For anyone who’s read Robert Persig’s novel “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, (and there’s no excuse if you haven’t. It’s freely available on the Internet), the debate between bloggers and marketers (nicely summarised here) looks very much like the split between Classical and Romantic ways of thinking. (more…)

In Mark Joyner’s book, “The Irresistable Offer”, he lists the four questions that your visitor is going to be asking as they start to read your copy. They are:

• What are you selling?
• How much does it cost?
• Why should I believe you?
• What’s in it for me?

You need to answer these questions, or as many of them as you can, as quickly as possible. Joyner says you have 3 seconds before your visitor loses interest or clicks away.

If you can incorporate answers to these questions in your headline, you’ll have a powerful advantage in pulling your reader into your copy.

I went to the local mall today to enquire about a 3G wireless card for the company I work for (the day-job). When I got to the entrance of the store, there were about 6 or 7 sales people standing there, presumably waiting to pounce on the next potential customer. (more…)

Tellman Knudson calls copywriting a ‘leverageable skill’. What he means is that you can improve the performance of your sales letter, website or email messages, simply by improving your advertising copy. For instance, just changing a headline can make a massive difference to your sales or click-throughs, which directly affects your bottom line. (more…)