Herman writes:

Nice one Chris…I’ve been using this formula for most of my articles without thinking but glad you brought it up so I can focus more on it….it really works!

[Reply]

Rodney M. writes:

I’m definetly glad you wrote this piece because I was looking for a new angle to use in marketing my business.

[Reply]

Bayo Akinola-Odusola writes:

Human psychology blended with common sense – Works well!

Thanks for the information Chris.

[Reply]

Rosanne writes:

Creative angle. My husband, a cyclist, always says it is not skill that wins the race, it is the sheer ability to handle the pain…In that case, the losers are the ones who avoid the pain of pushing hard to win, and the winner is the one who can take it.
So you’re right, most people choose to avoid pain and will easily accept any comfy alternative.
And passion is painless- so write about what you are passionate about.

[Reply]

Deborah Taylor-Hough writes:

Excellent idea! I was looking for some inspiration on new ways to package articles … and there was your pain template in my email box. Thanks so much. I’m off to solve the world’s pain now … ;-)

[Reply]

Reyn writes:

Excellent!

Simple yet extremely effective.

Thanks for sharing, Chris.

[Reply]

Elisabeth Kuhn writes:

Great template! Looking back over my articles, I’ve just started noticed a pattern, but it didn’t quite “get” it until I saw your template. Now, I’ll be able to focus more deliberately on writing the kinds of articles people will want to read and keeping them more focused to boot.

Thanks so much.

[Reply]

Mark writes:

Hello Chris,

Highest Kudos on your newest template- had I the ability to socially vote on it…

It’d been an easy 5*- thanks!

Best regards,

Mark M. Bravura

[Reply]

Mark writes:

Belay my last- found the stars- 5 given!

[Reply]

Vince Golder writes:

Excellent Chris,

I use the “pain” and “relief” format in all my sales and marketing and writing activities.

If you know your audience’s pain then it should be a simple task to get them to acknowledge the pain they have and then you can offer them the “medicine” (the solution) to counter their pain.

When I’m selling my marketing consultancy services I always get the prospect to close themselves i.e. I’ll go over each ‚¬“pain‚¬ they have and quote them stating ‚¬“You said you have no time, knowledge or resources to market your business, is that correct?‚¬ and repeat this for each pain.

I finalise by simply ask them what are they going to do to resolve their pain? They generally think about this for a while and state they have no idea and realise they need to take on someone like me to provide their solution.

I also extensively cover the reader’s pain and offer solutions in my book about referral marketing.

Carry on the good work.

Best regards,

Vince

[Reply]

Derek Dashwood writes:

Brilliant, Chris, much thanks. I learned, and forgot, this in Psychology 30 years ago. Kittie might smell dinner on the stove, but if she jumps up and arrives on a hot plate, she gets off way quicker than she sniffed, thought, and got up.Us, too.
Cheers, Derek.

[Reply]

Ioannis Mitrou writes:

Hello Chris, this is Ioannis Mitrou.

Excellent!

Thank you for sharing.

Ioannis Mitrou

[Reply]

Patrick DeMasi writes:

Love the new template.. Keep up the great Work!

[Reply]

Charmaine Taylor writes:

I was taught this principle by the big guy, Tony Robbins, in one of his free seminars back in the early 90’s. a good tool that has lasted a long time (even before Tony)
I wonder who taught this first?

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Charmaine,

I was certified in NAC in Hawaii by Tony in 1991.

I’m certain Tony was not the originator of this pain/pleasure principle. This has been around for a very long time. :)

[Reply]

Strephon Kaplan-Williams writes:

I say thanks Chris to Chris but not the rest of you. It’s a great idea for using pain relief as a chief motivation to appeal to, and I speak as a psychologist.

But I must say to the rest of you above me, you don’t tell me anything, you don’t elaborate on the formula, as even Chris asked you to. You don’t give me relief.

So I am in pain reading your remarks. Won’t you share also how the pain relief formula works for you?

I wrote up a complete marketing text for a website based on this concept. However, I don’t share it here or in a free ezine article because what I wrote is simply too valuable to give away!

Sorry folks but I have considerable marketing experience, and unless I get equal back I don’t give away!

Sorry not to relieve your pain by giving you the information I know that just got reinforced by Chris’.

[Reply]

Strephon Kaplan-Williams writes:

I just add that now a couple of you shared how you use the formula and this does give me pain relief. Thanks for this.

[Reply]

Maria writes:

I really hope that ones understands the healing power of relaxing and healing music too.

best regards,
maria

[Reply]

Gary writes:

Wow! This is great. This should really help out with the writers block I’ve been having.

