What the f....?
Seriously Engineered Outriggers?
Hi Guys!
Of course I mean SEO, only I'm just about fed up to the back teeth with SEO. SEO this and SEO that and we are SEO experts and can get your site on page one of Google... blah blah blah.
Not a day goes by when I don't get at least one email from some "SEO Expert" based somewhere in the world and usually over the Eastern part... if you know what I mean.
For anyone just starting out with an online business it must be an absolute nightmare. I wonder just how many unsuspecting victims have fallen prey to these SEO sharks!
Now for you guys I want to reveal some valuable stuff about SEO. Okay you need it, if you want to get your website ranking higher but you don't have to pay a fortune for it. Here's what you need to do...
1. Ensure the content on your website is absolutely free of grammatical errors and typos.
2. Ensure your content is relevant to the products or services you are offering.
3. Ensure your content is interesting and informative. That means it has some real value to the reader.
4. Ensure you have a keyword density of not more than 2%. 1.5% is the optimum. Now that is not a lot of keywords. 1.5% is just 3 keywords per 200 words of content.
5. Ensure that any images on your page have "alt tag". Here's an example of what an alt tag should look like:
And here's an explanation:
< = open tag or begin tag
img alt = alternative text
"knight writer img" = a description of the image
border="0" = no border
src="images/newlogo2.png" = the source of the image. Its file path.
width="166" height="109" = the size of the image
> = End tag. Not closing tag
A closing tag looks like this /> and is for something else, which I'll get onto later in another blog post.
Now, make sure your main keyword appears in the title of your content or at least in the first sentence. Also, if you are able to access the code for your web pages then ensure the main keywords appear in the title tags for those pages.
Okay so that's the basic on-page SEO sorted.
Now you need some backlinks. Want to get some for free? Of course you do! Never mind, just pop over to www.fiverr.com and pay $5 for some quality backlinks. You can get backlinks from PR 9 sites for just 5 bucks and these guys will do all the work for you. You don't need to spend hundreds on SEO experts for exactly the same results.
Okay now off you go and get some Seriously Engineered Outriggers for your site and we'll see you at the top.
All for now comrades.
Bill
knight-writer.co.uk
busyvids.co.uk
Friday, August 09, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
AIDA - God Bless Her!
Hi All,
Do you ... yes YOU... know anything about AIDA?
If you're a copywriter then you will but is you're not then take a minute to be enlightened.
The A I D A formula has worked incredibly well for advertisers and marketers the world over and continues to so to this day and probably always will... even though the concept is donkey's years old.
It's all relatively simple and if it works then there's no reason to try anything else... okay?
Right then here it is...
The acronym AIDA stands for... Attract... Interest... Desire... Action.
And this is what it all means.
In every form of advertising and marketing the very first thing you have to do is Attract attention. This is almost always the job of the headline. If the headline of your ad or sales letter gets your prospect's attention, then chances are they will begin to read your ad or sale s message. Great... that's part one achieved.
Next, while your prospect is reading your sales message you have to ensure you Interest then in your offer, and the way you do this is to list all the benefits of the product or service that you want to sell them. (I'll elaborate on this in my next blog post).
Okay so you've got their Attention and they are becoming very Interested in your product or service... is this enough? No!
You have make sure they really want it. They need to want it so bad it hurts. They need to think that if they don't have it then life will just not be worth living. How will they ever be able to hold their head up in public ever again without it? You got to make 'em squirm... okay well maybe not squirm but you certainly have to make them Desire it.
So, when you've attracted Attention, go them Interested and made them Desire your product or service you gotta tell them what to do next.
You'd be surprised at how many marketers just don't ask for the order. It's crazy!
Why go to all the trouble of writing an ad or a sales piece and then not say something like. "To get this widget in the next 2 minutes simply click on this link" or fill out this form or pick up the phone or whatever...
You must always ask the prospect to take Action... plain and simple!
So there you have it...
AIDA... the formula responsible for generating billions if not trillions in sales over the past 100 years.
God bless her!
All for now.
KnightWriter
Busyvids
Do you ... yes YOU... know anything about AIDA?
