Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet

Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet — Part 2

The Copywriting Maven wasn’t, I’m sad to say, listed under Copywriting Blogs and Resources, but I’m sure that was just an oversight.

UPDATE - Those super cool guys at GrokDotCom just added Maven to the list. Talk about responsive! Thank you~ 

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• The ultimate guide to writing and designing effective landing pages, Marketing Sherpa’s Landing Page Handbook, 2008 (aff)

[tags] online copywriting, grokdotcom, copywriting tips [/tags]

When I moved from Typepad to WordPress (a move I’m feeling better about as we go along), my feed changed and if you’re using a reader, you might be getting some sort of error. (I caught this problem on my Netvibes reader.)

Easy fix, though. Delete the old feed address and rediscover the new! Your reader should update to the new feed address in moments and you won’t miss a scintillating minute of my musings.

Thanks for your patience during the ongoing migration!

[tags] feedburner, rediscover feeds, blog migration[/tags]

Tom wrote four reasons, but I had seven in me, screaming to get out:

#1: I like writing.

Writer’s write, it’s what we do. Although I have no novel in the drawer and find personal journaling a chore, I like blogging knowing I have an audience who might find what I have to say helpful, useful, informative, and perhaps a little entertaining.

#2: I like sharing.

I love being a copywriter. I started writing advertising over 25+ years ago for a dress manufacturer in NYC. Did a little more ad writing for a small, daytime-only station in Maryland. Then I found myself writing copy full-time for a medical/health science publisher and then a direct marketing consultancy. 20 years ago (April 1987), I took the plunge and opened my own little DM shop.

And I’m still here.

I’m as enthusiastic now as I was then. With so much new opportunity and media to explore, who wouldn’t want to be a copywriter?! I learned mostly on my own with lots of trial and error and my employer’s deep pockets. But I discovered a long time ago I am a maven (self-proclaimed expert) and like to share what I know. And if a little business comes my way because of it, that’s a bonus.

#3: I like and understand the power of social networking.

I’ve been online, in one form or another, since 1986. I was one of the original creatives for an online subscription service called GEnie. (General Electric was looking to make a little cash off its mainframes nights and weekends.) (Side note: The agency I worked for was the original ad agency for AOL, too.)

I wrote a great ad with the headline: "Come play after dark with GEnie." GEnie thought it was too risque and changed "play" to "compute." (Considering the multi-billion dollar online adult industry, GEnie missed the point, I’d say.)

• I met my husband-to-be on GEnie in 1988. (This was the no-image, text only days of online chat.)
• I tell my kids their father and I invented LOL and :=) … but I’m only half-kidding, because I did invent :=D
• GEnie closed, I moved to Compuserve where I was a Section Leader, as they were called, for the Religion and Sexuality Forums (because I like to live on the periphery of controversy and inappropriate jibber-jabber. I also got to play for free.)
• I networked my entire Las Vegas divorce (6 weeks from start to finish) with the help on online friends.

I may be a middle-aged mom, but I "get it" and have for a long, long time.

#4: I like experimenting, trying new things, and analyzing the response it generates.

As a direct marketing, I enjoy the testing/analysis aspect of results and response. The online world simply has sped-up the process. Blogging and the associated widgets and affiliate programs give me a chance to fine-tune my message and media mix on the fly.

#5: I like learning.

As much as I enjoy being the smartest girl in the room most of the time, I like learning anything and everything from mavens in their own fields.

#6: I like entertaining an audience.

I don’t have to see your eyes or hear you breathing to know you’re out there. If not laughing, then smiling from time to time. As a former stand-up comic, that’s a plus.

#7: I like building my business a little bigger, a little stronger.

(See #2, I like sharing.) Because as much as I love what I do, I don’t do it for love. I do it to make a living. With 3 kids to get through college and a retirement to fund, yeah, revenue is a good thing.

And now it’s my turn to tag the unsuspecting!

Like Tom, I’ll cast my net over semi-unfamiliar waters and tag: Yvonne Russell (who brought the Blog Posey maker to my attention) … Nathania Johnson … Elizabeth Perry … and with a nod to the blog lads, Ben
Yoskovitz and Todd And(rlik)

Have fun!

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