Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
July 3, 2009
Issue #3
Dear Business-Builder,
It's not getting any easier – is it?
If you've spent any time in the trenches of Internet marketing over the past few years, you know precisely what I'm talking about: Those out-of-the-park grand slams are fewer and farther between these days.
Once upon a time, you could just blast an offer – almost any offer – to your customer file or even ice-cold prospect names, then sit back and watch an avalanche of orders come pouring in.
The money was amazing: When one of my clients e-mailed a single note to his 35,000 customers back in the mid-1990s, he raked in $12 million in less than a week.
Ah … the GOOD old days!
Today, that client would kill to get those kinds of results. Like most Internet marketers today, he's working harder and profiting less. Much less.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
April 22, 2009
Issue #657
In this issue:
- Why almost everybody marketing online today has targeting wrong, wrong, wrong …
- An innocent little mistake that once corrected, instantly spikes the response to virtually any webpage …
- How to determine the intent of Web searchers who insist on using “ambiguous” keywords — so you can sharpen your message-to-market match and grow your business faster …
- And more!
Dear Web Business-Builder,
When Gene Schwartz wrote Breakthrough Advertising, back in the 60’s, the Internet was just a glimmer in some computer scientist’s eye.
Little could Gene have realized the massive implications this new media would have for the craft he loved so dearly and plied with such mastery.
Yet, most of what Gene wrote in that watershed book is just as applicable in today’s fast moving wired-world as it was then in the cumbersome days of typewriters and typesetting.
Some of what Gene had to say is even more applicable today than it was then. The chapters on market awareness and sophistication in particular …
Gene observed that different states of market awareness and sophistication required markedly different approaches to copywriting.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
April 9, 2009
Issue #279
- How to hone your copy skills to razor sharpness in no time flat …
- How business owners and marketing pros can get better sales copy faster …
- And much, Much MORE!
Dear Business-Builder,
This issue will make you money if you’ll let it …
If you’re a copywriter, the secrets I’m about to reveal will help you grow your skills faster – and prime you for plumb assignments from Agora Publishing and every one of its competitors.
And if you’re a business owner or marketing exec, you’re going to discover a better way to work with your writers – or even create a world-class in-house copywriting team from scratch – and get better copy faster than you may now believe possible.
What’s that you say? “Not a bad way to spend the next five minutes or so?”
Great! Here goes …
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
December 8, 2008
Issue #36
What’s that you say?
… Your direct mail promos are dragging in the dirt?
… Your Internet promos barely bring in enough new blood to keep body and soul together?
… Is that what’s worrying you, Sparky?
Well, worry no more! This simple innovation can have you attracting thousands of new, paying customers every month from now on – FOR FREE!
Dear Business-Builder,
OK – so I’m an old bugger.
When I wrote my first direct mail promotion, Nixon was in the White House, “The Godfather” was shattering box-office records and Elvis was alive, kicking and skinny.
In those days, nobody had a clue what a personal computer or FedEx was. Saying “Let me fax you” would have probably gotten your face slapped.
And that lack of technology meant the time, cost and back-breaking effort involved in creating a direct mail promotion were truly brain-boggling.
No computers meant we had to retype each new draft of every job from beginning to end.
No FedEx or fax machines meant we had to allow weeks on each job just for sending drafts back and forth between copywriters, artists and clients.
And no graphics software meant every jot and tittle had to be precariously glued to a layout board by hand – and then re-glued when it inevitably fell off on the trip to the printer.
Altogether, you could figure a typical #10 envelope promotion (envelope teaser copy, 8-page sales letter, lift note, flyer and response device) would take a month to get to final draft … another month to design … and another month or so to print and mail.
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Posted by:
Derek Gehl
December 2, 2008
Issue #558
"If you are not moving closer to what you want in sales (or in life), you probably aren’t doing enough asking."
- Jack Canfield
Dear Business-Builder,
Imagine: After months of hard work, your website is finally live. You’ve officially been open for business an entire week. And yet you haven’t made any sales.
Not. One. Single. Sale.
Argh!
Don’t despair. We’ve all been there. In fact, this is one of the most common problems new Internet entrepreneurs ask me to solve for them.
Here’s something that’ll help ease the pain of turning a "dud" site into one that rakes in the profits: Derek Gehl’s surefire "My Website Ain’t Making Money!" troubleshooting checklist.
If you recently launched a website and aren’t getting the results you expected, you need to ask yourself every single question on the list below, starting with number one. Once you can answer "yes" to all 10 questions, I guarantee the sales will come rolling in.
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