If you're a copywriter then you will but is you're not then take a minute to be enlightened.
The A I D A formula has worked incredibly well for advertisers and marketers the world over and continues to so to this day and probably always will... even though the concept is donkey's years old.
It's all relatively simple and if it works then there's no reason to try anything else... okay?
Right then here it is...
The acronym AIDA stands for... Attract... Interest... Desire... Action.
And this is what it all means.
In every form of advertising and marketing the very first thing you have to do is Attract attention. This is almost always the job of the headline. If the headline of your ad or sales letter gets your prospect's attention, then chances are they will begin to read your ad or sale s message. Great... that's part one achieved.
Next, while your prospect is reading your sales message you have to ensure you Interest then in your offer, and the way you do this is to list all the benefits of the product or service that you want to sell them. (I'll elaborate on this in my next blog post).
Okay so you've got their Attention and they are becoming very Interested in your product or service... is this enough? No!
You have make sure they really want it. They need to want it so bad it hurts. They need to think that if they don't have it then life will just not be worth living. How will they ever be able to hold their head up in public ever again without it? You got to make 'em squirm... okay well maybe not squirm but you certainly have to make them Desire it.
So, when you've attracted Attention, go them Interested and made them Desire your product or service you gotta tell them what to do next.
You'd be surprised at how many marketers just don't ask for the order. It's crazy!
Why go to all the trouble of writing an ad or a sales piece and then not say something like. "To get this widget in the next 2 minutes simply click on this link" or fill out this form or pick up the phone or whatever...
You must always ask the prospect to take Action... plain and simple!
So there you have it...
AIDA... the formula responsible for generating billions if not trillions in sales over the past 100 years.
God bless her!
All for now.
KnightWriter
Busyvids
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Copy... The Long And The Short Of It
Hi All,
Those of you old enough to remember the seventies and eighties might also remember when those large Reader's Digest letters would land on the doormat. On the envelope would be some "teaser" copy like "Claim Your Free Gift Inside". Then inside would be a "lift letter" from the CEO recommending you read the full letter because it offered a great deal on Reader's Digest membership and the chance to win a car or a holiday.
Reader's Digest employed some of the best copywriters in the business to create these letters, as did Nightingale Conant and many other mail order magnates.
Ah! Those were the days. Those were the days when it was possible to make millions from mail order offers and quite a few people did. I personally know of two people who became millionaires simply by sending out letters offering to tell prospects... how to become rich. I actually made quite few grand myself from selling my own business manuals by mail order.
And here's how I did it...
In those days the long form sales letter ruled because we all knew that "the more you tell the more you sell". A very different story today of course. But what hasn't changed and probably never will is the desire to make money, or at least the need to know how to make money.
This is how may people did it...
There were 2 very popular weekly publications, one was "The Dalton's Weekly" and the other was "The Exchange & Mart". Now both had classifieds ad sections where you could place a very cheap line ad. So let's say you had an information product you wanted to sell, something like a manual about How To Start Up Your Own Publishing Business.
You would place an ad in one or both of these 2 publications under the Business Opportunity sections, which might read something like...
Discover New Secret Money
Making Opportunity. 50 page
manual explains how. For more
details send SAE to Anglox
Publications, 182 Sturminster Rd,
Bristol, BS14 8AR
It would cost about £20 to place an ad like this but it was money well invested. As enquiries started to arrive in the post you began generating a highly targeted list of prospects. So the next step was to send these interested people a long sales letter about your manual, explaining all the benefits and how easy it is to make money and entice them into sending you an order together with their cheque.
This marketing method was known as the "2 step method". Step one was to place the ad and step 2 was to send out the sales letter.
As a lead generator, this method was very good, usually returning about 10% in enquiries. However, conversion rates were pretty much the same as they are today, which is about 2-3 per cent. So let's say your original classified ad is seen by 1000 people and 100 responded. You could expect to make 2 or 3 sales.
The manual might be priced at £29 so there was profit in this method... but not enough to become rich. But the whole exercise was not really about making a shed load of money, although it would certainly be nice, the real reason for this was to test the market. And if it was profitable then you would ramp it up.
