Are more people lying these days or is there just a political race in the works?
Ahh, yes, the Republicans in the US are trying to pick a candidate to go up against Obama. That explains it.
And that probably means a lot of copywriters are getting paid a lot of money to write fundraising letters and other campaign materials.
Funny that every candidate has campaign material and fundraising letters going out in their name, that they didn’t write… yet some people refuse to believe Paul had material sent out in his name that he didn’t write. Their proof that Paul actually wrote it? His name is on it. Hmm.
I don’t read too many political fundraising letters but I do pay attention to campaign/marketing strategies.
It’s interesting in politics that one way to get attention is to have a public dispute with another candidate. This helped Ron Paul get attention in 2007 when he sparred with “top-tier” candidate Rudy Guiliani. This time around some lower-tier candidates like Rick Santorum tried to leapfrog their way past Ron Paul by attacking him by name in the debates.
These public disputes or “feuds” like they call them in the music industry can be great for votes or record sales. The trick is to only engage when it helps you.
Jon Huntsman has been trying his hardest to start a feud with Ron Paul right before the New Hampshire vote tomorrow. But so far Paul hasn’t really bitten back because it won’t get him any votes. Unless you believe a stupid video posted unanimously on a YouTube account anyone can create in seconds was really from the Ron Paul campaign, or from a Ron Paul PAC as Fox News and other news sources reported it.
Some conspiracy-minded folks think Hunstman’s campaign might have uploaded the video themselves to help stir a controversy. I sure hope not.
You have to be careful with this tactic in business though. Sometimes by attacking another product you’re just giving it publicity and even credibility.
Here’s part II of my interview with Joseph Ratliff.
What is the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your copywriting business?
That is an excellent question Stephen, and I’ve made only one (LOL, kidding). My biggest mistake was in my early days, I was an “order taker” for my clients. They had a project, and I wrote it…turned it in and got paid.
But if you want to survive as a copywriter, you have to be more than an “order taker.” You have to find a way to help a client in more ways than writing the project they are offering. In other words…
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Local marketing is all the rage lately. Strangely enough, I’ve never written copy for someone in my city. The closest was across the river in Portland, OR a handful of times.
So when I got the chance to interview Joseph Ratliff I seized it. I know he has experience working both local and global. And this would give me a chance to share valuable information with you… and pick up a few nuggets myself!
Joseph did not disappoint. Here are my first 5 questions to Joseph and his answers.
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So get this: There’s two goldfish sitting in a tank, right?
And one goldfish turns to the other and says, “Do you know how to drive this thing?!”
Believe it or not, that joke was determined to be one of the best jokes IN THE EVER by a scientific study.
But the funny thing here, is, what makes the joke work would make a sales letter BOMB. And bomb BIG.
That’s because what makes the joke work is discontinuity. One situation doesn’t naturally flow to the next. The surprise of a goldfish being in an armored tank rather than a domestic fish tank is funny.
But it doesn’t make the sale…
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If you want to bust out great copywriting every time you stare at the blank page, you’ve gotta learn the 3 B’s of copywriting.
Unfortunately, learning the 3 B’s takes time. I can tell you once, I can tell you twice – but until you practice APPLYING the 3 B’s in your copy… the science-slash-art of copywriting will remain just beyond your grasp.
Kind of like hitting a baseball. I can tell you not to drop your back shoulder when you swing, but you’re going to do it anyway. And you’ll continue to do it until you finally have a eureka moment – realize you’re doing it wrong – and take deliberate steps to fix it.
This article is an attempt to speed up the process and help you have the eureka moment sooner.
For maximum effect, read this article before and after your next copywriting project. Chances are, even though I’ll have you nodding your head in agreement the first time through… when you next read this article you’ll likely notice you “dropped your shoulder,” so to speak.
So here it is…
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Recently I was given the opportunity to check out an interesting new tool with many valuable uses. And I gotta admit, while it’s good for business it’s also just fun to play with.
The GeoSurf Toolbar
The toolbar is made by a company called BiScience and it’s heavily aimed at online media-buyers who need to keep tabs on their campaigns around the world.
After reviewing the toolbar, it’s clear it can do that job well. But it provides a completely different but valuable service for me, as I’ll get to in a moment.
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Since I haven’t been posting every day I also haven’t told you the results of March’s Ready Spaghetti SEO challenge.
The goal was to get a video ranked on the first page of any Google search result. It turned out to be easy, if you picked the right keyword.
I only created 2 videos before noticing I was on the first page of Google for the search term… well, I don’t want to tell the world because I don’t want to lose it. (But it really wouldn’t be hard to figure out with some sleuthing.)
So one video got on the first page… how’d the other one do?
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Today, instead of writing a blog post I drafted an ambitious plan to grow the audience of this blog, continue to produce quality content, and convert visitors to more business. Business being more clients and selling products.
It’s not too fancy. It will require “stickiness” and work. But both of those things make me feel better about changing my strategy.
I don’t want to reveal my entire strategy now. But the blog should look different in the near future… and you should still be getting 2-3 “authority” posts per month.
Wish me luck. And of course, this counts as a blog post for today. But tomorrow I will be eerily silent.
Cheers!
Stephen
Last night I showed up at Gary Vaynerchuk’s book signing at Powell’s for the third time in three years – one for each book, starting with “101 Wines.” And I can tell you, Gary is hitting full stride!
My girlfriend felt I conned her when she realized the focus wasn’t on wine this time, but rather his new book “The Thank You Economy.” She doesn’t care too much about business. Yet still she came around and liked this speech better than his “101 Wines” talk. He really is CRUSHING IT.
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