Blogfeeder - The Copywriting and Marketing Blog from Wordfeeder.com

Copywriting Secrets: What You Missed

Hungry for inspiration? Need no-nonsense copywriting advice to help bring your next project up to speed?

You missed the last issue of Word Food: the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine from Wordfeeder.com. But don't let that stop me from giving it all away anyway! Read our September feature right here:

Editing and Writing Tips that Will Have Your Book or E-book Flying off the Shelves

While you're here, why not stop in to my other blog, Copywriting on the Fly and check out my latest philosophical ramblings - Copywriting Weapon: The God Complex.

Need copywriting backup support? Email Dina@Wordfeeder.com for a project quote today.

Microsoft Smart Quotes and Your Email Newsletter

Did you ever notice that sometimes your email newsletter comes across as having weird looking code in it after you publish?

For example, you know you typed the below sentence normally. And yet after you hit SEND, your email spit back this gibberish:

This month’s featured article discusses...

I've likely mentioned this before but I'll say it again for the new readers. That oogy code slips in there every time an apostrophe or set of quotation marks is translated from Microsoft Word to HTML.

HTML docs do not understand the Microsoft "Smart Quotes" feature - those curved quotes and apostrophes that look so much more precise than inch marks (") and footmarks (').

So, what you're ideally supposed to do is SHUT OFF the Smart Quotes feature in Word before you type any text that will be pasted into a web page later.

You do this under the TOOLS menu up top - where the autocorrections lists are. Microsoft Word will offer to auto-correct other things, like automatically capitalize, automatically continue numbered lists and so forth. You want to uncheck the box that says "automatically correct Smart Quotes" or whatever it says. While you're at it, just shut off all auto-correct functions. (I can't stand it when the program does things that I didn't ask it to do.)

I offer "writing support" for many clients, who then integrate my articles, snippets and partial drafts into their completed newsletters before sending out. As I edit their copy, I change the curved quotes and footmarks back to straight. This can be time consuming, and it can put hours on the clock as there is no way that I know of to make this a "global" change on existing text.

But of course I can't edit the parts of my copywriting clients' newsletters that they create themselves. So what ends up happening is that when their ezine is published, I eagerly open the email, and GAH! There are those danged weird code marks that I detest so greatly.

This is a really simple solution - just SHUT OFF the Smart Quotes feature in Word, like I said. I ALWAYS have mine turned off. But none of my clients do, it seems.

Another tip from the web-savvy mind behind Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing.

You Like Me! You Really Like Me!?

Great Oden's Raven! I have been sitting here feeling wretched all morning, thinking of the dreaded confirmation email that I had to unfortunately send out whilst in the process of moving my list. It's been eating away at me. If there is one thing I do NOT enjoy, it's pestering people.

Well, you little dears, look at you there in my soon-to-be new Word Food Copywriting Ezine home base. All lined up and peeping at me so attentively. I asked you to click the link, and you clicked the link. Well I'll be darned. SNIFF.

This is quite humbling indeed. I feel so... VALIDATED. Or should I say verified, because really, that's what happened. YOU verified that the copywriting mailings I carefully prepare for you each month really and truly mean something.

We used to joke around when I worked in the creative dept at Toys"R"Us. We'd say, "Yeah, working our asses off to make the deadline for yet another roto that's just going to end up at the bottom of the bird cage."

THANK YOU for not making Bird Food out of Word Food. :))

If you're new to this blog, and have no idea what the hell I'm blubbering about, let me fill you in.

I send out a copywriting newsletter each month and I offer GREAT free information on how to market your products and services on the 'net. We leave no stone unturned. Also, the newsletter is quite buttoned up. You will not find me blathering on in it the way I do on this blog. Just thought I'd mention it.

Sign up right here:

Name:
Email Address:
Company (if any):
Address:
Address 2:
City:
State/Province:
Zip/Postal Code:
Country:
How'd you find us?:

Thank you kindly - I said it before and I'll say it again.
We are so humbled and delighted to have you on our mailing list. :)

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

Word Food: Dishing Up Disaster This Week?

Last night I made the decision to change my permission-based email list manager from Kickstart to AWeber.com.

::sweating::

I did it because I found out my subscriber sign-up box was "broken" for the third or fourth time this month. I did it because I have lost several orders because my "gateway" to Paypal keeps becoming disconnected EVEN THOUGH I SUPPOSEDLY FIXED THAT.

I also did it because, for the time being, I will not be selling copywriting information products. Instead I plan to just GIVE AWAY free information for a while. The truth is, I'm too busy writing copy for other people to have time for my own! (I know... I know...)

I will tell you right now, marketer to marketer, that this moving of one's list is quite a harrowing ordeal. The reason is because, sure, hey, any old list manager will let you import contacts if you have them in a comma- or tab-delineated file.

But then the trick is to get people to notice the emails and click the confirmation link. I HATE having to ask for stuff, and I also hate being a potential source of annoyance for my clients and readers.

I recommend that you choose your email list management company VERY carefully. Because it seems that once you choose one company, you're kind of stuck with them.

If you're interested in receiving our EXTREMELY INFORMATIVE, very HIGH QUALITY email newsletter containing all the free copywriting and marketing tips you could ever want, then SIGN UP NOW (even if you're already on our list).

Name:
Email Address:
Company (if any):
Address:
Address 2:
City:
State/Province:
Zip/Postal Code:
Country:
How'd you find us?:

Thank you kindly - we are so humbled and delighted to have you on our mailing list. :)

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

Why I Stay Away from Other Copywriters' Blogs

God's honest truth: I try to avoid other copywriters' blogs and ezines as much as possible.

When I first arrived on the web scene, I spent a lot of time listening to what The Web Copywriting Experts had to say. After all, I was new to the game - and this game was different than what I'd learned after 9 years of corporate print advertising. Not entirely different. Sales copy is sales copy no matter what medium you're writing for. But there were enough "internet tricks" that I needed to master before I could claim any type of authority in the world of online advertising.

And as it turns out, I found out that it's not so important to listen to what successful marketers say, but instead to WATCH WHAT THEY DO. Seriously.

Eventually it became clear that all copywriters are really just offering the same advice in different forms. I can't tell you how many times I've stumbled upon some "new" pearl of copywriting wisdom and reflected, "Hey, I said that last week!" or "I know I just read that somewhere else!"

The biggest reason of all not to read other copywriters' blogs is this: I want my ideas to be "my ideas." So, when I publish an article on how to write sales copy that converts, it comes straight from my brain, and not from something I "borrowed" from a fellow writer, not realizing that I borrowed it.

You're not ripping off someone else if you say something similar to what they said but you don't know that they said it. Right? So that's why I'm not looking. La, la, la, not looking. Been doing this for more than 12 years now. Took all the classes, read the books.

If you publish a copywriting and marketing ezine or discuss copywriting on your blog like I do, I must apologize to you. I don't read your stuff. Instead, I'm reading about related fields. This to me, is the best way to get the edge in your industry.

Do you agree?

Get your copywriting on the fly: Wordfeeder.com

Share Your Grammar Pet Peeve With My Readers

Okay, I have this copywriting thing. I feel like, when I talk to my readers about marketing plans and strategies, I'm swimming with the Big Sharks. (Ask Lori Davis about Sharks). Plans and strategies are synonymous with profit.

And yet, if you're writing marketing copy, it's still important to dwell in minutiae, i.e. be mindful of all the little things. Like grammar and punctuation.

I plan to feature a Grammatical Pet Peeves article in the next issue of Word Food: the Copywriting and Marketing Ezine. If this intrigues you, sign up now!

Mind you, my intention is not to whine and complain. It's to point out that good ol' fashioned grammar is still a critical piece of your professional image. I want to deliver concrete examples that my readers can make a mental note of and save "for next time" they're writing copy.

When I was still corporate, I worked alongside a lovely young woman who seemed to think that "supposably" was a word. She was, ahem (coughing) a copywriter. She wrote this word, "supposably," in her emails all the time.

So how does this happen? Beats me, but I'd love to get your input on this upcoming grammar feature. What's your grammar gripe or punctuation peeve? Send your stories... respond right in the COMMENTS section of this post.

If they're relevant, I'll share your remarks and your website URL with my newsletter audience!

Thanks.

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

From Copywriting to Logo Design

Logo design seems to be the topic of interest lately. Today my friend, Cynthia McKenna, asked for my creative input on the new logo for her counseling business. So I referred her to an article that I discovered just two days ago, covering the fundamentals of good logo design. If you're thinking about branding your business for real, then I strongly recommend that you read it.

So, in her quest for logo enlightenment, Cynthia remarked that she "really likes my logo." (Gee, thanks, Cynthia!) Which is kind of funny, because I don't have a logo. I have a "graphic," whatever that means. That header thing with the yellow chick at the top of my copywriting and marketing website. I, uh, made that.

I realized it wasn't a "real logo" when I tried to use it for purposes other than the header of my website. The first purpose being, a smaller "graphic" for my ezine. After shrinking it down to 300 pixels, I noticed that something "just wasn't right," with the company description becoming unreadable and the little chick taking a rather sad, shrunken appearance.

I also figured out it wasn't a logo when I began studying actual logos. I realized that in order for it to become a logo, I'd basically have to hire a graphic designer to "stylize" the chick and make him look like he was "carved out" of say, a block of wood. Maybe make him a puzzle piece. But then, if he's a puzzle piece, he obviously can't be munching on his "word food" anymore, and there goes the damned joke.

Oh well.

So, Cynthia, since you asked me about my logo, I will tell you the story of how the Copy Chick came to be. Brace yourself now, this is quite the tale (not it's not!). Back when I still had one foot in the corporate world and the other in start-up land, I thought, "Hey, I have all of these copywriting portfolio samples. Why not scan them and stick them up on a website?"

First things first, I had to figure out "what my website name was going to be." Being the cheeseball that I am, I of course wanted a good pun that would show off my verbal dexterity. So I wrote a list that contained such priceless gems as Wordbrain, Word Bird, Wordhouse, Wordsworth, and so on down the list.

Then I went to Earthlink and proceeded to do a domain availability check on all my top word puns. Wordfeeder was one of the few that cleared, so I grabbed it. In retrospect, Word Food is the better play on words, but coincidentally "feeds" (as in RSS feeds) came of age on the web at the same time as I did, so oddly enough my domain choice was a pretty good one.

Anyway. Next I thought, well, it looks like it's going to be bird imagery. And off I went in search of stock photos of birdfeeders. As you might imagine, all of the birdfeeder images looked rather dumb on my new web page (it wasn't a site at this point, it was a page - and it wasn't that berry color yet, it was brown and white). So then I hunted for bird houses and bird seed and birds eating seed. I selected a chickadee in a wooden birdhouse and then I did something in Photoshop that I will probably never figure out how to do again - I turned a photo into a "painting." And I had this brown and white bird in a wooden house thing, that was my "logo."

Then, three website redesigns later, a woman on Ryze told me my website lacked energy and I was inclined to agree. The Chick made his presence known. So I snatched him up and gave him a new home at the top of my website. I switched my color scheme from brown, tan and white, to maroon and white. Later came blue and yellow accents on the sidebar - to kind of pick up the yellow in the chick's fuzz.

I guess that what happened is, I based my entire website design around a photo of a baby chick.

This is getting boring, I think I'm going to pass out. Cynthia, I just want you to know that all of this developed over the course of several years and many "design" flubs. So, don't worry if you can't get a counseling logo by the time you go to the trade show. The best visual they can possibly get is the one of your kind eyes and warm smile!

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing
"Get your copy on the fly!" (just another bird pun for you)

Copywriting: How to Think Like a Top Paid Creative

I'm guessing that you came to my copywriting and marketing blog for one of two reasons:

1. You want to know how to write copy that will help you sell more product

2. You're a copywriter like I am - you're looking for cameraderie and perhaps an article topic or two

I just released an article that I think you'll like. It's about Analogy Marketing and how this technique can help you write copy that's on par with what the web's best creatives would write. You just missed the newsletter mailing that I sent out explaining this in detail, but have no fear.

If you sign up for the Word Food Copywriting and Marketing Ezine right now, the very article I speak of will arrive in your email inbox.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

- Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

Oh, right - you wanted copywriting tips!

I have a confession to make. Writing copywriting tips bores me. (She said, glancing around furtively). It bores me not because I loathe writing copy, which could not be further from the truth. I LOVE what I do, with every breath that's in me. It's just that trying to explain something that just FLOWS out of you is... well, frankly, quite tedious.

I'm not one to buy into those goofy marketing theories that there are Ten Easy Headline Templates to memorize and shuffle among all six of the product sales pages you run continuously. I mean, there ARE some old standby's like the "Who Wants to..." headline and what-have-you. But who CARES! Are we that unimaginative and at a loss for words that we need a headline prototype to follow?

Here's how I see it. If trying to think up clever headlines that get people reading and clicking seems like a hopeless endeavor, it probably is hopeless. You need to back away from the marketing and let a pro have at it, while you go and do That Thang that you were born to do.

Really! What takes you say, three months to hemm and haww over could take a seasoned copywriting and marketing professional a mere few hours to slam out and bat some home-run sales for your business. The other day my esteemed colleague Lori Davis astutely pointed out that if you bill your clients $100.00 per hour but you spend 4 hours of your day doing mundane or non-productive tasks... that's $400 you just squelched away! Now, she's a Virtual Assistant, but the same theory applies to your marketing and copy work. When in doubt, farm it out.