Thanks ~ Gary

[Reply]

Jeremy Long writes:

Hello Chris,

Thanks for this piece of great information ! The Pain Avoidance Template Simple Layout is surely simple enough to be simply understood by any marketer! Again, thanks for sharing, cheers..

[Reply]

Doug Setter writes:

How ironic that I just wrote an article about pain.

Chris’ template opens up a whole new approach for me. This rocks!

Thanks!

Doug

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Chris,

Indeed and I must have 5,750 using this model or some variation of it. Especially, in business articles, self-help, future concepts and politics. Where, I:

1.) State the Problem or Challenge
2.) Give an example of such a problem and havoc that surrounds it.

(generally these 2-above are 1-2 paragraphs) Next, I focus on an innovation, concept, idea, observation or potential solution to these problems, and where such a solution or parts of that solution are borrowed from, another industry, sector of science or human endeavor.

3.) How similar situations are solved elsewhere
4.) The proposed solution or the solution that works.
5.) How wonderful it will be once this problem is solved for you (the reader), the industry, the government, the society, civilization or world.

And in closing, I would like to add that “Fear” is a huge emotional trigger and “Fear of Loss” is one of the primary closing techniques of salespeople. Think on this.

[Reply]

Alex writes:

That was insightful. I’ll keep those points in mind with my article-writing from now

[Reply]

Andrei writes:

Chris, great template!

I absolutely agree that pain avoidance is the #1 underlying force in most buying decisions and that most people, including myself, will do more to avoid pain than they will to seek pleasure.

Chris, could you provide us with any examples of high-quality articles from your huge collection, which follow this template?

Thanks for sharing,

Andrei

[Reply]

Anne writes:

Hi Chris,

Thanks for another useful article. In fact, my comment is not related to it, but to your blog’s template. I was exploring your source code because I like the clean and simple look of your site, and I found out that the code for all comments starts with the following (an open paragraph tag, then a closed one). Just wanted to point you to that error in the code.

Thank you for your template,

Anne

[Reply]

indra chopra writes:

Pain as in ‘risk’ is certainly helpful as focal point before beginning any new task or venture. What makes the difference is person’s ability to nurture it into creativity.

It certainly is a thinking point……..

[Reply]

Alexander Stern writes:

Wonderful tip. I absolutely agree that avoiding pain is the essence of survival. So people who still want to live without pain would definitely read how to avoid it.

Thank you for your advice,

Alexander

[Reply]

Steve writes:

Strephon Kaplan-Williams is totally correct. I enjoy reading this blog however the comments are all just there for spam. Chris is surely aware of this but seems loathed to do anything about it.

Instead of just saying Thanks Chris” or “Excellent Chris” in order to gain a link back to your site, perhaps people should make a meaningful comment. It would make the whole read much more interesting.

By the way, excellent tips Chris, if not slightly old hat!

Steve

[Reply]

Maynard Delfin writes:

Certainly, writing quality articles is not really painful. But it takes hard work to create one.

Hard work is not pain but merely a culmination of discipline and focus. If you enjoy what you are doing, pain is the least that you can experience.

The advice is helpful and very simple.

Maynard Delfin
Manila, Philippines

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

I reject comments that keyword load instead of linking up their URL to the commentors name.

“TY” comments don’t add value but they do help with the social proof thing.

Yes, I think we all enjoy comments that add value to the discussion…some by adding a unique angle or insight and others by reinforcing that a particular thought is on the right track.

[Reply]

Yvonne Finn writes:

Hi Christopher,

Your insights are right on target as usual!
You sure know how to hold our “feet to the fire”.

Quote:
In closing, some writers often fail to produce new articles because the pain of producing a new one exceeds the future pleasure of the good that it will create. The solution is to focus your time on “WHY” you want to write more quality original articles… It’s not painful if you enjoy it or enjoy the reason why you’re doing it.

Hope your day and week is going fabulously!
Thanks for the kick!

Yvonne

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Steve,

I agree that folks should try to leave a meaningful comment, and I have seen a number of comments that are obviously “back-link” motivated, still, I know my comments aren’t, I have 13,000 X 3 backlinks from this site and probably 200,000 back links from those who have used my articles somewhere else, after they left here for there. So, of course my comments are not back-link motivated, as I assume yours are not, although, Steve the best proof of that would be to post more articles, and not just comments here. That is the proof of back-link comment campaigns vs. a serious online article writer.

