In the fast-moving environment we live in these days, those who jump to the top have fantastic communication skills, and that means superior business writing than the competition. You’ve heard the saying, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Well, in business, you’d better be able to flourish a pen or else you might just fall on your sword. In the Information Age in which we reside, it’s a foregone conclusion that your capacity to communicate is one of the most vital skills you can master. In business, you’ve got to communicate with prospects, employees, suppliers, attorneys, consultants, maybe even legislators. In many cases you can express yourself orally and do just fine; however, you are dead in the water in business if you can’t get your point across in writing.

So why is business writing so necessary? Come on, you didn’t know? As an expert, you need to be able to prepare effective pitches to management and customers, provide meeting agendas to colleagues, and update others as to the current goings on of your company. You may be responsible for writing ad copy, handbooks, or legal contracts. These are the obvious ones, but just remember that there are people you need to communicate with, share ideas with, and persuade who just aren’t in the same place at the same time as you are. Your aim is to provide your valuable pearls of wisdom to be read at any time suitable to your audience.

There are a number of key times in the course of business where it’s utterly vital to write rather than talk. I’ll give a solid, but certainly not complete, list here:

1. Visible Impact. Do you buy into the fact that you learn more if you not only hear but view material? Just think of any talk you’ve ever heard about setting goals and the vital importance of listing your objectives. Sales trainer pro Zig Ziglar, in his book Secrets of Closing the Sale, highlights the significance of using your writing pad when persuading customers of the value of your products and services. Why? Seeing it in writing makes something more credible, increasing recall. In addition to sales, the written message is appropriate for work instructions, company objectives and mission, and updates about your industry. If you want something to really register with your audience, you ought to write it down.

2. Keep Records. You can’t have a spoken employee handbook; it just won’t suffice. The spoken message gets manipulated and changed throughout the chain of command. If you’re responsible for policies or practices at a firm that absolutely must be followed to the letter, you need to put them on paper and submit them for the appropriate parties. Just imagine telling your OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) inspector that, “we’re very careful, we just don’t keep any documentation.”

3. Complaints. Have you ever been ripped off by a provider? If you want to get it resolved, I propose doing it in writing. You’re trying to convince someone to your point of view, and your written complaint will have legs. For starters, you now have a documentation of communication. More importantly, it’s possible that the individual you originally complain to won’t be the one that resolves the problem, meaning that your complaint must be transferred. If you give your complaint over the phone, it goes up the chain of command verbally. Remember in grade school when the teacher whispered “The Easter Bunny will be here on Wednesday” to the kid in the front row, who in turn spread it around the room by telling his pal behind him. By the time the last little girl recounted the initial message back to the class, it came out “Godzilla can beat King Kong in a fight because he breathes fire.” Write your complaints down to eliminate the confusion.

4. Kudos. People like to get compliments on a job done well. Managers today are discovering that an important part of an incentive program is to make these kudos available to the top employees. Funny thing is, when the praise is received in private over a cup of java, it’s nice. When it’s posted in writing on the office newsletter, it’s like giving the staff member an unpredicted bonus. Just think of the volume of work and commitment that the fortunate employee will show now. Congratulate people in writing and publicly to get considerable results.

5. Express Complicated Ideas. If your firm has accomplished ISO 9000 Certification or is going through that procedure now, you can relate to why the ISO auditors require written documentation. You must illustrate procedures for corrective action, for example, telling people just what to do when things go wrong. ISO has to do with precision or repeatability, and putting something complex in writing leads to consistency during application. Whenever you have to describe or report intricate ideas at your company put them on paper. And keep in mind, avoid esotericisms and lingo.

6. Protect Yourself. We all know this one, don’t we? It’s become the leading use of email on the company intranet. If you’re involved in questionable problems at work, or if your actions for whichever reason are under the company eye, you definitely must document your positions for posterity and future defense. You can use paper or electronic messages, but always protect your assets.

7. Agendas. If you’ve ever attended a meeting that was an ordeal because no one knew the goals or what they were supposed to do, raise your hand. Alright, put it back down. You know firsthand the importance of a written agenda for a meeting. It focuses people on a common target, designates duties, and helps the meeting leader maintain time control. Never, never have a meeting without first creating a written plan and sharing it ahead of time with the meeting attendants.

