Copywriting Dean

Last month Ryan Healy asked me if I’d like to share an .mp3 Interview Ken McArthy did with Drayton Bird and Bob Bly. (I am one of thousands who have huge respect for those 3 names.)

You can find out more about it and download the MP3 interview here (opt-in required).

I wanted to give the interview a listen before I promoted it on the blog – not so much to make sure it was quality (I knew it would be) – but so that I could give you an idea of what was in it.

Unfortunately I never found time in my schedule to do it. BUMMER for all of us, as I highly recommend visiting the site and downloading the MP3 while it’s still available. (The event the promotion was intended for has already past, so it may not be available much longer.)

So I want to apologize to you for not giving you the heads up on this awesome opportunity.

And because I have a ton of respect for Ryan, I wanted to take the opportunity to promote him and his work in general. His blog is top notch and has been for years. I’ve bought products simply based on Ryan’s recommendation, even without reading the sales letter – and have never been let down.

I highly recommend his business growth strategies blog and suggest checking out his new site at the Copywriting Code.

Thanks to a readers tip I decided to try turning on my dead laptop the other day, and it worked!

It behaves a little strangely, but having the opportunity to go back and save the files I almost lost is pretty cool. Those files include a ton of music that iTunes would not have let me restore from their end, AND a bunch of pictures from vacations and such.

Some people choose to backup pictures on external hard drives. And while that can be a good idea, it doesn’t save you from a fire. That’s why I like to find places to store files online.

Thanks to Aaron Brandon, I discovered that Google Docs also allows you to upload up to 1GB of storage. So I’m putting my pictures up there for now.

And an AWESOME service called DropBox gives you 2GB of free storage, and I’ll be uploading all of my music there.

But that’s only half the story of DropBox. The service creates a folder inside your “Documents” folder on your PC, and any files you put inside are automatically backed up online as well.

You can open and edit these files just like they were inside any other folder on your computer… but they’re automatically saved to the ‘net as well.

Perfect. This is much simpler than even an automatic backup service, and makes switching from one computer to another for projects very easy.

I love it.

Unbelievable. Suddenly with no warning, my computer decided not to turn on last weekend.

Oh, it turns on for few seconds I suppose. Just long enough to give me hope. But nothing ever appears on the screen before the power shuts off, then on, then off, then on in a never ending loop. Seems to be a common problem with HP Pavillion’s (And here).

In any case, enough woe is me.

This is just another reminder that your computer and all it’s files can go at any time.

If you’ve taken my advice in the past then you’re ready for a computer failure like I was. But if you’re still leaving important files not backed up on your computer, maybe it’s time you consider cloud computing as well.

Here’s my advice in a nutshell.

1. Switch to GMail for handling email, so you can access it at any computer.

2. Use web applications instead of desktop applications whenever you can. For example, Google Calendar is better than using whatever software came installed with your operating system.

3. If you write sales copy, then plead with me to release Copy Breeze immediately so that all of your projects will be backed up both on your webhost and in your email.

4. And use extra space on your webhost’s server to store important files.

Those are my general rules and they made sure the death of my computer was simply an annoyance instead of a disaster.

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.

If you want to start a successful online business, here’s what you need to do…

Create A Product
3 Quick Ways To Judge Your New Product Idea

Create A Squeeze Page
Should You Use A Squeeze Page?
7 Steps To A Successful Squeeze Page
Ballooning Squeeze Page Conversions With Winning Audio Scripts

Send Traffic To The Squeeze Page
Clixsense – Penny Traffic That Converts
A VERY Telling Conversion Story On Twitter

Send Subscribers To An Awesome Sales Letter On Launch Day

Stephen Dean’s Copywriting Services

Raise your hand if you’ve ever come up with a product that was a dud…

People who are just beginning their business pursuits often forget to check if there’s a market for their “hot idea” before they create the product. This can lead to a waste of time, energy and a lot of money.

While there are more thorough ways of checking if your product has an audience, here are 3 quick ways to get a general idea of the demand.

1. Spyfu.com. This site lets you analyze pay-per-click data similar to what the old Overture tools used to do. Just type in your keyword and you’ll instantly see how many people are placing ads for that keyword, how many clicks they’re getting on average, and what it costs to run an ad.

If you see a website is running ads for a few months at a $1.00 click, you can be relatively sure they’re making a profit from that market.

2. Amazon.com’s Magazine Section If you can find a magazine that’s focused on your market, chances are there’s enough people out there to support a product for this business. After all, there’s enough to support the magazine…

3. http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm. The Clickbank marketplace lists tons and tons of information products. Search for your keyword and look at the results.

If you see products similar to your idea, check out the “Gravity” number. The higher the number, the better the product is selling. Compare the number to other known hot sellers and you’ll get a decent idea of how popular that market is.

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.

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!

Recently I discovered a traffic source that can send thousands of visitors to your site for a penny each.

It’s from a site called ClixSense. And that’s an affiliate link, because I highly recommend this service.

Penny traffic is known for being POOR QUALITY and can kill a conversion rate. But because it’s so cheap it can still be profitable.

For $12 (which included a $2 processing fee) I sent around 1000 visitors to a squeeze page. The squeeze page wasn’t too polished, although it did contain 6 of the 7 traits of a successful squeeze.

Even with a mediocre squeeze page I got 28 opt-ins. That’s 43 cents per targeted lead.

If you have a $100 product that converts at 1%, then each visitor is worth $1. If it only costs you 43 cents to get a visitor, then you’re profiting 57 cents per visitor.

If I add the 7th element of a successful squeeze page and polish it up a bit, I believe I could easily double the squeeze page’s conversion rate. That’d bring the cost per targeted lead to 20-some cents. Very nice!

I highly recommend giving ClixSense at least one shot. I ran my ad 3 times and noticed the subsequent visitor-buys got me repeat visitors that didn’t convert. In future tests I’ll be looking for a way to avoid this repeat traffic and I’ll share my results.

And a hint on setting up your campaign.

ClixSense allows you to narrow down the traffic you’ll receive in to a smaller demographic.

If your market’s customer base is heavily female or male, then make sure your ad only is displayed to that gender.

You can choose to only display your ad to premium members, meaning people who have paid money, and that’s a very good idea.

And you can also restrict the ad to English speaking countries, which can help for obvious reasons.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.