Still, if someone participates and gets rewarded a back link, then that is fair and allows for a win-win. So, its all good of course. Steve, hear me, when I say this; if you really want your website to take off and climb to cruising altitude, you have to write articles to your target audience, and these back-links for comment participation, heck that is just frosting on the cake and a happy landing at your destination airfield.

[Reply]

Steve writes:

I personally think that you should also reject comments that only say things like “Thanks Chris”, “Excellent Chris” as they are not worthy of the space on your server.

It is your blog however and you are free to do whatever you like with it.

Just imagine if the blog became more of a debate with people showing differing views.

Surely even you are not right about everything.

In business I sometimes make a statement to my colleagues which is totally wrong just to see if any of them are clever enough to spot the error and to challenge my authority – this takes guts and shows who is likely to be of most benefit to me and my ultimate profits.

It would be interesting if you made a blog post which was utterly ridiculous in its content, just to see how many people would realise it. I am sure that you would still get the “Excellent Chris” comments.

It is like these people see you as the leader of a some kind of cult.

The site is top class but the comment side of the blog could be improved.

Just my observations, not a criticism.

Steve

[Reply]

Steve writes:

Hi Lance,

Thanks for your comments.

I do write articles and have thus far had 741 published at EzineArticles with four pending.

I have even written an article about you:

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-King-Of-Writing-Articles-Lance-Winslow-Explains-Why-Article-Marketing-Works&id=334823

Steve

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Steve,

Being a “cult type” leader, while building an online community follows in line with the “love and respected” type leadership that works well in such esoteric groups like a 100,000 writers. It is working for Chris. The “yes man” critique is a problem with leaders and followers, and I never much liked “yes men” either. And your point about taking a strategy of making a silly comment to show proof of follow-the-leader-syndrome is not a bad advice offering.

Still, perhaps it is not that people fear Chris or being on Chris’ good side, but rather actually do agree with his points of contention or observations often enough. Over the past several years on this blog, I have debated both sides of an argument or discussion, played devil’s advocate, defended my position, and disagreed with Chris on his. And I have seen countless others do the same, many of the top authors and many new authors with barely 3-4 articles under their names.

Indeed, I have seen folks with 30-40 articles over a 2-year period or less than 60-80 over a 3-4 year period debate and disagree. For some I see their discussions as a learning experience, thinking outloud and attempting to get at the truth, which is ellusive in itself, as each author here has a niche and a reason for writing besides just article marketing, it goes deeper than that.

I did notice 3-in-a-row comments above on this post that came in nearly at the same time that appeared to be “quick kudos posts for back-link points” and that would be hard to deny, so I see what you see too, however, it seems that cheaters never really do good in online article writing, because to succeed at it is hard work. So they come and go, blow away some day, post 10-20 articles and then stop.

And then there are those who post; “I agree” or shorter comments one time in order to get their feet wet and try it out. Then later as they get more self confidence, they post longer comments. So, if Chris does make a rule, of such posts, saying they must be meaningful, then it will deter some commenters of course and that would prevent dialogue rather than enhancing the conversation, so you see that point too.

Thoughts? How many articles did you post today at EzineArticles.com? That is proof of your strength of character and comments here today.

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

#1 Guideline for Blog Commentors:
http://blog.EzineArticles.com/2007/01/ezinearticlescom-blog-comment-policy.html

1) DESIRE TO ADD VALUE: Your blog comments or questions should have a desire to ADD VALUE to the discussion, be relevant and meaningful to the discussion.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Steve,

I guess our posts crossed, yes, I saw that article, and so did some of my friends, we all had a laugh, thanks, that was fun.

Now then, I know that some Blog Communities that are commerical based give points to commenters who are bloggers in the same community, in doing so they hope to help build relationships online that transfer into the real world. (ActiveRain Real Estate Network is one). It works.

What the folks at that network did was to stop giving points for posts of less than a couple of sentences and eventually stopped the active links by writing “no follow” for the search engine spiders. Unfortunately, this hurts the users, but prevents the scum and “Sploggers” spam comments.

It seems that it is unfortunately human nature to do less and get more. I irks folks like me who work hard to put in what we expect out. I see with 741 articles yourself and 450 by the end of the week, that you and I are on the same page here and cringe and these BS posts for favortism, back links or just mob mentality motivation.

[Reply]

Steve writes:

Hi Lance,

I had a goal at the start of the year to submit an average of one article per day and so far have managed to do that.

I would love to be able to write as many articles as you do but have to manage my time with many other things. As an example I have two young children who I love to spend the majority of my time with. I also run a speech therapy business and am a webmaster of a number of sites.

Steve

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Correction in my last post; stated 450, should have been 750 by end of the week for Steve. Indeed, that is a lot of articles and very impressive.

[Reply]

Steve writes:

Thanks Lance – The King of Article Marketing!

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Steve,

A thought occurred to me, sploggers often use that; “I agree” tactic, because they realize that most people are apt to leave up their posts, because they so much want people to like them and agree with their opinion. So, for them it improves their chances of their BS splog comment or “Comment Post for Back-Links” being left up.

Then there are others who are people that are afraid to “disagree” as mentioned above as the same, for fear of being un-liked? So much wanting to belong that they give up self; call it lack of self-esteem or in need of justification that they are a worthy person rather than understanding the reality of things and asking; “Why would I want to join a group that would have me as a member,” as someone once said?

So, now we see these two different issues blending as one on this Blog, as some want to agree to ‘win friends and influence’ people, thinking that compliments will elevate their social status and others who use this syndrome to propel free back-links. Now then, I see a little bit of both scenarios here and it’s a little hard to tell which is which sometimes.

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Be nice please.

Zen saying,

“Whatever you are FOR, strengthens you;
Whatever you are AGAINST, weakens you.

Let’s be for more thoughtful comments that add to the discussion; but let’s not be against those who post comments that didn’t meet your rules for value. Be for being helpful. :)

[Reply]

Steve writes:

Lance I totally agree. I doubt however that Chris would get too much of a kick out of these spammers, at least I hope not.

A so called negative comment can easily be turned into a postive, if people can learn from it. We can all improve and we all make mistakes.

When I make a statement to my colleagues that is totally in-accurate – on purpose, it is very rare that I am challenged – sad but true. The people who do stand up and say “No, I think you are wrong there” are the people who work with me over the long term. Yes men (or women) can go and work for someone else.

Steve

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Chris,

Good point indeed. Sorry if anyone mistook my comments for an attack campaign here. Now then, you bring up a very good point Chris. It is my contention that working hard, pulling your weight and maintaining strength of character is difficult and so, many folks wish to take the path of least resistance, but why? Well, because it is painful often to work harder, have higher values and stand for something larger.

So, should we condemn those with higher values for pointing out that folks could or should put in a little more? Or should we simply throw up our hands to human nature and realize that people will always try to do less and get more and take whenever something is offered or steal if they can get away with it?

Now then, your “Pain Avoidance Template” solves two problems, in that it speaks to how writers can get more for doing less, while still delivering the goods to the reader, who feels pain in some area of human endeavor and truly wishes to avoid that. So, “the Pain Avoidance Template” is a win-win. However, with that being said, these articles do not write themselves, article authors write them, right? Sure, they do, so my challenge to all the article authors out there is to get writing, and now that you have this awesome template, you have no excuses.

In other words; “No Pain and All Gain!” and you gotta love EzineArticles for that.

[Reply]

Strephon Kaplan-Williams writes:

I have read all comments so far before this here and appreciated what some have given.

As my personal learning technique I have applied the formulas, such as the procedure Lance gave, and again wrote new marketing copy, or article copy.

I don’t share the actual article and marketing copy because its content is extremely valuable for money-making purposes, since I am sometimes paid as a copy-writer or a prospectus writer, as well as a successful book writer.

Here is my contribution.

Personalize your article or selling copy.

What might make even more effective the formulas here described by Chris, Lance and others would be to story-tell the content.

– Instead of describing a problem and the pain it causes in general, describe what the person with the problem must be feeling in having such a problem.

– Don’t describe objects and procedures. Describe people. Personalize whenever and wherever you can.

– Next, empathize with your hypothetical person feeling the pain of the problem, by describing yourself, the writer-expert, as also having had such a problem, so you understand what they are going through.

– Next, give your reader hope by describing yourself as having solved the problem and felt great relief.

– Do not describe yet how you solved the problem, only the relief felt from solving the painful problem.

– Next describe the conditions and the changes the reader will need to make if they are going to use the solution to the problem that worked for you.

– Make a short commitment list of things the reader should do from easy to hard. Give alternatives but get some sort of commitment to use the solution offered, when it is offered.

– Don’t solve the problem for the reader by giving them the solution to the problem!

What?!

– Keep the reader in suspense!

– Now you make them do something you need them to do if they want the solution to the problem.

– You describe some of the pain relief benefits you gained, like not having the problem any more.

– You give them a partial solution to the problem, one step, a key concept, a short list of taking the first step in solving the problem.

– Then you give them your link to go to for the full solution to the problem, or buy and read your book, buy your course that is tailored just for them, read all your articles on relationship, or whatever the problem-field is that you are expert on, and so on.

