QUESTION: Ben, do you have any tips on preventing burnout? I tend to work a whole bunch of projects at once and am getting burned out fast.

BEN: At any given time I am working on several dozen ezine articles for my stuff and other people, a seemingly endless number of sales letters, reports and ads, and a host of other little projects and business copywriting related tasks.

And yet, I haven’t suffered “burnout” in years.

In fact, I am always on fire to get to work and rarin’ to go.

What’s my secret?

Well, what I do is I have a stack of 3X5 note cards and every week I jot down the next week’s schedule.

And what I do is purposely alternate each week with a heavy workload and a light workload.

For example, on week one of any given month, I may pack in the work every day. Then, on week two, I do maybe 2 or 3 things (urgent stuff with a deadline) each day and get done before noon. Sometimes even earlier.

And by doing this hard/easy alternation each week, I totally avoid burnout.

Reason why is because during an easy week I get things done early and have a bunch of time on my hands. By Sunday I’m chomping at the bit to get back to work. Usually I can’t wait to get back to work.

On the other hand, during a heavy week I get very tired by Friday. But tired in a good way. Because while I know there will still be work the next week, I know it is going to be a virtual vacation compared to what I just did. So I look forward to it. I look forward to the stress-free week ahead.

Anyway, I know this sounds simple. But it works like crazy.

Try it and see for yourself.

Break out a couple 3X5 cards and make one a heavy week schedule, the other a light week schedule.

I think you’ll find yourself getting a lot more work done while totally eliminating burnout forever.

QUESTION: I took your advise and subscribe to the NEWSPAPERARCHIVES site. But when I tried to search ads by Dan Kennedy, only his SUCCESS speaking ads came up. Is there a better way to search these copywriting gurus ads other than type in their names?

BEN: Yes, there is a way. It takes a bit of research, but here’s what I do. Besides looking for a specific copywriter or marketer’s name or ad headline, you can also look for the names of the companies they wrote for.

For example, when looking for Eugene Schwartz ads, I found most of them by typing in the names of two companies he wrote ads for: “Executive Research Institute” and “Information Incorporated.”

When searching for Gary Halbert ads, I found some from searching “Good News Publishing” Company (although I am not sure if they are all Halbert ads — be careful).

If you want to find a certain copywriter’s newspaper ads, find out who their clients were and then search those names. Chances are you will have a lot more luck getting an exact match. If you are looking for Dan Kennedy, look at his ads and the names of the people who give him testimonials. Start with those business names and see what happens.

And don’t forget to use the newspaperarchive.com help desk. Sometimes they can be a lot of help when searching for something specific.

QUESTION: Ben I am aspiring copywriter. Are there any ways for me to get freelance copywriting jobs and making money? I don’t mind hard work I just don’t know where to begin.

BEN: As much as I’d love to take credit for the following idea, I can’t. I actually heard this from Michael Senoff on his site and it’s so good I may even do this myself if I find some time in the near future.

What he says is to go to ebay and look for completed auctions for stuff that sells for ten, fifteen, twenty even a hundred thousand dollars or more.

Let’s say you find someone selling a yacht, for example. And let’s say he has great pictures, but he has no copy, no benefits, no descriptions. You can simply say, “Did you ever sell the yacht?”

Chances are he’ll say something like, “Nah, I never sold it. It’s still sitting here.”
You could negotiate and say, “Let me help you sell it. I’ll write an ad to sell the boat, and if we sell the boat, you pay me X percent.”

Now obviously, you are taking a chance. But what does it really “cost” you? A few bucks for an ebay ad (and any other advertising you want to do) and your time. So if you lose, you lose small. But if you win…you win BIG.

Anyway, just something to think about. Like I said, I may even do something like this myself in the near future.

That’s it for today. Send me your questions about copywriting, advertising, marketing or business by clicking here.