Perry Marshall calls one of the colleagues he works with, obviously intending to praise him, a "fractional billionaire." 1)Have you ever encountered this phrase? I have not. I tried looking ... [read more]
Hi everyone, I recently said to someone, "You can't succeed if you..." and what he heard was me saying "You can't succeed." What I meant was "If you..., then you ... [read more]
Hello fellow copywriters: I seem to remember Gary Halbert talking in one of his newsletters about how his assistant picked up how to write like him just by writing down ... [read more]
Hi everyone, I'm repurposing some existing content into a new online course on how to get local publicity. There could be some publicity in this for you! If you have ... [read more]
From time to time I ask relatives and friends if they know a word I have seen in marketing, and usually I'm surprised at the responses. It's easy to overestimate ... [read more]
I came across this passage nearly at the end of a very long article in USA Today about Trip Advisor: And in 2011, the Advertising Standards Authority in the United ... [read more]
I ran across this in an article: "In some countries, e-commerce regulations require retailers to comply with prices even if the markdown is unintentional." Anyone happen to know which countries ... [read more]
Has anyone seen any studies on the impact of photo captions for conversions? There's a little bit of this from David Ogilvy but I'm having a hard time finding more ... [read more]
I have a Canadian customer who has never used Paypal before and keeps getting an error message. Is there another service I can use for her to send a payment ... [read more]
True story: I ordered an item from a company in Minnesota - it's not relevant what it was, except that it was the last such item available anywhere in the ... [read more]
A parasitic business model is where you make money off someone else's platform - such as eBay, Amazon, Udemy, Facebook, etc. Apparently Amazon is changing its rules to penalize vendors ... [read more]
Here's the story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...her-1-million/ One thing this case says to me for bloggers is, don't spread around an emotionally appealing story unless you have investigated it and learned both sides ... [read more]
We've all heard the expression "snake oil salesman," but did you know where the expression comes from? I am reading Tim Wu's book, THE ATTENTION MERCHANTS, which includes quite a ... [read more]
Another historical tidbit from Tim Wu's book, THE ATTENTION MERCHANTS... In 1966, Timothy Leary was a former Harvard professor who wanted a slogan to promote the wonders of LSD. Media ... [read more]
All of a sudden I am encountering the word "tripwire" in marketing, and I don't understand either the meaning or the connotation. According to the dictionary, here's the meaning of ... [read more]
Courtesy of Brian Kurtz, here is Jay Abraham's compilation of thousands of winning headlines. I started reading and from page 1 onward found these samples so much more interesting than ... [read more]
Anyone have any tips or resources for what works and doesn't work in copywriting on eBay? Any suggestions or resources? Thanks.
Heads up, affiliates and those who get paid for endorsements: FTC Cracks Down on Social Influencers' Promotions Labeling | Digital - AdAge Marcia Yudkin
All right, I have complained enough. Look for my posts from now through the end of the month for an alternate approach to show the WF management what they can ... [read more]
I just ran across the video on this page, from someone I don't know. Boost Your Credibility With A Powerful Origin Story - How To Get More Clients The title ... [read more]
What is the worst marketing advice you've seen from an otherwise reputable source? And why do you consider it to be terrible marketing advice? I'll get things going. One piece ... [read more]
[NOTE: I have been complaining enough about the no-value articles flooding the WF lately. Look for my posts through the end of the month to see an alternative approach.] When ... [read more]
Unfortunately, one of the several threads that got deleted by management yesterday contained a very useful list of 5 or 6 Facebook groups on copywriting. Could we please have that ... [read more]
Recently I encountered two well-known marketers recommending a funnel where you have automated webinars but pretend that these are scheduled live ones that only take place at, say, 2 pm ... [read more]
Someone close to me is selling her house, and she sent me a link to the realtor's description. After I asked her if she wanted some feedback, we had a ... [read more]
Hi all, I've been invited to give a talk on "Marketing for Introverts" at AWAI's annual copywriting bootcamp this fall, and in one section of my talk, I'd like to ... [read more]
A few years ago, a customer had a bunch of questions about a product and then added, "I know you have a guarantee, but I don't feel comfortable using them. ... [read more]
She annihilated that challenge. She crushed it! Here's how to write killer headlines. Learn how to stick a knife into the guts of your competition. Make sure you know how ... [read more]
My thread, "This is not the articles section" complaining about the low-value articles being posted here, seems to have disappeared overnight. How are we supposed to provide feedback on how ... [read more]
Really interesting article, with obvious parallels to copywriting headlines: Which Headlines Attract Most Readers? - NYTimes.com Marcia Yudkin
Which copywriting great was it who first and most influentially discussed the importance of giving a "reason why" in copywriting? Thanks in advance for refreshing my memory on this. I'm ... [read more]
Does anyone have a swipe of Jeff Paul's "How to Make $4,000 a Day Sitting at Your Kitchen Table in Your Underwear" full-page ad in Entrepreneur magazine or elsewhere? I ... [read more]
Hi everyone, I am curious to know how you would respond. in this situation A potential customer seized on one bullet point in a sales page I wrote for a ... [read more]
To hear some Internet marketers talk, people today prefer to get information in videos - they don't have the patience to read text. Maybe the answer depends on who you ... [read more]
This morning I looked up an article I had previously written by putting its title into Google. Not only did this turn up my article (titled "Why Introverts Hate Hype") ... [read more]
For a variety of reasons, I'm ditching my shopping cart in favor of either Gumroad or Payhip. As far as I can tell, both offer a flat 5% commission, affiliate ... [read more]
I came across the term "postcard autoresponders" somewhere today and started looking into it. Anyone up on this? Apparently you can send out automated and personalized postcard sequences using SendOutCards. ... [read more]
I would like to get your thoughts on how negative you can get in a "It's not for everyone" section of a sales piece. I am writing up a description ... [read more]
In setting up a new web-based marketing "school," I am categorizing the courses available into three types: - Video Courses - Audio Courses (Audios plus Handouts) - Text Courses It's ... [read more]
This is a question for people who avidly follow Dan Kennedy. At one point, he had a program where his biggest fans could pay an enormous amount of money up ... [read more]
Jonathan Keyser sets out to disrupt consultancy industry - Phoenix Business Journal This guy is offering consulting free, no strings attached, and gets paid to implement and track results. I ... [read more]
This is a decent post on what you can do to prevent losing your writing job to a robot: Don't Panic, But This Article Was Written by an Algorithm - ... [read more]
Hi everyone, For the benefit of early-stage copywriters, I am compiling a list of websites (w/URLs) of niche copywriters - people who explicitly specialize in writing a certain kind of ... [read more]
Anyone know how to roughly estimate the number of daily visitors a site might have if it has an Alexa rank of 4000? I think that's pretty darned good, but ... [read more]
The March 2015 issue of Fast Company has a little blurb saying that Kickstarter is expanding into publishing and distribution as well as being a crowdfunding platform. There is no ... [read more]
For an article I'm writing for a major blog, I am looking for two examples of copywriters who have a page where they make prospective clients jump through hoops to ... [read more]
It's hard enough writing something catchy. But when it also has to hide a secret Morse code message... THE CODE: A declassified and unbelievable hostage rescue story | The Verge ... [read more]
The other day, I received a call from someone thinking of renting our condo in Maui. She asked me, "Do you have any more reviews somewhere besides just the two ... [read more]
Hi everyone, I'm working on the writeup for a class I'll be offering in 2015, and it includes homework assignments between class meetings. That is, they have a task and ... [read more]
Currently I have an account with GetResponse that I use for around 10,000+ free newsletter subscribers as well as an account with 1Shoppingcart that I use for customers buying things, ... [read more]
Hi everyone, I'm putting together my notes for a presentation on metaphors at my upcoming (free) No-Hype Copywriting Summit, and I'm hunting for examples that illustrate great and terrible marketing ... [read more]
Last year I charged $97 for the recordings from my No-Hype Copywriting Telesummit. Attending the live sessions was free. This year I would like to charge $97 as an early-bird ... [read more]
Fascinating reading! 15 Year Anniversary Marcia Yudkin
Last week I had a conversation with someone who was quoted in the New York Times on "semi-retirement." Most of her work is with people who have been in the ... [read more]
I've been asked to put together some thoughts on what's new and what's unchanged in information marketing in 2014. Any insights you'd like to share, based on your experiences as ... [read more]
A client of mine asked for a resource (free or low-cost) on the basics of writing video sales letters for a sophisticated (not make-money-fast) market. This is an experienced copywriter ... [read more]