12Copywriting Tips to Make Your Advertising More

12Copywriting Tips to Make Your Advertising More Profitable

by: Thom Reece

Year after year people make the same mistakes in directresponse copy and advertising. You can avoid the most common and costly blunders by following the following proven tips…

1. WRITE IN DIRECT RESPONSE LANGUAGE:

Use short paragraphs and short words. This article has 68% short wordsfive letters or less. Strive for at least 65%75%. Never go under 50% unless you are writing to Ph.Dกs.

Make your sentences and paragraphs flow like a breeze.

Ignore good grammar when you have a good reason.

Keep the bucket brigade going: Start paragraphs with And, But, So you see, However…

Use the freshest concepts and the most colorful language you can without disturbing the flow.

Use hot words: free, profit, new, now, secret, easy, save, guarantee, today… and the hottest word of all: YOU!

Use bullets… lots of them.

2. WRITE LOTS OF HEADLINES.

Always think up dozens of alternative headlines. Put your strongest benefits in them and test your best alternatives. When writing headlines for web sites make sure they include key search words and phrases along with the benefits.

3. DROP THE WARMUPS…

Youกll destroy your entire letter/ad by starting off, กAs a homeowner, you know how maintenace costs are climbing every day…ก. Take your first draft and try cutting out the first two to three paragraphs… youกll usually find the real กmeatก starts to appear in your copy after you have started to กwarmupก to the writing.

4. STAND OUT.

Separate yourself from the competition as clearly as you can. Discover, isolate, and dramatize all the reasons for doing business with you…today…, instead of your competitor. Build your entire package or ad around these reasons (benefits).

5. SELL BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES.

Readers don’t buy products or features of products. They buy the benefitsofuse of the product or features. Be humble enough to realize that a buyer will not give you one red cent for any product or feature until you convert the features into benefitsofuse.

6. LEARN TO GIVE.

Most advertisers and charities think of direct response strictly as a device to กgetก. Unfortunately, most readers also want to get. So, to succeed, you must adopt a กgiveก attitude… beyond what you offer in the product or service. Give them something immediately in your ad, your letter, your web page. Give them news, business tips, interesting stories, resources, freebies, special deals.

7. USE TESTIMONIALS.

They’re proof that you’re as good as you say you are, and that youกll do what you say will do. Like…

กI increased profits by $100,000 last year using your services…ก Joe Smith, President, Smith Corporation

The more specific the testimonial the more power it has. Give full attributions whenever possible. Testimonials give you believability and credibility. You can’t do successful directresponse without these two essential factors.

8. OFFER A MONEYBACK GUARANTEE.

Whatever you are selling, make sure you offer a moneyback guarantee. Itกs a critical factor in getting someone to send in their monty to someone they don’t know or maybe never heard of.

9. CREDIT CARDS, TOLL FREE NUMBERS.

Credit card purchases and tollfree ก800ก numbers can increase your response by as much as 50%. If you’re on the web make sure you opt for secure online transmission (SSL) of credit card orders… or allow other means for your customer to provide their credit information to you.

10. ASK FOR ACTION.

Itกs amazing how often otherwise good copy never gets around to asking for the order. If you don’t ask for action… you won’t get any.

11. BUDGET YOUR TIME.

Devote about one third of your writing time to the lead elements, headline, subheads, teasers, opening paragraphs.

12. KEEP CURRENT.

Directresponse is more scientific than other types of advertising. Like any fastmoving science, it has itกs discoveries daily. This is especially true of writing for the Internet/World Wide Web. Subscribe to industry trade journals such as Target Marketing, DM News, Direct, and other relevant publications.

(C) Copyright 2004 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved

About The Author

Thom Reece is the CEO of OnLine Marketing Group, a direct response marketing agency with headquarters in Hawaii. He is the creator of the Online Marketing Resource Center [ http://www.ecomprofits.com ] & the major portal for the network marketing industry MaxxMLM.com [http://www.MaxxMLM.com]. Thom can be reached by email at: [email protected].

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 04

by Thom Reece

Three Breathing Techniques For Any Ezine Article

Three Breathing Techniques For Any Ezine Article

by: Radhika Venkata

I subscribed myself to many ezines.Iกd love to read articles in them.First thing I will do is going to article section of the ezine.

I am telling you honestly…I have learned so many things from these ezine articles.Three aspects of the articles made me think and to write this article.

When ever you write article just follow these THREE simple rules:

***Focus on ONLY one point:

Some articles goes pages and pages.Remember Article is a short and brief information on any of the topic.

Better not to write long essay type documents.Simply focus on one point.For example if you want to write on search engine optimization, take specific point from this vast subject.Like

one article on Keywords

one article on title

one article on กhow content is goodก

one article on images and กaltก tags etc.

By this we can discuss each single topic in depth.

***Make it point by point:

Instead of big paragraphs, slice up big lines and paragraphs in to short paragraphs and side headings.

This is to make few points stand out clearly from others.If the reader is in hurry, he can grab main points from these highlighted sections.

People scan the articles and ads.The highlighted lines and subheadings should make hem pull in to the body of the article.If not atleast they should get the idea of the whole article.

***Tell them straight:

What do you want to tell through your article? Tell it in simple and clear way.Some articles start with a story end with a story.Readers don’t know what to grab from that article.

Yes…People interested in others stories. But not in those that are no useful to them.

If you want to start your article with a story, then keep one or two lines at the end of the story as a summary.

About The Author

Radhika Venkata Subscribe to กEbookBiz Magazineก which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooksworld.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! http://www.webmasterscentral.com/

This article was posted on November 14, 2003

by Radhika Venkata

ENewsletter Layout: Add White Space to Improve Re

ENewsletter Layout: Add White Space to Improve Readability

by: Richard Cunningham

White space in newsletters is like pausing in conversation. Take a breath now and then to avoid overwhelming the reader.

It’s tempting to pack a business enewsletter tight with content. After all, goes the rationale, the piece appears more substantial, more authoritative.

However, in the audio book, ขSound Advice on Publishing ENewsletters,ข author Michael Katz says that laying out text in big, chunky paragraphs creates an obstacle to effective communications.

Katz relates a recent experience with newsletters written by a professional services company. ขWhat they had in place was actually pretty good – professional design, good content – and yet something was wrong.ข The newsletters were difficult to read because the great content was too dense.

Katz sites three important reasons for inserting frequent paragraph breaks to increase white space.

First, it’s hard to read on screen. ขBy breaking up newsletter paragraphs into little pieces, you make it easier for your readers to get through the material.

Second, people like to skim. ขStudies of online habits,ข says Katz, ขshow that people jump around. Shorter paragraphs help readers pick out things of interest to them.ข

Third, white space makes the text feel more conversational. ขThink about the way dialogue in a book is laid out on a printed page. Lots of short, one or two sentence paragraphs. When your enewsletter writing uses this same approach, it has a much more personal rhythm to it.ข

Michael Katz offers advice on how to create, write, and publish enewsletters each week in the free audionewsletter from What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz/full_story.asp?ArtID=92

About The Author

Richard Cunningham is a principal of What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz, a publisher of business audiobooks and online audio programs on marketing, sales, and small business strategies.

This article was posted on January 26, 2004

by Richard Cunningham