Now the next stage was to seek out a list broker, and there were quite a few of those around. You see, everyone who sent for details of your offer went onto your list, and lists could be sold... hence more profits. Some people used to just generate mailing lists and rent or sell them. That was their business and a good business it was too.
The biggest list brokers could almost guarantee results and their lists were fresh so these were the guys you looked for. To rent a list of names and addresses might cost something like £25 per 1000, so you had to work out whether the cost to rent these lists, together with the costs to print and mail your sales letter were going to be profitable, based on you tests.
Here's a breakdown of what had to be considered...
List rental 10,000 = £250
Paper & print costs = £500
Postage costs = £2000
So total costs for this mailout campaign were £2,750.
The number of sales @ 2% would be 200 x £29 = £5,800. Therefore profit would be £3,050.
To put these figures in perspective, the average weekly wage in the early 80's was £120, so 3 grand represented 6 months wages, which you could make in just 1-2 weeks!
Now, roll out big time and rent 100,000 names and addresses. This would be cheaper pro rata and you had buying power on your side. Let's do the maths...
List rental 100,000 = £2000
Paper & print costs = £5000
Postage costs = £20000
Total investment = £27,000
Total Income = £58,000
Total ROI = 10 x 3,050 = £31,000
Now 30 grand was like 5 times the average annual income. If you could make this much from one campaign then you needed to have several campaigns lined up to become a millionaire. Ans that's how it was done. In fact if you used a mailing house to do everything for you, it was totally hands off and you still made around the same amount of profit.
The key to success with mail order was the copy. If the sales letter was good your conversions could be as high as 8 or even 10 per cent! I'll let you do the maths for that one.
Long form sales copy was the answer to many marketer's dreams back then but what now?
Well, as you know the Internet rules these days and so when long form sales letters began appearing on web pages they did at first work very well. Maybe because of the novelty value or maybe because people had more time I don't know, but they certainly don't work quite as well as they did.
Online attention spans are very short now so a copywriter has to get the message across in a different way, which makes his job a little more difficult. The copywriter has to condense the message in a way that attracts attention almost immediately, highlights the benefits right up front, offer a shed load of bonuses, include overwhelming testimonials and sell at an unbelievable price.
So, not much has changed except we have to sell more with less words.
The Internet does have many advantages over the mail order route, especially in terms of presentation of offers, with graphics and video now almost standard procedure. But the best advantage of all is instant gratification and instant cash in the bank. The customer gets what he wants right away and you get the cash just as fast... luvverrrly!
If any of you want to know about how many marketers made their money by placing ads in national newspapers, let me know and I'll dedicate the next blog to it.
Hope you enjoyed this one, all for now.
Bill
KnightWriter
BusyVids
Those of you old enough to remember the seventies and eighties might also remember when those large Reader's Digest letters would land on the doormat. On the envelope would be some "teaser" copy like "Claim Your Free Gift Inside". Then inside would be a "lift letter" from the CEO recommending you read the full letter because it offered a great deal on Reader's Digest membership and the chance to win a car or a holiday.
Reader's Digest employed some of the best copywriters in the business to create these letters, as did Nightingale Conant and many other mail order magnates.
Ah! Those were the days. Those were the days when it was possible to make millions from mail order offers and quite a few people did. I personally know of two people who became millionaires simply by sending out letters offering to tell prospects... how to become rich. I actually made quite few grand myself from selling my own business manuals by mail order.
And here's how I did it...
In those days the long form sales letter ruled because we all knew that "the more you tell the more you sell". A very different story today of course. But what hasn't changed and probably never will is the desire to make money, or at least the need to know how to make money.
This is how may people did it...
There were 2 very popular weekly publications, one was "The Dalton's Weekly" and the other was "The Exchange & Mart". Now both had classifieds ad sections where you could place a very cheap line ad. So let's say you had an information product you wanted to sell, something like a manual about How To Start Up Your Own Publishing Business.
You would place an ad in one or both of these 2 publications under the Business Opportunity sections, which might read something like...