Why am I giving you all this?

Maybe you think I’m nuts? Maybe I am, but also then this style of problem-solving is not for you.

My motivation is to give back because I have been given to here. I don’t give the house away but I at least invite you to a party there.

And hope you invite me to your house party some day.

And a few of you have!

[Reply]

Steve writes:

Now that was a proper comment!

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Steve,

I could not agree more, throw them from the ship, people who can disagree and justify it or back it up are worthy, those who cannot, see ya. I think Bill Gates would agree with this, from one of the examples I read in a Book about Microsoft, that stuck with me as highly relevant.

Now that is not to say that you want a bunch of terrorists in your group purposefully attacking the leadership, but true leadership does not demand 100% agreement from the round table.

In fact, this is the problem with committees, everyone aligns themselves in a way as not to avoid any social hardship or pain and in the end the resultant is unworthy and a disaster of a decision.

Without challenge or pain, how can anyone grow into anything but the Borg? and Chris has shown through Motorcycle Repair Scenarios that I am in a highly weakened state today, as I have allowed such things as; Hypocrisy, Bureaucracy, Procrastination, Cheating, Falsehoods, Laziness to be placed on my list of things I am “against” and so now I have to go take a nap, and allow the things I am for to catch up such as; Excellence, Dedication, Perseverance, Strength of Character, Integrity, hard work ethic, and action.

Then, when I have my strength back and that pain is gone, I will be revived of all my worldly energy to write another article!

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Strephons comment will work for problems that affect people, the empathy thing is a nice touch, however in the event of a problem that does not deal with people as much as structural objects like a; Train, Plain, Truck, Building, Dam, Bridge, or such thing, then this technique of touchy-feely problem-solution will not work. Because, giving life to an object will not work.

“That UAV’s wing fell off in mid-flight, just imagine how that aircraft felt, oh that poor airplane?”

So, where as a psychologist might use one technique for problem-solution or pain avoidance templates, it will not always work for inanimate objects, other than perhaps a futuristic artificial intelligent android with human characteristics programmend it. But, I submit to you that a template for problem solution for objects can work for people problems, just not the other way.

Now one could say that you can mention how the people who owned the aircraft or the engineers felt about it, but that would be dribble to those who seek the solution, and I submit to you that “white papers” rarely introduce people and empathy into problem solution articles, even though they too use the pain avoidance template.

Of course, a psychologist type, would always want to bring up the empathy thing, because they deal with people emotional issues, and women reader’s do rather fancy the empathy play within the pain avoidance template, but, it cannot be used all the time, so, its not really a silver bullet solution. Often the empathy is inferred or the individual reader relates to the article with or without telling them how everyone associated with the issue felt.

Also realize that when people are looking for solutions, they are scanning articles anyway and so, keeping the article short is of value to the click happy world, and emotional baggage is not always appropos.

[Reply]

Don B. writes:

Thank you for a great idea , especially for those of us that are new at this. It gives me a basic common sense plan to stick with. And, thanks very much to readers like Strephon who post such helpful additional comments.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Don,

I just visited your blog, very interesting and I see you and Strephon have similar interests and work together on things. Excellent choice and such a fine person to work worth.

I too like Strephon’s world class posting here above, just one of the best comments I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I think it is a great template strategy he has for promoting and marketing his line of topics. And it ought to work for other article authors too, if indeed they write articles similar to what he and you are writing.

Indeed, I feel as if this strategy of Strephons is a little too complicated for new writers and very niche oriented and thus, will not be effective in all types and categories of articles. But with that said, I wish you and Strephon continued success in your working together and your niche category, because it is something that many people need.

[Reply]

Strephon Kaplan-Williams writes:

Chris,

How could you allow such an awkward English language sentence to be used so prominently against your thousands of writers as this one?:)

Does anyone agree with me?

The offending sentence:

“Article: Being Smart, As The Way For You And I To Go In Life has been updated, and awaiting to be re-reviewed.”

“and awaiting to be re-reviewed.”???!!!

Certainly not common usage. Either use: “and is waiting to be re-reviewed.” Or, “and waits to be re-reviewed.”

You don’t normally have a passive verb (awaiting) referring to a verb “to be re-reviewed.”

Note: “awaiting execution,” where the verb refers to a noun.

But I’m not suggesting anything that extreming!

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

I will go with “Disagree” because it is quite evident as to what it means and conveys the message, and you know exactly what it means too.

