A Lesson in Branding from a Direct Response Copywriter

A couple of final thoughts from the Glazer Kennedy Info-summit a couple of weeks ago in Atlanta.

Dan Kennedy spoke for a total of eight hours. He spent five minutes talking about branding. In the other 475 minutes, Kennedy gave a clinic in the precise execution of direct response tactics—and it was a thing of great beauty.

It was wonderful to be in the company of so many direct response people. These are my favorite type of (business) people; these are the people who understand the value of direct response copywriting and they are some of THE most successful entrepreneurs on the planet. There were marketers in that room at the elegant Sheraton Atlanta who generate millions in revenue with very few employees.

These entrepreneurs spend time working on positioning but rarely spend time working on branding. A good lesson there...

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter at Dan Kennedy Info Summit Day 2

Last night, Dan Kennedy spoke about information marketing. All the speakers so far have been accomplished and polished. But Dan Kennedy was clearly a notch above all of them. His delivery is droll yet entertaining and the content was superb. He kept a room of about 500 people engaged for well over two hours and we had started at 8 a.m.; the evening session was from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and everyone was quiet and entertained right until 9:30.

Kennedy is punctual, starting right at 7:00 and finishing on the dot at 9:30.

He detailed how he sells information. It’s a complex model and he uses the type of sales analytics that a Fortune 100 company uses. It’s a science and if you want to compete against that type of operation, you should start by being able to analyze precisely how much a customer will buy after the 7^th month of being a member of the Platinum Inner Circle. Yes--it's that detailed. It's a serious operation.

The speakers today were excellent and I particularly liked Ed Bush’s business model helping lawyers get leads. If they leave him, the flow of qualfied leads comes to a grinding halt. John Limbocker was impressive; he’s an SEO guru. He gave us a quick primer about SEO.

Here's a superb way to get a reader interested in a product. Perry Marshall's facebook test.

I’m looking forward to hearing more from Dan Kennedy tonight. These are long days that require quite a bit of stamina—even though I’m sitting down the entire time.

Spotted this graffiti on the way back from lunch.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter at Dan Kennedy Info Summit Day 1

At the dinner break at the first day of the Dan Kennedy Info-Marketing Summit here in Atlanta.

Some thoughts (there's another session coming up--it's all day, four days in a row).

Dan Kennedy opened the summit with a short presentation. He said, “you’re here to shop.” And there’s plenty of shopping. In fact, the “Back of the Room” operation is a store.

The summit is a little bit of a 'pitch fest' but some of the speakers were informational. Internet marketer Andy Jenkins was impressive as he detailed how he pitches his products at launch.

I wish speakers would mind their language—there’s no need to use even mildly offensive words. Why risk offending anyone?

I’m coming up with a lot of good ideas from simply being away from my computer.

The highlight of the day was listening to the former editor of The National Enquirer, Iain Calder, originally from Scotland. He did pretty much whatever it legally took to get the stories first. They sold 6.5 million copies of their Elvis issue (when The King died). The issue cost 35 cents. While I don’t want to sell scandalous information, I admire the approach to content. Their content sold publications at the newsstand. They paid a ton to find and keep the top writers. Lesson there...

Great to see Will Swayne who is here all the way from Brisbane, Australia.

Thanks to the staff at the Hilton Downtown Atlanta for their flexibility for a loyal Hilton guest. Superb hotel.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

Direct Response Copywriter Heads Off to Dan Kennedy Conference

I’m off to Atlanta next week for a Dan Kennedy conference. I’m extremely excited to learn from one of the top direct marketers on the planet. I use a lot of his copywriting techniques and they work.

I’ll blog every day from the conference and also tweet. The conference is Thursday through Saturday.

Follow me on Twitter here.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.

CopyPress Wants Copywriter to Write for $3.33 an Hour.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the extremely low pay that content farmers pay writers. I was (and am) upset for two reasons. 

1. Writers should not accept such low pay.
2. Companies that claim to care about writers should not offer such low pay. 

CopyPress just offered me an article and the pay is $20.

It will take me four hours to research and write the piece and conform to their style guide. Then I'll have to spend two hours satisfying, in a purely syntactical fashion, the hyper-anal editor who, to justify her fee, will obsess about 435 out of the 500 words.

So the whole gig will take around six hours and I'll get $20. That's $3.33 an hour.

Just for a bit of fun, I thought I'd make a list of things I could do for higher pay. 

• Pick up cigarette butts outside office buildings (next to the ‘No Smoking’ signs).
• Clean toilets in a biker bar after closing time.
• Inspect sewers in a ‘developing’ country.
• Work security at a death metal concert.
• Wake up at 4 a.m. to shovel horse ‘droppings’ in a freezing barn.
• Pack boxes in a ball bearing factory.
• Fry hamburgers.
• Smash my head against a wall to test helmets.
• Shovel snow in Anchorage. In February.
• Put diapers, toilet paper, sanitary napkins, and peanut butter on store shelves.
• Pump gas.
• Mow grass.
• Rake leaves (and put them in the bags).
• Bus tables.
• Be a rickshaw driver in New Delhi.

Alternatively, I could find great clients who:

• Value persuasive writing.
• Pay accordingly.
• Treat me like a professional.
• Tell the truth about their compensation.
• Pay on time and not make excuses about ‘their providers’ not getting funds in the right accounts. (Yeah, right).
• Value great content.

Good thing I’ve been marketing myself and have plenty of these clients.

The only activity that pays less than CopyPress is jury duty.

This gem from the CopyPress website.

CopyPress writers receive competitive rates and are paid in bi-monthly installments. Writers never wait around to be paid and always know exactly when to expect their next pay check. 

Memo to CopyPress...next time, for your website, hire a copywriter who will tell the truth. Rule #1 in copywriting is to tell the truth. Telling lies will come back to haunt you. Your rates are NOT competitive and you know it. Also, based on all the emails I received last week about late payment due to a 'technical' error, writers DO NOT know when to expect their pay.

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I'm a direct response copywriter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I specialize in providing copy and content for the direct marketing environment for clients around the world. Enter your info to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or contact me here.