Discover New Secret Money
Making Opportunity. 50 page
manual explains how. For more
details send SAE to Anglox
Publications, 182 Sturminster Rd,
Bristol, BS14 8AR
It would cost about £20 to place an ad like this but it was money well invested. As enquiries started to arrive in the post you began generating a highly targeted list of prospects. So the next step was to send these interested people a long sales letter about your manual, explaining all the benefits and how easy it is to make money and entice them into sending you an order together with their cheque.
This marketing method was known as the "2 step method". Step one was to place the ad and step 2 was to send out the sales letter.
As a lead generator, this method was very good, usually returning about 10% in enquiries. However, conversion rates were pretty much the same as they are today, which is about 2-3 per cent. So let's say your original classified ad is seen by 1000 people and 100 responded. You could expect to make 2 or 3 sales.
The manual might be priced at £29 so there was profit in this method... but not enough to become rich. But the whole exercise was not really about making a shed load of money, although it would certainly be nice, the real reason for this was to test the market. And if it was profitable then you would ramp it up.
Now the next stage was to seek out a list broker, and there were quite a few of those around. You see, everyone who sent for details of your offer went onto your list, and lists could be sold... hence more profits. Some people used to just generate mailing lists and rent or sell them. That was their business and a good business it was too.
The biggest list brokers could almost guarantee results and their lists were fresh so these were the guys you looked for. To rent a list of names and addresses might cost something like £25 per 1000, so you had to work out whether the cost to rent these lists, together with the costs to print and mail your sales letter were going to be profitable, based on you tests.
Here's a breakdown of what had to be considered...
List rental 10,000 = £250
Paper & print costs = £500
Postage costs = £2000
So total costs for this mailout campaign were £2,750.
The number of sales @ 2% would be 200 x £29 = £5,800. Therefore profit would be £3,050.
To put these figures in perspective, the average weekly wage in the early 80's was £120, so 3 grand represented 6 months wages, which you could make in just 1-2 weeks!
Now, roll out big time and rent 100,000 names and addresses. This would be cheaper pro rata and you had buying power on your side. Let's do the maths...
List rental 100,000 = £2000
Paper & print costs = £5000
Postage costs = £20000
Total investment = £27,000
Total Income = £58,000
Total ROI = 10 x 3,050 = £31,000
Now 30 grand was like 5 times the average annual income. If you could make this much from one campaign then you needed to have several campaigns lined up to become a millionaire. Ans that's how it was done. In fact if you used a mailing house to do everything for you, it was totally hands off and you still made around the same amount of profit.
The key to success with mail order was the copy. If the sales letter was good your conversions could be as high as 8 or even 10 per cent! I'll let you do the maths for that one.
Long form sales copy was the answer to many marketer's dreams back then but what now?
Well, as you know the Internet rules these days and so when long form sales letters began appearing on web pages they did at first work very well. Maybe because of the novelty value or maybe because people had more time I don't know, but they certainly don't work quite as well as they did.
Online attention spans are very short now so a copywriter has to get the message across in a different way, which makes his job a little more difficult. The copywriter has to condense the message in a way that attracts attention almost immediately, highlights the benefits right up front, offer a shed load of bonuses, include overwhelming testimonials and sell at an unbelievable price.
So, not much has changed except we have to sell more with less words.
The Internet does have many advantages over the mail order route, especially in terms of presentation of offers, with graphics and video now almost standard procedure. But the best advantage of all is instant gratification and instant cash in the bank. The customer gets what he wants right away and you get the cash just as fast... luvverrrly!
If any of you want to know about how many marketers made their money by placing ads in national newspapers, let me know and I'll dedicate the next blog to it.
Hope you enjoyed this one, all for now.
Bill
KnightWriter
BusyVids
Thursday, July 11, 2013
The Awesome Power of Press Releases
Hi all,
I was recently asked, (well when I say recently it was about 4 months ago actually), what is the purpose of a press release. My answer was... to get some backlinks and leads.
What? Backlinks and leads? I hear you cry in disbelief... Oh c'mon now you didn't ever think that a press release was about letting the world know about your latest product launch or about the new guy who has taken over at sales & marketing... did you?