I also voted for “Disagree” because, I enjoy disagreeing with you personally. You see, Strephon, you are a very hard to get along with individual and often your comments, attacks and posts are simply mean-spirited. Which is totally interesting because you preach being one with the Universe and in complete euphoria, that is if you are not practicing high-speed sword swallowing or levitation sleep?

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Andrei,

Not easily.

Many already do this template by simply SOLVING PROBLEMS as the core purpose for their article focus.

I can tell you this:

Some fail at this template when they talk for 99% of their article on the “WHY” solving the pain is important vs. the “HOW” to solve the pain. We would say that this type of ‘cheating’ is like failing to deliver on the promise made on your article title.

[Reply]

Alejandro Guevara Onofre writes:

Soichiro Honda once said, ‚¬“Many people dream of success. To me, success can only be through repeated failure and introspection‚¬.

I think that failure is synonymous for learning lesson. You can do nothing about the past, but you can change the future.

In 1986, Halle Berry, Miss USA, did not qualify for the finals at the Miss World pageant in London, UK. In addition, she was favorite until last second. Who is the greatest black actress of All-Time? Halle. I remember when she had won the Academy Award. I could not believe it was true. What happened? She worked without letup (more perseverance than talent). Certainly, Halle Berry is an example!she loves her work!

Alejandro

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

I believe that the people who learn from their failures go onto greater things, but I also have observed that most often, people learn from their successes and attempt to repeat them or use that knowledge to keep going more often, most people generally do not learn from their failures. The definition of insanity yes, but that is generally what happens.

So, when you see a super star like Halle Berry learn from both her successes and failures, well it’s just amazing what they can do. So, I enjoyed your point here today Alejandro, continued success to you my friend and may your failures in life lead to the same patterns of success of great characters of our time.

[Reply]

Alejandro Guevara Onofre writes:

Yes, there are many people:Carl Lewis, Frank Sinatra, Pele and Steven Spilberg. I am agree with you: many people accept their failures. For example, Uruguayan football players. Uruguay did not win the FIFA World Cup since 1950.
Many thanks for your comments

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Alejandro,

Indeed, I did enjoy your list, these are very important folks to have as role models, here is a list of folks that I believe everyone should study:

http://www.carwashguys.com/0021803_2.shtml

I put this list together to assist others who want to reach their dreams, and yes, sometimes you cannot avoid the pain, but understanding the pains that they went through, well it might be some wise lessons to learn in advance of that journey.

[Reply]

Alejandro Guevara Onofre writes:

Lance,

Thanks again

[Reply]

Strephon Kaplan-Williams writes:

Last night I was up to 3:15 AM dealing with failure, real failure, which can easily happen for a published author who writes for years on his books. Some sell. Others don’t.

Being a published author means business relationships with others, means big sums of money.

Behind any of these ideas on this blog, or countless other blogs, are real world successes and failures, I am sure.

When I worked as a dreamwork psychologist how I worked with people could also mean success or failure. Sometimes other psychotherapists sent their failures to me. Very difficult.

Was I to help them handle their failures? Was I to help them become successes? Was I a success?

The identity problem is defining yourself as a success. Some find it more to their liking to define themselves as failures.

In my experience as a psychologist I would change the avoid pain formula maybe a bit for writing articles.

Find a person’s true motivation and help them with it.

-Are they basically a person who is always struggling with their failures, their pain?

-Are they persons almost always trying to make a success of things, taking opportunities whenever they can, using their resources as effectively as possible?

So please consider then two kinds of pain, for yourself, and for others. Know your own pain and try not to give it to others but deal with it yourself. Seek healing.

If you are not a trained psychotherapist but a writer of articles or in business, still know what kind of a person you are writing for.

-To help them get out of their pain?

-To help them maximize their potentials into successes?

My observation: there are these two kinds of personality differences. Those who live life from negative motivation and those who live life from positive motivation.

The EzineArticles pain formula, I speculate, only works for negative motivated people, not for positive motivated people.

Right now I have a business partner of each kind, and believe me, the mix does not go easily, and may be impossible.

-For the complainers of the world who live from fear of hurt: stick together!

For the excited idealists of the world who seek out the opportunity in everything: stick together!

Keep your distance, you two! You don’t work well together!

And watch out if you find yourself in between!

The sun rises, but it also shuts down for the moon to take over, but still there is utter darkness. The light needs darkness to shine.

These are my original ideas. Please acknowledge a bit if you use them in some writing of yours.

