The SEO News Blog from Pat Marcello

As an Internet marketer, you either have to learn to write good copy or you have to hire someone to do it for you.  Tellman and Jodi used to write all the copy for everything we did at Overcome Everything, until Tellman hired Josh Burns. Josh has only been working for the company a little over a year, I think, but he’s learned some wicked cool stuff, and is a natural born copywriter. Even he didn’t know that!

Anyway, here’s a video he made, called simply, “Triggers.” You’ll learn a lot, so sit back, and enjoy watching.

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, copywriting, video

If you have studied copywriting at any level, you’ll have heard the term “swipe file” often. That’s just a collection of headlines or really good sales copy that can be modeled. It can’t be used verbatim, of course, because that would be plagiarism, but you can rewrite what you find, and even the best copywriters do this all the time.

The constant pace of blogging can be demanding. When you’re first starting a blog, it’s important to write in that blog seven days a week. Then, once you have a following, you can cut back to five days and then three, and still maintain an audience. But the reality is, the more you post, the bigger your audience will grow, unless you’re a total moron and posting crap all the time. Hopefully, you have some cool stuff to mention about your niche to keep your audience engaged, but you must be consistent.

Sporadic blogging is very bad. It just shows that you’re lackadaisical, that you’re not really passionate about your topic, and it might indicate to the people you’re trying to impress that you’re a slacker. Not good.

However, potential bloggers are often aghast at the idea of writing every day!

You have to realize that blogging isn’t ALL about writing. It can be about video. You can make them yourself or just snatch them from YouTube. You can make audio recordings. You can add pictures with captions. There are lots of ways to be blogging.

You don’t have to be tied to your computer, either. WordPress allows you to write now and publish later. You only need click the “edit” link next to “Publish immediately” in the right-hand side of the “Add New Post” page and set your posting date and time. So, you can add 5 posts at the same time, and schedule them to go out 5 days in a row.

This is great for people who like to write Looooong posts. They shouldn’t be more than 500 words, so break them down over two or three days, if that’s the case. A good length is really about 350 words.

A good way to get ideas is by keeping a blogger’s “swipe file.” During the day, as I’m working on other projects, I see sites I may want to blog about later, so I just bookmark them and add them to my blogging ideas file. Then, later in the day, I can go back and write about what I found. These files can include Twitter remarks, websites, even emails that I get. All of them go into the hopper.

It sure makes writing a lot easier. Instead of sitting here at the keyboard trying to come up with something at the end of the day when I’m exhausted, I just go to my file, check around for something I can write about and then, I’m here pounding the keys or posting something to amaze and delight.

Well.. at least I hope so.

Click Here to Learn More about Writing from a Professional Writer

So, I was on a call today for the ListBuilding Club Ferrari Contest with Shawn Casey and he gave some really fantastic information about joint ventures.

His main point was, don’t just contact people to ask them to do something for you… Do something for them first, which is great advice, of course. And he went on to tell listeners everything about joint venturing like how to approach people, how to know if they will be good partners, how to get information about partners, and how to make joint ventures work well. Killer stuff. But then, who didn’t know that, right?

But then, he asked if I had anything to add, and well… how can you possibly improve on Shawn’s advice, right?

But then, I remembered what Tellman told me a long time ago, and that was that all joint ventures don’t include people with bigger lists mailing out for you, though that’s usually what new marketers think that joint venturing is all about.

The other side of that coin is where you joint venture because you need help. Maybe you aren’t a technical person and need help setting things up. Or, maybe you suck at copywriting, while someone else might be killer. I mean, there are so many reasons why you can partner up with people.

As Shawn mentioned today, a joint venture is where two or more people partner in business to achieve a mutual goal.

Sure, ad exchanges are joint ventures, or holding teleseminars for each other is a joint venture, or finding a business where you can help them to improve sales because of something you do better is a joint venture, too. But bonding with other folks to get your launch done is another cool way to JV. Don’t overlook it.

We’ve done it again. Well, Tellman has done it again actually, and I’m pretty excited by this new coaching program we have going — ListBuilding 411.

How’s it work?

Members are able to ask one question per day, either in writing or on video, and a member of the Overcome Everything staff responds to each question with a video answer. It’s actually an upgrade to The ListBuilding Club, so that’s also included in the price, which is really sweet.

So far, we’ve been getting rave reviews for 411. It’s really cool to be able to help all these people, too. I’m managing the program, so I see all the questions that come in and am able to assign answering to the people that make the most sense.  With 14 of us with varying levels of expertise on every topic from copywriting to tech, there’s nothing we can’t handle.

