state level, the creation of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL), which has turned into a land-grab with the support of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority (CRPA). Here is how it works (from "The Louisiana Land-Grab" by Zack Walley):
 
"The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has moved to usurp traditional private property protections in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin. In a highly questionable action the USACE has forced conservation easements on the properties of an untold number of homeowners, farmers, timber producers and sportsmen in a 338,000 acre area (equaling an area 10 miles wide and 53 miles long).
 
In an attempt to avoid the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against land takings, the USACE attorney did not refer to these as conservation easements but called them 'Flowage Development Control and Environmental Protection Easements' (FLOWAGE) and used some really 'new math' to adjust the 'fair-market value' of the property down from $1,000 per acre to $125."  
 
Every day that BP and our government allow the oil to flow and the use of Corexit, more of the earth will be poisoned. The land won't be worth a dollar and a quarter, never mind a hundred and a quarter.
 
The marine life that does survive will be contaminated. Recovery of the areas affected is highly unlikely especially when looking at our past record in the Exxon Valdez spill. The use of cancer-causing Corexit has made this disaster many times more toxic than just oil alone.
 
News reporter Kerry Kennedy says the people in the Gulf are experiencing symptoms of nausea, headaches and burning eyes. Didn't BP learn anything from Exxon, or did they learn too much? No one is encouraged to wear respirators and rubber gloves because BP is worried about causing a state of hysteria, i.e., a state of awareness. The doctors do not know exactly how to treat the patients coming in since they don't know what chemicals BP is using. Only band aids and aspirin are provided to the workers in the Gulf by BP's company doctors. All I can say is that a majority of the Valdez workers were dead ten years later. The White House has not responded appropriately so BP as a corporation has taken control of the area without the consent of the people.
 
Looking at the big picture does put a new light on who is expendable. White House chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel has said, "Never let a crisis go to waste." And Obama says we are addicted to oil. (This from a man whose largest campaign contributor was BP) We would not have to be using so much oil if so many inventors of alternative energy and free energy had not been frightened off or killed.
 
Obama's first televised address to the nation was right out of the UN's Sustainable Development handbook, the comprehensive plan to regulate our behavior via the federal, state and local levels of government, primarily the local level. This scheme has been enhanced until recently by the term "global warming," which was necessarily modified to "global climate change," since we now appear to be in a cooling period. Fortunately, the last climate change conference in Copenhagen failed to produce a new climate change treaty. At Copenhagen, some of the American conservation groups demanded a course of action that will lead to environmental disaster faster. BP is heavily tied to eco-groups like Conservation International and Nature Conservancy. Real science often is thrown out the window to accommodate the programs of Big Oil and Big Coal. This will only be tackled when the green lobbyists in the US stop taking cash from Big Oil and Big Coal.
 
City Paper pointed out that BP spent "hundreds of millions of dollars" to "transform its image from that of a dirty old oil company into 'Beyond Petroleum' ­ a company so environmentally friendly it had transcended oil drilling (and spilling) for happy, sunny and clean technologies such as wind and solar."
 
They also noted that the environmental groups "trumpeted their ties to corporations, arguing that these partnerships lead to better corporate environmental policies and less damage to the planet."
 
That's exactly how the relationship between BP and Conservation International was framed by ABC's "Nightline" back in 2002".
 
The main objectives are to end national sovereignty, abolition of private property, the "restructuring" of the family unit, increasing restrictions on mobility and individual opportunity. Barack Obama's way to do this is with something he calls "Cap and Trade."
 
I must admit, for the longest time I did not know what "Cap and Trade" meant. Nothing in those three words suggests anything to do with ecology but "Cap and Trade" is an environmentally-based scam, an artificial marketplace designed to reduce pollution by paying people who reduce pollution with money from polluters. "Cap" refers to limits, or caps, on emissions. So, we would have an emissions trading system in which total emissions are limited, or capped. Permits would be allocated or auctioned up to the set cap on emissions and a market would allow polluting members who are emitting less than their quotas to sell their excess permits to polluters who need to buy "credits" to meet their caps. Which is all as totally phony as it sounds, and as totally phony as "man-made global warming." The globe is warmed by the sun, or not, if it puts out less heat. Paying money or being paid has nothing to do with pollution or "greenhouse gasses."
 
What "Cap and Trade" does is to create more restrictions and controls on people.
 
