Blogfeeder - The Copywriting and Marketing Blog from Wordfeeder.com

How to Write with Energy

by Dina Giolitto

Do you want to stir people to action with your words? The majority of web articles and blog posts come across in that sing-song drone. "I like cats because they are cute and furry. My cat is so funny he is always eating my socks."

Okay, this is gross exaggeration – but I'm trying to make a point here! Low-energy articles bore people to tears. High-energy writing inspires action. Web surfers lack patience. If they don't care for what they find on your site, all it takes is a click and they're gone, gone, gone.

If you have a business website, and you'd like to avoid publishing the "I like cats" type of article, then you must find a way to maintain high energy in your writing voice. A few quick tricks...

(Continue reading "How to Write with Energy")

Announcing Our New E-Guide: Start Up Your Own Writing and Editing Business On the Web

Are you a writer, copywriter or editor who's always dreamed of working from the comfort of home? Finally, after serving clients via the web for more than 8 years, Wordfeeder is creating a long-awaited guide book to help you do just that.

Get ready for The Nitty Gritty of How to Start Up a Writing or Editing Business on the Web!

I used the phrase "nitty gritty" because I'm a practical person. I like to get to the meat of the matter, and that's what I'll be sharing with you. You know... those confusing little details about online business that nobody bothers to tell you about without a lot of prodding and struggling on your part!

Some things you'll learn from our e-guide:

• The critical difference between web and print copywriting
• How to organize, categorize, and present your writing samples for public viewing
• The secret to getting people to your website who already want what you have
• Email newsletters 101: yes, those new marketer mistakes can really hurt you!
• Social networking tactics to blast your good name out to the world and bring you more clients than you know what to do with
• HTML survival basics to give your web content an extra push
• Coping skills for challenging clients (and how to attract the best ones to your front door)

And much more!

Be one of the first to hear about the launch of our long-awaited e-guide, The Nitty Gritty of How to Start Up a Writing or Editing Business on the Web. Sign up for our list below.

 

 

Resume Writing Service - $100 Special - Get Aggressive With Your Job Search

Job hunting in 2010? Your resume is the place to "talk your walk". Seriously... you've worked your butt off all these years, and your resume should reflect your level of commitment and dedication. Looking like everybody else is NOT going to cut it for job seekers.

Let Wordfeeder get you in the door with our resume writing service magic! We're offering a temporary price break to rewrite your resume and start marketing Brand You!

Celebrate your career achievements and broadcast all those reasons why you're utterly indispensible! Wordfeeder will help you do it thanks to our amazing resume transformation techniques.

Resume Writing Service: Here's What You Get for Just $100!

• A half-hour phone consult and/or email Q&A regarding your career objective, history, experience, strengths, certifications, etc.
  
• Review of your existing resume - what's good, what to add, what's got to go
  
• Reorganization tips relevant to the industry you're applying to as well as your career objective
  
• Advisement on whether to version your resume for different types of job searches
  
• Addition of your "personal sales pitch" - specific, quantifiable reasons why the hiring person should select YOU and not the other guy or gal!
  
• Websmart keywords and phrases to help you get found by online head hunters

I've helped people land the jobs they wanted... I can do the same for you!

For more information, email dina@wordfeeder.com.

PS: Don't miss this offer and don't be rooked. Some people charge upwards of $1,000.00 to do exactly what I do.

What I'm Working On: Garden Coaching Sales Copy for a Landscaping Client

One copywriting/website client who I really enjoy working with is always coming up with creative new ways to pitch her services. She's a professional landscaper, but instead of having one of those static websites, she provides valuable tips for people who are looking to learn. While a website can serve many purposes, dynamic is so much more effective for your bottom line than static. My client knows this and having me help her create new content on a regular basis is bringing her business.

So if you want your name coming up for all kinds of searches that people might be out there Googling, post all kinds of how-to articles and different types of promotions that will help people learn something new.

This week, my client and I brainstormed a solution for folks who can appreciate a well lanscaped backyard but don't want to spend a lot on a professional gardener. We're working on a garden coaching page, where people can get how-to instructions, helpful diagrams, and phone time with a landscaper who knows what they're doing. We're going to publish this information on its own, stand-alone sales page and use the words "garden coach" in the title so that people will be able to find it.

Searching for creative ways to market your business online? Email dina@wordfeeder.com for help!

Writing Copy for Clients is a Lot Like Cooking With Your Italian Mom

The Italian people out there know what it's like to cook with your mother. She can't keep her eye/hands off whatever you're doing. If you're chopping the garlic while she's grating the onions, she'll stop grating the onions to correct your garlic-chopping technique. There can't be TWO right ways to chop garlic, CAN there!?

That's more or less what it's like to write copy for small business clients. Only in this case, it really is THEIR copy and so what happens is, they add their two cents to what you wrote, there's nothing you can really do about it, and that's how errors are born. You put in the parsley, they added MORE parsley, and now there's too much parsley. Too many copywriting cooks... you know the old cliche.

The challenge with small business clients is that they only want to pay so much, and that is reasonable and understandable. However, being on the copywriting side of things makes this a somewhat excruciating experience if you look for too long. Make no mistake - the copy that I write is manipulative in every way. I did all that stuff on PURPOSE, to help you sell things.

The headline at the top is written so that the search engines will find you. The length of the sentences is purposeful so that people will remain glued to the message as they read. The bolded subheads were crafted like that to hold attention all the way down the page. The lack of redundancy will keep your copy crisp and readable.

But copy is so easy to tinker with. ("Oh, I'll just edit this sentence just a wee bit." "Oh, I don't care for this particular word, let's change it.") The clients can't help themselves, and is how errors quickly creep back into the draft. And since the client already paid for a set amount of hours, there's little I can do after the fact. 

I can't very well be like your Italian mother, smacking your hand away from the parsley, hollering "No, do it THIS way!" That's not very professional, and the fact is that you can piss off a copywriting client by being too much of a control freak. After all, it's THEIR project. THEIRS!

(But GAH - your badly written copy reflects poorly on ME!)

So, my ongoing struggle as a marketing copywriter is to look away once the final draft has exchanged hands. It's not my business what the client's homepage says in the end. After the client says thanks for your advice/help, here's your money, I have to walk away and not look back unless I'm asked to look back.

But GOD, it can be PAINFUL!! 

Email dina@wordfeeder.com for a copywriting or website marketing quote today.

Richard Garcia?

Someone named Richard Garcia has sent me 3 form queries regarding a real estate investment postcard campaign. I have responded to two of his emails, both of which bounced back as undelivered.

If you are Richard Garcia, please email dina@wordfeeder.com directly, from a different email account than you are currently using. I will then forward the mails that I sent regarding your project.

Thank you,

Dina Giolitto
Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

Why I've Been Posting Less

For those who come to visit Blogfeeder on a regular basis, just know that I'm still blogging... but in other places! Please take a look at my new Wordpress blogs, Copywriting on the Fly which is located at http://Wordfeeder.com/blog and the newly launched Entrepreneur's Breakfast at http://entrepreneursbreakfast.com.

I don't think I'll be eradicating this Typepad blog just yet. Sometimes Wordpress gets funky and in that case, the Typepad blog serves as a reliable stand-by. But it true that I've been blogging my little heart out over here for many years, and yet I'm giving all the traffic away to a higher entity.

Did you ever stop to think of the sheer volume of content that you put into your blogging effort over time, and what else you could be doing with it?

Something to pull aside a copywriter and make a plan for.

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

Doing one thing well...

Or doing many things decently?

I write copy for a living. I've been doing this since... well, since age nine or so, if you want to get technical. But in a professional sense, I've been writing copy since I graduated college.

My first job was not a copywriter position, no. (It's not so easy to break into the field right out of school... but I did interview at Ogilvy and Mather at 22. My brush with fame!). Nevertheless, copywriting and ad development were two hats I did wear at my first job - so I got experience. This served as a springboard for my second job, where I worked in the copywriting department of a global retailer for 7 years.

After that, I decided to branch out. I wanted to do more... you guessed it. Copywriting. But this time, maybe in some different fields. I tried working in pharmaceutical. Wrote some ads about diabetes and high blood pressure. Edited some pharma marketing campaigns. Proofread a lot of drug reports.

I didn't like that so much. But, it paid the bills. So for a while I was juggling that, and a freelance ad copywriting position for a small but well-established ad agency.

I wasn't used to operating as a contractor instead of a full-time employee. I was used to working through my lunches and staying late to get things done. Contractors aren't supposed to stay late, even if they don't clock the added hours. They get in trouble for doing stuff like that. I was very confused. My seniority was gone. I felt like an outsider at my jobs (yes, there were more than one).

It was a strange time. There were other gigs, but not worth mentioning.

Next came my online stint, with Dream Big Media. I helped them launch a new web business, operating as their "senior copywriter." That was my introduction to the dot-com world, and it was incredibly rewarding. We had a small but powerful, close-knit marketing team. But internet businesses of course don't have the security that working for a big name company does. So after nine months, everything collapsed. Our brand-new dot-com was downgraded. I had no choice - I had to go pound the virtual pavement for my own clients. Onto Sologig, Elance, and Craigslist I went. Wordfeeder was born.

The transition period that I just described to you was the shakiest in all my career history. That's a lot of jobs to bounce around in a span of... oh, I guess it was nearly a year? Living like this doesn't feel healthy. But one thing I will say. All of those jobs were STILL focused on ONE skill: copywriting.

I write copy. That's what I do. Now that I have my own freelance copywriting business, I write copy in many different voices and forms, for many different people. But it's still just copywriting. I wouldn't dream of going out there and starting a new business based around a totally different skill or field. I can't imagine how this could possibly be lucrative. I can't imagine how anyone can truly be successful at one thing when they've got six other things going on at the same time.

Sometimes my clients come to me and I know they're struggling with the budget. Or they lack focus - they don't know how to work with me for long-term growth.

That's because they're all over the place. If you're someone who's spinning five plates in the air, jeez, drop the china! Just figure out what you do best, and do it. I'd love to help you pull together a long-term strategy for success.

I didn't grow Wordfeeder.com Copywriting from acting as a one-woman band doing SEO, Virtual Assistance, Copywriting, and Design. I've learned those skills to help me in my business and to empower me in my decisions. But they're not my expertise and never will be.

I just write copy. That's it.

What do you do? When will you tell the world about it?

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing