The Tak Team Blog

According to an April 2006 issue of the New Scientist, research has proven that subliminal advertising messages work… and that if conditions are right, subliminal advertising to promote a brand can be made to work.

Previous experiments claiming this were debunked. But in a recent experiment, scientists found that eighty per cent of volunteers who had been exposed to the subliminal advertising message chose that product, compared to only 20 per cent of the controls. Those are scary stats indeed.

The term “subliminal message” was popularized in 1917 (World War I), when the US army would sneak messages into songs and put subliminal messages in posters trying to get people to join the army.

A subliminal message is defined as a signal or message designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. Subliminal messages target the subconscious mind and may be generated in the form of an image transmitted briefly and not perceived consciously and yet perceived unconsciously.

While the conscious, rational mind acts as a filter and screens out messages not consistent with our beliefs, the subconscious mind accepts messages without filtering them - rather like the mind of a child.

The effects of subliminal television advertising could be even more powerful on children. It’s been found that for each additional hour per day that a child watched television an average of one additional request was made for an advertised product.

But then it doesn’t take a scientist to tell us what most parents know anyway. Most of us have experienced pester-power first-hand.

The researchers also found that priming only works when the prime is goal-relevant. In plain English, this means you’re likely to buy a product that quenches your thirst only if you were already thirsty anyway.

So, subliminal messages could be more useful in priming a target audience to choose one brand over another, rather than in creating an actual need for the product.

What if politicians started using it to influence our choices? Well, it’s very likely they do already.

Do subliminal messages violate the code of advertising? Will this change the way advertising is regulated? How could we detect subliminal messages inserted into creatives?

And, in our opinion, what is “wrong” - the fact that they actually work, or that advertisers would be sneaky enough to use them?

But far better uses have been found for subliminal messages than advertising. In personal transformation, for instance.

As we learn more about the way our mind works, it will become clearer how subliminal messages really affect our decisions and whether they should or should not be allowed in advertising.

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Copyright © Priya Shah

Priya Shah blogs on internet marketing and personal growth. Click here for free self-help ebooks.

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

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Without a powerful headline, your message stands little chance of being noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your headline doesn’t capture attention and pull prospects into your sales copy, than your marketing effort is a total waste of energy and resources.

Nothing is more important to getting your message noticed than your headlines. If you’re not allocating a sizable percentage of your time and creative effort to the headline used on each page of your website, you could be losing out on a large chunk of business.

Top copywriters understand this concept well. They know how essential it is to capture attention by literally stopping pre-occupied prospects in their tracks.

Here are five good reasons why your site headlines deserve greater emphasis and attention:

1) Headlines Are Natural Attention Getters. The majority of online prospects are quick scanners. No one reads the body copy of a page without first reading and being pulled in by the headline. Headlines are the first thing your visitors see. They jump out visually and command attention. Headlines are leads set distinctly above the rest of the text. Often the typeface, size, and style used for headlines contrasts with that uses in the body copy. It’s a proven approach that naturally attracts eyeballs, virtually forcing interested prospects to grasp the message of the headline and to read on.

According to advertising legend David Ogilvy, 5 times more people read headlines than body copy. Although Ogilvy was talking about print advertising in general, the observation is certainly applicable to websites as well.

With 5 times the readership, headlines have the power and capability to make any message many times more successful.

2) Site Headlines Serve As Valuable Guides To The Busy Surfer. Headlines reveal key details. They tip off readers as to what follows. They provide clear signals to help readers decide whether they should stick around for the full message, or dash off to something else - something better suited to their own special needs and interests.

As a quick summary of the entire piece, headlines either attract continued interest and readership, or they repel it. Without a headline, the reader is forced to wade through a portion of the text to understand the meaning. Forcing readers to do this is to risk losing them altogether. It’s sales suicide. In effect, having no headline will cost you at least 80% of your potential audience.

3) Headlines Prepare The Reader For What Is To Come. Headlines stimulate interest. They captivate, arouse curiosity and stimulate the desire for more. It’s the headline that starts the reader’s motor running. A good headline sets up a feeling of expectation as the reader anticipates discovering more — and can’t wait to get it!

Successful headlines address specific audiences. They open prospects minds to new possibilities and expand their level of enthusiasm and interest. The best headlines involve prospects, virtually guaranteeing their sustained attention for the time being.

4) Headlines Simplify The Learning Curve. Every headline serves to introduce whatever follows. As an opening or lead-in, the role of the headline is to succinctly communicate the essence of the message it precedes in a n interesting and compelling way.

Effective headlines and sub-headings reveal key bits of information — often with the added power of emotion. A review of the various headings alone can often provide one with the gist of a given message. This makes it faster and easier to understand, remember, and review.

Use your headings to generate emotional involvement and you increase the chances prospects will go back and read more of your copy. When you make it easier to read and comprehend your messages, you increase the chances of making the sale.

5) Headlines Allow You To Deliver Your Biggest Bang Right Up-Front. Capture attention and interest at the outset, by using your most appealing selling point. If your strongest, most desirable product attribute (benefit) fails to pull prospects in, surely nothing else you could ever say would do the trick, either.

The stronger and more compelling your headline, the more readers are likely to read on and spend more time at your website. Create every headline to grab attention and inspire interest. The more alluring and irresistible you can make it, the more genuine prospects you’ll attract and ultimately, the more sales you’ll record. Headlines are powerful marketing tools when used effectively. Take a good look at your site headline. Could you add more intrigue, curiosity, or interest?

Test different headlines by trying various appeals and offer combinations. Keep an eye out for additional headline opportunities throughout your sales letters, as well as on other pages on your site. Make your headlines impossible to miss and difficult to ignore… then, watch your results soar!

About The Author

Robert Boduch is the author of Great Headlines Instantly! — How To Write Powerful, Attention-Grabbing Headlines That Pull In More Prospects, More Customers And More Profits, NOW! This full-length manual features hundreds of helpful tips, techniques, strategies and hands-on formulas for writing successful headlines of every kind.

Visit the author’s site at: http://www.headlinesecrets.com

Or email him at: behappy@total.net

Kidsline, one of the most well known brands of crib bedding, is available to customers through many national chains, including Babies R Us, baby specialty stores, and online retailers. Vintage All Star crib bedding, introduced by Kidsline in mid-2004, appeals to those interested in the sports theme for their nursery décor, Vintage All Star appears to be a reasonable value at between $160 and $190 for a six-piece set.

Vintage All Star comes as a six-piece crib set which includes a quilt, bumper, fitted sheet, dust ruffle, diaper stacker, and one valance. The six pieces are available for separate purchase. The collection is made from 65/35 poly/cotton blend fabrics and is machine washable. Vintage All Star has a generous assortment of accessories available - from the industry standard musical mobile and wall border to a picture frame, growth chart and night light. There is also a three-piece cradle set available in the Vintage All Star pattern. Given the sheer number of accessories, it would be almost impossible for a store to carry all of them. You may need to visit one of the few websites that carry all of the accessories in stock. And take care that a $175 crib set does not evolve into a $500 nursery collection “monster” after buying all of the accessories.

The quilt, which is the standout piece of crib bedding collections, is adorned with appliquéd sports paraphernalia. I thought it was nice to see most sports represented in the collection. I was very pleased to see the use of high quality woven fabrics within the quilt and accessories in Vintage All Star. However, the cream color used as a border in the quilt isn’t as vibrant as pictures of the crib set that I’ve seen online, which could be why Kidsline calls the collection Vintage.

