Monthly Archives: December 2010

What’s Working Best NOW

Random Musings and Brain Droppings On the Current State of Direct Response Marketing Dear Business Builder, Rather than attempt to focus on one topic, let’s try a little stream of consciousness stuff today – stuff I’ve been thinking about that I’m hoping will help you get some bigger winners… Type Questions: Recently, I’ve seen a lot of debate online – and a lot of confusion – about which typefaces promote maximum readability. Common wisdom says that in print, serif typefaces like Times Roman (the face used by most newspapers that has little ruffles and flourishes on the characters) are the most readable. The characters are heavy enough to be easily readable even when they’re relatively small – as in the 9 point type commonly used in newspapers
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Who Do You Trust?

Friday, 3:33 pm Reno, NV “ When the world is a monster, ’bout to swallow you whole… ” (R.E.M., Can’t Get There From Here ) Howdy… Quick post today (I promise). It’s about a HUGE freakin’ disaster lurking behind many entrepreneurs right now… … like a snarly ugly googly-eyed monster sneaking up on your ass with fangs bared and claws clutching
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No Strings Attached!

A 10-Step Process for Eliminating One of Your Prospect’s Biggest Barriers to Buying Dear Business-Builder, Guarantee. Promise. Risk reversal
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My Tae Kwon Do Black Belt and the Zen of Success

Fellow Business-Builders, My name is Troy, and I’m a junkie?… a martial arts junkie. In the past eleven years of my life, I have been involved in one form of martial arts or another.
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Art of The Copywriting Interview …

In this issue: How to use interviews to improve your copy?… How to dig for ultimate benefits and emotional hot buttons?… A case study in possibilities: 1 feature, 7 ultimate benefits?… And more! Dear Web Business Builder, Human nature is universal. In many ways it’s as predictable as the hands of a clock. People buy things for two reasons, and two reasons only: To obtain pleasure or avoid pain.
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7 Easy Ways to Get More From Writers

Dear Business-Builder, What’s the single best way to make sure you get what you want out of the writers you’ll hire? I’ll give you not just one but seven easy ways to guarantee a quality result, in today’s issue.
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7 Easy Ways to Get More From Writers

Dear Business-Builder, What’s the single best way to make sure you get what you want out of the writers you’ll hire? I’ll give you not just one but seven easy ways to guarantee a quality result, in today’s issue.
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You Ask I Answer

Dear Business-Builder, This week I thought I would answer a few of the questions you’ve been asking me most often through The Total Package’s feedback box – like?… “How do I Know When I’ve Written ENOUGH?” Q: “I see different styles of websites from the long-copy style to shorter copy like Amazon. How do you know which is the best one to use? “For instance if you are selling team-building services to local government agencies and not-for-profit organizations should the website be structured differently than someone selling e-books on how to be a great copywriter?” A: Hmmm?… OK, so let’s think about this for a moment?… Why do people go to Amazon.com
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Mind Games: Mental Tools for Surviving Success

Dear Business-Builder, Yes – I did mean to say “surviving” success. You see, in my experience there really is no “downtime” as a freelance copywriter. You’re either writing copy, reading about how to write better copy or thinking about writing copy.
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Cat Poop Coffee, Holy Crap Cereal … Wacky Marketing That Works

Fellow Business-Builders, Sometimes you just have to look to the most unusual of places for interesting marketing ideas to help build your business. A couple quick examples show why stories are so important to build into your marketing: A young couple from Canada had developed a very healthy cereal with a combination of chia, hulled hemp seeds, buckwheat, apples, cranberries, raisins and cinnamon.
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