Archive for 'Jim’s Adventures'

How to Find Work as a Copywriter

Posted on 19. Apr, 2009 by admin.

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Copywriters have been hired for on staff jobs at newspapers, radios, advertising agencies, and in business marketing departments for years and those types of jobs are still available. However, the most common place to find copywriting work today is right on your computer. 95% of all copywriting online is done in a freelance capacity which means you do not work for the companies or clients themselves, but rather for yourself doing jobs for many different companies and clients.

There are tax implications of freelancing. You are completely responsible for reporting your income, although clients you do a large amount of work for during the year will provide you with a 1099 form for income tax purposes. It is up to you to save enough money to pay your income tax when you file.

Save all of your receipts related to business expense from the purchase of a new computer to any software you buy, and even website fees if you keep your own business site to attract clients. You can deduct all business expenses on your income tax report, although suffice it to say you will no longer be filing the short form for that purpose.

For most people it is a wise idea to seek the help of a reputable income tax preparer in order to be sure you are getting the proper deductions, it can save you a lot of money in the long run.

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Storytelling & Copywriting

Posted on 16. Apr, 2009 by admin.

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As I read and explore the ins and outs of what really good copywriting is made up of one of the methods that I have stumbled across several times now is the notion of storytelling.

As I was putting this all together I received an email from a friend who was seeking my input on his next blog post. I was pleased to see that he was essentially relating a story about a bamboo raft traveling down the Mae Tang river, and how that ties into his present endeavor with baby clothing. His most recent blog post at  www.allaboutbabyshop.com is an excellent representation of copy in the form of an engaging story.

Shortly thereafter, I was listening to a Yanik Silver presentation where he was talking about Storytelling as a way to connect with your customers. The idea is that through the telling of a story your prospect is able to identify with you and the process of that story. You create that personal connection as you weave a tale that tells the story of how you benefitted from the product that you are selling. Before you know it the prospect has so identified with you and your story that they are ready to buy into your offer.

And then again I had the opportunity to hear a Rich Schefren presentation also on the art of storytelling as it relates to the current trends in good copywriting. I think I was getting a message today. So my message to you is to create a compelling story that will enthrall your customers in such a way that they will be compelled to take action.

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4 More Ways to Turbocharge Your Writing

Posted on 10. Apr, 2009 by admin.

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by Yanik Silver (02/20/2009)

Sales copy can make or break your marketing campaign. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that it is as strong and persuasive as possible.

The first step, of course, is to get the first draft of the copy down on paper (or computer screen) as quickly as possible. I always tell copywriters not to worry about getting every word right. Just “let it all hang out.”

Then, the real work begins: the editing. That’s when you transform your copy from decent to good – or even great. As copywriting expert Clayton Makepeace says, “The more compelling you make each section of your sales letter, the greater your response and average order will be.”

In my last article for ETR – “4 Simple Ways to Turbocharge Your Writing” – I said that the best way to do the editing is to focus on one thing at a time. And I walked you through the first four phases of the process.

There are four more steps to take in order to polish your copy to perfection. Put them to work for you, and you’re sure to end up with sales letters that blow past your competition.

1. Call Out the Bucket Brigade

In this phase of the editing process, you smooth out and “stitch” everything together by using “bucket brigade” copy transitions. Like the old-time firefighters who transferred buckets of water from hand to hand, these phrases keep propelling the reader forward. Phrases like these:

• And that’s just the beginning…

• As you read on, I’ll tell you more about how…

• But before we go into that…

• But better still…

• But don’t take my word for it…

• But I’m jumping ahead. Let me tell you how this all came about…

• Here’s more…

• Fact is…

• Here’s the deal…

• Here’s the scary part:

• Listen, there’s more. Lots more…

• My strong hunch is…

• Needless to say…

• What this all boils down to is…

• What’s more…

• What’s the catch?

• Then it hit me…

Anytime you can use a copy transition, you will improve the readability of your copy and move the reader closer to the sale. (I have compiled 226 copy transitions that I use on a regular basis.)

2. Read It Out Loud

I don’t know what it is about reading sales copy out loud, but it gives you lots and lots of insight into how good (or bad) it really is. All the bumps and rough spots jump out at you.

Even better than reading it out loud yourself is to have someone else read it to you while you take notes on a printout of the copy. One big advantage of this is that he is completely impartial. He won’t stress certain words to make the meaning clearer. And if he stumbles over a phrase or sentence or paragraph, you know that’s an area you need to rework.

Another thing I do during this editing phase is make sure the copy is geared to the prospect’s benefit. I do it by changing some of the “I’s,” “We’s,” and “Me’s” to “You’s” – e.g., changing “We are giving you 6 must-have bonuses”to “You’ll get 6 must-have bonuses.”