Some are asking, is there a hidden agenda behind all the foot dragging to the clean-up and to stopping the spill? At my local library, which covers Santa Barbara County, I asked the reference librarian to help me find anything on the Agenda for the 21st Century. What I found was surprising. There were no books, magazines or videos on this subject. The librarian found two brief articles and one review article not on the subject of Agenda 21 but on one aspect of it, the Wildlands Project. The buzz words "Sustainable Development" were used. Nowhere in the public library could one try to inform himself on the scope of Agenda 21. I suspect that this is the way it is throughout America. Agenda 21 is literally a hidden agenda.
 
The policymakers have created innocent-sounding catch phrases to capture the hearts and minds of our educators and their students. It will be the students who are the spring board to making Agenda 21 possible through grassroots groups that will carry over to our city councils, town councils and county boards where the policies are made. All these "Sustainable Development" policies and regulations have stolen our soul for life for the communal good. These policies are destroying the soul of life. This is what we are giving up every time we accept these policies. The first point in the moral and ethical guidelines for the Wildlands Project is: All life (human and non-human) has equal value (a minnow is as valuable as man). What we are giving away is what sets man apart from all other animals, our souls.
 
This is the most devastating disaster that we have known. It will affect millions of people in the Gulf States, the Eastern Coast and everywhere the Gulf Stream goes. Agenda 21 is not only for America ­ it is international as a United Nations policy for the New World Order. But while we still have some tattered shreds of our Bill of Rights left, each of us who has an ounce of soul left needs to find out for himself and herself the full extent of Agenda 21 and how it will impact on your family's life.
 
Agenda 21 has been creeping through each town and city council for 17 years. The first thing to do is to take a good look at what is happening to the people who are living in the Gulf States and etch into our brains what will happen to your family in the near future. Our response to this must be to seize control of our local institutions, our town and city councils and county boards of supervisors and force the rejection of any and all programs, regulations and policies that conform to the United Nations' Agenda for the 21st Century. Gulf Coast residents must demand non-toxic forms of clean-up such as bioremediation, i.e., oil-eating microbes.
 
 
Robbi Skye Campbell, humanitarian environmentalist, medical doctor, medicine woman & artist
 
askdrfeather@yahoo.com

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Costner cleanup device gets high marks from BP - Yahoo! News

Costner cleanup device gets high marks from BP - Yahoo! News

It was treated as BP oil spill when Kevin Costner stepped forward to promote a device he said could work wonders in containing the spill's damage. But as Henry Fountain spill cleanup technology. And BP, after trial runs with the device, is ordering

The "Waterworld" actor has invested some $20 million and spent the past 15 years in developing the centrifuges. He helped found a manufacturing company, Ocean Therapy Solutions, to advance his brother's research in spill cleanup technology. In testimony before Congress this month, Costner walked through the device's operation—explaining how it spins oil-contaminated water at a rapid speed, so as to separate out the oil and capture it in a containment tank:

 

The device can video of the news conference featuring Costner and BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles announcing the news. You can watch the video here:

"Doug Suttles was the first guy to step up in the oil industry," Costner said at the presser, "and I'm really happy to say when he ordered 32 machines, it's a signal to the world, to the industry, where we need to be."

Suttles said the additional machines will be used to build four new deep-water systems: on two barges and two 280-foot supply boats.

"We tested it in some of the toughest environments we could find, and actually what it's done — it's quite robust," Suttles said. "This is real technology with real science behind it, and it's passed all of those tests." He added that Costner's device has proved effective at processing 128,000 barrels of water a day, which "can make a real difference to our spill response efforts."

In his congressional testimony, Costner recounted his struggle to effectively market the centrifuge. He explained that although the machines are quite effective, they can still leave trace amounts of oil in the treated water that exceeds current environmental regulations. Because of that regulatory hurdle, he said, he had great difficulty getting oil industry giants interested without first having the approval of the federal government.

[intensely competitive industry.

Costner said that after the device was patented in 1993, he sought to overcome oil-company jitters by offering to allow U.S. oil concerns to use it on a trial basis. He'd extended the same offer to the Japanese government in 1997, he said, but got no takers there either.

— Brett Michael Dykes is a national affairs writer for Yahoo! News.

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Monday, June 28, 2010

Improve Your Writing Overnight With “The Rule of 24″ – Guaranteed | Copyblogger

image of number 24

Few things in life are guaranteed. This is especially true if you are a writer.

But this one rule — The Rule of 24 — is guaranteed. Iron clad.

Doesn’t matter who you are, what you write, how you write, or how hard you try to prove this wrong.

You won’t.

You can’t. The Rule of 24 will make your writing better. Every time. No exceptions.

Simplicity on the other side of complexity

Sometimes the biggest problems have the simplest solutions.

Want to lose weight? Simple.

  • Consume fewer calories than you burn each day.

Want to get more blog subscribers?

Want to get rich? Okay, not as simple, but the principles are there in front of your nose.

These are simple solutions all right, but that doesn’t always make them easy. Most of them require actual effort to implement and stick to in the real world.

Which is why The Rule of 24 is your best bet for a simple fix to the big problem of how to improve your writing.

Because it doesn’t come with that particular downside.

The Rule of 24 is as easy to implement as it is to understand. It doesn’t ask you to give up something you love, and it doesn’t go against the grain of who you are.

It’s not even original or genius. It’s simply true. Always has been.

You just have to choose it. And too many writers don’t.

Want to be a better writer overnight?

Here’s what you do:

Sit on what you think is your final draft for 24 hours.

No, really. That’s it.

No matter what you’re writing — a novel, a screenplay, a blog post, a landing page, a letter — if you do the best you can on it and then wait until the next day to go over it again …

… you have my iron-clad, 100 percent guarantee that you’ll make at least a tweak or two that will make it better.

Every time. Dependable as death, taxes and somebody voting for Kate Gosselin.

Aren’t we all glad I’m not charging for that sage advice?

Send me your $49.95 now, and I’ll make your writing better overnight … guaranteed or your money back!

I know it sounds ridiculously simple. I know it sounds like the other shoe will drop any moment. But there are millions of writers out there who don’t do it — even though it’s absolutely guaranteed to improve their writing.

It may be a typo you didn’t see the day before. It may be a better choice of word, a less-is-more edit, or a wholesale shift in creative or structural strategy.

But you will change something.

And the piece will be better for it.

What if there’s nothing to fix the next day?

Wow. There’s not one single thing you can do to make that piece better, huh?

Nothing at all you can tweak to make it just a little bit clearer, a little bit more compelling, a little bit punchier than it was before? Why, you must be the best writer on the planet.

Or … you aren’t.

Nobody’s that perfect. The piece might be exceptional or even brilliant, but that’s not the point.

The point is that if you come back to it the next day, every time, you open yourself to the opportunity to make it even better.

So there it is. The Rule of 24, available to all, completely free of charge, and unconditionally guaranteed.

Still don’t believe me? Want to write a post about how wrong I am? Good for you.

Let the draft sit for 24 hours first, though. It’ll be even better when you come back and find something brilliant you forgot to put in there.

Or you can slip it into the comments. No waiting required.

About the Author: Larry Brooks is the creator of Storyfix.com, an instructional site for novelists and screenwriters. He wrote this post on a Saturday, then submitted it to Sonia at Copyblogger on Sunday night with nine changes to the final Saturday draft.

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With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like Copyblogger, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

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The First Rule of Copyblogger | Copyblogger

image of a man throwing a punch

Are you guilty of spamducation?

Spamducation is a white paper, special report, video, podcast or manifesto that claims to solve a pressing reader problem, but is in fact a thinly disguised ad. Jon Stribling describes them as “compelling headlines and disappointing content written by amateurs or second-rate copywriters.”

The content is too often a lame version of work done by a real expert. (You know, someone who cared enough about the topic to actually learn a lot about it.)

It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of content marketing. Which means I’m a huge opponent of badly done content marketing.

Sloppy, junky, selfish content just gives the legitimate folks a bad name.

The first rule of Copyblogger is you do not publish content that sucks.

Why do we hammer you every week with techniques to make your writing sharper, crisper, more effective, and more magnetic?

To let you create content that’s as strong and alive as it can possibly be.

Sure there are tools that will let you hack, mash, smash, and mangle someone else’s content into a word soup that Google thinks is original.

Google won’t help you if no one wants to read what you’ve got to say.

The second rule of Copyblogger is you do NOT publish content that sucks.

There are plenty of “push-button” systems out there that claim to teach you how to succeed wildly with content marketing and social media.

How to build a six-figure business on Twitter without having anything to actually say.

How to spend 45 seconds a day on Facebook and churn out killer profits.

How to turn YouTube or Digg or Squidoo into an effortless cash machine.

And some of those systems probably work, at least to some degree.

If you have content that doesn’t suck.

So what makes for content that doesn’t suck?

Great content comes from craft, care, and attention, not talent.

It comes from obsessively focusing on what your reader wants. What’s bugging her? What problem is she having a hard time solving? What does she want more than anything? What’s she dreaming about? What wakes her up at 3 in the morning? What makes her feel like a beautiful and unique snowflake?

It comes from studying proven techniques, trying them out, and watching what works best for you and your readers.

Most people are afraid to improve their writing because it looks like work.

And I’ll tell you the secret the scam gurus never will. It is work.

It’s work the same way that sailing is work. Or learning to play a ruthlessly good game of poker. Or mountain biking. Or cooking your way through every recipe in Julia Child. Or beating your best score in Rock Band.

Good copy and content writers don’t pore over our favorite writing references just to gain an advantage in our marketing. (Although that’s nice.)

We do it because it’s fun. We do it because we’re obsessed. We do it because it’s a fantastic game. We do it because we love to watch the human mind at work. We do it because we can. We do it because it’s an awesome high when it works.

Don’t let learning copywriting intimidate you. And don’t create content that sucks because you think it’s too hard to make something worth reading.

Instead, get intimidatingly good. You can, you know.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the creator of the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint.

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How to Use the “Rule of Three” to Create Engaging Content | Copyblogger

Three

What’s so magical about the number three?

It’s no accident that the number three is pervasive throughout some of our greatest stories, fairy tales and myths.

It’s also no coincidence that some of the most famous quotes from throughout history are structured in three parts, nor is it surprising that the Rule of Three also works wonders in the world of comedy.

It all comes down to the way we humans process information. We have become proficient at pattern recognition by necessity, and three is the smallest number of elements required to create a pattern. This combination of pattern and brevity results in memorable content, and that’s why the Rule of Three will make you a more engaging writer.

Storytelling

Have you ever wondered:

  • What the three little pigs, the three blind mice, Goldilocks and the three bears, the Three Musketeers, the three wise men and the Three Stooges have in common?
  • Why the three-act structure is the dominant approach to screenwriting in Hollywood?
  • Why three bullet points are more effective than two or four?

The Rule of Three works in stories due to the presence of the concise, memorable patterns that I mentioned above. But even if that wasn’t the case, the number three has been used so widely throughout some of the most memorable works from our childhood, it’s likely that we are preconditioned to respond favorably to elements grouped in threes.

Think in terms of three when crafting your content, and you’ll likely end up with a more engaging outcome. If at first you don’t succeed, remember—the third time’s the charm.

Sticky Ideas

You see the Rule of Three used all the time across diverse areas of life. Why?

Because information presented in groups of three sticks in our heads better than other clusters of items. For example:

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people”

“Friends, Romans, Countrymen”

“Blood, sweat and tears”

“Location, location, location”

“Father, Son and Holy Spirit”

“Faith, Hope and Charity”

“Mind, body, spirit”

“Stop, Look and Listen”

“Sex, Lies and Videotape”

“I came, I saw, I conquered”

The United States Marines are big believers in the Rule of Three when it comes to getting things done and keeping people alive. The Corps apparently experimented with a rule of four, and retention and effectiveness took a nose dive.

If you want something stuck in someone’s head, put it in a sequence of three.

Humor

One of the best examples of the power of the Rule of Three is in the world of comedy. Again, three is the smallest number of elements that can form a pattern, and comedians exploit the way our minds perceive expected patterns to throw you off track (and make you laugh) with the third element.

The Rule of Three fits the classic joke structure of set-up, anticipation and punchline. The three-part grouping also allows for tension to build and then be released thanks to the surprise and absurdity contained in the third element.

Here are a couple of humorous examples that use a shocking third element within the Rule of Three structure. First up, Laura Kightlinger:

I can’t think of anything worse after a night of drinking than waking up next to someone and not being able to remember their name, or how you met, or why they’re dead.

Here’s one from Jon Stewart:

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.

Using humor in your writing can be risky since some people just won’t get it, but using a Rule of Three approach is a safer way to make a funny. Professional comedians use it all the time, and that’s simply because it works.

Other Uses for the Rule of Three

I truly do believe that a set of three bullet points is the most effective use of the format. You might also find that list posts with three items will draw people in, because you’ve boiled things down to the essence with no fluff. And there’s a reason why people like to be presented with three choices rather than two or five.

When it comes to pleasing the human brain, it seems like three is simply a magic number. And that’s the truthiness, the whole truthiness, and nothing but the truthiness.

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Copyblogger runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give you a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like Copyblogger, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

Posted via email from moneytalks's posterous

How to Get 53% More Readers for Every Blog Post You Write | Copyblogger

You know from the 80/20 Rule of Headlines that the best way to get your writing read is to improve your headline. It can be a bitter pill to swallow when you realize that most people, even among those who subscribe to your blog, are not reading every post, but it’s not just you — it happens to us all.

So what was it about the headline of this post that got you to read this far?

Well, it’s not only that the headline makes a promise to deliver unique and useful information to my audience of bloggers. It’s also the way that it makes that promise.

The headline is very specific.

While certainly not the only method for writing good blog post titles, just about any headline can be made better by being as specific as you possibly can. Specificity increases credibility because specific details are simply more believable than broad assertions. Plus, a specific headline conveys more valuable information to a potential reader, which acts to draw them magnetically into the content.

Here are a few examples of ultra-specific headlines:

  • How I Made $19,931.42 Last Month With Google AdSense
  • In This Free 10 Chapter, 123 Page Ebook You’ll Learn…
  • Eleven Secret Techniques That Make Bloggers Money
  • Lose 36 Pounds in Only 7 Weeks
  • How to Shave 5 Strokes Off Your Golf Score in 3 Days

Of course, the single most important rule of ultra-specific headlines is that you need to be able to back up your assertions. And as I’ve done before, I break the rule in order to make the point (which is the true joy of writing a copywriting blog).

While I’m positive that being more specific in your post titles will increase the number of people who read your post, I have no earthly idea what the actual percentage will be for you. There are way too many variables involved.

So I really should have said:

How to Get More Readers for Every Blog Post Your Write

But that’s simply not as good a headline. :)

UPDATE: I had forgotten all about this Marketing Experiments test that showed that an optimized headline increased website conversion rates by 73%. This means that not only did overall readership of the content rise, but 73% more people took the requested action, due only to a modified headline. In the first case study, the winning headline simply used a specific dollar amount!

So 53% is likely too low just for increased readership. My apologies for underestimating. :)

For more on writing great headlines, check out the Magnetic Headlines series on Copyblogger.

Subscribe to Copyblogger today!

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Copyblogger runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give you a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like Copyblogger, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

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Sunday, June 27, 2010

How To Be a Social Media Manager – Free Interview | Driving Traffic

The audio below that I just posted of an unemployed Texas woman who stumbled across a $10,000 a month just screwing around on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites!

Kate is the friend that I referred to in an earlier post and her story is one of the coolest I’ve ever heard.

She was in a situation where she HAD to make money now and that’s exactly what she did, with no website, no product and no marketing skills. You will LOVE her story… Listen up!

Click the player below to listen now or click the download link.


Download the .mp3 HERE (right click and “save as”)

UPDATE: We’ve had a lot of requests for a transcript of my call with Kate.  I’ve done you one better…

I’ve turned the transcript into a full blown report, it will be a lot more informative and readable.  Click the download link below to access it.

Description
Value
Download
FREE REPORT: How To Make More Money Than an Airline

Pilot or a Registered Nurse Working OVERTIME…

…Screwing Around on Twitter and Facebook

$197

Enjoy,
Ryan

P.S. Comment below and let me know what you think about the interview, and if you want me to do more of these in the future.

Learn More:

To find out more about how to become a Social Media Manager, click here to watch a free video.


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73 Responses to “How To Be a Social Media Manager – Free Interview”

  1. Simple …tell me how can someone make money doing this?
    How can you bring all of my businesses into one where I do not have to do this and farm this business for someone else to do this task?

    Thanks..
    john

    [Reply]

  2. I have watched the two presentations you have and have heard a lot of reasons why and what could be….but I am still not sure what I am actually going to get with this. What are you going to give me to take to a client and get them to hire me as their Social media Manager?

    [Reply]

  3. Hi Kate,
    Just listened to Ryan Deiss presentation
    about your biz. I am interested in your course so I can learn the biz. I didn’t see
    a place to sign up.
    I appreciate your response,
    Enjoy your day,
    Harold

    [Reply]

  4. Does it have affiliate program?

    [Reply]

  5. I can’t wait for Kate’s product launch!!

    Thanks Ryan for posting this interview.

    [Reply]

    Ryan Deiss Reply:

    @Nancy, Thanks, and just FYI, Kate’s product has launched, just click the link at the bottom of this post or go to http://www.drivingtraffic.com/lets-get-social

    Ryan

    [Reply]

  6. Ryan and Kate! Great timely content and Kate, what great enthusiasm and a “Can Do” attitude you put forth in a recording! I am a social media and marketing professional and nerdlette and I plan on purchasing your product! Learning never stops and this aspect of service to businesses is key right now. You are a great lesson in taking action! Your success is based on that lesson and the consultant as well as the client can benefit equally from your knowledge and experience.

