Posted by:
Suzanne Richardson
March 31, 2009
Issue #641
Over 3.6 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Your job could be in danger, and with it, your entire future.
That’s why you need an ace up your sleeve. You might be surprised to learn that one of the best ways to protect yourself from the recession mess is to become a writer. I’ll explain how in a second. Then I’m going to give you a super simple strategy for becoming a writer - starting today!
First things first. Writing can …
• Help you get your business off the ground. Writing an e-mail newsletter is an inexpensive way to market a fledgling business. Michael Masterson began Early to Rise with around $1,000, a simple website, and a newsletter. Originally, it was sent only to his friends and colleagues. But it grew. Now, Early to Rise is a $26 million business with over 450,000 readers.
• Help you become wealthy. I’m not suggesting that you’ll be the next J.K. Rowling. Most fiction writers struggle to get published, let alone make a living. But copywriting is a career path that can really rack up the cash. Clayton Makepeace, Bob Bly, Paul Hollingshead, Don Mahoney - each one of these men makes hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by writing sales copy.
• Move you up to the top of your company. This is another way to make copywriting pay off for you. After all, as Michael Masterson points out in his best seller, Automatic Wealth, the best way to get promoted is to get into the profit centers of your company. Writing copy that helps directly bring in money is one of the quickest ways to do it.
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Posted by:
Wendy Makepeace
March 30, 2009
Issue #640
Dear Business-Builder,
Wendy "The Redhead" Makepeace here.
Clayton’s busy working on another hot deadline, so he asked me to tackle his Total Package column today.
And since he didn’t give me any guidelines on what to cover, I thought I’d use this space to shamelessly plug the newest exciting addition to The Total Package.
Can you guess what it is?
No, I’m not talking about marketing lessons cleverly disguised as political rants. Or job postings to fill our expanding offices.
I don’t even mean the great sales we’ve been having on outstanding products like The Ultimate Desktop Copy Coach.
Hint: Think … video.
Yep, you guessed it. We’ve officially launched the brand new Total Package Video Theater!
In this special video section of The Total Package, you’ll find helpful tips on how to boost your response rates … hot-button news clips we thought you’d enjoy … even product reviews submitted by yourself and other Total Package readers.
Granted, right now there are only a dozen or two videos in the gallery. But you can bet we’re going to add plenty more — and I’m asking for your help.
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Posted by:
Troy White
March 27, 2009
Issue #149
Troy White is on the road this week. But don’t worry — before he left, he searched the archives and found one of his best articles to bring you in today’s Total Package. Enjoy!
– Wendy Makepeace
General Manager
The Total Package
In this issue:
- Branding 101 from the Canadian Beaver
- Quarter BILLION dollar empire began with handwritten letters
- Breaking through the clutter – e-mail vs. print … the results are in!
- Segmentation creates campaign windfall
- What to test … how to test … and why you MUST be testing
- And Much More!
Fellow Business-Builder,
Love us or not, Canadians are here to stay. What’s amazing is to look at the disproportionate number of Canadian success stories, especially when you look at the fact that we have 10% of the population of the US. I have lived both north and south of the border – and I much prefer the Southern weather (I moved to Dallas in July and was in heaven at 115 degrees)! But I also love my Canada.
I am continually amazed at some of the ingenuity that comes from Canadian businesses as well. Many of them never hit the media south of the border, but have some incredible lessons to share.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
March 26, 2009
Issue #112
The Five Most Common Blunders
My Copy Cubs Make
And How to Avoid Each One
Dear Business-Builder,
On a recent gorgeous Saturday, I made the excuse to take my new Porsche 911 Turbo out to slay The Dragon.
Never heard of The Dragon? Most people haven’t.
It’s a humble, shoulderless, two-lane blacktop – officially designated US 129 – that snakes up through the North Carolina Smokies from Robbinsville … around the West end of The Great Smoky Mountain National Park … past picturesque lakes and cliffs with 100-mile views … to a mountain pass they call Deal’s Gap.
All the way to The Gap, you’re immersed in breathtaking scenery — and as the road winds up the mountain, increasingly radical curves.
Near the top – where US 129 collides with US 28 — you’ll find The Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort.
If it’s a weekend, you’ll see hundreds of GSX-Rs, Hayabusas, ZX 14s, ZZR 1400s and other scorching-fast sport bikes – and more Corvettes, WRXs, Austin Minis and Miatas than you could possibly shake a dipstick at.
You’ll also see The Tree of Shame – decorated with parts from the motorcycles and cars that “almost” made it through the next 11 miles unscathed.
… Because this is where Highway 129 sheds all pretense of being merely a “challenging” road and becomes The Dragon.
The next few miles down the mountain into Tennessee boast 318 of the tightest, most vicious curves anywhere in the world. One-hundred-eighty-degree curves. Off-chambre curves. Blind, decreasing-radius curves.
Every 183 feet or so. For eleven heart-stopping miles.
And many of them run right along the edge of a cliff.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
March 25, 2009
Issue #637
Dear Web Business-Builder:
Every winning headline raises a question.
The target market is curious about something. And the headline focuses their attention on it and implies an answer is forthcoming in the running copy.
To come up with a great headline for your next promotion, all you have to do is look at your product and ask yourself: What’s the big who, where, when, what, why, and how of this story?
Brainstorm a bunch of headlines around these questions, and you’re almost certain to find a great hook on which to build your promotion. They’re wonderful little idea starters.
Let’s look at a couple of examples. Say you’re selling something that helps people avoid the flu.
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