Much stronger that way.

3. Sleep On It

At this point, let your copy sit for at least a day. If you don’t have the luxury of an extra day, even a few hours will help. When you come back to it, it will be with new eyes and a fresh perspective. You’ll find errors that weren’t apparent before, and better ways of saying what you want to say.

Every sales letter is significantly improved with rewriting. I will often do three, four, or even five rewrites before I’m satisfied.

4. Grammar and Spelling – the Final Phase of the Edit

On my final pass-through, I check the grammar and spelling. Often, I will have someone who is better at “proper English” take a look, too. I take their suggestions with a grain of salt, because sales copy is more “conversational” than formal writing. Still, I definitely want to make sure I don’t make stupid mistakes like confusing “their” and “there.”

Despite the importance of the editing process, most copywriters don’t bother with it – or, at best, give their copy one or two quick “final” reads. But if you take the time to do a thorough job – going through all eight phases, one by one – you will see a guaranteed improvement in the selling power of your writing!

[Ed. Note: As master Internet marketer Yanik Silver (www.MaverickBusinessInsider.com) says, careful editing can make the difference between mediocre and blockbuster sales copy. Learn how you can spend two days with one of the best copywriters in the world and get all his most powerful secrets to writing copy for the Web right here.]

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This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

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Understanding Who, What, Where and Why in Copywriting

Posted on 08. Mar, 2009 by admin.

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To attempt good copy without having some insight about who, what, where, and why is asking for trouble. If you don’t have a really good idea about what your audience is interested then your attempts to create good copy will fail. Your audience will be able to discern that you have not done your homework and therefore are not really speaking their language.

Successful copywriters talk the talk of their customers. You really have to have a better than average understanding of the product. You want to be able to identify with and capture the attention of your audience. It’s therefore of imminent importance to understand everything there is to know about your target audience. Some things to consider might be, a.) Generation, what is the age of the target group and what is it that this group is going to get excited and interested in. b.) Class and/or income group. If you’re talking on a street level to a professional you might very well lose their attention and thus the sale. c.) Profession and level of employment. In most cases you will be writing to attract a certain group of people. It certainly doesn’t hurt to really know who it is that you are speaking to and what their interests and concerns are.

Ask all the questions you can think of. Ask questions that might seem silly. There is no bad question. Every question you can think of may be the same question that a potential customer may be asking. So if you can answer that question before they ask it then you have a better chance at gaining their attention

What does the product or service accomplish for the client? This is important when you are researching the product and the client population. You want to know how the product is either going to increase the value of the customer’s life or prevent something. Generally good copy aims at the positive side of increasing sex appeal, health, youth and wealth. Does your product make life easier for your customer? And how is your product better than other products that may be similar? What can this product offer that others can’t or don’t?

There are varying degrees of importance when it comes to informing your audience about a product or service. First there are the basic qualities found in just about any other similar product. Then there is a middle range that includes the ability to save money, increase health benefits, promote youth and youthful appearance and increase wealth. Finally there are the really powerful selling points, such as a money back guarantee, free mentoring for a specified amount of time, a toll free number to get questions answered by a live person, and other special features not found with other products and/or services.

In the end remember to take what you have learned from your investigations and write your copy in layman’s terms. Whether a professional or a laborer most people reading copy are looking for something that’s easy to read and catches their interests as well as speaks to their heart. But if you have done your homework you will most likely be able to speak to their hearts.

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Beware the unethical

Posted on 01. Mar, 2009 by admin.

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I think it’s a wee bit funny that since I have essentially turned off the TV  that I have found and been sucked into another addiction of sorts. Back in August, I think, I joined a group called the Global Alliance. I paid $1,000.00 for a life time membership. And the hype was that I would learn all the internet skills that I needed to become successful. The reality was far different. I paid all that money for a chat, and mostly a social chat.

Recently I have asked for a refund from the group leader of the Global Alliance because  she has essentially left the group without any notice to the membership. She told me in a chat conversation that she was disappointed that I was a quitter. So I said that I was disappointed that she too was a quitter because she had essentially left the Global Alliance Group without any explanation, despite the fact that she had created the group. Immediately she informed me that just because she was leaving a group did not make her a quitter. Ergo the hypocrisy.

I’ve chosen to leave the Global Alliance because there is no alliance, global or otherwise. There is only control and anger and an overall feeling that one should submit to thier will. Thier rhetoric is that it is YOUR group not THEIR group but that is never the case. Beware. There is no integrity in the administration of The Global Alliance and I vanquish all affiliatition with such an organization. I will only and ever forth operate in an ethical and supportive fashion.