Now, I said I was going to offer a copywriting tip, and I am. My tip today is this: speak to the ego of your reader - ESPECIALLY on the homepage. DO NOT SPEAK FROM YOUR OWN EGO in the marketing copy.

I can't tell you how many times I have to replace the live links on my Copywriting Samples page with "PDF"s of original copy drafts because, post-project, my client gets the sudden urge to sing Me Me Me on the homepage. Do you know how much that rattles me? 

To put this into perspective... did you ever go surfing about, in search of information, something that you intended to buy, whatever, and read THIS famous drivel?

THANK YOU FOR VISITING COMPANY X. WE ARE A FULL-SERVICE WIDGET-DEVELOPMENT AGENCY. WE HAVE BEEN IN BUSINESS FOR X YEARS AND HAVE CREATED MANY SUCCESSFUL WIDGET CAMPAIGNS FOR A GLORIOUSLY BORING LIST OF WIDGET CLIENTS ACROSS THE...

Zzzz... ohh, I'm sorry! I dozed off for a minute there. Boring the crap out of myself. Do you know what bores people? Talking about YOURSELF and what YOU HAVE DONE. Sorry, I know we all get giddy when we see our names and accomplishments in print, but our customers are not enjoying the read nearly as much as we are. TRUST ME ON THAT ONE.

Know what excites your website visitors? Talking about THEM, their problems, their needs, their secret dreams and fears and WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THEM. Telling them how you can help solve their issues.

Does this mean you should never talk about yourself in your web copy? Of course not! Credentials are important, and they have their place on the About page of your website. Your future customers will land on that page as soon as they get far enough past the initial introduction. They'll get there AFTER they think, okay, this company sounds like maybe they can really do something for me. I may just want to purchase what they have. But first - I'd better check out if this is a too-good-to-be-true promise or what. Who is behind all of this? (And THAT is when they finally meander along to find out what you're all about).

I'm not sure why so many clients chicken out of talking TO their customers, addressing their customers' wants, needs, desires and psychological issues. Is it that sales aren't rocketing skyward as quickly as they anticipated? Well, my friends, if sales are slagging, then chances are you have not followed through with the necessary marketing protocol to get yourself noticed and get that traffic  generator humming. Which is:

1. Continuously adding keyword-rich, topic-relevant articles to your website.
2. Capturing the email addresses of your visitors with a sign-up form on your homepage.
3. Mailing out periodic ezine mailings to your audience - making direct and repeated contact!
4. Blogging (now there's a great way to talk all you want about yourself - if you must!)
5. Publishing articles on other websites - in the ezines of your peers and colleagues, getting out there and networking, and finding ways to spread your link and your wealth of knowledge.

So, that's your copywriting and marketing mouthful for the day. I hope you're taking notes - I'll be there, on your website, checking up on you no doubt!

;)

- Dina at Wordfeeder.com

I Eat Serial Commas for Breakfast.

My dear friend Ann Zuccardy of Vermont Shortbread Company has asked about my thoughts on serial commas. Don't laugh... when I first heard Ann use the term "serial comma" I thought that she was referring to some overly-comma-obsessed, grammar-guide-wielding psychopath who spent his entire life searching for opportunities to insert commas regardless of whether they were actually needed.

In time, I realized that Ann was referring to the use of the LAST COMMA in a SERIES! And I call myself a copywriting expert... harrumph!

For the uninitiated, a serial comma would appear (or not appear) in a sentence like this:

My favorite holidays are Christmas, Easter, and Independence Day.

I'm sorry to say that 12 years of writing print advertising materials has caused me to divorce that last comma in the series.

I admit, the serial comma was with me through my elementary years and even through numerous college papers and fiction writing assignments. I hung on to the little guy for as long as I could. But as a copywriting and marketing professional, I've spent too much of my life trying to fit every product detail and benefit into a too-small space - and truth be told, I RESENT the serial comma for causing me space issues and conflict with my fellow coworkers. I have no room left for frivolous liberties like the last (omittable) comma in the series, AND the second space after a period (one space will do just fine, thanks). Much like New Jersey, the print and web advertising world is far too crammed.

So, sorry Ann, but this copywriting and marketing chick must leave the serial comma by the wayside. It is how the Marketing World trained me and it is now all that I know. Instead of putting them in my brochures, print ads, web copy, articles and so forth, I save all the serial commas to be stored in a cardboard box and eventually poured into a bowl and eaten, with milk.

Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing