The ODE…

They shall grow not old,

as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

With gratitude to those who served, those who serve today and those who support them.

If you’ve been wondering what’s been going on here at “Maximum Results Copywriting” with the blog…

…lack of posting, posts disappearing etc…

…well unfortunately the site got hacked.

If you found your browser being hijacked and directed away to another site…

…or you were alerted to a virus threat…

…many apologies.

After being alerted to the problem I investigated ways to solve the issue.  Not being terribly tech savvy, in the end the easiest thing to do was completely “Nuke” the site and start again.

So, I’ve been reinstalling everything…

…plus trying to make sure that site security is improved.

The one saving grace to all of this is that at least I had a clean backup of data.  Unfortunately it wasn’t totally up to date…

…hence the “lost” posts.

Once again, apologies for any problems…

…and normal service will be resumed shortly!

As you will probably have noticed (unless you’re new to this blog…in which case a warm “Welcome!”)…

…there’s a whole new look to the place!

I finally decided to bite the bullet…

…and get myself a premium theme for the blog.

I’d been thinking about this for a while, both for aesthetic reasons and to improve functionality.

Problem is there are a lot of great themes out there, many of them free, so I ended up paralysed by indecision.

Fortuitously…

… master marketer and copywriter Ray Edwards hosted a very useful webinar last week featuring theme designer Cory Miller.

On the webinar, Cory talked about using WordPress in general and his themes in particular.  One of which is the “Flexx Professional” that I have decided to use.

There are so many great things about this theme.  As the name suggests, it’s very flexible and hence very customisable.  PLUS it has some features that make it a very powerful content management system.  It seems to me that this is a perfect tool for creating a wide range of “mini-sites”.

Anyway, I’ve only just started figuring out what I can do with the theme…so watch out for more changes!

One other reason for going with Cory was that my original theme was a free one that he designed and had made available through Michel Fortin.  So, an element of the old “reciprocity” marketing principle at work.

If you want to find out more about Cory Miller’s range of premium WordPress themes, check out www.iThemes.com. At US$79.95, they are an absolute steal, in my humble opinion.

Oh, and the graphic in the header?  That comes with the theme…it’s not me (although I wish I had hair like that, in contrast to my “fashionably short” look!). I’ll be changing it shortly.

There’s a very cool feature where you can have a number of images that rotate.  However, once I’d got over the initial childish excitement and put my hardcore direct response marketing hat back on, I turned it off because it seemed to me to be a distraction.

As well as being “Australia Day”, today is also Chinese New Year, Korean New Year, Tet in Vietnam and Republic Day in India.

In the Chinese calendar, this is the Year Of The Ox.  According to Wikipedia, the Ox represents prosperity through fortitude and hard work.  Sounds like that could be very appropriate for the year ahead!

May I wish you “Kung Hei Fat Choi”  (“Best Wishes And Be Prosperous”)!

…if you’re in Australia (and I guess there’s no reason why everyone else can’t join in the spirit of the day!).

The anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, this is a day of barbecues, family get-togethers, fireworks and celebrations of all things Australian.

Originally, I was not terribly impressed with the words of the Australian National Anthem.  But over the years, “Advance Australia Fair” has grown on me.

So here it is, in full…

Australians all let us rejoice,

For we are young and free;

We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil;

Our home is girt by sea;

Our land abounds in nature’s gifts

Of beauty rich and rare;

In history’s page, let every stage

Advance Australia Fair.

In joyful strains then let us sing,

Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross

We’ll toil with hands and hearts,

To make this Commonwealth of ours

Renowned of all the lands,

For those who’ve come across the seas

We’ve boundless plains to share

With courage let us all combine

To Advance Australia Fair,

In joyful strains then let us sing

Advance Australia Fair.

Happy New Year!

May I wish you, your family, friends and associates a very happy and prosperous 2009!

Prosperous?  Of course.

Look, there’s no doubt that economic conditions will be challenging.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t prosper…

My good friend Pete Godfrey puts it this way in a recent issue of his newsletter…

“Just understand there are so many opportunities to make money right now it’s overwhelming to think about them all.  As entrepreneurs and business owners we can not buy into the doom and gloom.  Sure, acknowledge it; we can’t pretend everything is rosy out there.  The world HAS changed in a BIG way and there’s no going back.  Just don’t buy into it emotionally and mentally.  Our most important assets are out mindsets; how we think, how we act; the money making habits that are ingrained into our pores.  That’s our strength.”

Putting this another way, I’m going to suggest adopting the approach of the person who, when asked how they were being affected by the Great Depression in the 1930s said…

“I’m choosing not to participate.”

On that note, have a successful 2009!

…Happy Holidays!

Whatever you’re doing today, best wishes to you, your family, friends and associates.

Hope Santa was good to you and have a wonderful day!

…in today’s UK “Daily Telegraph” I notice that the movie “Mama Mia!” has just become the biggest grossing movie at the UK box office of all time (passing “Titanic” and “Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone”.

So how does this fit in to our ongoing discussion about movies and what they say about the social mood?

“Mama Mia! is pure escapism, proving a fun and inexpensive way to forget about the state of the economy for a couple of hours” says David Kosse of Universal Pictures.

In tough times, the predominant mood is gloomy but people still want some light relief. Looking back at, say the 1930s, sure there were the classic horror movies but it was also the heyday of the escapist musical.

Closer to today, if you look back at the 1970s, the last real recessionary time, the biggest selling rock acts were “dark” heavy rock bands like Led Zeppelin.

But it was also the time of Abba and Disco!

In other words, things aren’t completely black or white.  The key is to look at what’s generally most popualr and what people are drawn to.

And , as I’ve suggested before, the 1970s are likely to be a good general guide as to what lies ahead.

Worldwide, “The Dark Knight” is still the overall biggest movie of the year reflecting the fact that Abba were never as popular in the USA as in the rest of the world.

One of the guiding principles of Direct Response Marketing and Copywriting is to listen to your audience and get feedback where possible.

I’ve just added this blog to “Blog Catalog” and over in the left hand column (sidebar) you’ll see a little button with “Rate My Blog”.

It will take just 2 clicks to give your opinion and I would welcome your feedback.

(Re the rating scale, 1= “Kev, this is terrible!” to 5 = “Kev, this is the best!”)

And if you have the time to leave a comment, that would be much appreciated.

I’m interested to know what sort of topics and posts you find most interesting and useful.  For example, what do you think about the “Scientific Advertising In The 21st Century” series of posts?

Today (Sunday Sep 7) is Father’s Day down here in Australia.

Have a great day Fathers everywhere and a big “Thank You” (to Mums as well)!