If you're considering hiring copywriting help for your next brochure, Web site, or marketing project. Congratulations! You should get great results if you hire a pro to do it right. Many business owners and marketing professionals have valid concerns about letting an outsider develop their content. After all - it's your business, you know it best, and your image is critical. However, you're wrapped up in your business every day. A good copywriter can see your business in a new light, draw out t More..

Kick-Start Your Juices

Listen, consider this scenario. You have a deadline to honour. Time is pressing,tighter and tighter. You are hoping to come up with some topic for your project..... However, ideas on what to write about keep eludingyou. What are you going to do in situations like these? Today there are various software and information to startyou off when finding yourself in such a rut. They all cancome handy, but one sure technique to provide quickresults is Keyword Brainstorming. Let's see what this is al More..

Read more About Kick-Start Your Juices

Can Honest Copywriting Succeed?

I confess--I'm a marketing heretic! I've built my career on breaking all therules--and one of the rules I break is that I don't hype. Do I put the best possible "spin" on the truth? Of course! But I refuse todeceive my readers into action. What are some of the common copywriter tricks that I *leave on thetable?* Here are a few to start: * If you order in the next 24 hours, you get... (face it. If you come backtomorrow, the offer will almost always still hold) * Get all these bonuses, valued More..

3 Reasons why Content is Still King

Back in the late nineties, the phrase 'Content is King' was repeated and repeated and repeated by site owners and marketers alike. The belief was that the more content you had, the greater the number of visitors you would attract. Of course, the content had to be well written, relevant and easy to find. Many sites built very successful businesses as a result. And then something happened. Big money from venture capitalists burst onto the scene. Suddenly nobody was talking about content. (Where' More..

Fill Your Readers with Confidence

Site visitors generally stay with you for as long as they feel confident that they will succeed in achieving their goal. It's a simple truth, but important. For me, it helps explain some sites I know that perform extremely well, but appear quite amateur in their design and architecture. Some shortcomings in appearance and structure are amply compensated for by the high level of confidence they inspire. If the confidence of the visitor is so central to the success of your site, that puts a lot More..

The Write Way To Grow Your Business

Hone your writing skills to project a more professional business image. The sales letter you can't put down?the advertising copy that makes you want the product?the resume that prompts you to call the job candidate this second?All these are examples of exceptional business writing. While you certainly know good writing when you see it, can you write with the same pizzazz the professionals use to hold your attention for pages on end? In today's business world, writing skills have taken a backse More..

Step One for Copywriters: Understand WHAT to Say

Find a passage of poorly written copy, and chances are you will have found a copywriter who never figured out what it was that he or she was trying to say. Whenever I have trouble with some copy, I stop, sit back and then write at the very top of the page... "What is it that I am really trying to say?" With that question, I force myself to take a much more disciplined approach to my work. I force myself to go back to the brief and take a closer look at the product or service in question, and More..

Welcome Informed Criticism of Your Work

When you come to 'know' something, there is a temptation to stop thinking about it. You put it in a box as 'known' and are happy to argue with anyone who disagrees. This is both a good and a bad thing. It is good to hold firm to your beliefs, to be true to yourself, to stand your ground over knowledge or a belief that is fundamental to your character and values. That said, holding stubbornly to your point of view, allowing no space for doubt, can be limiting. Oliver Cromwell is reported to ha More..

Dont Be Satisfied With Your First Draft

Sometimes it's a struggle to figure out what's the best thing to say. You're writing a heading, the first sentence of an email, the introduction to a newsletter, a short description on a homepage. But what should you say? When you have just a few words, what's the best message? One of the ways I employ to help me with this task is to first weed out what I DON'T want to say. I'll write a number of different opening sentences for an email, for instance. Then I'll start hacking away at the ones More..

Four Things Every Web Site Headline Must Do

As you know, I'm constantly making the point that the text on web sites is not given enough attention. Which is unfortunate, because the headlines on site pages make huge demands on the skills of any writer. If you're writing a headline or heading for a site page, here are four things you need to keep in mind, four elements that demand your attention, four separate 'audiences' you need to satisfy. 1. Make the reader feel he or she is in the right place Every time someone clicks on a link and More..

3 Ways to Increase Conversion Rates

In a previous article I talked about a few similarities between writing direct mail packages and writing web sites. In short, I concluded that as online writers we could learn a lot from direct marketers. In this article I'm going to take a look at just one of those similarities: both direct mail packages and web sites lose almost all of their readers before the 'task' is completed. Both media struggle with conversion rates that typically hover around the 2% rate. Most of us throw out or recyc More..

How to Write Profitable Ads

Regardless of how you look at it, the most important aspect of any successful business is its advertising. In fact, the success of any business is largely dependent on good advertising. First of all, you've got to have a dynamic, spectacular ad that attracts the eye and grabs the interest of the people you're trying to sell to. Thus, unless your ad really "jumps out" at the reader, your sales won't live up to expectations, and your ad money will be wasted. The eye-catching appeal of your ad mu More..

10 Keys to Copy That Sells!

Whether you're selling a product or service, the 10 tips below are your keys to writing great copy that communicates and persuades ... to get results! These guidelines can apply to most any form of consumer marketing communications: sales letters, brochures, web copy, or direct mail. As long as your goal is to elicit a reaction from your reader, you've come to the right place. # Be reader-centered, not writer-centered. Many ads, brochures, and Web sites we see talk endlessly on and on about how More..

Help, Help, Help, Sell

Here's a fundamental difference between copywriting offline and copywriting for the web... - Give or take, my job as a copywriter offline was to sell, sell, sell, sell. - Online, I think, my job is best described as help, help, help, sell. How come? Because web sites are a pain for buyers and searchers. Much harder to 'use' than a physical store or library, a brochure or a catalog. The biggest problem being -- no two sites work exactly the same. There are always differences in appearance, ar More..

Read more About 3 Steps to Great Copy

Its the Headline, Stupid! - Writing Powerful Headlines

"It's the headline, stupid," is the sign that hangs over my computer screen. It reminds me that to write effective articles, press releases, sales letters--whatever I want people to read--I need a powerful, grabber headline or title. You are competing with a lot of others to get the attention of potential readers and customers, and you have only a few seconds to grab them. By using the tips and techniques here, you can stand out from the crowd with dynamite headlines. Use alliteration. That me More..

7 Formulas for Articles That GET READ!

Many of us have been asked to write an article at one time or another. Maybe it's a contribution to the company newsletter. Or a promotional article to gain publicity for ourselves or our companies. Some of us write articles regularly for clients. No matter why you're writing an article, it's your responsibility to make it be interesting - otherwise no one will read it. (Except you.) So how can you make your article interesting and engage your reader? It's all about the ANGLE. First pick your More..

13 Steps to a Slippery Slope Online Sales Letter

Many of the solo professionals whom I coach are people who offer services. They're coaches, consultants, creatives. And many of them are also beginning to sell information products on their Web sites. They're smart to offer a lower-priced alternative to hiring them, and to sell a product that can gain them passive income. But here's the problem: I see many of them trying to sell their e-book, tutorial, etc. on a regular Web page. They list a paragraph about the info-product and give the price, More..

Copywriting Secrets Of Indias Mystics

Hi everyone, Been ruminating on this one for a little while now but it's probably one of the most profound discoveries of my life. It all began with a little book about music and it's had such a deep influence on my copywriting and small business, indeed my whole outlook on life, I'd like to share it with you all now. Here's what happened? About 8 years ago I bought the book "Man and Music In India" by Roshmi Goswami and was introduced to a staggering thought from within it's pages? that ever More..

How To Write An Effective Ad

A letter or postcard allows you to "talk" one-on-one to your prospect. That means you should use "I" and "me" and "you" in your sales letter. Don't use the corporate sounding "we". Remember just one person is reading your letter or postcard at once. So don't write in the plural, even if your mailing is going out to thousands of individuals. Just write the same way you'd talk to a friend explaining the advantages and benefits of the product or service you're offering. Your message must get thro More..

Sticky Homepage Copy in 30 Seconds

Yes indeed, that's all you've got, 30 seconds to make your website visitors decide to stick around...The internet has changed how we think about the customer, the product and the competition. I'm going to take you on a journey through these new ideas and show you what has changed and how you now can approach your marketing. You have to put yourself in the customer's shoes and talk directly to her about how she benefits from your products. She wants product information and lots of it, but in due More..

Ad Copy - Your 12 Point Inspection!

You're ready to launch that new product or promotion, & you're really counting on a piece of advertising copy to come through for you. You're looking for stellar results! And, you're determined to do everything in your power to get them. Which means surveys, thorough testing, and ongoing refinement of your ad copy. Hold the phone! When you've got your draft, run it through this 12-point inspection. Cover off these basics, and you can be sure you're off to a running start. 1 - Do You Have A C More..

Give Me $1 And Ill Have A Powerful Marketing Weapon

One of my most powerful marketing weapons costs me less than $1. I buy it once and it lasts me a lifetime. I use it over and over again and it never leaves my side. What on earth could it be? Well, it's my trusty notebook! It is where I store all of my ideas. Let me give you some examples. If I come across an email, even if it's sp*am, and the headline made me open up that email then by golly I will write that headline down in my notebook for future reference. If the headline made me open the More..

Top 8 Techniques - Secrets - Create Ad Copy For Your Business To Sky Rocket

Perhaps the most important benefit in the material that follows is its ability to provide you with the necessary concepts and constructs which are critical for becomingsuccessful by utilizing many of the high-tech, high-touch capabilities offered by the use of online marketing. Building your home business "Internet-Style" is not only exciting and challenging, it can also be very beneficial in more ways than can be imagined.Promoting - By taking advantage of all the Free and Low Cost services ava More..

Want to Make More Money as a Freelance Writer? Here are 10 Reasons To Consider Copywriting

Looking to chuck that full-time job for a life of full-timewriting? Or maybe you've already dumped the day job butaren't quite as busy as you'd like to be. Why not take acloser look at copywriting? Copywriting, also known as business or promotionalwriting, can do more than put a few extra bucks in yourwallet - it can also help you develop as a writer. Here areten reasons why: 1. Copywriting pays well. Actually it can pay very well. I knowcopywriters who easily make six figures in a year. That' More..

Top 7 Things To Do Before You Hire A Copywriter

Now that you've decided to hire a copywriter, how do you goabout finding one? Here are seven things to look for tomake sure the match is a good one. #1 - Define your expectations. Are you looking for acopywriter or a technical writer? Do you need a writer thatcan take a project and run with it or do you need someonewho will follow strict guidelines? Do you want a writer withthe ability to make technical material readable for thegeneral public or do you need a writer who specializes inretail? Ar More..

Memorable Sales Copy -- How to Write it

Want to know the secret of creating MEMORABLEpromotional copy? Sales copy that actually stays with yourcustomers long after they've finished reading it? Then master the art of using words to create pictures in yourcustomers' heads. If you can describe your products or services in such a waythat it forms images in your customers' heads, well, thenyou've just created something that will last long after themarketing is over. Why else do novels stay with us for so long? Those"pictures" we see dra More..

No-Holds-Barred Conversation with Dan Lok - Part 1

Question: If you were starting out and had no references or a substantial resume, how would you go about finding paying customers for your services? To answer your question, I'll assume you're a junior copywriter or marketing consultant. When I first started out and didn't know a soul, I'd open the yellow pages and cold-call the business owners. I'd go to networking events and try to get business. (Sucks!) Sometimes I'd do a little 'switchcraft' and call the companies who sent me direct mail More..

Freelance Writers: Double Your Income

Freelance writers are a strange group of people when it comes to running their own businesses. They are outspoken and enthusiastic while selling their clients' products and services, but are hopelessly shy and reticent about blowing their own horns. They grumble and gripe about their clients being disorganized and unfocused, but are terminally disorganized and unfocused themselves. >> Yes, the situation is awash with irony The thing I hear most from freelance writers is that they feel too sh More..

Three Tips For Magnetizing Your Copy

The difference between good copy and great copy is the number of actions it generates. The more actions the copy drives, the greater the copy is. My friend John Reese, a master at simplifying what we often tend to unnecessarily complicate, says it best. He says the only metric you should ever really count on is this: "Yes" or "No." That's it. Now, what makes great copy nudge people into action requires a variety of different things -- things I often find missing with most of the copy I critiq More..

Are Long Copy Salesletters Scams?

A passionate debate is currently raging in the Copywriters Forum about long versus short copy. (If you haven't joined, do so. Click the "register" link the top. It's free. There are tons of tips from other very successful copywriters.) The debate was originally sparked by a comment a very well-known Fortune 500 "guru" made about Armand Morin's AudioGenerator.com. I love it, because debate ignites passion, provides insights and shows some very interesting clues in the way people think - and fee More..

Prevent Procrastination With Positive Pressure

My wife and I recently bought a house. It's currently being built and moving day is slated for December. So we decided to buy some furniture in order to fill some of the "extra space." (Our new home is double the size of our current one.) Now, something really interesting happened. The story is a little long, and almost unbelievable, but let me cut to the heart of the matter. (I'll tell you the whole story some other time. You'll cringe!) After shopping around a few stores, we came across a More..

Its Not What You Say But How You Say It

Copy is all about words. Or is it? Copy is about using words to describe the benefits of your offer. About using words to paint vivid mental imagery. About using words to stir the senses, press all the "hot buttons" and push the reader to take some kind of action. But is it really ALL about words? I mean, just words? No. Some copywriters claim that graphics, formatting and photographs should NOT be added to a salesletter because they distract. They can take the reader's focus away from the me More..

The Biggest Mistake Copywriters Make

Most of the sales pieces people ask me to rewrite seem to offer great products and services. In fact, some of their offers are so good, prospects would be crazy to turn them down. But they do. And these sales pieces end up falling in my lap because they're desperately unproductive. One of the biggest problems I see in these pieces is the fact that the copy is stale, limp and anemic. Copywriting is "Salesmanship in Print" This is nothing new. It comes from the ageless teachings of the masters, More..

How to Write Carrot-Wielding Copy!

A significant reason behind websites that fail is the lack of an effective direct response sales message. Such a message is comprised of three elements (it must be): # Captivating (it captures the reader's attention) # Riveting (it pulls her into reading further) # Engaging (it calls her to act) How can you incorporate those three vital elements? If I were to answer that question adequately it would likely take me an entire book the size of an encyclopedia! But for now, let me give you a succi More..

Headlines That Pull, Persuade and Propel!

When writing direct response copy, there are a few things that can maximize the responsiveness of your message. The first and most important element that can turn any website, salesletter or ad into an action-generating mechanism is the headline. A headline is meant to do two vital things. First, it needs to grab your reader's attention. Realize that people surfing the web are click-happy. They tend to scan web pages quickly, even many of them simultaneously. Your site is but a blur. So, your More..

Want a Sticky Site That Sells? Forget Content!

An interesting debate is currently raging among copywriters, web designers and content developers about the differences, if any, between writing copy for the web versus writing content. According to prolific copywriter Nick Usborne of ClickZ.com fame, a recent survey conducted among the readers of his email newsletter "Excess Voice," which is available at NickUsborne.com, offers some interesting results. They seem to be split almost three ways: one-third consists of copywriters, another content More..

Boost Your Conversion Rate In Three Steps

When I critique, edit or rewrite sales copy, I discover that many clients commit common errors. Granted, not all of them are writers. But most of them fail to drive customer actions not because they lack writing skills but because they fail to look at their copy from their readers' perspective. Although unintentional, they're so involved with their business or product that they tend to forget their prospects. They tend to explain things in ways that only they understand. They tend to forget the More..

Be Contagious... Spread The Word!

"Melissa" invaded our computers in late 1999, then "I Love You" in 2000. A year later, the "homepage.htm" attachment virus is wreaking havoc online. And now, in 2002, we have not been spared. A fury of Klez.Gen worms as they spread like wildfire has brought the web to a crawl at times. Of course, we should never open any attachments from unknown sources. It's a warning we are told again and again. However, the devious (and perhaps even brilliant) way these viruses in particular work is that, af More..

Traffics Nice... But Whos Driving?

In the competitive marketplace of the new millennium, the demand for specialized products or services will increase. If your site sells everything or to everyone, chances are that your audience will not perceive a value in shopping from you any greater than from anyone else. Keep in mind that price is *never* an issue -- it is the value behind the price that is. Price is an arbitrary figure that merely represents the value of an offering. Here's an example: You walk to your local home furnishin More..

How Writing Radio Can Help You Become a Better Writer

Knowing how to write, and write well, is a skill that will comein handy in all sorts of situations. And if you combine goodwriting skills with the persuasive selling tactics found in,say, copywriting, you'll be that much more ahead of yourcompetition. Of all the different types of writing I've done in my life (andbelieve me, I've tried practically all of them) writing radio hasmade one of the bigger impacts on my writing style. Below are three ways writing radio can help strengthen yourwriting More..

How To Write Powerful Headlines

I want to tell you how I go about writing headlines. I like to keep swap files of headlines around for future use. And how I go about doing it goes something like this... I'll find a headline I like, wherever it may be, and then I don't copy it word for word, instead I'll use a "fill in the blank" approach. That way I get a generic headline that I can apply to almost any business. For example, I find a headline I like that goes something like this: "Give Me 5 Minutes And I'll Show You How To More..

Power Words And Phrases

I like to use power phrases when writing sales material. These power phrases add punch to a line or a paragraph and I usually use them to start off a sentence. You can generally find alot of "power phrases" when reading good sales copy. I usually keep a notebook nearby so that whenever I come across a line or a phrase that I Iike in sales material, I write it down for possible future use. They are also great for writers block too. When I am stuck in the middle of writing, I'll usually refer to More..

Copywriting Articles

Have Query? Contact Us Now