Raise your hand if you know who Gary Vaynerchuk is.
For those of you with non-elevated arms, Gary Vaynerchuk is the host of Wine Library TV, a daily online video show on wine that serves a promotional tool for the local and ecommerce wine business he’s involved in. Gary’s web fame has landed him in The [...]

Source:The Gary Vaynerchuk Guide to Enthusiastic Copy

How do you take basic, boring facts and turn them into compelling content that attracts and holds attention? Content so compelling that it also sparks a social media conversation?
Ira Glass is the host of NPR’s This American Life, and in this video he lays out how to produce compelling video, audio, and text content. Notice [...]

Source:The Ira Glass Guide to Link Bait

One of the many tools available that I absolutely love is Amember from CGI-Central. Amember not only manages my membership sites, it also handles digital product sales, delivery, and protection.
For instance, it protects download pages, offers backend sales and automation, allows protection of “external” folders and files, and it even comes with a built-in autoresponder. [...]

Source:This Plugin Increases Membership Conversions

Testimonials add power to your copy. How? Let me answer that question by telling you a little story about a rabble of bladder-challenged teenagers whizzing in the bushes along an Interstate near my home.
Trust me. There’s a connection.
You see, some time ago, my wife and I were on our way to a party when traffic [...]

Source:Testimonials and Teenagers Whizzing in the Bushes: The Power of Social Proof

Are you a victim of narcissistic marketing?
That’s when a marketing and copywriting strategy is based on how the marketer prefers to be marketed to, rather than exploring what works with the target audience. This happens all the time with entrepreneurs and small-business owners who create their own promotions, but it’s even worse when professional marketers [...]

Source:Warning: Narcissistic Marketing Can Be Dangerous to Your Business Health

Last week’s post talked about why emotional benefits are critical to persuasive copy. But it’s one thing to talk about general concepts like “connection” or “fear,” and another to actually get these ideas into your writing.
In honor of Friday the 13th, I thought I’d give you 13 actual examples of emotional benefits you can use [...]

Source:13 Emotion-Based Headlines That Work

Recently, a coaching client asked me about dealing with prospective clients over the phone.
This copywriter understood the importance of communicating with prospects and answering their pre-sale questions. However, like me, he preferred to avoid the telephone and asked me if his strategy was sound.
Free consultations are often a necessary step in securing clients in your [...]

Source:Phone Calls Can Kill Your Copywriting Business

Preamble: In response to some excellent rebuttals as well as countless comments I’ve received on my previous post, “The Real Sinister Side of Forced Continuity,” I believe some people are missing the point of my argument, and I want to clarify a few things.
I’m not a lawyer by any stretch. But as a copywriter and [...]

Source:Forced Continuity: A Different Perspective

We have all been judged at one point. But if you have ever judged others, particularly if you feel your judgments — no matter how small — were inconsequential or meaningless, you have to watch this video.
My wife shared this video with me yesterday, and I had a hard time trying to stop myself from [...]

Source:The Lines That Divide Us

One of my coaching students recently asked me whether it’s better to offer a free trial or a $1 limited time trial as an incentive to sign up for a paid newsletter subscription.
The answer involves the vital role of tracking and testing throughout your entire sales funnel.
Generally speaking, a free trial is likely to convert [...]

Source:There’s More to Tracking than Conversion