Small Business Marketing & Business Acceleration | FrontlineMarketingSystems.com

WordPress Hosting That Means Business

Posted on 14. May, 2012 by Brian Clark in Blog, content marketing, Featured, Landing Pages, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Did you know Copyblogger Media has a WordPress hosting division? Many people don’t, because it’s been a bit under-the-radar.

The whole thing started with our frustration with web hosting in general. Specifically, the fact that a lot of “WordPress hosting” amounts to generic one-click installation of the CMS on a standardly-configured box — which simply doesn’t cut it for optimal performance and security.

So, last year we decided to manage our high-traffic network of content and product sites ourselves.

We did this by bringing into the family a team of people who themselves also ran high-traffic sites; people who had invested a ton of time learning how to make WordPress work really well at the server level, because, like us, their sites and livelihoods depended on it.

After enjoying the best hosting experience of my entire online career, it seemed smart to follow our usual modus operandi. That is, if we use it ourselves, then there’s a good chance others might want it as well.

With that, Synthesis was born. This time, however, we kept things limited to our existing customers and people we knew.

No hype. No big launch. No dancing unicorn videos.

Just a simple, unwavering focus on ensuring that Synthesis is the best WordPress hosting experience ever. Word of mouth, however, is a strange and wonderful thing.

Word Gets Around…

Pretty soon, we started getting pinged by people with serious performance and security requirements. Our response? No problem.

GeekBeat TV – The web show fronted by Cali Lewis gets hammered with traffic from fans, and we eliminated their sporadic downtime and reduced page load from 7.5 seconds to 1.4 seconds.

BlogWorld – The premier mega-conference of the blogging and new media space was crippled during its twice-yearly crunch time. We rescued them from their publicly-traded web host and gave them a quantum leap in performance.

Diario de Yucatan – Diario de Yucatan is one of Mexico’s most visited websites. They chose Synthesis for a flexible, secure, and scalable hosting platform after dealing with less-than-reliable performance.

Larry Brown Sports – One of the top independent publishers of sports-related content, LBS gets big traffic spikes from ESPN, FOX Sports, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, and NBC Sports.

Digital Photography School – After growing to 5,000,000 unique monthly visitors, DPS needed a highly scalable, secure architecture that could accommodate their existing external caching configuration. They said jump, we said how high.

Add to that Chris Pirillo’s massive site Lockergnome, Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, and the company and client sites of online marketing agency BlueGlass, and we quickly got comfortable with the fact that we could handle any kind of site’s hosting needs … as long as they used WordPress.

But Synthesis is not just about sites with huge traffic. Any online publisher or business with a web presence needs to be very serious about the performance and security of the place people more often first experience your brand.

For example:

Pushing Social – Stanford Smith does everything right when it comes to creating great content, but every time I tweeted one of his articles, his site crashed. The last straw was when he got maliciously hacked. Stanford happily came over to Synthesis.

Convince and Convert – Jay Baer makes a living speaking, consulting, and doing a lot of traveling. That’s all made possible thanks to content marketing via his website, which he doesn’t want to worry about beyond hitting publish. Synthesis gave him fast, secure, and reliable peace of mind.

TomKat Studio – Kim Stoegbauer started a blog to share her craft projects, decorating, and party ideas, and then got crushed with big links from HGTV and Martha Stewart. Now, Synthesis allows Kim’s company to grow even larger when those magic link moments happen.

Your Best WordPress Hosting Experience Ever

If you’re looking for a better WordPress hosting experience, you’ll be in good company with these fine folks. We’re perfectly happy to allow Synthesis to grow by recommendations from clients and partners. The good will alone that comes from solving the frustration of a poor hosting experience is pretty fantastic.

And as always, we want you to be delighted. And we’re pretty sure you will be.

If not, don’t forget our hassle-free 30-day money-back guarantee. Simply contact support and we’ll promptly issue a refund.

Check out everything our Synthesis WordPress hosting has to offer.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter and Google+.

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The Secret to Landing Pages That Sell? Understand Your Unique Star …

Posted on 10. Apr, 2012 by Sean D'Souza in Blog, Copywriting, Featured, Landing Pages, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Almost every big Hollywood blockbuster you’ve ever watched has common factors. There is the star, and then there is the supporting cast.

The star gets all the lines. The star gets to do most of the work. The star is the focus, and gets most of the glory. The movie is about the star.

So what does the supporting cast do?

The supporting cast have smaller roles, fewer lines. They have less work to do, but it’s crucial work.

Your sales page is a lot like that. And understanding how these two Hollywood factors work together can make all the difference in building landing pages that sell.

As every regular Copyblogger reader knows, a good sales page has features and benefits of a product or service. It has some fascinating bullet points. It has a strong headline. It has a compelling opening paragraph.

These elements are your supporting cast. They highlight the things that the customer needs and wants to know about your product or service.

But they’re not the star.

The star of your landing page is the uniqueness of the product or service. The star gets a lot more space. A lot more explanation. And in fact, the script writer (that’s you) may re-write the entire story to let a particular star shine more brightly.

Understanding the concept of the star and the supporting cast

If you understand this concept, you won’t beat your head against a wall trying to tease out the uniqueness of your product or service.

Realize that both the star of your landing page and its supporting cast have important roles to play. There’s an old theatre line that goes, “There are no small parts, only small actors,” and in the case of selling online, it’s true.

Only one element can be the star of your story. You need to find that single remarkable benefit (it may be “hidden” in the laundry list of benefits) that you can hook your story to.

Finding the star — that remarkable unique element — will take some work, but if you leave the big chunk of your page to spotlight it, it’ll do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

A slightly flawed example of the uniqueness concept

If you ask anyone why they bought an Apple iPhone 4s, many will answer with one word …

Siri.

Siri is an app on iPhone 4S that — by speaking directly to “her” — lets you send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. Siri understands what you say (most of the time), talks back, and even “understands” the context of what you’ve asked.

So ask someone why they’re buying a 4s and they know the star — they know the uniqueness factor that’s causing them to lay down their cash for an upgrade.

Can you spot the flaw in the landing page above? Of course you can.

The iPhone customer knows that Siri is the star — the uniquely remarkable benefit — but Apple is trying to stuff the whole enchilada into one graphic.

And worse, the real star gets booted to the bottom of the page.

But hold on, there are all those other features

There’s the  8-megapixel resolution and a custom lens with a larger f/2.4 aperture.

There’s the Dual-core A5 chip. Let’s not forget Video recording in 1080p HD.

And other such features. And yes, blah, blah, blah dee blah.

They’re all playing their roles. But they are the supporting cast, not the star. Siri takes the lead role here. Siri is the reason that the 4s stands out like it does.

And so it will be with every single iPhone that Apple produces in the future:

There will be a star that will drive home the uniqueness. And there will be the supporting cast.

On your landing page, the star should always get the most lines. The most drama.  The most ad time.

Nothing should eclipse the uniqueness of your product.

Once the client knows why they want to buy a product, they’re no longer comparing phones — they’re now comparing iPhones. They’re actually rejecting the iPhone 4, even though it’s half the price or even less. And they’re choosing the iPhone 4s for that one reason only.

What’s your one reason?

Every product or service has several great features and benefits.

You’ve always been afraid to choose the uniqueness of that product, because it would mean that you’d have to slaughter and sacrifice the rest.

Technically yes, the slaughter and sacrifice is needed, but only while you’re making sure the uniqueness gets the star role. Once that role has been established, you can bring back the rest of the features and benefits to play their role as supporting crew.

And that makes a good movie.

And a good sales page.

And they’ll all live happily ever after.

The End

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

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Landing Page Tips to Increase Conversions – #SESNY

Posted on 22. Mar, 2012 by BLarson in Blog, Landing Pages, Marketing PR Conferences, Search Engine Strategies, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

If you’re a marketer with business objectives tied to online conversions, landing pages are likely part of your marketing mix. While landing pages have a proven track record of serving as a lead generation funnel and producing solid ROI, not all landing pages are created equal. Enter the process of testing and refining your landing page in order to deliver maximum result – aka landing page optimization.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Landing Page Tips to Increase Conversions – #SESNY | http://www.toprankblog.com

The 10 Commandments of Landing Pages That Work

Posted on 15. Mar, 2012 by Steven Lowe in Blog, conversion, Featured, Landing Pages, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

In the dark and ancient days of digital yellow highlighters and outrageous claims, a cry rang out over the mountains — a cry for sanity, integrity, and beauty.

