Writing enticing sales copy for ads, web sites, newsletters, etc. can often be a daunting task because so many different approaches seem to work equally well at a given time depending upon the target audience, the product being sold, the venue, etc.

At other times, nothing seems to work well. You scratch your head wondering if there is any way possible to make your copy stand out and seem appealing.

It’s like trying to sell sand to a nomad in the desert.

Here’s a little “trick” to try the next time you get stumped and are not sure how to approach the task.

Actually, it’s not really a trick but just a different way of thinking about your ad layout.

Most all of us tend to frame our copywriting in terms of the way we think and tell others our stories.

When you tell a friend or your spouse about an experience you had, typically you “map out” the story in chronological order.

You start at the beginning and relate the background details, then you give the particulars leading up to the climax.

Your story builds one step at a time until you finally get to the “good stuff,” the reason for relating the story.

After you’ve given the best information, the climax, the “point” of it all, you often wind down with your own observations of what happened, how you felt, why the story is important, etc.

When many of us tackle copywriting for sales messages, we tend to think in the same chronological step-by-step sequence.

The problem is, if the story isn’t interesting or unique or thought-provoking, often the reader will get bored after the first sentence or two and leave.

You will have no chance to make a sale without an engaged prospect.

Here’s one solution to the dilemma: hit the reader with a 1-2 punch of a grabbing headline and the most important benefit (climax) right at the very start.

Don’t make him suffer through boring, story-building details.

Many experienced writers claim that 80% of the success of your ad will come from the headline alone.

If that’s the case, packing a 1-2 punch should give the reader maybe 90% of what he wants right off the bat.

If you can’t engage the reader with the best shots you have (the 1-2 punch) you probably won’t stand much of a chance to make the sale based upon the remaining 10% of your ammunition.

Getting the good stuff right off the bat is like eating your dessert first.

If that doesn’t get your attention, then the vegetables and bread aren’t going to be much of an incentive to stay for the whole meal.

I have seen a smattering of Internet marketers voicing loud and sometimes passionate opinions that blogs are destroying the Internet. Why?

These blog naysayers suggest that blogs are too ubiquitous, they give every Tom, Dick, and Sally a public platform on which they push a certain agenda, try to sell in a saturated market, and criticize and condemn products they don’t like even when their reasons are suspect.

One fellow complained that blogs get into the search results too easily and because of the sheer numbers of blogs (he said “tens of millions”) the results are not returning what viewers are looking for.

You know what I think? If that’s what blogs are really doing . . . give me as many of them as I can handle!

The foundation of the Internet, as far as I’m concerned, is the free and open exchange of information.

What platform fits that definition better than any others? Blogging!

Is there a better, simpler, more direct way for a journalist, business owner, or passionate nicher to offer information directly to the public and seek to get relevant information in return (through comments) than by blogging? If so, please tell me what it is.

If the proliferation of blogs is causing skewed search engine results, then it would seem likely that they are becoming the most important kind of content producers that are giving the search engines exactly what they are looking for.

If blogs are giving products unbiased and objective reviews and scrutiny, then let’s have more of them.

If blogs are too successful at selling products and saturating markets, then every entrepreneur has the charge to get blogging and share in the wealth!

I’ve posted before about the advantages of maintaining a blog. They are many and very powerful.

With ease of setup, the low cost of maintaining a blog, the opportunity to generate revenue on site, and the possibility for eventual search engine listings at the top of the results page, blogs are an inexpensive, easy, and effective way to maintain a web presence and profit at the same time.

If the collective threat of the blogging community is really the muscle flexing of the Evil Empire, then move over Darth Vader, I’m defecting!

I’m not sure that the blogging craze can last forever; surely there will be other cutting edge platforms that arise to steal the Internet limelight in the future. Technology has a way of changing the landscape very quickly.

But the principles of free speech, open access, information sharing, quick feedback, deep niche specialization, and the ability to generate revenue are really the foundation of blogging.

I see these principles as enduring. Until a better venue or tool is found, blogging will continue to be relevant and important!

May the blog force be with you . . .

The owner of a solo digital information business is the perfect candidate for a targeted niche blog authored by the business owner and directed to support and advertise the business and the product.

Remember that the solo business owner is generally an independent, a free spirited thinker, one who prefers to do business alone without the constraints of employees, physical overhead, or management induced policies and rules.

This is exactly the profile of a successful blogger: one that is not shy about forming his own biases and opinions based on his life experiences and then publishing and sharing his knowledge and ideas with other like-minded nichers that hunger for the same type of information.

The blog format lends itself nicely to the busy schedule and limited time available to the solo operator.

He can log into his blog creation software online at any time, day or night, home or away and create his post, publish it, and be done with the task in a matter of minutes if he keeps the posts brief.

The blog can be served up as an “area” or page on the owner’s business web site, or it can be hosted as either a sub-domain of the business site or an altogether detached and autonomous site with its own URL.

The blog of a business owner can have a number of purposes, all of which lend themselves nicely to complementing or supplementing the regular offerings of the business, whether they be products or services.