The bumper stands 10.5″ tall with top and bottom ties. One minor shortcoming for the bumper is the fact that it is one continuous piece, which makes washing it more of a chore. The dust ruffle features a 12″ drop. The valance is in a tab style and measures 13.5″ by 60″. The diaper stacker measures 26″ by 12″ and can hold at least two-dozen diapers. The fitted sheet is made using printed fabrics, with the pattern being printed onto a solid colored fabric; I would caution you to be aware of potential pattern fade in the sheet from multiple washings and normal wear and tear. I would recommend that consumers purchase separate solid colored sheets for every day use (cream or blue should work just fine), and reserve the Vintage All Star sheet for when you want to show off your nursery to visitors.

Unfortunately for Canadian consumers purchasing from a United States online retailer, the Vintage All Star bedding collection is manufactured in China. Customers in Canada would be required to pay import duties of as much as 18% of the stated prices.

If Sports bedding is something that you’re looking into, you also might want to look at Star Player also by Kidsline or Team Sports by Lambs & Ivy.

Katherine L is a Copywriter/Customer Service Representative for Baby Supermall, an online retailer of crib bedding, including Vintage All Star by
Kidsline.

This is a unique product that most likely would be utilised by virtually everyone and has the ability to put your advertisement message right below the customer’s nose. We actually mean under your new client’s nose. How about fifteen inches away with a brilliant hi-definition imprint that your new client will be starring at eigh to ten hrs a day. What more effective way to state you advertizing content that is on an item on his desk that not only has your commercial enterprise name, company phone number, and catchword but also functions as a practical instrument. Promotional mousepads can be exactly the product that can fulfil this goal. We have mouse pads using lifelike 4 colour process print different from any other business concern. Our color is a continuous tone color image where as everybody else utilises a dot pattern. The divergence is much the same as comparing a newsprint photo to a magazine photo. Then if you desire state of the art color promotional mouse pads call us. Sixty three sq in* of billboard advertizement space may be placed right under the new client’s nose. Merely think how decent it would be to have the company name and the wareses as well as your contact number 15 inches from your client 8 hrs a day. We can help make this happen using our hi-tek custom mouse pads.

It’s very easy to make a lot of money with AdSense. I know it’s easy because in a short space of time, I’ve managed to turn the sort of AdSense revenues that wouldn’t keep me in candy into the kind of income that pays the mortgage on a large suburban house, makes the payments on a family car and does a whole lot more besides.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any number of mistakes that you can make when trying to increase your AdSense income - and any one of those mistakes can keep you earning candy money instead of earning the sort of cash that can pay for your home.

There is one mistake though that will totally destroy your chances of earning a decent AdSense income before you’ve even started.

That mistake is making your ad look like an ad.

No one wants to click on an ad. Your users don’t come to your site looking for advertisements. They come looking for content and their first instinct is to ignore everything else. And they’ve grown better and better at doing just that. Today’s Internet users know exactly what a banner ad looks like. They know what it means, where to expect it - and they know exactly how to ignore it. In fact most Internet users don’t even see the banners at the top of the Web pages they’re reading or the skyscrapers running up the side.

But when you first open an AdSense account, the format and layout of the ads you receive will have been designed to look just like ads. That’s the default setting for AdSense - and that’s the setting that you have to work hard to change.

That’s where AdSense gets interesting. There are dozens of different strategies that smart AdSense account holders can use to stop their ads looking like ads - and make them look attractive to users. They include choosing the right formats for your ad, placing them in the most effective spots on the page, putting together the best combination of ad units, enhancing your site with the best keywords, selecting the most ideal colors for the font and the background, and a whole lot more besides.

The biggest AdSense mistake you can make is leaving your AdSense units looking like ads.

The second biggest mistake you can make is to not know the best strategies to change them.

Joel Comm is The Internet Revenue Expert. Online for over 20 years, Joel teaches people how to make money in the digital age. The recognized authority on Google AdSense, Joel teaches how to multiply your AdSense income at The AdSense Code. To ask Joel Comm a question about making money online, visit http://www.AskJoelComm.com Joel invites you to download a free copy of The Internet Money Tree at http://www.internetmoneytree.net