Learn to Copywrite

Archive for October, 2009

You may have had all the best intentions that you were going to focus on your small business marketing plan and have reached your marketing goals by now, but you haven’t done it. Don’t panic. Here is a list of marketing tips that, if followed, will ensure that you do achieve the marketing goals that you want to this year and for years to come.

1. The first stage in a successful small business marketing plan is that you need to remember that it is a plan and not a quick fix. Think about what your marketing goals are for the next three years rather than the next few months. If you imagine where you want your business to be in three years, it is far more realistic and less stressful than if you expect to have reached everything by the end of next week! These marketing goals can be to reach a certain level of income, pass a milestone number of clients or any other quantifiable goals.

2. Think carefully about your motivation to achieve your marketing goals. It is important to ensure that you actually want to achieve them rather than feel that they are expected of you. Don’t have items in your small business marketing plan that you truly do not believe in or want. If you have a real desire to reach your marketing goals, you are far more likely to reach them.

3. Another point is to have marketing goals that are challenging. One of the main benefits of attaining these targets is that they inspire you and take your small business marketing strategy to new heights. Of course, you don’t want to have unrealistic ambitions that you are almost guaranteed not to realize, but you do want to have goals that demand the best from you.

4. Consider how you are going to reach your marketing goals. You need to have a small business marketing strategy that identifies the steps that you need to take to ultimately reach your target. These can include seeking out new clients, networking and hiring more staff to help cope with the increase in business that you anticipate achieving. Your small business marketing plan should be as detailed as possible and follow a natural flow from where you are now to where you want to be and what it will take to get there.

5. Your small business marketing plan should take into account any additional skills that you will need to achieve your marketing goals. There are many ways to gain valuable knowledge without having to spend a lot of time and money on courses, including the internet.
The best way to maximize the benefits that you can gain by improving your skills is by having a clear idea of what your business aims are. This will give you the basis to find ways that you can increase your business acumen.
Copywriting is an essential part of any small business marketing strategy. Whether it is writing sales letters, brochures, marketing emails or website copy, all businesses need a good copywriter. Hiring professional copywriters can be extremely costly but you can save money by improving your own copywriting skills. Your small business marketing plan should include provisions for improving your copywriting skills by any of the numerous ways available until you can afford to hire a professional.
If your ultimate marketing goal includes expansion of your business, you are going to need to learn a number of complex skills involved in management.

6. Any small business plan has a much better chance of success if the targets are realistic. It is essential that you take time to thoroughly analyze which of your marketing goals, if any, are unrealistic. You need to be brutally honest at this stage and remove any targets that are simply impossible to achieve.

7. The next stage is to break down your three year small business marketing plan into three separate one year plans. This enables you to specify which marketing goals you want to reach by the end of the first year and the second year with the ultimate aim of having reached all of your targets by the end of the third year.

8. Prepare a detailed step-by-step plan for each of your marketing goals. You need to include every action that you are going to need to take to achieve targets on your small business marketing plan. Some of these steps will follow on from each other while others may have to be worked on together. It is important to be as detailed as possible with this stage of your small business marketing plan to maximize your chances of success.

9. Use a calendar. It doesn’t matter whether you use an electronic form of calendar, or a leather-bound diary, you need to transfer your detailed small business marketing plan into an actual timeframe. This will enable you to keep achieving your marketing goals on schedule.

10. It is worth having a monthly review of your progress. This is invaluable for ensuring that you have not let your small business marketing plan slide too far from your original schedule. If you find that you have not achieved as many marketing goals as you hoped in a particular month, due to whatever reasons, use it as a motivator to do better the next month.

You may well find that your marketing goals alter slightly as you work through each one. This is another reason why following these 10 steps is a good way of assessing what your aims should be and to help you realize them. Your small business marketing plan is likely to be far more successful.

Irene Rexlee
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/marketing-goals-in-10-easy-steps-plan-your-success-72259.html

I could still recall the days of writing telegrams. That was
before the fax machine, internet and email. Writing a telegram
meant economy of words and so obvious verbs and needless
adjectives had to be omitted.

Today, with the advent of email and other cheap sources of
communication you don’t have to be that paranoid about your
message-except you are writing an advertisement. When writing a
classified ad for example, every word must count in the small
space allowed and so word choice becomes very important.

But word choice is not only about being brief.

Even when crafting a long sales letter you should try and avoid
using the personal pronouns: “we, me, I, our,us”. The sales
message should be about your prospects and not about your
company. The “we syndrome” is a common error but it can easily
be avoided. A sales message should state upfront the benefit to
the customer not parade how many awards the company has received
in the past ten years. Whenever possible then the copy should be
written in the third person.

There are some other words that are very common in advertising
but are just too vague to have any force. Great copy is always
specific. “How to make $3,567.23 from your home in 30 days!” has
more force than “How to make money from home.” Here are some
commonly used words that lack force because their meaning is too
ethereal:

“It” - State what “it” is rather than leave “it” for the reader
to figure out. This word can often be replaced by what ‘it’
represents or stands in place of.