I’m sure in your specific line of work that you can come up with other circumstances. The point is that for the reasons given here and many more, it’s extremely essential that you clearly express your ideas on paper. It will help your bottom line by saving numerous man-hours typically lost in confusion, you will increase efficiency by getting people on the same page immediately, and you can eliminate the headaches that come with communication failures on duty.

So go ahead– do yourself a favor — and pick up a pen.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Seven Tips for Better Business Writing – A SPN Exclusive Article

Creating Copy that Engages

Keeping your readers interested in your content is critical to the success of your company’s website, marketing materials, and newsletters. If you lose your readers’ interest after the first paragraph on a webpage, you are not going to get the click-throughs to your “money pages” (those pages where customers order products or services) and you are basically throwing all of the money that you spent on site development and management out the window. To catch and keep your reader’s attention, and inevitably direct them to your money pages, you need to develop content that is powerful, useful, creative, and practical to your target demographic.

Crafting Content for Your Target Demographic

One of the first mistakes of content development is that the information written about is simply not interesting to the site’s target demographic. For example, if your website’s focus is on selling remote control vehicles, you don’t want to invest in articles about doll collecting. While this seems like an obvious point, it is often overlooked. When a visitor lands on your page from a keyword search or an in-text link, they expect to find subject matter about a very specific topic. If that topic is not covered in your post or article, they will leave your page after reading nothing more than the page title or headers.

To craft enticing prose for your target demographic you first need to identify what they are looking for when surfing the Internet. You will then want to base your efforts on keywords that are commonly used by your target demographic to find information on your site’s topic or theme. By focusing your content on those keywords you will be able to create articles and blog posts that interest your target audience and it will improve the chances that they will navigate their way through your site using your in-text links to money pages or by using menu links to other site pages.

Powerful Content Creates Interest

Powerful content creates a dialogue or reaction from your readers. This is not your average stock information page – it’s a well-researched and well-written page that takes a position on an issue or that challenges the norms of a specific industry standard. The purpose of powerful content pages is to create controversy in an attempt to attract more people to your website. To achieve this goal you will need to set up your pages as a blog or interactive page where people can post their comments, views, and responses. To increase the value of these power pages you will want to include in-text links to your money pages or target pages where you want to direct your visitors.

Useful Content Keeps Your Reader’s Coming Back for More

While attracting a reader once can lead to a sale/conversion, you are much more likely to make a sale on your website or through your newsletter if the same reader returns to your website multiple times. One way you can accomplish this is to develop useful articles that the reader can use as a reference for a specific application, activity, or project. For example, “how to” articles are generating huge revenues on many sites right now simply because they provide useful information in a step by step format. This format keeps the reader’s interest because in order to complete the given task, they have to read the entire article. If you are able to create useful content on a regular basis, you can set up a library that will attract both new visitors and return visitors.

Creative Content Entertains While Educating

An article or blog post that is entertaining is another strategy that you can use to keep your readers interested. Creative content is fun to write; however, not everyone has a knack for it. It is because of this that your creative content needs to be handled by a writer who is skilled in entertaining, but informative, writing styles. In addition to using creative prose you can also enhance the readability of your web pages by integrating interactive features such as streaming elements, video, and widgets. These elements will keep your readers engaged in your article or web page by giving them a way to interact with it and to manipulate it to meet their needs.

Keeping Your Readers Interested

Internet success is elusive, but not unobtainable. The key is quality content created by skilled writers. It needs to be developed around topics that make sense for your target demographic. It needs to be powerful, it needs to be creative, and it needs to be useful. While many online success strategies have come and gone, the utilization of quality content is one strategy that remains a viable, productive strategy for search engine optimization and site performance enhancement.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we’re eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Keeping Your Readers Interested – A SPN Exclusive Article

Whether you’re a business owner or nonprofit head who wants to promote your offerings with dignity or a copywriter troubled by the prevalence of exaggerated, over-the-top writing on the Web, you’re wondering whether it’s possible for marketing copy to nail the sale without a carnival-barker tone, without overheated language and without stretching of the truth.

The answer is yes.