    [Reply]

  7. I’ve started the process of branding myself and I’ve created a new blog and now I’ll just have to start getting some clients! …this is exciting! :)

    Eddys Velasquez

    [Reply]

  8. This seems awesome… Social Media can be great if done right…

    [Reply]

  9. Ryan where on earth is the sales page to purchase this product?
    Thanks

    [Reply]

    Ryan Deiss Reply:

    @Darren, Just click on the link at the bottom of the post or you can go to http://www.drivingtraffic.com/lets-get-social

    [Reply]

  10. Hey Ryan, great interview and report thanks.

    One of the reasons that Kate and others do so well is that many marketers are actually AFRAID of Social Media.

    MarketingSherpa did a study that identified marketers’ three biggest Social Media fears. I took that data and then wrote about what marketers can do to face those fears — and turned it into a free ebook (available from http://MarketersFears.com, if you’ll pardon the plug).

    Social Media has now reached The Tipping Point — eMarketer is reporting that more than half of all U.S. internet users are now using Social Media on a monthly basis, and that’s a trend that’s happening all over the world.

    I’ve been teaching a Social Media Marketing eCourse for the last few months, and the feedback has been really interesting — for many marketers it’s just a matter of really getting to grips with the principles of Social Media. Once they understand those, the fear simply falls away.

    [Reply]

  11. This is great content it opened my eyes to a new idea

    [Reply]

  12. Thank again. Always putting out awesome information for us. I appreciate it.

    [Reply]

  13. Kate, or Ryan,

    do you hjave an affiliate link that I can put on my site to advertise this site to other people, or you do not want advertising
    ?

    [Reply]

    Ryan Deiss Reply:

    @Douglas Fodor, If you’re all ready an affiliate, you should have got an email with the links from Nathan our affiliate manager.

    If you aren’t an affiliate, you can apply @ http://secretsignup.com/new_aff.php.

    [Reply]

  14. Thanks Kate and Ryan for this timely info. I read a lot about the social media world but have never participated personally. This looks like a great opportunity and I’m definitely considering it.

    Thanks again.

    [Reply]

  15. Thanks for the information. I enjoyed the interview. You have my full attention.I believe what you are saying about the opportunity.

    I am concerned about the legal aspects of the business. I live in LA everybody is suing everybody else for anything they can. I think it will be a full time job managing the social media legal.

    I know their are lawsuits about tweets. Also people using facebook with criminal intent.

    I am going to gamble on your course. I really need something to work other than my security job at the Getty Museum. It’s a place to work but the commute is long and the pay is low. My fears are growing regarding life after the job. I am a baby boomer and there is no parachute for retirement. I think that living on social security is a recipe for misery.

    So this is a very serious consideration for me.

    Listening to kate is interesting because she is cool. But I sense a huge intelligent quotient. Her experience as a former tech manager seems to be beneficial to her.

    I love the outsourcing of the work. I think that Kate could even outsource some of the marketing of her business also.

    Bottom line is any opportunity is what you make it. A journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step.

    William Graves on facebook 1richdaddy on twitter william graves on linkedn

    [Reply]

  16. Bling!
    The lights just came on…

    Thank you for sharing this eye opening information.

    I’ll be adding a new department to my business.
    A natural upsell to my existing article marketing business for offline businesses.

    Thank you, Kate.

    Ryan, you can ALWAYS be counted on to share new, innovative Internet Marketing ideas!
    I look forward to your next “big” thing.

    How can I find out more about Kate’s product you talk about in the audio interview?

    [Reply]

  17. I have heard of this stuff last year through your product with Perry Belcher. I quit my job with my US employer because he was paying me too low. Now I have clients paying 10USD an hour. Thanks for sharing this opportunity.

    [Reply]

  18. Ryan, great conversation with Kate. The audio and PDF (thanks a ton for that!), say it all….there is a huge demand and will be an even bigger demand.
    Not only is the yellow Pages dead, DVR’s. TV remotes and in-car MP3 players are rendering most traditional advertising obsolete.
    Even Mom & Pop retail knows that they must have an on-line presence to compete.
    Thanks again for the great content!

    [Reply]

  19. Great content looking forward to seeing how the social media manager system is packaged. This is valuable information that can be used for individuals as well as for entreprenuers who desire to build a team or for marketing personal info products. Please make it affordable!

    [Reply]

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