There came forth from the mountain 10 commandments to guide a certain tribe of Internet publishers in all their conversion endeavors.

The landing page would no longer be a desert of confusion and bad taste.

Its goal would now shift to the ethical and neighborly persuasion of the prospect to take their desired action.

These are 10 Commandments of Landing Pages That Work.

Bind them to your mind, let them flow through your pen …

1. Thy landing page shalt have but one goal

Thy landing page shalt have but one goal, and the number of the goals shall be one. Not two, not zero, but one.

If thy landing page hath zero goals, it is a “branding” page, and such vanities shall bear no fruit.

If thy landing page hath more than one goal, thou shalt confuse thy visitor, who shall leave thy site in disgust and anger.

Thy copy shalt not be divided amongst more than one goal, for such shall surely drive thy visitor to lamentation and thy copywriter to madness.

2. Thou shalt not litter thy landing page with false imagery

Thou shalt not litter thy landing pages with false images nor unecessary imagery, but only that which is gainful and relevant.

Let not a cute kitten, playful puppy, happy child, nor LOLcats appear except as and when they shalt be — in context — perceived as deeply relevant and meaningful.

Neither shalt thy litter thy prose with false imagery nor “creative” allusions that might leadeth thy visitor from the path of righteous goal completion.

Neither shalt thee fail to disclose thine affiliations, lest the FTC rain down upon thee like a plague of locusts.

3. Thou shalt not take the name of an authority in vain

Thou shalt not take the name of an authority in vain, for such false endorsements shall land thee in the court of man forthwith.

Further, thou shalt honor thine own name by keeping thy promises, in headline, subhead, graphic, offer, delivery, and guarantee, that thy days on the Internet shall be boundless and fruitful, and thy reputation pure.

4. Honor thy whitespace

Remember thy whitespace, to keep thy landing page scannable and readable.

For thy visitor doth not read in earnest, nay, preferring to skim and skip and scan.

So break up thy text, and include ye in all things subheaders and bullet points and simple sentences anon, so thy visitor may find succor in thy text.

5. Honor thy host, bandwidth, and client

Honor thy web host, thy bandwidth, and thy client, that thy load times shalt not be excessive and the patience of thy visitor shalt not be exhausted.

For thy visitor is Busy and Impatient, and hath not time to waste waiting for thy site to load.

But yea, if thy page doth load quickly, thy visitor may tarry and thy bounce rate shalt surely dwindle.

6. Thou shalt not kill

Thou shalt not kill thy visitor’s interest with boring copy.

Thy copy shall flow like a river unto the sea, carrying thy visitor along in the gentle current of thy persuasions to the port of goal completion.

Thou shalt not kill thy visitor’s trust with unbelievable claims.

Thy claims shalt have proof, and trust marks, and yea, testimonials and demonstrations sufficient to support and prove thy remonstrations beyond faith and suspicion. By this ye shall overcome all objections and prosper.

Thou shalt not kill thine integrity with suspicious associates, nor thy reputation through excessive returns and unresolved support issues.

7. Thou shalt not adulterate thy premise

Thou shalt not adulterate thy premise nor offer by dabbling in external irrelevancies, but shall remain faithful to the visitor and goal throughout thy prose and yea, unto the end of thy landing page shall it serve thee.

Maketh thee no mark upon thy page that doth not contribute towards thy goal.

8. Thou shalt not steal

Thou shalt not steal thy visitor’s attention, time, coin, and bandwidth, but shall inform, educate, and persuade only after receiving consent and permission.

Thy shalt deliver value in all things, and thou shalt not engage in any activity of scam nor spam, nor even the appearance thereof.

Collect ye no information unnecessarily, for each such imposition burdens thy visitor with doubt and fear.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness

Thou shalt always speak the truth about thy product, thine offer, thy guarantee, and thy competitors.

Thou shalt not bear false witness in any event, for surely thine integrity is worth more than gold. And if it be not so, remove thyself from the Internet.

10. Thou shalt not covet

Thou shalt not covet thy visitor’s cash, nor his credit card, nor his email address, nor his phone number, nor anything that is thy visitor’s.

Thou shalt provide value in fair exchange, and in all things eschew deceitful schemes and trickery.

Love thy customer

Thou shalt love thy customer as thyself, and for all thy days shall ye serve him in gladness.

Go ye forth now and take heed of these Commandments.

Honor them on all pages. Disregard them at thy peril.

Hast thou a commandment to share with thy fellow marketers? Speaketh thy voice within the comment box below.

About the Author: Steven A. Lowe knows 101 Ways to Land More Business Using Landing Pages. When he’s not studying marketing and copywriting or reading copyblogger.com, he runs Innovator LLC, which specializes in innovative consulting and custom software development.

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Premise 2.0: The Complete Digital Sales and Lead Generation Engine for WordPress

Posted on 27. Feb, 2012 by Brian Clark in Blog, Featured, Landing Pages, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

When anyone wants to quickly and easily create, test, and optimize landing pages with WordPress, our Premise software is the way to go. No doubt.

And the one-time fee, bundled optimization education, copywriting advice (from within WordPress), and included custom graphics have made Premise the go-to WordPress plugin for thousands of online marketers and small businesses.

But what if you’re looking for more?

What if you want to:

1. Build a membership site?
2. Do advanced lead generation beyond email?
3. Securely sell ebooks, software, and other digital products?
4. Create “velvet-rope” forum communities at your site?
5. Have a complete digital sales and marketing system in one?

What would you use to do those things with WordPress, plus those critical landing pages, the split-testing, graphics, and advice, all in one smartly-coded and education-supplemented product?

Premise, of course. Premise 2.0, that is.

Now, Build Way More Than WordPress Landing Pages …

In addition to all the great existing features, you can also use Premise to:

1. Build rock-solid membership sites with WordPress

Premise allows you to build paid membership sites with secure log-in-protected member gateways. The code is integrated seamlessly with the WordPress authentication and user access management protocols, so you know you’ve got maximum compatibility and functionality.

2. Take recurring payments with automated access management

Access to your member area can either be a one-time fee or a recurring charge. Premise helps manage member access after initial payment, continues access after each recurring payment, and denies access when the membership is cancelled or payment is otherwise not made.

3. Automatically drip member content over time

Some membership sites and online education programs provide an “info dump” at initial access. A better educational and business approach for you might be to “drip” your course or premium content sequentially over time, avoiding member overwhelm, prompting higher understanding and retention, and sustaining membership levels, no matter your business model.

4. Securely sell ebooks, software, and other digital downloads

Paid ebooks, apps, and digital goods of all types are remaking the way business is done online. Premise allows you to create an unlimited set of digital products for sale, protect them from outside access until purchase, and create a seamless checkout process, all from within WordPress.

5. Confidently create private forum areas with vBulletin

Any great membership site or online education program provides more than access to content. It also provides interactive access to instructors and other members, and often a paid forum can stand on it’s own with the right community. Premise integrates with the popular vBulletin forum software (purchased separately) to make paid forum areas possible.

6. Quickly set up password-protected content libraries

A great way to perform highly effective lead generation is to offer premium content in exchange for registration. With Premise, you can create high value content libraries that require email registration for access. Beyond email marketing alone, you create a “sense of place” for your white papers, webinars, and other premium content that move prospects closer to becoming a customer or client.

7. Easily build check-out pages for PayPal and Authorize.net

Premise makes it easy to coordinate payments, whether one-time or recurring, before access is granted to your member area or digital downloads. Create check-out pages to collect member/buyer information, then accept PayPal payments, take credit cards via Authorize.net, or both. It’s within your control directly from WordPress.

8. Premise still works with any WordPress theme or design framework

When you use Premise to build all of this, you’ll have absolutely no compatibility issues. Since Premise is a plugin, it works with any theme, any framework, and other plugins. As long as you use WordPress, Premise works for you.

And now, you just want a great price, right?

Here’s the Deal …

Premise is at least twice the product it was before. Makes sense that we’d raise the price, right?

Except for one issue … I’ve been speaking and traveling so much this month, I haven’t had a chance to finish the copy for the new Premise 2.0 site. We’re actually doing a complete redesign in the process.

So, instead of raising the price, we’ve dropped it.

For a limited time, you can get the brand new fully-featured Premise 2.0, with unlimited everything (including updates and support), and save $70 instead of spending more.

That’s right … get Premise 2.0 Ultimate for only $95. There’s full technical documentation for all the new features, and our support team is always standing by.

But there’s one important thing you need to know …

As soon as Rafal and I get the new site finished (which is underway), the deal is over. So, will you grab Premise 2.0 first and save, or will we get the job done first and raise the price to $165?

The race is on.

Put Premise to Work for 30 Days, Risk Free

I’m having a bit of fun with this race thing. But I don’t want to stress you out, and there’s no reason to worry.

We want you to be 100% happy with Premise. In the event you decide it’s not for you, simply use the contact form in the clearly-marked HELP section of the member area to tell us within 30 days of your purchase. We’ll promptly refund the full price you paid, no questions asked, no hard feelings.

Okay, so now you can safely win the race. Pick up Premise 2.0 today.

Questions? Drop them in the comments and we’ll answer as soon as we can.

Already purchased Premise (either now or previously)? Please contact support for help — we can’t do support in the comments.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media.

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How to Instantly Transform Your Landing Page Images from Good to Great

Posted on 24. Jan, 2012 by Sean D'Souza in Blog, Featured, Landing Pages, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Reading this post made us smarter, richer, more fascinating, and an average of 3 inches taller.

Let’s say you place a photo of a client on your landing page.

Just the photo. No client name. No title, or business name. No clue as to what industry that client is in, or where they come from.

Now, photos are a great addition to landing pages. Photos of happy clients help to build trust with your readers, showing the type of people who do business with you.

But would anyone even know that person was a client?

The moment you add in a few important details — the client name, the industry, and the words “one of our customers” — a fog is lifted from your page.

Suddenly there’s no confusion, no weird guessing or conjecture on the part of your readers about who this person in the picture is.

Just a couple of words. Can they really be that important? Actually, yes.

Simply adding a caption will radically increase the effectiveness of images on your landing pages. Here are four critical reasons why.

#1: Without captions, readers draw their own conclusion

So you’ve got a photo on your landing page.

It makes perfect sense to you why that photo exists. You might think it’s completely obvious.

Because you know all about your business. But your readers probably don’t.

Your readers may very well get the wrong idea. You’re forcing them to guess, to come to their own conclusion. And that might be miles from what you intended.

The job of the caption is to yank the reader from whatever they’re thinking about, and get them to read what you want them to read.

Without the caption, there’s no telling where your reader’s thoughts will end up. They may go in a direction that’s completely counterproductive to what you want them to think about and do.

The only way you can control the situation is to slide in the caption.

That way, there’s zero misinterpretation. Your reader sees the picture, reads the caption, and her thoughts are directed where you want them to go.

#2: Captions give you three ways to educate and create curiosity

When you’re getting a point across in a caption, you can use three strategies.

You can use a problem. You can use a solution. Or you can use a combination of a problem and solution.

Each one of these immediately creates curiosity and/or education in your reader’s mind.

Let’s look at three examples. You might see captions like these on a screen shot for copywriting software:

1: The solution-only caption

Our product gives you clear guidelines that let you see for yourself what’s missing and what’s working in your sales copy.

2: The problem-only caption

How do you know if your website message is working as well as it should? How can you know in advance that your presentation will wake up your audience?

3: The combination of a problem/solution-based caption

How do you know if your website message is working as well as it should? How can you know in advance that your presentation will wake up your audience? Our product gives you clear guidelines that let you see for yourself what’s missing and what’s working in your sales copy.

Do you see how all three types of captions work to educate and create curiosity?

Let’s look at curiosity a little more with Reason 3 …

#3: Captions are an effective handbrake

We’re used to seeing pictures and quickly scrolling by them.

But the moment there’s a caption, we’re practically compelled to read the content under the caption.

That’s because we want to be sure we’ve interpreted the image correctly.

It’s also why having photos and illustrations on a web page or sales page is very important. It keeps the reader from skipping quickly from the start of the page to the end.

The photo gets the reader’s attention, and the caption makes sure you keep that attention.

While creating this handbrake momentum of stop-go-stop, captions are doing one of the most valuable tasks of all:

Each caption is acting as a mini sales message.

#4: How captions create mini-sales messages

When you run a problem-solution scenario in your caption, you’re effectively doing what a strong headline does.

Every outstanding headline is designed to get your attention. A caption is simply a headline underneath a photo.

If crafted properly, a caption makes the reader more curious and compels them to investigate further into your product or service.

A solution-only caption may not create the same level of curiosity, but it will still give the reader a much better understanding of your product or service, especially if you describe a benefit rather than a feature.

Does every photo or illustration need to have a caption?

Ideally, yes. No matter which newspaper or magazine you pick up, you’ll find captions abound everywhere.

But there are exceptions.

For instance, in blog posts, the photo tends to function more to catch the reader’s attention than to drive home the point. And you don’t necessarily need to slow the reader down before diving into the content. In this case, not having a caption is fine.

And even on landing pages, there are times when you’re using a photo purely to get the attention of the audience. These photos tend to be the ones you see first on the page, and are meant to draw you in.

Other than that, almost every photo wants the power of a caption to drive a specific point home. And yet website owners miss out on the awesome potential of the caption to slow down, educate, create curiosity, and drive home a mini-sales message.

Photo. Caption.

Photo. Caption.

Yet another photo. Yet another caption. That’s the way your landing pages should be.

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

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Introducing The Lede: A Copywriting and Online Marketing Sheet

Posted on 29. Oct, 2011 by Robert Bruce in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Keyword Research, Landing Pages, List Building, Metrics, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traditional Media, Traffic

Welcome to The Lede.

Every week I’ll be digging up and linking to stories, news, and opinion relevant to online marketing and copywriting.

Email, social media, innovation, SEO, productivity, mobile, conversion, publishing, and everything in between.

No commentary, just a fast, single page of headlines that you can grab, scan, and squeeze for all they may (or may not) be worth.

All right then, on with it …

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

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Comments

• Hi Robert. Very valuable information is posted. I have really … by Henry Louis
• Since most people have little or no clue what “lede” means, … by Don Bates
• [...] post: Introducing The Lede: A Copywriting and Online … by Introducing The Lede: A Copywriting and Online Marketing Sheet … | The Way Of Making Money Online
• This is a fabulous list! To those that are overwhelmed by the … by Tracy Schutz
• Hey,Really Great Post, I am looking forward for more post … by Peter Zmijewski
• Plus 5 more…

Further Reading

• The Art of Finding Ideas
• What Bestselling Fiction Can Teach You About Writing Better Landing Pages
• 23 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Making Any Money (And What To Do About It!)

The Art of Finding Ideas

Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by Robert Bruce in Blog, Blog Psychology, Collaboration, content marketing, Copywriting, editing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing

Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.

Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?

If you’ve been writing long enough, you know that — like Solomon — there is nothing new under the sun.

Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.

So, relax.

But that page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?

In short, we steal them.

The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that “original” ideas do not come from within.

They are given to us, from without.

A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.

If you’re offended that I’d suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You’re already a thief, you just don’t know it yet.

Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on earth …

1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas

In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank”.

Ever.

What took our writing ancestors days and weeks to research and learn, takes us mere moments.

In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.

There is no drought of ideas.

Brian Clark recently wrote:

You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?

Indeed.

Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don’t need to go to moon, the crossroads will do just fine for our purposes.

Research. Read. Steal.

Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, magazines, newspapers, televsion, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …

It’s all there, right in your pocket.

And it’s actually more than you’ll ever need.

So use it. Don’t let it use you.

2. People will give you exactly what you’re looking for

Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.

Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he had.

He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours — the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.

Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out on Manhattan, Schwartz wrote the ad.

The entire ad.

He said about 70% of the finished copy was comprised of his client’s own words.

The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.

He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.

You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz’ part, but you’d be wrong.

Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn’t.

Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.

The ideas were sitting in the client’s head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.

It goes further …

For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.

Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor — they are all constantly giving you ideas.

They are all constantly telling you what they — and the entire world — truly want.

It is all grist for the mill.

All you need to do is … listen.

Steal this post

Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:

You don’t have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.

I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.

Listen more. Talk less.

Read less. Read better.

Steal.

The Art of Finding Ideas is then … to go out and find ideas.

Originality? That’ll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from only one thing — writing more. And more. And more.

Where have you been getting your ideas?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

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• “the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted … by Nick Stamoulis
• What you’ve written is so true and what I “heard” in your … by Pam Britton

Further Reading

• What Bestselling Fiction Can Teach You About Writing Better Landing Pages
• 6 Design Tips That Will Have Your Audience Licking Their Screens
• 23 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Making Any Money (And What To Do About It!)

The Art of Finding Ideas

Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by Robert Bruce in Blog, Blog Psychology, Collaboration, content marketing, Copywriting, editing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Featured, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing

Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.

Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?

If you’ve been writing long enough, you know that — like Solomon — there is nothing new under the sun.

Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.

So, relax.

But the page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?

In short, we steal them.

The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that “original” ideas do not come from within.

They are given to us, from without.

A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.

If you’re offended that I’d suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You’re already a thief, you just don’t know it yet.

Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on earth …

1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas

In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank”.

Ever.

What took our writing ancestors days and weeks to research and learn, takes us mere moments.

In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.

There is no drought of ideas.

Brian Clark recently wrote:

You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?

Indeed.

Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don’t need to go to the moon, the crossroads will do just fine for our purposes.

Research. Read. Steal.

Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, magazines, newspapers, television, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …

It’s all there, right in your pocket.

And it’s actually more than you’ll ever need.

So use it. Don’t let it use you.

2. People will give you exactly what you’re looking for

Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.

Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he had.

He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours — the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.

Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out on Manhattan, Schwartz wrote the ad.

The entire ad.

He said about 70% of the finished copy was composed of his client’s own words.

The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.

He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.

You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz’ part, but you’d be wrong.

Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn’t.

Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.

The ideas were sitting in the client’s head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.

It goes further …

For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.

Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor — they are all constantly giving you ideas.

They are all constantly telling you what they — and the entire world — truly want.

It is all grist for the mill.

All you need to do is … listen.

Steal this post

Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:

You don’t have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.

I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.

Listen more. Talk less.

Read less. Read better.

Steal.

The Art of Finding Ideas is then … to go out and find ideas.

Originality? That’ll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from only one thing — writing more. And more. And more.

Where have you been getting your ideas?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

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• Hi Robert You asked “So where have you been getting your … by Dane Pymble
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Further Reading

• Introducing The Lede — A Copywriting and Online Marketing Sheet
• What Bestselling Fiction Can Teach You About Writing Better Landing Pages
• 6 Design Tips That Will Have Your Audience Licking Their Screens

What Bestselling Fiction Can Teach You About Writing Better Landing Pages

Posted on 26. Sep, 2011 by Sean D'Souza in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, RSS Marketing, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic

Imagine you’re having a discussion with a talkative, hyperactive teenager.

The conversation goes something like this …

We went to the mall, and like, there was this fire in the mall. And we went from there to the movies, but we didn’t have any money and anyway the popcorn machine was broken, and so we didn’t really want to go to the movies without popcorn. But right after that we went to have some pizza and there was this creepy guy outside the store. But listen to this — because that’s not the best part. The best part is that Sylvie dumped Josh, and like, they ran into each other in the street …

Annoying right? Then why do we so often write our web copy just like that teenager talks?

Is there a better way to write a landing page?

When we write copy for our website, we sound a lot like that teenager

We tend to move all over the place with our copy.

First, we’ll try to stuff five different concepts into the headline.

Then we’ll try and fill in too many sub-heads that we want to drive home.

And then our first paragraph attempts to cover all the possible points.

And — like that teenager above — we have the entire story in our heads, but nothing quite gets across to the client.

We’re trying to cover way too many points, way too quickly.

And, as you’ve worked out for yourself, this bouncing and jumping around is exhausting for your reader.

How this mistake unfolds in an actual piece of copy

Let’s take a look at our “teenage talk” problem using a real-life example:

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors?