“Quality” - This has a similar meaning to “personality”. We
often hear people say that someone has personality. But everyone
has a personality whether good or bad. The same holds for
quality. Every product or service has some quality which the
customer will be the ultimate judge of.

Superlatives such as “tastiest, best, fastest, strongest,
superior, minimize, optimize”. The problem with these words is
that they instill doubt in the readers because these claims
appear unsubstantiated. These words lack power because they are
not measurable. Take the word “superior” for example. What
criterion or measurement was used to judge this product as
superior and by how much?

“Solution” - This word cannot stand on its own. If you are
selling a product or service it is also obvious that you are
selling the solution to a problem, so state what the solution is
rather than just using the word.

“Technology” - This word is commonly used to suggest innovation
and newness. But customers have little concern about the
technology that is behind the products they buy. They are only
concerned about the benefit they derive from these products and
services. How many drivers are really concerned about the
technology that’s under the hoods of the vehicle they drive?
They are really only concerned that the vehicle is reliable and
gives them some social status.

“Difference” - Rather than stating that you are different from
your competitors state the difference instead. Just saying
“different” means little and is just filling space. The
statement “We make all the difference” doesn’t leave the
prospect more educated than before reading your sales message.

Consider the following advertiser’s blurb:

“We make all the difference because of our superior quality and
solutions we offer.”

It’s like junk food - a lot of flavor but zero nutritional
value. This statement means little because it’s not specific at
all. It creates more questions than answers and leaves the
reader totally confused. And this is the last thing you want to
do to a customer.

Go to any website and you’ll see statements such as “can save
you time and money”, (well how much?) “creates website in less
time” (less than 2, 4, 100 hours?), “maximize your gas mileage”
(by how much 1%, 5%, 40%?). All these statements will triple
their effectiveness by using numbers (note that I gave a
quantity, ‘triple’).

The more specific your message is the more believable you will
appear. Using a bunch of superlatives only makes you seem
self-serving. Customers are immune to this type of hype and
filters out these claims like a squirrel discards peanut shells.

When making any comparison in your sales letter state the
baseline, use numbers and give a time period whenever possible.
In this way you don’t have to use superlatives because the
numbers will speak for themselves. If you follow this simple
rule your sales conversion rate will increase by 4.7% within 29
days of putting this into effect.

Even though that last statement was hypothetical you can sense
its power because specific numbers were used instead of just
saying ‘your sales will increase’.

I think it’s time to review your sales message and sweep away
the chaff words leaving the pure wheat behind.

You’ll be 9.9% happier that you did!

Ray L. Edwards
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/words-to-avoid-using-in-copywriting-and-advertising-280.html

I could still recall the days of writing telegrams. That was
before the fax machine, internet and email. Writing a telegram
meant economy of words and so obvious verbs and needless
adjectives had to be omitted.

Today, with the advent of email and other cheap sources of
communication you don’t have to be that paranoid about your
message-except you are writing an advertisement. When writing a
classified ad for example, every word must count in the small
space allowed and so word choice becomes very important.

But word choice is not only about being brief.

Even when crafting a long sales letter you should try and avoid
using the personal pronouns: “we, me, I, our,us”. The sales
message should be about your prospects and not about your
company. The “we syndrome” is a common error but it can easily
be avoided. A sales message should state upfront the benefit to
the customer not parade how many awards the company has received
in the past ten years. Whenever possible then the copy should be
written in the third person.

There are some other words that are very common in advertising
but are just too vague to have any force. Great copy is always
specific. “How to make $3,567.23 from your home in 30 days!” has
more force than “How to make money from home.” Here are some
commonly used words that lack force because their meaning is too
ethereal:

“It” - State what “it” is rather than leave “it” for the reader
to figure out. This word can often be replaced by what ‘it’
represents or stands in place of.

“Quality” - This has a similar meaning to “personality”. We
often hear people say that someone has personality. But everyone
has a personality whether good or bad. The same holds for
quality. Every product or service has some quality which the
customer will be the ultimate judge of.

Superlatives such as “tastiest, best, fastest, strongest,
superior, minimize, optimize”. The problem with these words is
that they instill doubt in the readers because these claims
appear unsubstantiated. These words lack power because they are
not measurable. Take the word “superior” for example. What
criterion or measurement was used to judge this product as
superior and by how much?

“Solution” - This word cannot stand on its own. If you are
selling a product or service it is also obvious that you are
selling the solution to a problem, so state what the solution is
rather than just using the word.

“Technology” - This word is commonly used to suggest innovation
and newness. But customers have little concern about the
technology that is behind the products they buy. They are only
concerned about the benefit they derive from these products and
services. How many drivers are really concerned about the
technology that’s under the hoods of the vehicle they drive?
They are really only concerned that the vehicle is reliable and
gives them some social status.

