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November 2003 Top reviews: Michael Masterson's Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting Originally I had some reservations, based on a lot of hype I had read online. But having gone through a copy of the course in detail, I'm happy to say I think it is really excellent. Read my review of Michael Masterson's course. Make Your Content PRE Sell This e-book by Ken Evoy covers a lot of ground, but is essentially about writing great content that makes your web site visitors WANT to buy. Highly recommended. Read my review of MYCPS. Monthly Copywriting Genius One of the best ways to improve your copywriting skills is to study direct mail letters that have performed incredibly well. This is how you learn to write copy that drives action - offline or online. Read my review of Monthly Copywriting Genius In this issue: >> Intro: In
Which Client or Server Do You Read Your Email? =============================================== Greetings, In the last issue's survey, I asked you in which email client or server you viewed this newsletter. Interesting results! Outlook Express -
18% The 'others' included MS Entourage, Mozilla, Mac OS X Mail, The Bat!, Open Text FirstClass, Pegagus, Incredimail, Goldmine, Juno, Novell GroupWise and Mulberry. And there was me making the assumption (always a bad thing) that most of you were viewing this newsletter in Outlook. To be honest, I hadn't even heard of some of the 'other' options. One thing is for sure, if you publish a newsletter, you'll want to view what you produce in as many of these programs as possible. For a start, there is quite a variety simply in the number of characters that are available in the various subject line areas. This week, the survey is on the subject of Content Management Systems. I'd love to get a good feel for what people are using. I'll then pick one or two of the most popular choices and write a review. Finally, there are a couple of new pages up on the Excess Voice site. First, I have added
a free chapter of my book, Net Words, here: And you can look through
nine more of my articles, previously published elsewhere, here: Until the next issue. Nick >> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com =============================================== REVIEW: Maximize Your Results on The Internet A 7-Part, Fr*e Report by Jay Abraham I came across this by email - a series of 7 reports, one a week, from the irrespressible and very smart Jay Abrahams. I have received only the first report so far and there's a pitch built-in. But you don't have to buy anything and, judging by the first report, the series is definitely worth the zero cost! In the first report, which seems to be aimed at a very broad audience of Web marketers, Jay wins my vote for singing the praises of both 'copywriters as marketers', and the benefits of testing. There's a lot of meat in the first report, which is 20 pages long. Whatever your field online, you should find some gems here. You can read my review
here: Or jumps straight
to the report here (the sales pitch is a little on the breathless side.)
- MarketingSherpa
Report: - WordTracker: - Site
Build It!: =============================================== ARTICLE: The Search Doesn't End at Your Homepage In a recent report for a new client, I wrote: "Remember, a visitor's search doesn't end when they leave Google. Their search and the phrases associated with it continue right through to the completion of the task they have in mind." Many of us pay attention to the keywords and phrases being used by our visitors when they arrive via a search engine. It makes sense not only because it gets you higher rankings, but also because the use of the right search terms signals to your reader that your page is relevant to them. In other words, your heading and intros are directly relevant to their search. But all too often, once those key phrases are in place, we think the job is done. Not so. There are other key points on your homepage where getting the phrase right can make a big difference. Here's what I mean. Let's say you are working on two pages; the homepage and a second level page. Working with your site logs and a tool like WordTracker, you optimize the homepage with the best keywords and phrases you can find. And that's great. You now have text that is relevant to your visitor's search. But here's something else you can do... Use the same process to identify the best words for the links from your homepage to the second level page. Simply go through the same process with that second page. Use your logs and a keyword tool to find the most relevant terms for that page. And then use one of those terms in the link from your homepage. Do you get the idea? The core of this process is to recognize that your visitor hasn't completed their 'search' when they arrive at your homepage. The search is just the beginning. Part of your task is to understand how best to write the links that take people deeper into your site. And one way of maximizing that clickthrough is to use terms that are directly relevant to the visitor's continuing search. SEO helps us focus on writing in ways that are directly relevant to the task our visitors have in mind. My point is, don't consider the job completed when you have optimized the homepage or any particular landing page. Use the same approach, the same way of writing, to help that visitor all the way through to the moment when they complete their task, whatever that may be. ** Resources mentioned in this article: WordTracker
** If you found value in the article, please forward this newsletter to colleagues and friends who might be interested. ** The archives of
all previous ExcessVoice articles can be found here: >> Feedback: mailto:nick@excessvoice.com =============================================== READERS WRITE BACK: More on Where We Trained "I don't know if English majors disdain the world of business as much as they probably feel, like I did, that there's no place for them there.... " I graduated with my B.A. in English (Concentration: Creative Writing) from University of Rochester in 2002 (an excellent year for job-hunting, might I point out) and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. Marketing never crossed my mind; I knew everything there was to know about constructing any kind of sentence you wanted, but didn't even know where to start when it came to learning about marketing. Or any other place to apply my knowledge of writing, for that matter. I'm currently starting up a freelance SEO-copywriting business, and where did I learn how to do that? SEO and webmaster forums. While I was bored out of my mind at my irrelevant day job. Go figure. Bridget Kelly == File me under "yes"
for formal training. I was part of the final graduating class of the Confederation
College Radio and Television Broadcasting course in Thunder Bay, ON. I
say final class because, while the TV portion remains, the radio curriculum
was removed. (Graduating class of 7 ... I think enrollment had something
to do with the decision.) Radio (and television) copywriting was part
of the course. Chris Pollard, CRC == I agree that English or Lit majors get zero training in writing for business, much less for ecommerce. My biggest gripe against the academy is that it doesn't teach one to write succinctly, but promotes the bloated overwriting that supposedly signals erudition (see what I mean?). Thank god for journalism, where I learned about brevity, inverted pyramids and other useful tools for online writers. It made a better writer of me across the board, but especially in the ecommerce world. But we're all educable here and, frankly, when else in your life can you indulge in the pure pleasure of studying great literature for four years? Patty Youngblood
=============================================== SURVEY: Which Content Management System? Do you or have you used a Content Management System? [ ] Yes If Yes, which was it? And what did you think of it? Don't miss out on future issues of the Excess Voice newsletter for copywriters. Sign up now: (Your email address will be used only for the purpose of sending you this newsletter, and you'll be free to unsubscribe at any time.) |
Web Tools, Reports and Services I recommend. My reviews here... Site Build It!:
MarketingSherpa
Report: WordTracker: Robin Good: Brainbench: Become more productive with improved software skills.
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© 2003 Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. |