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Lance Winslow writes:

Good points, now here is a thought. Indeed, a very positive hard charger may not want all the doom and gloom in the “Pain Avoidance Template” first discussed in the Blog Article by Chris. So, what if you cut down the “pain” or calamity or stressful obstacles that exist and concentrate more on the conquering of adversity part. Indeed, this could be used good for either personalities; that is to say the “misery loves company” crowd types (BTW-I agree) and still fulfill at least some of the expectations of the champion or challenge seeker success story (or success belief system individual).

So, if we limit the problem and capitalize and spend 2/3 pr 3/4 more time on the solution, then perhaps we catch the interest of the negatively motivated sole, but still catch and pique the curiosity of the “Believe to Achieve” optimist?

In saying this, we must realize that the title, must be almost ambiguous double meaning. Why? Because a negatively motived person will click on the article, but a optimist must have strong power words to motivate them to click on the title, then if we are careful, maybe we can keep both interested long enough to read it without clicking out, as a true article marketer hopes, so they get to the bottom of the article and want to learn more?

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Keith Hall writes:

I recently received the notification about the “Pain” template. I found it interesting in that I am about to send in an article on Physical Pain and a way to control/eliminate it.

I read all of the comments and only found one that actually mentioned physical pain, (bicycle racing husband). All of the rest have been mental or psychological related pains (not to deminish them). I very much enjoyed Strephon’s idea of presonalization.

My feeling is that when I am dealing with people that I need to personalize the relationship whereas with objects it is a totally different situation.

About the template, I view it as an excellent outline for just about any kind of marketing presentation. As Chris pointed out he encountered it via Tony Robbins and realizes that Tony also got it from somewhere else. That does not make it any less of an excellent general format that can be followed for just about any presentation.

Strephon and myself and probably a few others find that personalization also has its place in article writing. I tend to personalize mine where appropriate.

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Lee writes:

Maybe not altogether NEW, but VERY well and nicely put. Thanks! I posted that little snip on my bulletin board…
Lee

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Jan Verhoeff writes:

Not only is the post on this particular blog post interesting and an excellent idea for article templates, but the comments have been quite helpful as well.

Variations of this same template style offer thought for revision of the template. Perhaps the “Charger” style would be more effective, where you avoid mention of the problem at all, but rather concentrate on the solution and focus the reader on solving the problem. Then by way of solution, bring the reader back to your website link via product or service fulfillment.

The ideal marketing solution is just one click away… I’m thinking it embarks on a new sales strategy. (Or at very least reminds us of an old one worthy of revival.)

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anders writes:

I enjoy the manner how articles are grouped by date, month and year. Exorbitant to spot that approximately all posts are banded together with related photos. I recommend this to any who wishes to dwell into this topic. After you read a post you can’t wait to see another one for the comments given. The writer appears to know the pulse of the industry. The titles are so cleverly written, it demands you to read. What I enjoy is the feature of share this with a friend. You can find a lot from reading the comments and feedbacks.

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ROSSO writes:

hi,great way to write articles. But i write in my blog for the so call web dummies , in this respect i remember when i was a web dummy too and all the trouble i went throught.For this reason to highlight the pain is more than a smart way of selling ! But i think is a realistic way of exposing facts ! Next To give a solution is probably the reason why made me open the blog, to help people disclosing what you have found after years of search and endless hours ..i know you all know what i mean !! Your reader has to understand what is his problem first and then the solution.In the case of computer world ther`s so many way to avoid pain and useless stress , but most of the people they yust ignore all the new software and they need sombody who as to show them the pain and then the solution….thank for opening this topic it is of course a great one for bloggers.

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Lance Winslow writes:

Rosso, I am so sorry, I must need a cup of coffee, but I didn’t quite get that. Can you please re-explain what you are trying to say?

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Willox Perez writes:

Awesome stuff! this is why EzineArticles is the best! great training and help. It is awesome for people who start out.

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Lovie Hobbs writes:

Enjoyed reading the article, Chris. You are absolutely correct; we try to avoid pain sometimes at all cost.

This is one of the reasons people give into their fears. For example, starting an online business, some people would rather avoid the pain that comes with the fear of failing. Therefore, they negate the pleasure of gaining personal freedom and unlimited wealth.

Just my .02 cents.

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Reeder Lyons writes:

Chris,
As an aspiring article writer I would say, “Thank You”, for this template and your desire to establish excellence within this community.

At present my niche deals with helping people learn how to do something that is pleasurable – playing an instrument – However, there is much to discuss on both the “pain” side as well as the pleasure side so for me this template and the following comments are most pertinent.

It is my goal to start placing articles on this venue and use article marketing as my main focus to building a business.

In the spirit of good debate it would seem that Light does not need darkness to shine.

Light IS – darkness happens when light leaves that environment, shining is not dependent upon the presence of darkness. Darkness happens only when light is removed from the environment.

Pertaining to who first used this template:

I would suggest that in the book of Genesis Satan first used this tactic to create a need within Eve to have something she felt was lacking in her life.

The fear of loss – most of us have this to one degree or another.

Respectfully

Reeder

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Indra writes:

The template has set me thinking. The reason why so many of us avoid taking the first step is the uncertainity surrounding the action and the possible outcome, pain, if it does not succeed. The action can be bsiness, emotional overtures or letting go if something.
Fear and Pain is inter related because if we take out fear then pain will be of no value….

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Sha Jones writes:

Great stuff! This information could increase traffic to your site if you are using article marketing. It has similar language to good copywriting techniques.

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Brendan writes:

wow never thought of it in the sense of “pain” . Good article

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Indra Chopra writes:

I totally agree with the concept of understanding the ‘pain’ because this helps in formulating a reply, an action or balm.

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Peter Tozer writes:

Chris,

What a terrific post, reinforced by a graphic that helps to ‘grasp’ your teaching.

As usual, a quality resource which adds to the many helpful tutorials you provide aimed at improving our writing skills.

I’m grateful to you.

Peter

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Roger S writes:

What would be the best sort of headline to use with this template?
A how-to headline? A 3-ways-to-avoid-X headline? An Are-you-making-this-X-mistake headline?

In other words, what type of headline has been shown to attract eyeballs to this kind of article most effectively?
Thanks.

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Roger S writes:

Just thought: there is one thing the template leaves out, and that’s a paragraph explaining why not implementing the suggested remedies is more painful than the effort of carrying them out

For example, an article on weight control might point out that failing to eat sensibly will almost certainly lead to diabetes after a certain age if your BMI is too high, and could also eventually lead to a stroke, which would mean a great curtailment of independence

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Marc, Product Marketing Manager writes:

An excellent point! We’re actually in the process of evaluating our current templates, so your suggestion comes at an good time. Thanks!

June 28, 2010 at 9:43 PM

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Mary Lee Scully writes:

Everyone experience pain one way or another, be it physical, emotional or financial.
For those who are afflicted with the loss of your loved ones-nobody
can offer real solutions to ease the pain.
Only time can heal such wounds. Meanwhile you have to get on with life feeling like a zombie.

So,how can you find a remedy to such a painful loss?
The only solace is God!

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roger writes:

Mary, dealing with pain needs one set of remedies. Avoiding pain in the first place is something quite different. The purpose of the sort of article this template helps with is to show how to avoid the pain of (for example) debt or being unfit in the first place–by offering stitch-in-time preventative measures.

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roger writes:

Okay, the template looks at existing pain. My mistake, and apologies in advance. But presumably the word ‘pain’ is being used loosely. In other words, it is meant to encompass not just physical and emotional pain, but what most people would think of as problems, such as how to get kids to tidy up after themselves, housetrain your cat, or budget money wisely?

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Cynthia Jeffcoat writes:

This was a very imformative article. I learned things that I can do to change my articles.
Thank you for your tips

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gusmang writes:

This is very useful format, can’t wait to use it for writing.
Thank you very much.

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Vijay Khosla writes:

Thanks for seeding this idea. I had never thought it in this way. I have said earlier too that a person can learn a lot by keeping his eyes open, i.e. by reading and reading and reading alone!

Thanks.

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Ruth writes:

Awesome! You have described my “pain” and given me a “solution.”

I am fairly new and have never contributed here. I found my greatest problem, or “pain” if you will, two days ago. I was unaware.

oDesk sent me an email with a small gig. An article that I am already knowledgeable about and more than capable of writing.

What did I do? I froze with fear! I have never written for anyone. I’ve been making excuses that my learning curve is steep, etc.

I sent a reply with that I was unable to write the article due to prior commitments. That wasn’t a blatant lie, but I could have written the article. I was caught off guard and responded as I have all my life – with fear.

I won’t bore you longer, but here it is -an in my face, get off my duff, and do something even if I do it wrong solution.

Thank you! You will notice that I have no website to link to – because I don’t have it ready yet. Fear? No. No money and I don’t want junk. I really don’t need the site to write articles.

I can write. I have been afraid of things like the egos such as I’ve been witnessing here. No more.

Thanks to all of you for helping me identify the “pain” and find the “cure.”

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suzyspring writes:

Great post. Thanks for sharing. I never thought of this before. Good to know about it.

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Md Muniruzzaman writes:

Great post and thanks for sharing this useful idea! learned lot of things. Thanks again!

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