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Where in the World Have I Been

Posted on 18. Jan, 2009 by admin.

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It’s been awhile since my last post and so much has happened and changed or advanced.

For as long as I can remember I have had numbness in my right arm and especially in my fingers and hand as a whole. During this past fall the incidence of such numbness increased. There were several nights where I would awaken to an entirely dead arm that ached something fierce. So during my annual doctors appointment I mentioned to him that this was becoming more of an issue and a problem.

The first appointment was with a neurologist. He tested the the nerve responses in my  right hand  and arm by inserting a really thin needle and then applying an electrical current to that muscle. I know I am a little odd in that I really like to watch these sorts of things(especially when they are happening to me). And as I watched I got to ask a myriad of questions. He was really good about answering my questions and then explaining the results that appeared in graph form on the computer.

My next appointment was with Dr. Rosquetti at Coastal Orthopaedics in Brunswick. He was very good about explaining the pros and cons of such a procedure, although he did say that there was a 97% success rate. I’m not entirely sure where I derailed but I decided not to have the carpal tunnel surgery. But then after returning to my office and speaking to some of my staff I changed my mind.

On Monday December 8th i had my surgery. It’s a good thing they told me to get someone to drive me home afterwards. I quite frankly don’t remember getting home. I do recall that the nurses and anesthesiologist and all were really nice and it was certainly not a bad experience. It was more a necessary experience that I had put off for just a little too long.

So that’s why I have been out of commission for so long. My hand gets better each day and even at my last doctors appointment he suggested that I do more and more. It’s kind of funny that as I tell people that I have had this surgery they share their experiences with the same surgery and what I can expect in my recovery. While the post-op appointments should be over in March, I understand that the recovery will last a little longer.

In mid December I embarked on a 30 day challenge. The site was put together by Antony Askew and has originally been for members of the Global alliance. My challenges have been 1.) to exercise for a minimum of 35 minutes a day, 2.) to spend an hour a day cleaning the house and 3.) spend an hour a day reading.

I actually started riding a stationary cycle before my surgery but after the surgery the older cycle died. I had had it for some 10+ years. Still it was dreadfully inconvenient for it to expire, especially when I had limited ability to move it or fix it. But I managed to get a new one and also managed to get the young man next door, Matt, home for the holiday to come put it all together for me.

I’ve been most consistent with the exercise. The cleaning and reading continue to be a challenge although I am working at it all.

My next adventure, related to the exercise is a desire to lose weight. So, I discovered accidentally that one of my Global Alliance Buddies is an authority on EFT and is involved in a weight loss program. So I have connected with her and have embarked on this program. It’s a shift, but in just the first four days I have dropped Six pounds and have more energy than I really know what to do with. An unexpected incentive to losing the weight is that the Cinch Program is doing a promotion where the winner can win $25,000.00 for losing the most amount of weight. I am going to lose 90 pounds altogether.

So, while the initial 30 day challenge with the Global Alliance is coming to a close, I am yet inspired to lose weight with a rather nice Grand Prize awaiting me at the finish line. Tomorrow, among other things I need to finish taking my measurements and then submit my information so that Cinch can just write out that $25,000. check now. I’m going to win it!

In addition tomorrow I embark on another adventure where I will be earning an income online.

See you on the next post.

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This is My Story and I’m Sticking to it!

Posted on 01. Dec, 2008 by admin.

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So what am I doing here on MySpace? Well, like many people on MySpace I’m here to network, meet interesting new people, explore all the unknown (to me anyway) of the internet and make new friends. Already I have made some fine connections with new and multi-talented people.
I’m also here to learn from more experienced network marketers how it is that I can get to where they are now. I have read and heard many times that one of the best ways to get to your goal is to replicate what others who are successful have done before you. And that’s exactly what I did in my offline business. I looked to some of the successful businesses and copied the things I liked and then improved on others.

This is not a new path for me. I have been searching for a long time to find something that would work for me online. It’s a dream of mine to be able to make an online income so that I can follow my passion for world travel. I have been to many places which has only sparked an interest to get to many others. And in this search I have spent crazy money on programs and courses and MLM opportunities and anything and everything that I thought might get me to that elusive online success that I so crave. Of course what I was missing was the marketing sense.

I think I have been an easy mark for a lot of these programs that offer untold wealth for almost no involvement. Who wouldn’t want to earn $100,000 per month, and do virtually nothing but let the system run it’s course? Just imagine the possibilities and the pure freedom that that would bring. I have a terrible time doing cold calls; partly because I can’t stand it when people call me to sell me something that I just don’t want. And you might have guessed that I have virtually no marketing or selling success. In my offline business I never really needed to market anything. All I did was tell people we were there and they came to us.

