“Nothing happens until someone sells something” is as true today as it ever was. And an awful lot of selling happens through the written word, in marketing pieces and sales letters and on your web site. The odds are that you’re not a professional copywriter, but you still have to sell with written words  »  Read More

I tell blogging clients to write to real people. I wrote this post to Ed. Ed’s just getting started blogging to his customers and he does what a lot of bloggers do. He writes to a generic demographic description of a generic target customer. You won’t get power into your posts that way. Write to an individual  »  Read More

If you’re a copywriter or a marketing student, you’ve probably heard of the AIDA formula. The formula was originally created by advertising pioneer E. St. Elmo Lewis in the Nineteenth Century to reflect four stages of selling. In the original and most common version of the formula, the letters stand for the  »  Read More

“How many ‘friends’ do you think will read that?” Ed’s soft voice cut into my writing concentration. “Well?” he demanded. Ed was my first real writing mentor, my boss on a job where I was writing direct response letters. I didn’t get the point and I knew the best course was  »  Read More