Copywriting Dean

Probably one of my largest online business mistakes is trusting my web host to provide reliable email services.

At one time, I used PHPMail to deliver copywriting applications to my inbox. And only after a long period without receiving an application did I discover that my web host turned off PHPMail without telling me.

Thanks!

Just last week I woke up to 3 emails in my inbox. And if you’ve ran an Internet business for long, you know that number is remarkably low.

I started poking around the ‘net and realized I could count for several emails that SHOULD have been delivered but weren’t! (Payment notifications, auto-response messages and the like.)

I contacted my web host who set up a “test” and discovered my email was working “just fine.” (And miraculously, it did start working after I complained.)

But as was confirmed today, potential clients did email me and, of course, received no response back from me.

Overall, I like my web host and I’d be very hesitant to move. But it’s becoming very clear that I need to stop using their email.

GMail, The Reliable Free Mail

It used to be that a free email address was a big no-no for business. But that’s changed since Gmail came along.

Gmail REALLY IS that much better than paid alternatives. There’s little excuse not to use them as your primary email address, and many of the IM GURU’s do.

Needless to say, I hope to quickly move away from my web hosts email and rely solely on Gmail for the foreseeable future.

Seems like the economy has people tightening their belts. It’s not as easy to throw money at business opportunities these days.

And one thing I’ve noticed for sure is that people are being more cautious before hiring a copywriter.

Good.

One question I get a lot is, “Are you sure you can improve my conversion rate?” Or, “Can you promise a 2% conversion rate?”

Sounds to me like many online marketers are getting burned. And while I tend to agree with Bob Bly who says it’s dishonest to guarantee a conversion rate, I refuse to be a copywriter who turns his back on a client after handing over the copy.

So when you invest $4 to $6k with me for your sales copy, I’m ready and willing to help you test and track your copy for 30 days. With software I even customized myself to get results as quickly as possible.

Often times underperforming copy can be fixed with just a tweak here and there, and multivariate testing can help you find it.

So if your new copy is missing the mark a bit at first, I’ll be tweaking the copy to fix the problem maybe even before you notice!

This makes it easy for potential clients to decide…

…which copywriter should they hire in a recession when every dollar counts?

The copywriter who sticks around to test and track your copy to make sure it’s a winner? Or the copywriter who hands it over and is done with you.

The answer is clear, and you can fill out an application here: Copy Productions.

Do you have a blog? Do you have a question about writing sales copy, designing squeeze pages, creating products, getting traffic… or just want some advice on a headline?

Then leave a comment to this post with your question (and make sure to list your blog as your website in the comment fields).

If you’ll agree to post my answer to your blog with a link back to here, I’ll answer your question at length. That’s worth at least $100, so I highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity.

If you don’t have a question but do have a blog, how about swapping guest posts? Either way, leave a comment!

Have you been checking your stats programs lately?

I’ve been checking mine. And my stats program has been DECEIVED by black-hatters. (Those are people who use questionnable (at the least) tactics to make money online.)

Black hat marketers tend to be the most creative in the bunch. And they realize that getting traffic to a web site is as simple as sharing a URL with someone.

One way to get website traffic might be to walk down the street and tell people about your site. Or you could send them a letter. You could wear a sticker with your URL.

Anyway you can get your URL in front of someone is a way to get traffic.

And the black-hatters have discovered that one way is to “link” to your site from theirs… and then have a BOT click on the link to your site so that the Black Hatters URL will show up in your stats program!

(All stats programs will tell you where your visitors came from. In this case, it looks likes visitors are coming from the Black Hatters site… when it’s most likely a fake visit from a computer program.)

Because there are so many webmasters addicted to their stats, people will naturally click the link to see who’s linking to them. And that’s how you find yourself on the black hatters website.

Several of my sites have been targeted by these Mad Black-Hatters lately.

My question is… Is this a clever, innocent way to get traffic? Is it dishonest? Is it wrong?

I think at the least it’s very disingenuous. It’s not a very good way to introduce your business to someone.

But tell me, is this free traffic method too tempting for you? Would you use this technique for your business?

Please respond below, cheers!

Check out these 4 products I’ve personally checked out and love…

• Productivity Engineering
• Internet Business Box
• The Secrets of a 10% Conversion Rate!
• Make Money “One Bite At A Time”

All 4 of them are worth at least double the asking price, so I decided to see if I could highlight them here.

Each product owner gave me permission to do so, and even decided to give me a commission for any sales I send their way. Cool!

If you purchase one and are not happy with it, you probably shouldn’t trust my opinion again. It’s with that understanding that I highly recommend these products.

Two of my big first winners were for Kaviraj Kodai at UltimateMarketingCenter.

My copy skyrocketed his income for years after making the smart decision to fill out an application for my services.

“My Conversion Rate Has Skyrocketed!”

“I have two words about the sales letter. Mind blowing! You’re a genius copywriter.”

“Business has been doing great. My conversion rate has skyrocketed ever since you wrote those sales letters for me. I can’t thank you enough for doing such a marvelous job. You’re the first person I’m going to think about every time I start a new project that requires copywriting.”

Kaviraj Kodai, ultimatemarketingcenter.com

You can hire me to write your sales copy at Copy Productions.

Many copywriters advise that you keep a swipe file. Meaning that you keep a collection of high quality advertisements to study and get ideas from when writing your own copy.

There are ways to collect an awesome set of offline advertisments… and one way is to BUY products from successful offline mailers. But frankly I’ve never gone this route.

I primarily write copy online and I look for online copy to put in my swipe file.

In the past when I found copy I liked I’d bookmark it or add it to my favorites. This worked OK… until the site disappeared, the offer was taken down or the copy changed.

Then I tried saving the webpage with the copy to my computer. This works OK still. But it can be messy with all the extra files attached to the webpage. Especially if all I want to keep is a headline.

So now I’ve discovered my favorite method for keeping a collection of swiped ads.

Windows Vista, Windows 7 and some versions of Windows XP have a “Snipping Tool” that allows you to highlight a portion of your screen and save it as an image.

Now it’s easy and painless to save a simple headline. Take for example this quick swipe of the headline from my Copywriting Services page. (Which of course was based on a swiped headline

I’ve set up a folder on my PC’s “Desktop” called appropriately, “Swipe File.” And another folder inside there is named “Headlines.” I save all swiped headlines in here.

Then when it’s time to look at successful headlines, I can open up any image inside this folder. Windows opens the image inside of it’s photo viewer and allows me to hit “Next” over and over again browsing my swiped headlines.

Fantastic! So much cleaner than paper or saved web pages.

Of course, most of the images you are creating involve copyrighted material. So you shouldn’t be sharing or selling your swipe file with anyone.

But creating a swipe file this way for your personal use is no problem. (At least that’s what I believe. I’m no lawyer, so do your own research.)

In any case, you have permission to swipe any of my sales copy for your personal use in this way.

And if you’re looking for more copy to swipe, you might start here:

Productivity Engineering

Good luck hunting and swiping!

Ed Charkow filled out an application to write sales copy for a $197 product. I liked the service they were offering and took them up on the offer.

After the project Ed left me this testimonial:

“…9 Hours To Pay Off The Sales Letter…”

“Stephen did such a rotten job for us it took all of 9 hours to pay off the sales letter with PPC ads only. I don’t recommend him unless you want a good sales letter at a decent price.

“(For those of you don’t get sarcasm – Stephen is a good guy who will take care of you and do a great job.)”

Ed Charkow

You can hire me to write your sales copy at Copy Productions.

Veteran affiliate Rhen Khong filled out an application at CopyProductions.com. I accepted his application and wrote a sales piece for an affiliate product he was promoting.

More than a year later he left me this testimonial.

Stephen Beat A Marketing Team Of Over 15 People

“Stephen wrote a piece for me last year that was directly responsible for $37,410.00 worth of affiliate commissions so far.

“His copy was so good that I started noticing my merchant (who have a direct response marketing team of over 15 people) literally copied my landing page’s headline and changed all their Google ads!”

Rhen Khong, Veteran Affiliate Marketer

You can hire me to write your sales copy at CopyProductions.com.

I met Shawn Pringle at Jim Edwards’ Bootcamp in Atlanta.

After chatting for a bit he decided to hire me to write sales copy. I put my new copy to the test against the previous copy and we saw sales instantly double.

“Boosted My Conversion Rate Substantially…”

“Not only is Stephen a great copywriter that boosted my conversion rate substantially (paying for his fee rather quickly), he is also one heck of a good guy!

“I met him personally a few years back at an IM event and he’s a stand up guy that’ll treat you right. You can’t go wrong working with Stephen.”

Shawn Pringle,
FromShawn.com

You can hire me to write your sales copy at Copy Productions.