I spent a ton of money purchasing leads. At some point I got the idea that the only people benefiting from these purchased leads were the lead companies themselves.

And Google AdWords just didn’t work for me at all. Then sending out postcards, distributing fliers, pitching to my warm market and/or family and friends are all things that I have tried with little or no success. Nevertheless I see that there are people out here who are making significant incomes online and so I know that there are methods. So I am here on MySpace and other sites to learn from those who have come before me so that I too may find my way to a nice internet income.

Would you like to know more?

Here’s a little background information about myself.

I grew up in Denver, Colorado. I am the oldest (50 Yikes) child of an Orthopaedic surgeon. He was team doctor for the Denver Broncos for awhile. My mother was a college graduate who had a passion for landscape architecture and languages. She was an avid reader. I remember that she was always reading something. And later on she learned to speak French fluently which came in handy when she took me to France. Unlike many of my fellow entrepreneurs I think I had a fairly decent childhood. I certainly can’t say that there were 12 kids, we had a dirt floor and that I had to walk 12 miles in two feet of snow to get to school. That might have been fun, but it was not my experience.

I lived in Denver with my Father and Mother, brother and sister. For as long as I can remember we had a house in the mountains and so we were always off skiing in the winter. The last house we had was at the fork of two rivers in Aspen which was also a great place to be in the summer. We had a lot of fun there. I also had the opportunity to do considerable horseback riding and spent at least two summers on a dairy farm in southwestern-ish Colorado. That was a long time ago, but I distinctly remember the episode when my brother and I left the gate unlatched and all the dairy cows got out and trotted down the road. Adolph was not happy with us.

When I got out of High School I opted to work for a few years because I couldn’t see spending huge amounts of money attending college and having no idea what I wanted to do or study. So after spending four years working primarily as an orderly (in the hospital where I had been born) I decided to go to college.

I thought I wanted to be a Veterinarian because I enjoy animals and I like to help. But alas my mathematical skills are, well, challenging. So I changed my major to Psychology. I actually graduated with two degrees, the one in Psychology and another in English. I then went on to The University of Denver where I earned a Master’s degree in Social Work.

By that point I had lived my entire life in Colorado, and I wanted to see other parts of the world and the country. So after sending my resume out all over the country I landed in Maine. I moved here not knowing a sole. It was scary leaving the security I had known all my life and entering a new adventure in a far off place. But I’m still here, so it can’t be all that bad.

I initially took a position in a mental health center in Brunswick and after working there as a therapist for almost 10 years I left to essentially take a break from therapy and drove an 18 wheeler primarily up and down the east coast. My first load was 80,000 pounds of flat Maine stones which were delivered to a billionaire in Texas who wanted his house to have that Maine look. I also got to take a load of Maine timbers out to Boulder, Colorado for another Billionaire to build a log cabin. And while I was there I was able to spend the Christmas Holidays with my family.

Somewhere along the line I decided that I wanted to be the Billionaire. I don’t see why not!

When I had had enough of that, I returned to Maine where I returned to another position working with the mentally ill. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I just wasn’t suited to be working for someone else for much longer.

So I started my own business. That was just seven years ago. I seem to have this penchant for jumping off the deep end. The scariest part for me was that I didn’t get paid for the first 12 months. But I did it and while it’s been an uphill battle, I never want to go back.

All along this path I have searched high and low for that magical internet opportunity where I can take a lap top and a cell phone off to the beaches of Tahiti or a pub in Ireland working a few hours here and there but essentially enjoying my life, traveling and helping others to do the same.

So here I am, not really jumping off the deep end like I have before but still creating my next adventure. Like so many other things I have done before I see this process as just that, a process. I’m essentially on the ground floor taking one step and one day at a time. Now I have mentors and the Ohana support group where I can get help putting anything together. Even more recently I joined the Global Alliance: Join The Global Alliance Click Here, a group dedicated to helping other entrepreneurs overcome obstacles, inspire one another and take our dreams to the next level. Now I feel like I have direction and focus. I know it’s going to take time. There is no such thing as instant wealth. It’s a nice fantasy but any business takes time, energy and consistency to build.

I don’t know about you, but I have encountered a vast amount of information on the net. And there is no definitive step by step program that I have found that really delivers on “here it is, follow this and you’ll get there.” What I have learned more is “here it is, now you figure out where to start and just start.”

So, I’ve started, and it may be somewhat lofty, but what I want to do is put down my steps as I am doing them so that I can help others get to where I am going. So far my biggest obstacle has been me. And the biggest hurdle has been to get started and just do one thing every day (and maybe two on Saturday).

So lets get started………!

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