Body text:

• Contractors that don’t call you back or even show up?
• Are you done with contractors that lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner?
• How about contractors that run away from problems that crop up during and after a project?
• Are you completely over dealing with the hacks of the world?
• Have you had enough of sitting at home, babysitting the people you’re paying?

So what’s wrong with that sequence?

It gets off to a good start. The headline gets my attention without too much of a fuss, particularly if I’m having this problem right now.

But then I start reading and I get between three and five main plots and no sub-plots at all.

How do we know they’re main plots? Because we can list them out and see for ourselves. They all want to take center stage.

• Main plot 1: Contractors don’t call you back or even show up
• Main plot 2: They lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner
• Main plot 3: They run away from problems that crop up during and after a project
• Main plot 4: The so-called professional is nothing but a hack
• Main plot 5: You are tired of having to babysit these people

Just like that teenager’s story, it’s possible for us to jump from one to the other, without so much as pausing for a single breath.

So now that we know we’re creating bounce, how do we get rid of it? And how do we still use all the persuasive points we want to cover on our landing page?

How to say exactly what you’re trying to say

Just like an exciting movie or a bestselling novel, your article needs a single main plot. One primary storyline that the reader or viewer is most interested in.

You can also have sub-plots — additional points that make the story more complex and interesting, and continue to hook that reader.

So how do you know which point is your main plot? It’s the client’s most pressing problem.

That’s obvious, isn’t it? You want to get the client’s attention by driving home the biggest, scariest, buggiest problem.

Here’s how we go about it:

Headline:

Write your headline. It should only cover one big, buggy, nasty problem

Body text:

• Body text 1: Drive home the problems involved with that one point
• Body text 2: Drive home the consequences of that one point
• Body text 3: Drive home the solution to that one problem

Move to the next point.

So how does the teenager’s story look in this format?

Headline:

We went to the mall and there was a fire.

• Body text 1: What happened next at the mall?
• Body text 2: Then what were the consequences?
• Body text 3: How did we escape the fire?

With the teenager, she’d complete one story, and move to the next.

And the next …

But you may have made your point with a single story.

So what do you do with the rest of the stuff that you so badly want to get across? You bring it up later.

Let’s see how. But first let’s get back to squaring this in our original example.

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors …

• Body text: … That don’t call you back or even show up?
• Body text 1: Talk in detail about the problems created when the contractor doesn’t call back or show up.
• Body text 2: What are the consequences? Describe the emotions that the client feels — again, in detail.
• Body text 3: What’s the best way to avoid this wretched scenario?

And then you present your service:

• Body text 4: Presenting XYZ contracting company.
• Body text 5: Drive home the point of how you handle calling your customers back. Describe in detail how you do it — when you show up and how you follow up.

Notice we haven’t gone to Point 2 yet. And yes, I know, you’re itching to drive home that point.

But first, do you notice something?

The customer doesn’t care about your itch. They’re locked in to what you’re saying.

You’re the first person they’ve met who isn’t like that teenager, jumping from story to story.

The customer’s biggest problem is ‘unprofessional contractors that don’t call back or show up’ and you’re talking about exactly that. The customer wants to know more about that story in detail, before they’re ready to move to the next story.

So after you present your company and how it brings that one solution to their problem, you can move on to the next “subplot,” the secondary stories in your copywriting plot.

Roll out the remaining subplots in slightly less detail, in a feature/benefit format that looks like this:

Feature 1: Benefit 1. Describe the benefits of Feature 1 in strong, vivid terms.

Feature 2: Benefit 1. Now write more copy vividly describing the benefits of Feature 2.

And so on with Features 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 — adding benefits, of course, to every one of those features.

You can have as many as 8-10 paragraphs rich with details of the problem and the solutions you bring to the customer.

Having locked into the main problem and seeing how you bring that solution, the customer will happily trundle through the rest of the points, and become more convinced by the word about your ability to solve their problem.

In short, you must have a main plot, then drive it home

Later, pull in the sub-plots, but without the same level of intensity as the main.

Just remember to pick the point your customer cares most about as your main plot. ‘Sylvie dumping Josh’ has more drama than ‘no popcorn at the cinema.’

From there, you’re simply re-telling your story on the landing page.

One plot at a time

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

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• 6 Design Tips That Will Have Your Audience Licking Their Screens
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