I’ve found a couple of drawbacks from a customer standpoint. Some aren’t able to get their question posed clearly enough to be understood on video or we don’t get what they’re trying to say. So, we have to go back to them and get additional information, which delays their answer, or we try to answer the question, but it’s not the answer they wanted. But everyone in the program is very nice and we love working with them. Everyone gets their issues aired and fixed in a very short time.

If you’re working in a vacuum and don’t have anyone to talk to about this Internet marketing stuff (which only we IMers understand, right?), it has to be cool to know that there are people ready and able to help. Wish I’d had that support when I was first starting out. If you’re like me, you struggle to find the right stuff to concentrate on and you spin your wheels a lot. Getting someone who knows what to do and how to help you get things going in the right direction fast has to be relieving.

Anyway, if you’re one of those folks, I’m not selling here, just writing about a cool service. Nobody else is doing this! You can check it out at http://ListBuildingClub.com/411

I just wish I’d had the LBC 5 years ago when I started this incredible journey.

Do you know my friend, Carrie Wilkerson? If you don’t, you should. She’s the Barefoot Executive (http://barefoot-executive.com/) and she totally kicks butt. I mean, she’s truthful, she’s funny, and she doesn’t like whiners and slackers. Man, I can relate to that! She’s a great friend.

Ray Edwards did an awesome copywriting talk this afternoon. He gave really, really great content and made writing a sales letter and headlines seem like something so simple that anyone can do it.  Hmm…

I’m enjoying this conference from a different perspective than I did last year. It was a bright, shiny time, then. It’s even better now because  know a whole bunch of people, and it’s like seeing old friends. Totally rocks, and I’m having a great time.

Had dinner with Ken McArthur, Mr. Impact, last night, and made a new friend of Wendy Y. Bailey, a coach’s coach. That was cool. And I’m sharing a room with my friend Birgit Ratz-Cheung, whom I met last year at JVAlert.

Just spent some time talking with Gina Gaudio-Graves, who’s a sweetheart, and so is her husband, Bill Graves. He just challeneged me to eat 10 lobsters at a place here where you can eat all you want. I LOL. Me? I’d burst! Maybe 2. I’ll try that.

Ross Goldberg is here, and Erik Stafford and his wife, Wendy, who I just got to meet. It’s super! There are all kinds of folks that I haven’t been able to talk to yet, but I’m working my way through the crowd. Love it!

I’ve even got to meet some Blogging4Boomers members, Laurie Tossy & Cathy LaDow, who are super cool and a lot of fun.

Tonight I’ve been invited to a private party, and I’m looking forward to that. Whoo-hoo! Need to get a nap.

I have some video, too. Not sure what I’ll do with it yet, but have some ideas…  Keep ya posted.

Vacations are great, aren’t they? I mean, you get some downtime. You do stuff you can’t do when you’re working, like take a nap in the middle of the day. Very sweet. I did that twice.

Vacations also good for reading. I love to read, and read at least two or three books at a time.

While I was off last week, I read a book for the second time. I don’t often do that. T. Harv Eker and Frank Herbert are two of the few authors I’ve reread over time. But I’ve just added Roy H. Williams to that short list when I reread his The Wizard of Ads. It’s an awesome book, and one that Tellman turned me on to.

In it, Williams talks about advertising, about getting under the surface to find the real stuff, and he teaches you in surreptitious ways. That sneaky guy. When he sells you something, you won’t even know it.  His series of autobiographical anecdotes are interesting and endearing. And, he’s fun. I really love that book.

You see, he doesn’t really talk much about the down and dirty of where to put your deck copy and how many bullets a long-copy sales letter should have; he shows you things in a way that you will remember. He tells you stories.

I had a comment about my “frivolous” style today, and I’ll agree that my style is a tad fanciful. I’m a little wackier than the average serious businessperson and I write some stuff the way I do because I’m slowly moving into that realm of life. Any story will do.

But aside from the now and then serious banter, rather than bore an audience, I’d prefer to be like Roy H. Williams. I like to have fun, and if you’re not having fun with me, well… you’re missing my point.

And that’s OK…

You may totally hate my style, think I’m a twit, and run far, far away. That’s cool. You aren’t one of my people. You don’t get me. And to tell the truth, I probably wouldn’t get you, either.

Oh, well.

But if you enjoy learning and not even noticing that you are, I’m suggesting here that you try The Wizard of Ads. Even if you don’t learn anything, I know you’ll enjoy it.