When people talk critically about hype, or say they don’t want to use it, they are referring to techniques like these:

* An emotional pitch that tries to rev up the reader into a buying frenzy by appealing to greed, envy, scarcity, laziness or hatred.

* Strong, hard-to-believe claims without proof, such as “With a Flick of Your Pen, Get Tens of Thousands of Dollars From the Government, Tomorrow” or “You’ll Never Have to Pay the Asking Price For Groceries Again” or “Publish a Book Even if You Don’t Even Know How to Write Your Own Name”.

* Typography that’s heavy with bold colors, exclamation points, capital letters and underlining, making for a fast-talking pace and a breathless tone.

* Puffing up of the value of what’s being sold way beyond what’s reasonable.

* Vague references to “secrets”.

* Lots of fluffy, non-descriptive adjectives, such as “amazing,” “awesome” or “killer”.

* Outright or subtle lying.

If that style of writing turns your stomach or would make you ashamed to use it, do reject it. There are plenty of honest, effective copywriting techniques left over with which to stock up your promotional toolbox. Here are five no-hype techniques that perk up your marketing while keeping you out of the gutter.

1. Story Telling

A true tale with dramatic happenings attracts and holds a reader’s attention and can illustrate a general point vividly. For example, I might describe receiving tubs full of envelopes at the Back Bay post office in Boston and opening them with my husband on the floor of our apartment. Each envelope contained either a $2 check or two $1 bills, which we stacked in piles that got so high that they tipped over. (This happened in the early 1990s.)

Anecdotes with this kind of specific detail brings reality to life for readers, more so than an abstract summary like “It’s fun to make money” or ungrounded promises like “Your neighbors will gossip that you must have won the lottery.” A story can be about you, about someone who experienced what you’re selling or even about a historical figure.

2. Before and After

For greater impact, writing teachers have always advised, “Show, don’t tell.” Hardly anything convinces more than using words or pictures (or both) to show the situation prior to the application of the service or product you’re selling, then the situation afterwards. In using photos, realize that you may also need verbal description, because without commentary, the uneducated eye may not see the dramatic differences that a professional notices immediately.

3. Creative Touches

Whereas hypesters use outlandish and inflammatory metaphors, you can spice up your presentation with the same techniques, but used sparingly and gracefully as an aid to the imagination and understanding rather than as extreme promises. For instance, an executive coach pitched his services for corporate leaders as helping them “navigate the seas of change”: “organizations need leaders who know how to survive stormy seas and avoid hidden reefs and icebergs.” The design also accentuated the nautical theme with images of compasses, and the overall tone was restrained and professional.

4. Skillful Use of Language

Did you notice the wordplay above in “techniques that perk up your marketing while keeping you out of the gutter”? The words “perk” and “keep” contain the same pair of consonants, but in reverse order, which pleases the reader’s ear.

Another guideline: Never use an abstract expression when you can instead create an image in the reader’s mind. Reach especially for language that gives readers something to hear, see or touch in their mind. For instance, my bio doesn’t say I was published often in magazines but rather, “her bylines in national magazines on journalistic and opinion pieces began piling up.” Such concrete wording imparts vigor and energy to your marketing.

Orchestrating phrases the way expert speechwriters do (as in “of the people, by the people, for the people”) is one more way to give your presentation balance and finesse.

5. Proof

This element can set you most decisively apart from those relying on hype. Provide evidence that what you are selling does what it promises to do, and more. Your evidence might consist of client testimonials, third-party endorsements, media coverage, scientific research results, credentials, case studies, client surveys, referral statistics, descriptive details that only someone immersed in your work would have and why-it-works explanations. All of these persuade to the extent that they are firmly and frankly grounded in reality.

To avoid hype, be truthful and vivid. You’ll thereby keep the reader awake, connect with the reader’s imagination, quash skepticism and arouse the reader’s desire to buy.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

What Is No-Hype Copywriting? A Guide to Excellence Without Excess

Let’s face it.

If we’re not creating compelling content, no one is reading it (or listening or watching it as the case may be.)

As business people, that doesn’t mean our content has to be trendy, hip or fast-paced, though in some cases, that may help. The most important thing is that the people we want to target like our content are compelled to act on it.

What is it then, that makes content compelling? And how do we use that knowledge to create compelling content?

Here are seven tips – some of them you may know. But are you using them?

#1 – Know What Your Audience Wants

Here’s where your market research comes in handy. If you haven’t done any, even basic keyword research can help you out here. Your research into your target audience will tell you things like where your audience is, and what they’re looking for, if successful.

#2 – Create Into Your Customer’s Content Vacuum

Once you know where they are and what they want, on some level, creating will appeal to them is as simple as being where they are with the information they most desire.

This doesn’t mean you have to give away all your best solutions. Just solve one problem they have that’s related to your product or service.

#3- Infuse Your Content With Emotion

It’s no secret that humans are social beings. An integral part of social being is connecting – and not much creates that instant feeling of belonging than knowing that someone else feels what you’re feeling. It’s even better when you share a feeling that they have for the same reason.

#4- Make it Cross-Platform

More consumers are connecting through mobile than ever before, and that’s worldwide, not just in the United States. Creating something worth sharing is just the first part. Next, you’ve got to make sure that everyone can access it.

#5- Leverage the Theory of Star Deflection(TM)

Star Deflection(TM) is a completely made up term. It’s shorthand for a technique we developed at my company for deflecting the attention we get in our marketing efforts back out at another chosen entity.

For our purposes here, it’s the act of making your customers, clients, peers, audience, employees or other deserving people the stars of your content instead of the company or publisher. Bloggers are particularly good at this. You’ll see them get an endless stream of attention for their writing and expertise, and then observe them putting the spotlight on a customer they helped, or a peer they believe has a valuable insight.

Why does this work? Attention is scarce these days. Providers of attention are even scarcer. If you can give that to people, the very act can provide more for yourself.

#6- Be an Information Buoy

Why is attention scarce in the first place?

Because we’re drowning in a sea of information. The firehose shoots data at us in ever-increasing speeds. Just sorting out what pieces of raw data qualifies as useful information can be a full time job.

Thus began the rise of the curator as a popular and valuable person. Go beyond curating and provide insight into a special niche of the news. Be the one that others cling to in order to rise above the level of noise in their incoming news stream.

#7- Invent News, Don’t Just Report On It

Where does news come from? Journalists? Bloggers? PR companies? Industry experts?

How do they get the news? Press releases? Eyewitnesses? Twitter?

What’s stopping you from creating the news? I don’t mean just repeating whatever just happened at Google, or even providing intelligent opinion and analysis of that news.

Those are great tactics.

But if you have the option of actually being the original source of a news story, even if you have a small budget, there’s nothing stopping you from actually turning events, knowledge and discoveries you’ve made into news.

If you want to be seen, to be heard, to have customers come to you instead of always paying to hunt them down, creating the content they want to consume is a key part of your marketing strategy. Not only can it save you money gaining new customers, it can help you keep existing customers when they see that you care enough to address their most pressing concerns.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

7 Secrets to Creating Compelling Content

One of the skills that successful affiliate marketing requires is the craft of copywriting. The most powerful copywriting doesn’t overtly sell, it captures attention and retains it. It weaves persuasion around the reader.

Here are 15 tips on how to make your copywriting a compelling read for your prospects:

Keep sentences short. The average sentence should be in the region of 16 words. Waffling will lose the attention of the reader.

Research, research, research. Know your topic – without doing research beforehand you will end up using dribble.

Benefit in the headline. Use the biggest benefit as the headline. You can always edit it later on.

Benefits will sell your product. Clearly spell out the benefits to the readers – don’t rely on their imagination. Give it all to them on the plate.

Believe in your product. You need to feel passionate about your product to sell it. This is why it’s best to stick to products that you know something about and have an interest in. Use common sense backed by enthusiasm. Explain features and what the benefits of those features are.

Vary your sentence length. Long and then short will keep the flow sweeter to read and will retain the attention of your reader.

Split long sentences. If they are getting too long, split them into two. The use of good copywriting can really boost your affiliate marketing revenue, so is well worth the extra effort.

Write for every level of reader. Remove unnecessary words and language that couldn’t be read by a young teenager. If you over complicate your writing, you will be excluding potential buyers. The goal is to write as though you are having a one to one conversation with your reader in the same room.

Brevity. Use every word and sentence to make your point. Readers won’t hang around all day waiting for you to get to your argument.

Short paragraphs. These are easier to read online and allows the reader to scan the information.

Use bullets. Again, these make the copy easy to read. Benefits of a product are ideal to list in a list with bullets.

Simple language. Don’t use jargon or technical words, you’ll lose readers this way.

Positive language. Inspire your readers by telling them what they can achieve and attain by using your products. Don’t dampen their mood with negativity.

Use bold text. Aid skimming over your text with the use of bold, sub headings and bullets.

Use power words. Words such as ‘Free’, ‘proven’ and ‘new’.

When I write my copy, I usually try to do it all in one sitting. I will then return to it several hours later to refine it. Before using the copy, I will read it aloud. If there is anything in it that makes me cringe or that I would be too embarrassed to read out to another, then I know there’s something to be fixed.

Learning how to do good copywriting takes an investment of effort. One of the best ways to learn is to study the copywriting of others and learn what you feel works well and not so well. Once you’ve nailed it, you’ll see that your profits will definitely benefit from the time spent.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

15 Affiliate Marketing Tips: Copywriting That Sells

I’ve written a lot of SEO content, both for my own websites and those of my clients. I’m a professional. This article will explain some of the key elements and subtleties that set apart SEO content that’s “just okay” from the really good stuff – the stuff that generates sales and new clients.

About Keywords

If you’re just getting started with online business you may be under the false impression that SEO writing is all about keywords. Keywords are a necessary part of SEO content writing, but they aren’t the whole thing.

You need to optimize your keywords to get the best results at the search engines, but keyword optimization alone can’t ensure your site will get traffic or make sales.

You should aim to focus each page on one specific keyword. A few secondary keywords are fine, but each page should focus on one
keyword phrase.

That phrase should appear in all the essential elements of the page: Title tag, Description tag, Keyword tag, body copy, and the anchor text of at least one link out from the page (to another page on your site). Keyword density is not as huge a deal as you probably think, but try to stay within the 2-3% range to be safe.

Relationship Building

Now that we’ve touched on some of the absolute basics, let’s get into what really makes good web copy. You can pay $1 per page to an article writer with broken English who understands keyword placement and think you’ve made a great investment, but you won’t end up making a dime. Why?

Because that writing is for search engines, not humans. When was the last time you heard of a Net entrepreneur who got rich selling stuff to a search engine algorithm?

Your copy must strike a chord with human readers if you want to make money – end of story. In order to do that, your website writing must build a relationship with readers. This is done through several principles and techniques.

For instance, your website should establish your credibility as an expert. The tone of the writing should imply that you know what you’re talking about – you’re up to date on all the latest info. What’s more, it should present that information in the right way. It should be friendly and easy to read.

It should be simple, in the sense that it shouldn’t be any more complex than it needs to be to get a point across, but you should never insult your audience’s intelligence. Know your audience and your market, and write in a way that suits.

Write Like You Talk

This is one of the major tips that’ll make your writing smoother and more natural. Many of us learn our formal writing skills from high school or college.

Unfortunately, in terms of writing for the Net, everything you learned about writing in school is pretty much wrong. School tends to teach you to write in a way that makes you sound like you’re “trying too hard to sound smart” by using stilted sentence structures and big words.

Get rid of that stuff. Write your web copy the way you’d talk to a friend. Imagine yourself explaining the information on your site to a curious acquaintance, then write that down. This hits all the right notes: you’ll sound authoritative and trustworthy, you’ll be polite and friendly, and you won’t be putting on airs by using unnatural language.

This is all based on a very simple sales principle: People prefer to buy from someone they like. Make sure you’re likeable, via your website.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Tips From a Pro SEO Content Writer

I think one of the best ways to create your own ebook apart from writing your own is to use public domain or better still Private label rights or PLR.

In this article I will try and briefly explain the two and point out the pros and cons.

Public Domain books are works that were created and first published before 1st January 1923 or at least 95 years before January 1st of the current year, whichever is later.

In most cases works that are in public domain have no restrictions attached to them -this means you can use them anyway you want. This is because after so many years, the copyright has expired and the author is no longer around in most cases there are some exceptions of course with some of the famous works that came from the early 20th century like Dale Carnegie and the likes.

Statistically speaking, 15% of the books in the world today are either originated from public domain or are in public domain.

However, I want to warn you that although you can take a public domain book and put your name on it as the author and claim the content as your own, most of the information contained in these works from almost 100 years ago are likely to be obsolete.

The best and the safest bet is that you use public domain information in areas that are time tested like principles, self-improvement, and some food recipes because these will probably still be valid and workable today.

And I won’t neglect to mention that the command of English in those days was quite different than it is today so you really need to do a lot of editing and rendering to bring it up to date.

There are many places where you can find public domain material, but the most famous is www.gutenberg.org.

Private Label Rights are basically pre-made content that you can purchase at reasonable price and use to create your own product. This is becoming increasingly popular in the Internet Marketing arena. Just like public domain, you can put your name as the author and edit the contents.

When you compare private label rights to public domain, I would say PLR is somewhat easier to handle because it’s a relatively new concept and this means that the contents are much more up to date and written by contemporary authors or ghost writers.

For example there are a lot of PLR books on things that we use in our everyday lives like the Internet and popular items like iPhone, and topics such as how to use technology, also on gadgets and that kind of stuff which we cannot find in public domains.

Just to let you know, pre-made content whether it’s public domain or PLR, does not have to be limited to written content. So it’s not just about E-books and articles. Any kind of works that are in public domain including music, images, and even audio for the matter are also content that you can actually use. And today, just like public domain, private label rights are not just limited to E-books or articles. You can also get PLR software, PLR audios and videos. I hope this helps you get a jump start with your content creation empire.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Product Creation- Public Domain Versus PLR

As a professional SEO content writer, I see many common mistakes when it comes to content. It’s easy to get a general idea of what good content ought to be from the wealth of information available to the average website owner these days. But there’s still a lot of confusion and misinformation out there. What’s more, many of the common mantras of content writing are not very well understood. I’m going to provide three key insights that should help you get your content right.

Tip #1: Understand What “Content is King” Really Means

“Content is king” is the basis of content marketing online. Most website owners know that without content, they can’t possibly succeed in online business. Those who don’t bother to create content and think they can find a shortcut tend to sink.

But let’s clarify exactly what “content is king” really means. For one thing, it’s about quality much more than quantity. Ideally you should have a lot of high quality content, but it’s better to have a small amount of excellent content than a large amount of rubbish content. It’s become common for site owners to simply copy and paraphrase content from other sites. This is ultimately a doomed strategy, because as search engine algorithms improve your content will be exposed for what it is: a cheap imitation of the real deal.

Tip #2: Know Your Reader

One essential element of being a good SEO content writer is understanding the target audience. If you don’t get inside the heads of your readers, you won’t communicate on their level and you’ll fail to build a relationship. Creating a solid online business is largely dependent on your ability to build relationships through words. SEO content is not just a matter of slapping together a bunch of words with the right number of keywords in it. It must connect with the reader, otherwise it’s ultimately useless as part of a sales process.

Tip #3: Always Pre-Sell

Pre-selling is a key concept in SEO content writing. As I said above, it’s not just a matter of getting the keywords right – if your content is not written for human readers, your sales results and thus your earnings will be less than satisfactory.

Pre-selling is simply the process of warming up a cold prospect, in order to open her up for your sales proposal. When a reader comes to your site from a search result, she’s not looking for a sales pitch – she’s looking for information. Provide that information first, establish your authority on the subject – and then you can introduce your sales pitch. Again, this comes back to establishing a connection with your reader before you ask her to open her wallet. Successful SEO content needs to serve the dual functions of generating search engine traffic, and getting that traffic to actually like you and your site.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Strategy-Changing SEO Content Writer Tips

The right words in your sales message can quadruple the profits of any advert, web page, sales letter or email immediately.

You better believe that words are your most powerful and persuasive weapon in successfully making sales online.

When you learn the art of killer copywriting and produce a winning promotion you join a very exclusive club that have mastered the most sought after skill of all… you can have sales orders flying in from all directions… by email, your website, mail, fax, social media, etc

Just imagine the feeling of ecstasy when you release an offer and instantly get an avalanche of response. Think carefully now about the feeling of confidence you will have knowing how to create a money making offer from nowhere.

It bestows on you the power to make a personal fortune… by just using the right words. Mastery of using the right words is the utmost form of financial security and profit opportunity in these un-secure times.

Let’s run through a ‘quick sales copywriting workshop’ together:-

1. How do you get started?

Research:
You need to know about your customer before you can talk to them in a way that will get them to respond. Find out where your customers hang out by using forums, blogs and other social networks to enter into conversations to really understand what your customers’ want, what they need, how they talk and really get to know on a personal level, what your customers’ problems are. Run a survey and ask pertinent questions.

When you get to know your customers you can start to really engage with them. Remember the process is always people dealing with people.

2. How do you attract attention, what is your hook?

Play devil’s advocate and use the “so what?” test:
So now you’re ready to talk to your customers, you know where they are and you know the lingo they use. But how will you know if what you have to say is going to get the necessary response? What is going to grab your reader’s attention enough to compel them to actually do something? Because if you can’t persuade them to take an action how do you expect your customer to follow you… trust you… believe in you… buy from you?

Totally put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask the question “so what?” to every comment and statement you put in your sales copy and if it doesn’t pass the “so what… who cares?” test remove it.

3. What is going to persuade your customer to take the action you want?

Compelling offers:
Everybody loves something for free, since the beginning of time sales have started with free information… a free report… a free trial… starter kit… free demonstration etc. A time limitation, a limited number available or an early bird bonus introduces urgency into the customer’s decision making process.

Other compelling offers include things like:
- Mystery
- Easy payment options
- Discount for more
- Money back guarantee
- Lower price based on customer’s promise of a referral or testimonial
- Deferred payment
- Introductory offer
- Product as an afterthought to the free gift

A compelling offer will only ever be compelling when it is laser targeted at your target customer who has clearly shown a real need for the solution to the problem that your offer provides. Doing that ensures what you are saying is 100% relevant to your reader. And also, you must clearly demonstrate that the cost to your customer is way less than the value they are going to receive from your offer. When you manage to do this your customer will see themselves as ‘the winner’ when they take the action you compel them to take.

4. What are the “right words” to use in order to maximize sales?

Use hidden psychological motivators:
*Stories - since ancient times we have always related to stories and we have been brought up that way. “Mommy tell me a bed-time story”, sound familiar? Take for example the single most successful sales letter, it is a story…

“On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both – as young college graduates are – were filled with ambitious dreams for the future. Recently, these two men returned to college for their 25th reunion. They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had three children. And both, it turned out, had gone to work for the same company Midwestern manufacturing company after graduation, and were still there. But there was a difference. One of the men was a manager in that company. The other was its president.”

A powerful message indeed, told as a story.

*The reason why – when you make a claim or special offer in your advert provide a genuine reason why the claim stands up or an honest reason why your offer is special. Don’t be mysterious; be genuine, open and honest so that your customers can trust you and believe you.

*Be specific – understand that readers of advertising are always skeptical. If you claim something that is specific – such as “58% of readers signed up for…” whatever, you are either lying or telling the truth. Make sure you do the research, tell the truth and be specific and you will stand out from the crowd.

“42 Year Old Seattle Man Reveals His Simple System For Making Immediate Online Profits From a 2 Page Website Template… Even If You Hate Computers”

There are 5 specifics in this headline; age, location, gender, number of pages and hate/dislike/fear of computers. It is more likely that this headline will be true in the mind of the reader and there are 5 different specific reasons for the reader to identify with the message.

9 more psychological motivators to include in your sales copy are:- * Truth * Curiosity * Authority * Scarcity * Social proof * Contrast * Reciprocation * Commitment * Consistency

These are all powerful psychological motivators, they are triggers that have to be included if sales copy is going to get action, a conversion.

This concludes the brief workshop.

This is only a tiny sample of what you need to learn and implement if you are going to write powerful sales copy, but it’s a start. Becoming a master of copywriting and having a powerful ability to turn words into a raging torrent of cash takes a commitment and dedication that you may not possess or you may be uninterested in acquiring the tools of the trade for the most valuable money making skill in the world.

On the other hand if you are serious about how to communicate with all of your customers in order to give them genuinely valuable help whilst at the same time maximizing your profit opportunities, then you have no choice but to become a master copywriter.

I wish you well and more power to your business, I look forward to any comments you may want to share…

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Sales Copy IS Your Sales Team So Learn How To Write It – A SPN Exclusive Article

One of the most difficult aspects of article writing and marketing, once you have been doing it for a longer period of time, is how to come up with fresh topics to write about. It is even more difficult to put your finger on ideas that are hot and related to your topic.

Here are some suggestions to help you get those creative juices flowing again.

* Visit forums related to your niche. Spend 30 minutes a day in forums related to your niche. Write down common questions or inquiries and use those to craft articles.

* Visit the Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers. If one person has asked the question, chances are there are many more who have it but are afraid to ask. Answer the most common questions you see with a new article.

* Check the news. Being on top of the industry news will help you be able to write related articles as the news events take place. This can also be a great way to grab expanded exposure. By piggy backing off the hot topic you can grab way more readers then you would with a normal topic. And not just the big news stations either. Some of the smaller more local stations may have topics not covered by the larger ones and can be a potential goldmine for ideas.

* Set up a Google alert for your topic. This way you’ll be emailed how ever frequently you choose, with up to date blogs and posts and new stories related to your topic that you can get and gain ideas from.

* Spend 30 minutes brainstorming. Do not allow yourself to focus on anything but your topic. This will get easier the more times you do it. It can be difficult the first few times to get your mind to actually produce something, but once you’ve done it a few times your mind will know you mean business and will help you populate ideas quite quickly.

* Use Google’s wonder wheel for ideas. Instead of using it to get keywords, use it to help you get some ideas as to what to write about.

* Create a mind map about your topic. And then each and every sub-topic that you come up with, until you have multiple mini mind maps and plenty of ideas to source article topics from.

* If you’re really stuck, check out the competition. Seeing what they are writing about may give you ideas of what to write about.

* Re-purpose old articles. But, not by rewriting them. Instead approach the same topic from another angle. If your topic was say 5 tips to succeed in article writing, a new approach would be 5 things to avoid in article writing, or 5 tips to improve, or a better way to do it. Just using the same general idea, and giving it life in a new way can be the perfect method to get unstuck.

* Check out the bookstore or the library. The ones that have real books. Look at some of the ones related to your niche and see if you can’t gain some writing ideas from them.

* Go to e-book sites as well. Do the same thing as you did with Amazon and the library. Look for titles in your niche, and use those to help you get new creative ideas to write about.

* Use seasonal events to your advantage. Instead of just writing about autism, write about how to help autistic children cope with Christmas, or other such seasonal event related topics.

* Carry a notebook with you. Ever feel like you’ve got the perfect idea but are not at home and able to write the article right away. Carry around a notebook so that when the idea strikes you can jot it down before you forget it again.

* Get away from the computer for a bit. Real life and real life situations may give you ideas you never would have come up with by simply sitting in front of your monitor. Use real life experiences and events to create ideas and creativity for your articles.

* Talk to industry leaders. Just a quick Q and A with someone in the industry may prompt ideas you would have never thought of otherwise.

* Read. By reading what others have wrote on the topic you may be able to come up with ideas of your own, or a new twist on an old idea. The best writers and the most avid of readers.

* Along the same lines as reading, read articles in some of your favorite authority blogs and websites. One of my favorite blogs is Mashable.com. They may bring to mind a thought or idea you may not have thought of otherwise.

* Join a mastermind group. Being able to float ideas around with others and discuss your topic can help breathe new life into a topic you found going stale. And, it is a great way to set up potential cross promotions with others in your niche for the future.

* Use your imagination. Put yourself into the mind of your target audience, and figure out questions and topics that may be important to them and write about them. Just a little bit of imagination and role playing can lead to many new ideas.

* Watch movies or television shows related to your niche. They may cover topics or ideas you may not have previously covered or thought about.

* Think about your own personal experiences. There may be things within them that you can revisit and create topics about, with a good solid base of reality to make for a more interesting and informative article.

Hopefully these ideas will help you come up with and create your own ideas and topics to write about. Ideas are limitless, you just need to develop the skills to mine the topics and ideas out of the things around you. The more you write and the more you strive to generate ideas, the more ideas you’ll eventually come up with.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

21 Tips for Defeating Writer’s Block