The business owner / blog author can target all these web site and traffic advantages as the purpose or reason for his blog:

1. Answer reader’s questions in the niche as an “expert” or niche authority,
2. Drive traffic to the main web site upon blog post recommendations,
3. Suggest products or services that the business sells and link to their descriptions or direct sales pages,
4. Mention business events, news, product releases, special sales, etc. within the daily posts,
5. Carry advertising for the business in its banners, display ads, text linking, etc.
6. Carry affiliate sales links in the blog content as a further revenue stream,
7. Give “how to” information about the business product uses, services, policies, or the specific niche the business deals in,
8. Can generate feedback and comments from readers as the source of new product and service ideas for the business,
9. Help to humanize the business and and expose the personality of the owner so that the prospects will trust and have more confidence in the business,
10. Can be a means of giving special incentives, discounts, coupons, etc to the blog readers as a marketing strategy to sell more niche products of the main business.

I’m sure there are other advantages that I haven’t mentioned. With the ease, speed, and usefulness of today’s blogs, small solo info business owners would do well to get blogging as soon as possible!

Blogs, like most every other type of Internet web site, gain value, grow, and even thrive when they are heavily viewed.

The more traffic a blog receives, the greater the chances for continued relevance and possible revenue generation.

Of course, money and income don’t drive most blogs.

Typically bloggers are content with having their own soapbox to publish their opinions and feelings to the world (or at least those who care to visit.)

Bloggers are also finding that most search engines seem to like blogs. Why?

Blogs are based on frequent updating of relevant and key word rich content.

They are niche specific, often include contextual links, and are open to further content in the form of suggestions or comments that are published along with each post.

Here is a strategy for bloggers to try that will increase traffic to the blog because it displays information being sought by search engine users.

First, visit WordTracker, the Overture search term suggestion tool, Good Keywords, or other web sites or software that generates lists of words based on the searches done on them recently in your blog’s same niche.

Make a list of the specific search terms found, the more specific the better.

Terms like “golf” or “weddings” are too broad in most cases. Look for multi-word phrases that are specific but still get at least 100 or so searches.

Others have called these “long tail keyword phrases.”

For each term or phrase, think of questions that searchers may have that relate to the niche.

You can draw on your own experience by recalling some of the questions your blog audience has asked you.

Now put those same brief questions in quotes and use them as a series of blog post titles, one per posting.

The content of the post becomes your expert opinion and researched answer to the question posed in the title.

This process is no different than fielding a question given by a reader in the comments of your blog.

This idea, of course, is to anticipate the specific questions that web users are posing to the search engines and query sites (like Ask Jeeves, Answers.com, etc.)

You might even include a short summary description of the answer (the blog content) in the “description” area of your meta tags for the installment.

Now publish the blog post everywhere possible. Include it in the RSS distribution channels of your blog so it is picked up by relevant sources.

Over time, there will be a good chance that the search engines will pick up your question and answer blog post page and serve it up high on the results of any searches that ask the same question.

This method should drive additional web traffic to your blog and help your site become more relevant in your chosen niche and in the eyes of the search enginges.

Let me know how this strategy works for you!

Entrepreneurs are always thinking and scheming about ways to make a buck. That’s what they do, isn’t it?

Here’s my favorite definition of an entrepreneur: he’s a guy that has a one-in-a-million idea, a business plan that shows profitability in year 3, and no money!

Now we are seeing the rise of “blogpreneurs,” the authors that are attempting to monetize their daily blogs.

Some are succeeding, to at least a certain degree, and others are finding the road a bit bumpy.

I’m guessing (and that’s all it is, an educated guess) that the most successful (profitable) of these emerging blogpreneurs are those that include multiple streams of income within their blog.

They are promoting affiliate links, their own product sales, pay per click ads, display ads, etc, all at the same time.

And the profitable blogs will also be engaging lots of viewers and aggregating lots of traffic through the search engines, RSS feeds, press releases, their own affiliates, etc.

One interesting attempt by a freelancer to get direct donations from his blog audience caught my eye.

Michael Totten’s Middle East Journal is a blog written by a foreign affairs correspondent that travels the world on his own dime to write articles and stories that he sells to the media.

He is not on particular assignment but rather chooses the places he visits and the stories he writes based on his own judgment of what is interesting (and presumably what he will be able to sell to the media.)

Totten asks his blog readers for donations through PayPal made directly to him so he can finance his travels.

So far, at least, he says the income he is making is covering his travel expenses.

In just the first three days following his post about making donations, I counted 116 comments submitted in response to that one post.

That’s a lot of ink about one post!

I don’t know either the average size or the number of donations he’s getting, but if they are covering his travel, they are not just token tidbits.

It will be interesting to follow this experience and see if the donations continue to fund this freelancer in his dream of traveling the world.

Once again, the idea that people are willing to pay for the information of a blogpreneur verifies the strategy of the solo information business conducted over the Internet from anywhere in the world.

I have no doubt we will be hearing a lot more about this practice (pay-to-read-blogs) in the future.