“Difference” - Rather than stating that you are different from
your competitors state the difference instead. Just saying
“different” means little and is just filling space. The
statement “We make all the difference” doesn’t leave the
prospect more educated than before reading your sales message.

Consider the following advertiser’s blurb:

“We make all the difference because of our superior quality and
solutions we offer.”

It’s like junk food - a lot of flavor but zero nutritional
value. This statement means little because it’s not specific at
all. It creates more questions than answers and leaves the
reader totally confused. And this is the last thing you want to
do to a customer.

Go to any website and you’ll see statements such as “can save
you time and money”, (well how much?) “creates website in less
time” (less than 2, 4, 100 hours?), “maximize your gas mileage”
(by how much 1%, 5%, 40%?). All these statements will triple
their effectiveness by using numbers (note that I gave a
quantity, ‘triple’).

The more specific your message is the more believable you will
appear. Using a bunch of superlatives only makes you seem
self-serving. Customers are immune to this type of hype and
filters out these claims like a squirrel discards peanut shells.

When making any comparison in your sales letter state the
baseline, use numbers and give a time period whenever possible.
In this way you don’t have to use superlatives because the
numbers will speak for themselves. If you follow this simple
rule your sales conversion rate will increase by 4.7% within 29
days of putting this into effect.

Even though that last statement was hypothetical you can sense
its power because specific numbers were used instead of just
saying ‘your sales will increase’.

I think it’s time to review your sales message and sweep away
the chaff words leaving the pure wheat behind.

You’ll be 9.9% happier that you did!

Ray L. Edwards
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/words-to-avoid-using-in-copywriting-and-advertising-280.html

How do you make your fundraising letters creative and fresh year
after year when your needs don’t change all that much? I am not
talking about new initiatives. I’m talking about the programs
that you run year after year. The membership drive that you run
year after year. The funds that you must raise to cover
administrative expenses and salaries year after year. How can
you request funds for these things over time without boring your
donors into apathy? Learn a lesson from Jack Foster.

Jack Foster spent 35 years working in creative departments of
advertising agencies in the United States. One of his challenges
was doing the advertising for Smokey Bear. Here’s how he
describes his predicament:

“The first thing the writers and art directors had to do every
year was come up with a basic poster.

“The rules for the poster never varied: It had to be a certain
shape and size; it had to feature Smokey; it had to be simple
enough to grasp at a glance, clear enough for even a dunce to
understand, and (if it had words) brief enough to be read in
three or four seconds.

“The mission of the poster never varied either: It had to
convince people to be careful with fire.

“In other words, every year we had to come up with the same
thing only different.

“And we did. Indeed, every year we came up with 20 of 30
different ideas for posters. Every year. For over 20 years. Over
500 posters, all featuring Smokey and all trying to do the same
thing and not a one of them the same.”

I faced similar challenges when I worked at advertising agencies
as a copywriter, and as a freelance copywriter for direct
response agencies that create fundraising letters for
international non-profits. The work was tough, but I discovered
that writers and art directors could indeed create original
fundraising appeals year after year for the same clients who
needed money for the same things.

Here are some lessons I learned along the way, tips that will
help you present your case for support to your donors in
creative ways over time. The secret is knowing where to look for
ideas. Here’s where I look.

Challenges in the field
One place to look
for original ideas is the field. If your charity is involved
with child welfare, then your “field” may be the homes of your
foster parents. If you are a small but international
humanitarian organization, then the “field” for you is the towns
and villages where you operate overseas. As you sit down to
create a brand new appeal letter, look to your field and ask
yourself what challenges you are facing. These challenges can
often be translated into a compelling ask. Let me give you an
example.

Doctors Without Borders is an international aid organization
that sends volunteer doctors and nurses to places where no
medical infrastructure exists, usually because of war or natural
disasters. Since they never know where the next tsunami or civil
war will strike, they need to have sufficient funds on hand at
all times so they can respond quickly to a humanitarian crisis
anywhere in the world. This means their fundraising letters must
ask for funds for no particular emergency, but for emergencies
in general. A tough challenge.

Doctors Without Borders has met this challenge year after year
in creative ways. Here is just one. They realized that they
often sent their volunteers into emergency situations that were
created by water. Either there was a flood or there was a
drought. Either there was too much water or not enough. In a
brilliant move, Doctors Without Borders crafted an original
fundraising package that presented this global need. They told
their story in such a way that the need was obviously great,
though not necessarily looming.

Donors who received the appeal understood that Doctors Without
Borders needed funds on hand to meet the challenge of floods or
droughts at anytime. But they also understood that their gift to
the organization might be used to help victims of a cholera
epidemic, or people displaced by a civil war. By looking to a
challenge faced in the field, Doctors Without Borders created a
memorable fundraising letter campaign that did nothing more than
raise money for their general fund in a novel way.

Your frontline staff
Another source of
creative ideas for fundraising letters is your staff,
particularly those at the front lines of your ministry. The men
and women who carry out your work face to face with the public
have dozens of stories to tell about the needs that your
organization meets and the people it helps. Many of these needs
can be translated into an appeal, not for a special project, but
a request for general funds to meet a given need. Here’s an
example.

In talking with the staff of a ministry that works with inmates
in Canada’s prisons, I discovered that most inmates have a
problem with anger. Their tempers often land them in prison.
And, while inside, they grow even more angry. As you can
imagine, a compelling theme for an appeal letter would be inmate
anger, and how a donor’s gift supplies the funds that this
prison ministry needs to help inmates conquer their anger and
lead productive lives upon release.

Milestones
Is your organization
celebrating a 10th or 100th anniversary? Then you have the
ingredients for a compelling appeal, provided you link past
successes with your plans for the coming months and years. Have
you just served your millionth meal? Or planted 500,000 trees as
of this week? Translate your milestones into compelling proof
that your organization needs your donors’ continued support,
then put your proof on paper in the form of a persuasive
fundraising package theme and mail it.

Recent successes
Similar to milestones
are recent successes. One organization I wrote for won the Nobel
Peace Prize. That became a theme for one mailing. Another
organization I know of retired their debt early, and announced
the fact with an appeal for funds.

The key to keeping your fundraising letters engaging and a joy
to read with each passing year is to present your work in new
ways. As Foster put it, “to come up with the same thing only
different.” And the best places to look for those creative ideas
are your clients, volunteers and staff, and the challenges they
face each day in carrying out your mission.

© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this
article online and in print provided the links remain live and
the content remains unaltered (including the “About the author”
message)

Alan Sharpe
http://www.articlesbase.com/direct-mail-articles/fundraising-letters-where-to-find-creative-ideas-for-your-appeals-878.html

How do you make your fundraising letters creative and fresh year
after year when your needs don’t change all that much? I am not
talking about new initiatives. I’m talking about the programs
that you run year after year. The membership drive that you run
year after year. The funds that you must raise to cover
administrative expenses and salaries year after year. How can
you request funds for these things over time without boring your
donors into apathy? Learn a lesson from Jack Foster.

Jack Foster spent 35 years working in creative departments of
advertising agencies in the United States. One of his challenges
was doing the advertising for Smokey Bear. Here’s how he
describes his predicament:

“The first thing the writers and art directors had to do every
year was come up with a basic poster.

“The rules for the poster never varied: It had to be a certain
shape and size; it had to feature Smokey; it had to be simple
enough to grasp at a glance, clear enough for even a dunce to
understand, and (if it had words) brief enough to be read in
three or four seconds.

“The mission of the poster never varied either: It had to
convince people to be careful with fire.

“In other words, every year we had to come up with the same
thing only different.

“And we did. Indeed, every year we came up with 20 of 30
different ideas for posters. Every year. For over 20 years. Over
500 posters, all featuring Smokey and all trying to do the same
thing and not a one of them the same.”

I faced similar challenges when I worked at advertising agencies
as a copywriter, and as a freelance copywriter for direct
response agencies that create fundraising letters for
international non-profits. The work was tough, but I discovered
that writers and art directors could indeed create original
fundraising appeals year after year for the same clients who
needed money for the same things.

Here are some lessons I learned along the way, tips that will
help you present your case for support to your donors in
creative ways over time. The secret is knowing where to look for
ideas. Here’s where I look.

Challenges in the field
One place to look
for original ideas is the field. If your charity is involved
with child welfare, then your “field” may be the homes of your
foster parents. If you are a small but international
humanitarian organization, then the “field” for you is the towns
and villages where you operate overseas. As you sit down to
create a brand new appeal letter, look to your field and ask
yourself what challenges you are facing. These challenges can
often be translated into a compelling ask. Let me give you an
example.

Doctors Without Borders is an international aid organization
that sends volunteer doctors and nurses to places where no
medical infrastructure exists, usually because of war or natural
disasters. Since they never know where the next tsunami or civil
war will strike, they need to have sufficient funds on hand at
all times so they can respond quickly to a humanitarian crisis
anywhere in the world. This means their fundraising letters must
ask for funds for no particular emergency, but for emergencies
in general. A tough challenge.

Doctors Without Borders has met this challenge year after year
in creative ways. Here is just one. They realized that they
often sent their volunteers into emergency situations that were
created by water. Either there was a flood or there was a
drought. Either there was too much water or not enough. In a
brilliant move, Doctors Without Borders crafted an original
fundraising package that presented this global need. They told
their story in such a way that the need was obviously great,
though not necessarily looming.

Donors who received the appeal understood that Doctors Without
Borders needed funds on hand to meet the challenge of floods or
droughts at anytime. But they also understood that their gift to
the organization might be used to help victims of a cholera
epidemic, or people displaced by a civil war. By looking to a
challenge faced in the field, Doctors Without Borders created a
memorable fundraising letter campaign that did nothing more than
raise money for their general fund in a novel way.

Your frontline staff
Another source of
creative ideas for fundraising letters is your staff,
particularly those at the front lines of your ministry. The men
and women who carry out your work face to face with the public
have dozens of stories to tell about the needs that your
organization meets and the people it helps. Many of these needs
can be translated into an appeal, not for a special project, but
a request for general funds to meet a given need. Here’s an
example.

In talking with the staff of a ministry that works with inmates
in Canada’s prisons, I discovered that most inmates have a
problem with anger. Their tempers often land them in prison.
And, while inside, they grow even more angry. As you can
imagine, a compelling theme for an appeal letter would be inmate
anger, and how a donor’s gift supplies the funds that this
prison ministry needs to help inmates conquer their anger and
lead productive lives upon release.

Milestones
Is your organization
celebrating a 10th or 100th anniversary? Then you have the
ingredients for a compelling appeal, provided you link past
successes with your plans for the coming months and years. Have
you just served your millionth meal? Or planted 500,000 trees as
of this week? Translate your milestones into compelling proof
that your organization needs your donors’ continued support,
then put your proof on paper in the form of a persuasive
fundraising package theme and mail it.

Recent successes
Similar to milestones
are recent successes. One organization I wrote for won the Nobel
Peace Prize. That became a theme for one mailing. Another
organization I know of retired their debt early, and announced
the fact with an appeal for funds.

The key to keeping your fundraising letters engaging and a joy
to read with each passing year is to present your work in new
ways. As Foster put it, “to come up with the same thing only
different.” And the best places to look for those creative ideas
are your clients, volunteers and staff, and the challenges they
face each day in carrying out your mission.

© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this
article online and in print provided the links remain live and
the content remains unaltered (including the “About the author”
message)

Alan Sharpe
http://www.articlesbase.com/direct-mail-articles/fundraising-letters-where-to-find-creative-ideas-for-your-appeals-878.html

An often-quoted statistic is that that 95% of all Internet businesses fail. The reality is that the vast majority of businesses in the offline world fail too, so the picture is not bleaker online. In-fact, it’s better online since most aspiring Internet marketers could never even find sufficient capital to start a business in the offline world. The sad part is that many of these failing online businesses fail for readily identifiable reasons.

Often the business owners are even aware of the reasons but do nothing about them. Let’s look very briefly at four of these reasons: 1) Selling The Wrong Products Once you have identified a profitable niche, one in which customers happily spend money to solve their problems, then the next step is to identify what is it that they really, really want. If you offer your customers what they tell you that they want, and what they are already buying, then they will buy it from you. If you try to convince your customers that they want something that they’ve already told you that they DON’T want, then you’ll soon be out of business. Many failing marketers simply need to drop “a loser,” and start marketing something that is WANTED! 2) Trying To Do Everything Yourself In “Think And Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill taught nearly a century ago that “specialized knowledge” is a success essential.

You need to find one or two things that you do really well, and that people are willing to pay for, and then you need to do only those things. Everything else involved in operating your business should be done by someone better at doing those tasks. The disconnect we run into there is that, as a business owner, your job is to grow and manage the business. So what if that’s not what you’re good at? Then you may need to find a way to market whatever it is that you ARE good at. You may also need to hire a business or operations manager! In a recent mastermind call with Rich Schefren, where he interviewed a dozen top Internet marketers, most earning over $1 million a year online, we all shared that our greatest business growth started when we stopped trying to do everything ourselves. If you’re still trying to do all of your own programming, copywriting, graphics, customer service, database management, script installations, article writing, video creation, traffic generation, product creation, audio/video editing, pay-per-click management, etc., then you are so bogged down in the minutiae of “working in your business” that it’s impossible for you to even identify which things are essential for “working on your business.” This is a tough decision for many of us, but you absolutely have to identify the things that you MUST do, and then you need to outsource most of the rest.

As an example, my talent seems to be copywriting, so copywriting is really the only thing that I focus on aside from planning and managing business growth. I do plan product launches for client, but that still falls under planning and managing business growth. 3) Very Poor Time Management Dan Kennedy once observed “You will never finish all of the things on your to do list.” That tells me that I shouldn’t try to, but should instead frequently ask which things I personally need to do, which things I need to get others to do, and which things don’t really need doing at all. For the online marketer, good time management is really just establishing some new habits, and breaking some old bad ones. Common habits that need changing include: — Don’t let email dominate your time. Many online marketers spend many hours each day just digging out from under the deluge of email. I spend about 30 minutes per day on email. — Turn off the television during work hours.

If you were working for someone else, say in an office, I’m sure that you wouldn’t expect to be allowed to sit in front of the television all day with your laptop perched on your lap. Unless you are VERY different from me, you cannot focus on your work while watching television. Not only that, but watching a lot of negative programs (news included) will completely zap your energy and shift you out of a productive mindset. — Establish work hours. Tell your family and friends when you’ll be working, and let them know that when you’re really focused on work, you shouldn’t be disturbed any more than you’d expect to be disturbed if you worked at a regular job. Explain to them that you can get more done in one hour if you really concentrate that you can in five hours with frequent interruptions. Explain that letting you really focus at designated times gives you MORE free time to spend with them… and you’ll have more money to spend on them too. 4) Too Many Projects That Are Never Completed. My friend Mike Filsaime likes to point out during seminar presentations that if you have a dozen projects started but not completed, you’ll make less money that having just ONE project completed and on the market. CHOOSE one project that you want to get completed and on the market. Focus exclusively on that one until it is finished before doing anything else. Since you are an entrepreneur, and probably come up with a new idea “once every five minutes,” keep a note pad handy to jot down new ideas.

When you get a new idea, jot it down on the note pad, and then knowing that it won’t be lost, go back to what you were working on previously. Another option if you’re an idea person, or great at starting projects, is to partner with “finishers.” Instead of letting projects bog down, and never reach the market, partner with someone who will push it through to completion, splitting the profits with them. If you don’t like that idea, consider how much those unfinished projects are making you. Would you prefer 50% of whatever that finished project makes, or 100% of nothing (which is exactly what most of your unfinished projects earn). We’ve just looked very briefly at four reasons why most Internet marketers fail miserably. Now that you have acknowledged that these ARE problem areas for you, the question becomes what are you going to do about them. Sadly, many people will read this article and then choose to do absolutely nothing about these problems. Nothing will change! However, you’re different, and therefore destined for online success.

Khareem cabey
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/4-reasons-why-most-internet-marketers-fail-745908.html

If you write anything for the Internet, especially “SEO” (search engine optimization) copywriting, and you’re not using LSI, you’re behind the times—and your competition.

Because Google and other search engines are using LSI to decide the relevance of your words to your subject matter. This obviously determines how much traffic you can expect from search engine results.

If you’re still using old-fashioned keyword density analysis (KDA) to optimize your on-page factors, Google is way ahead of you. With LSI, Google and other search engines figure out what your page is about based on the other important words you use, plus checks for words that commonly appear in other content related to your site—NOT by the percentage amount you use your targeted keyword.

So what is Latent Semantic Indexing (also known as Latent Semantic Analysis)?

On a technical level, it’s computers using complex mathematical models to figure out what text in documents means. This article doesn’t pretend to explain the equations that make it work.

The real question is, what does LSI mean to us web content writers? How can or how should we be using LSI to make Google rank us higher?

Basically, LSI can use the other words in your page to help it figure out what your site is really about. This helps solve the problem of synonyms (where two or more words can mean much the same thing) and polysemy (where one word can mean more than one thing).

Also, using LSI, Google can compare the vocabulary of your page to the words used on all relevant websites—and all the books in its database. Therefore, you’re compared against authority sites and the experts who’ve written “real” books!

So how can you use LSI?

When you write, use your keywords in a natural way—and also all related and “expert” vocabulary.

If you’re writing about lemon pie instead of lemon poor quality cars, make sure you include the relevant vocabulary of pies instead of cars.

If you’re writing about Jaguar the car make sure you include the details that will distinquish it from jaguar the big cat and Jaguar the Mac OS X computer operating system. Don’t just use “Jaguar” in isolation.

Include relevant synonyms and other expert vocabulary.

With keyword density analysis you avoid synonyms and repeat the targeted keyword to reach the (supposedly) optimal density percentage.

With LSI, you include your main targeted keyword but as the top of a pyramid of synonyms and relevant expert vocabulary. The more you write like an expert on a given subject, the higher you’ll rank.

After all, Google wants to give its searchers the best, most expert web sites. So write with the vocabulary of an expert even if you aren’t one.

What’s the first step?

Before you write anything, do keyword research—but not in the usual way. Think about synonyms. Common sense and your own basic knowledge of the subject comes first.

Then go to Google and put your main keyword into the search box with a tilde sign (~) in front of it. The results will then include what Google regards as synonyms to your keywords—they’ll be in boldface type.

Repeat with the synonyms you bring up.

Go to the top sites and look for the keywords in their meta tags and look for the expert vocabulary they use in their content.

Do the same ~Google search on those keywords.

Soon you’ll have a large list of terms relevant to your main keyword. Include as many of them as possible in your sales letter or web article.

Of course, make everything sound natural and well-written to your reader.

See you at the top of the search engines!

Richard Stooker
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/how-to-use-latent-semantic-indexing-lsi-to-improve-your-web-writing-results-68216.html

You absolutely must trigger an emotional reaction with your copy if you intend to get response - whether you’re looking for a lead or a sale. It doesn’t matter who you’re marketing to, either: Business - to - business sales are still decided by human beings, just like consumer sales. And all human beings buy on emotion.

With that in mind, here are 7 ways to trigger emotions in your copy:

1.Tell a story. A good story captures attention, and draws the reader in. Right away, his emotions are stirred, and he cares about the outcome. Meanwhile, a lesson or sales message can be conveyed without resistance. And that message will be remembered much longer, as good stories are hard to forget.

2.Paint a picture. Be vivid in your descriptions. Let the prospect see himself enjoying life after your product or service has solved his problem.

3.Stimulate all five senses. By merely describing the sight, smell, feel, sound and taste of something, you make it real to your prospect. You mentally transport her to where you are - or transport your product to her. She’ll be aware, engaged - and emotionally involved with what you’re telling her.

4.Promise benefits. Show her what you’re going to do for her. Tell her how her life will be better, how time will be saved - and what she’ll do with that time - by using your product. Let her know What’s In It For Me.

5.Use power words. Give your copy punch and excitement by using action words and vivid descriptors. Avoid all forms of the verb “to be.” Show your product or service in action, and it will impact her heart.

6.Use a friendly tone of voice. Speak directly to your prospect, and sound like you’re talking to a friend. Read your copy aloud and see if it passes the “barstool test.” If it sounds like you’re talking to the person on the barstool beside you, it’s good. If any line or sentence makes you stumble, rewrite it.

7.Be honest. Banish all hype and half truths. Emotion is conveyed subtly, and so is dishonesty. The same prospect “radar” that will pick up your passion and sincerity will also sound the alarm if you’re lying. Your prospect will catch on, and you’ll lose her.

Use these tips to honestly trigger emotion in your prospects. If you combine them with an offer that truly brings value to her life, you and your prospect will both be winners.

Lisa Packer
http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/copywriting-7-ways-to-trigger-emotions-73532.html

Ever dreamt of escaping your desk job and having more freedom?
Of course you have! Trouble is you eventually wake up and
remember that you’ve got a job and bills to pay, right?

What you need is your own portable means of income that will
give you the flexibility and freedom to work anytime, anywhere.

Imagine working in your garden, from a beach, or your holiday
home in Brazil. Well, with the technology available today, the
dream can actually be a reality.

So what businesses are most suitable for this type of mobile
work and lifestyle? There are more than you think. Just take a
look at the Top 10 list below and if any of them spark your
imagination, use the links to investigate further and see what
is possible.

1. Virtual Assistant

Take your administrative skills worldwide! Who says that you
have to work for one boss in the same company? Anyone with
office and computer skills could set up as a VA from their home.
Using modern technology your clients can be based anywhere.

http://www.ivaa.org (International Virtual Assistants
Association) http://www.AssistU.com
http://www.allianceofvirtualassistants.org.uk

2. Ebay Trader

Ebay is an international online marketplace, making it a perfect
business to operate from any country. With a little organization
you could spend 6 months in the UK trading under Ebay UK and
then 6 months in another country of your choice trading under
the Ebay sister site of that country.

Sign up for a free Ebay account and take a little test drive!

http://www.ebay.com

3. Newsletter Publisher

Package your knowledge in a newsletter, distribute it
electronically and charge a subscription fee to people
interested in your subject. The thirst for knowledge knows no
boundaries. This works perfectly well as an electronic
newsletter as well as via postal mail.

http://www.emailuniverse.com

4. Online Tutor

Online tutors or e-tutors guide students through an internet
learning experience. If you have a teaching background, why not
create courses that can be delivered electronically via email,
online tutorials or audio/video conferencing, as well as
telephone conference calls.

http://www.elearningprofessional.com (Certified e-Learning
Professional Programme)

http://www.sheffcolac.uk/lettol/ (LeTTOL - Learning to Teach
Online)

http://www.teleclass.com

5. Personal or Business Coach

Coaching is a profession you can do part time, full time, in
addition to another job. Most coaching is conducted via the
phone and email, and with the many low cost phone packages
available, it is becoming increasingly easier to run this type
of business from any location.

http://www.coachfederation.com (International Coaching
Federation)

http://www.coachville.com (Coachville - extensive coaching
information portal)

6. Web Designer / Graphic Designer

If you can create graphics, logos, brochures, newsletters,
posters, signs, advertisements, using desktop publishing
software or web designer software, you could run your own design
business from home, and that home could be anywhere.

Contact your local colleges for courses.

7. Writer / Travel Writer

Writing is perhaps the ultimate portable business. With your
laptop and your imagination, you could write whenever, wherever.
Why not become a Travel Writer and turn your travel adventures
into a book, or write articles for magazines about your
experiences.

http://www.writernet.org.uk

http://www.awaionline.com (American Writers & Artists Institute)

8. Stock Market Trading

This doesn’t have to be for the elite or financially well-versed
anymore. Keep abreast of market trends and stock performance and
this could be a viable business operational from home or any
location.

http://www.tradingday.com

9. copywriter

A copywriter is someone who uses words to sell products and
services. One huge perk of being a freelance copywriter is the
flexible lifestyle. You can earn your living from anywhere in
the world -a holiday home, an island, or your own home.

http://www.awaionline.com (American Writers & Artists Institute)

10. Computer Software Engineer

Using your skills in design, development, testing and evaluation
of computer software you can develop your own products or work
on a freelance basis for companies worldwide.

See local colleges for courses.

Jacqueline Long
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/unchain-yourself-from-your-desk-top-10-mobile-quotgo-anywherequot-businesses-1477.html

An often-quoted statistic is that that 95% of all Internet businesses fail. The reality is that the vast majority of businesses in the offline world fail too, so the picture is not bleaker online. In-fact, it’s better online since most aspiring Internet marketers could never even find sufficient capital to start a business in the offline world. The sad part is that many of these failing online businesses fail for readily identifiable reasons.

Often the business owners are even aware of the reasons but do nothing about them. Let’s look very briefly at four of these reasons: 1) Selling The Wrong Products Once you have identified a profitable niche, one in which customers happily spend money to solve their problems, then the next step is to identify what is it that they really, really want. If you offer your customers what they tell you that they want, and what they are already buying, then they will buy it from you. If you try to convince your customers that they want something that they’ve already told you that they DON’T want, then you’ll soon be out of business. Many failing marketers simply need to drop “a loser,” and start marketing something that is WANTED! 2) Trying To Do Everything Yourself In “Think And Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill taught nearly a century ago that “specialized knowledge” is a success essential.

You need to find one or two things that you do really well, and that people are willing to pay for, and then you need to do only those things. Everything else involved in operating your business should be done by someone better at doing those tasks. The disconnect we run into there is that, as a business owner, your job is to grow and manage the business. So what if that’s not what you’re good at? Then you may need to find a way to market whatever it is that you ARE good at. You may also need to hire a business or operations manager! In a recent mastermind call with Rich Schefren, where he interviewed a dozen top Internet marketers, most earning over $1 million a year online, we all shared that our greatest business growth started when we stopped trying to do everything ourselves. If you’re still trying to do all of your own programming, copywriting, graphics, customer service, database management, script installations, article writing, video creation, traffic generation, product creation, audio/video editing, pay-per-click management, etc., then you are so bogged down in the minutiae of “working in your business” that it’s impossible for you to even identify which things are essential for “working on your business.” This is a tough decision for many of us, but you absolutely have to identify the things that you MUST do, and then you need to outsource most of the rest.

As an example, my talent seems to be copywriting, so copywriting is really the only thing that I focus on aside from planning and managing business growth. I do plan product launches for client, but that still falls under planning and managing business growth. 3) Very Poor Time Management Dan Kennedy once observed “You will never finish all of the things on your to do list.” That tells me that I shouldn’t try to, but should instead frequently ask which things I personally need to do, which things I need to get others to do, and which things don’t really need doing at all. For the online marketer, good time management is really just establishing some new habits, and breaking some old bad ones. Common habits that need changing include: — Don’t let email dominate your time. Many online marketers spend many hours each day just digging out from under the deluge of email. I spend about 30 minutes per day on email. — Turn off the television during work hours.

If you were working for someone else, say in an office, I’m sure that you wouldn’t expect to be allowed to sit in front of the television all day with your laptop perched on your lap. Unless you are VERY different from me, you cannot focus on your work while watching television. Not only that, but watching a lot of negative programs (news included) will completely zap your energy and shift you out of a productive mindset. — Establish work hours. Tell your family and friends when you’ll be working, and let them know that when you’re really focused on work, you shouldn’t be disturbed any more than you’d expect to be disturbed if you worked at a regular job. Explain to them that you can get more done in one hour if you really concentrate that you can in five hours with frequent interruptions. Explain that letting you really focus at designated times gives you MORE free time to spend with them… and you’ll have more money to spend on them too. 4) Too Many Projects That Are Never Completed. My friend Mike Filsaime likes to point out during seminar presentations that if you have a dozen projects started but not completed, you’ll make less money that having just ONE project completed and on the market. CHOOSE one project that you want to get completed and on the market. Focus exclusively on that one until it is finished before doing anything else. Since you are an entrepreneur, and probably come up with a new idea “once every five minutes,” keep a note pad handy to jot down new ideas.

When you get a new idea, jot it down on the note pad, and then knowing that it won’t be lost, go back to what you were working on previously. Another option if you’re an idea person, or great at starting projects, is to partner with “finishers.” Instead of letting projects bog down, and never reach the market, partner with someone who will push it through to completion, splitting the profits with them. If you don’t like that idea, consider how much those unfinished projects are making you. Would you prefer 50% of whatever that finished project makes, or 100% of nothing (which is exactly what most of your unfinished projects earn). We’ve just looked very briefly at four reasons why most Internet marketers fail miserably. Now that you have acknowledged that these ARE problem areas for you, the question becomes what are you going to do about them. Sadly, many people will read this article and then choose to do absolutely nothing about these problems. Nothing will change! However, you’re different, and therefore destined for online success.

Khareem cabey
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/4-reasons-why-most-internet-marketers-fail-745908.html