Well, here's a little secret... press releases are supposed to be newsworthy but that's not the ultimate goal of a press release, especially an online press release. As far as I'm concerned a press release is all about getting people to read it and then follow through to your website or at the very least "expose" yourself to the masses, in the most decent way possible of course.
Every time I write a press release, which is at least once a week, I fully expect my website hit counter to start spinning for at least a week after. Otherwise what is the point?
A press release is a very powerful mechanism, not only for getting news out in a timely manner, but to laser target your market audience with specific news about a specific subject. Only those people who are interested in the subject matter are ever going to read it anyway so it really needs to strike a chord with these guys.
Let me give you an example...
I'm a member of the UK Business Forums (UKBF) and I use their press release forum for putting out news about our BusyVids offerings. I've also used PRWeb and DWPub for the same purpose but it's much cheaper to use the UKBF's resource. In fact it's free if you are a full member... as I am.
Now these press releases achieve two things...
1. They get read by the right target market audience and many will follow the links to my websites.
2. They get ranked in Google, so I get valuable backlinks to my sites and even further exposure.
Here's a screenshot of one I published recently for BusyVids. You can see the date it was published is 4th July, and today's date is 11th July. So in just 7 days my PR has received 5,436 views, which is about 27 times more than any of the other press releases on this page.
So from 343 million search results my press release is right there in position one (the 3 above are paid listings) and on page one for the search phrase "Online Video Production & Marketing Company". Those advertisers on the right-hand side are paying around £1 a click so I win again.
Now here's a screenshot of the actual press release, showing the links back to both my BusyVids website and my KnightWriter website.
To enlarge this screenshot just click on it.
So, now you can see why I love press releases so much. They are just soooo powerful!
Done right they can bring an almost instant flood of traffic to your website and pull in a few handy bucks too.
It's much easier to show these kind of results with screenshots rather than try to explain how it all works.
Press release anyone?
All for now.
Bill
BusyVids
KnightWriter
I was recently asked, (well when I say recently it was about 4 months ago actually), what is the purpose of a press release. My answer was... to get some backlinks and leads.
What? Backlinks and leads? I hear you cry in disbelief... Oh c'mon now you didn't ever think that a press release was about letting the world know about your latest product launch or about the new guy who has taken over at sales & marketing... did you?
Well, here's a little secret... press releases are supposed to be newsworthy but that's not the ultimate goal of a press release, especially an online press release. As far as I'm concerned a press release is all about getting people to read it and then follow through to your website or at the very least "expose" yourself to the masses, in the most decent way possible of course.
Every time I write a press release, which is at least once a week, I fully expect my website hit counter to start spinning for at least a week after. Otherwise what is the point?
A press release is a very powerful mechanism, not only for getting news out in a timely manner, but to laser target your market audience with specific news about a specific subject. Only those people who are interested in the subject matter are ever going to read it anyway so it really needs to strike a chord with these guys.
Let me give you an example...
I'm a member of the UK Business Forums (UKBF) and I use their press release forum for putting out news about our BusyVids offerings. I've also used PRWeb and DWPub for the same purpose but it's much cheaper to use the UKBF's resource. In fact it's free if you are a full member... as I am.
Now these press releases achieve two things...
1. They get read by the right target market audience and many will follow the links to my websites.
2. They get ranked in Google, so I get valuable backlinks to my sites and even further exposure.
Here's a screenshot of one I published recently for BusyVids. You can see the date it was published is 4th July, and today's date is 11th July. So in just 7 days my PR has received 5,436 views, which is about 27 times more than any of the other press releases on this page.
To enlarge this screenshot just click on it.
A quick check on my website's analytics revealed that 3,882 people (unique visitors) had followed through to visit my website and as a result we picked up 11 video production jobs each worth £149 (11 x £149 = £1,639). Not bad for 15 minutes of writing.
So that's one reason for writing press releases. The other, as mentioned already, is the Google rank and backlinks. See the screenshot below, which shows the press release in the Google search pages.
To enlarge this screenshot just click on it.
So from 343 million search results my press release is right there in position one (the 3 above are paid listings) and on page one for the search phrase "Online Video Production & Marketing Company". Those advertisers on the right-hand side are paying around £1 a click so I win again.
Now here's a screenshot of the actual press release, showing the links back to both my BusyVids website and my KnightWriter website.
So, now you can see why I love press releases so much. They are just soooo powerful!
Done right they can bring an almost instant flood of traffic to your website and pull in a few handy bucks too.
It's much easier to show these kind of results with screenshots rather than try to explain how it all works.
Press release anyone?
All for now.
Bill
BusyVids
KnightWriter
Thursday, July 04, 2013
Copywriting Services For Copywriters?
Hi All,
Did you know that some copywriters hire other copywriters to write their copy? It's true!
But it's not fair on their clients now is it? Okay, so if a client wants say 20 articles written about some mundane subject like the rise and fall of the tides on the river servern, then why not farm the project out... I just might.
But if a client is willing to pay top dollar for a cash generating sales letter then any copywriter worth their weight should never, ever ask another copywriter to write it. Don't you agree? Otherwise it's like asking a top barrister to represent you in court and then he sends along his most junior assistant, who is more likely to get you sent down than get you off.
If you're willing to pay for the best then you should get the best... right?
Okay, so why am I ranting on about this? Well, it's because I was asked recently if I would help lighten the load of one of my fellow copywriters. Now this guy is at best one of my competitors, so why should I help get him out of a hole or worse than that... let him take the credit for my creative work?
The answer came back as... "well I'd do it for you". Yeah I'm sure I would trust anyone to write a best-selling sales letter for me... not!
Copywriters may all be writers in one sense or another but over a period of time a copywriter develops a certain style... what I like to think of as "distinctive flair". And although many copywriters tend to prefer to live outside the limelight, I'm one for hanging around in the shadows. Not that I make a habit of hanging around in dimly lit areas of course... no really I don't. Oh suit yourself!
What I mean is I like to dart in and out of the limelight like a shadowy figure. Not that it has any bearing on anything anyway. A bit like this post really. Has anyone spotted the deliberate reason behind writing this post? Nope... bet you haven't.
Okay I'm simply writing this post about copywriting because I want my website to benefit from this keyword-rich posting. I want the Google bots to feast on it and become intoxicated to the extent that they haul my website's ass back up to position three on the search page results for "copywriting services". Because for some reason it has dropped dangerously low on that page and I'm fearing it will disappear into the abyss, which is page two and beyond.
Page two is no good... not for me, not for you, not for anyone. It has to be page one or die.
Okay, how many words is that? I think this will do for this post.
Now you see, anyone can write this type of copy. You don't need to be a professional copywriter. The copy just needs to make sense and contain the right amount of keywords.
Here endeth the lesson.
All for now.
Real interesting stuff coming along very soon.
KnightWriter
BusyVids
Did you know that some copywriters hire other copywriters to write their copy? It's true!
But it's not fair on their clients now is it? Okay, so if a client wants say 20 articles written about some mundane subject like the rise and fall of the tides on the river servern, then why not farm the project out... I just might.
But if a client is willing to pay top dollar for a cash generating sales letter then any copywriter worth their weight should never, ever ask another copywriter to write it. Don't you agree? Otherwise it's like asking a top barrister to represent you in court and then he sends along his most junior assistant, who is more likely to get you sent down than get you off.
If you're willing to pay for the best then you should get the best... right?
Okay, so why am I ranting on about this? Well, it's because I was asked recently if I would help lighten the load of one of my fellow copywriters. Now this guy is at best one of my competitors, so why should I help get him out of a hole or worse than that... let him take the credit for my creative work?
The answer came back as... "well I'd do it for you". Yeah I'm sure I would trust anyone to write a best-selling sales letter for me... not!
Copywriters may all be writers in one sense or another but over a period of time a copywriter develops a certain style... what I like to think of as "distinctive flair". And although many copywriters tend to prefer to live outside the limelight, I'm one for hanging around in the shadows. Not that I make a habit of hanging around in dimly lit areas of course... no really I don't. Oh suit yourself!
What I mean is I like to dart in and out of the limelight like a shadowy figure. Not that it has any bearing on anything anyway. A bit like this post really. Has anyone spotted the deliberate reason behind writing this post? Nope... bet you haven't.
Okay I'm simply writing this post about copywriting because I want my website to benefit from this keyword-rich posting. I want the Google bots to feast on it and become intoxicated to the extent that they haul my website's ass back up to position three on the search page results for "copywriting services". Because for some reason it has dropped dangerously low on that page and I'm fearing it will disappear into the abyss, which is page two and beyond.
Page two is no good... not for me, not for you, not for anyone. It has to be page one or die.
Okay, how many words is that? I think this will do for this post.
Now you see, anyone can write this type of copy. You don't need to be a professional copywriter. The copy just needs to make sense and contain the right amount of keywords.
Here endeth the lesson.
All for now.
Real interesting stuff coming along very soon.
KnightWriter
BusyVids
Friday, June 28, 2013
Slap The Penguin With Great Content
Hi All,
It appears many website owners are getting really flustered over the current wave of Penguin algorithm updates, and I guess I can't blame them. To suddenly see that your website has dropped 20 or more places in Google's search ranking overnight is not only alarming it's positively downright shocking, deflating and utterly demoralizing. No doubt you could think of a few more adjectives to add to the list too.
Now all I got to say peeps is... keep calm and take stock. You see the reason you have lost your coveted Google place is because the content on your website sucks. That's about the bottom line I'm afraid.
Google is weeding out all those sites that have watery content, flimsy descriptions and a careless attitude to English grammar and punctuation. Not to mention all those spun articles that mean ansolutely tosh to the reader and contain a few spammy keywords for the search engine bots. To be honest, it's about time we had a good clear out.
What you have to remember is, Google is a business. It's in the search business and so it's goal... its mission, apart from making money of course is to provide it's searchers with quality results. And that means information, good information, current information. It also means quality images and some easy navigation around the site, plenty of fresh articles and perhaps a regularly updated blog (not like this one that only gets updated when I feel like it).
Guys, you just can't put up a free Wordpress website with wishy-washy content and pilfered images then expect to get ranked in the search engines now can you? Let's be fair... that's not what people are searching for.
The only way you can get your website where you want it to be is to ensure it contains relevant informative, interesting and current content. That means fresh off-the-press content. It means unique content not rehashed, regurgitated trash. So you need to get writing, or get someone to write it for you (hey I'm over here! www.knight-writer.co.uk) :)
Seriously, you have to get... well serious if you're... serious about your website, and I'm being serious.
It's the only way you can beat these algorithm updates and stay on top.
You need fresh content... unique content... regular content. It can be articles... product descriptions... sales copy... blog posts or videos. You need it because everyone is demanding it. And if you value your website and your business you had better get to work before the next round of updates is released.
All for now
Knight Writer
Busy Vids
It appears many website owners are getting really flustered over the current wave of Penguin algorithm updates, and I guess I can't blame them. To suddenly see that your website has dropped 20 or more places in Google's search ranking overnight is not only alarming it's positively downright shocking, deflating and utterly demoralizing. No doubt you could think of a few more adjectives to add to the list too.
Now all I got to say peeps is... keep calm and take stock. You see the reason you have lost your coveted Google place is because the content on your website sucks. That's about the bottom line I'm afraid.
Google is weeding out all those sites that have watery content, flimsy descriptions and a careless attitude to English grammar and punctuation. Not to mention all those spun articles that mean ansolutely tosh to the reader and contain a few spammy keywords for the search engine bots. To be honest, it's about time we had a good clear out.
What you have to remember is, Google is a business. It's in the search business and so it's goal... its mission, apart from making money of course is to provide it's searchers with quality results. And that means information, good information, current information. It also means quality images and some easy navigation around the site, plenty of fresh articles and perhaps a regularly updated blog (not like this one that only gets updated when I feel like it).
Guys, you just can't put up a free Wordpress website with wishy-washy content and pilfered images then expect to get ranked in the search engines now can you? Let's be fair... that's not what people are searching for.
The only way you can get your website where you want it to be is to ensure it contains relevant informative, interesting and current content. That means fresh off-the-press content. It means unique content not rehashed, regurgitated trash. So you need to get writing, or get someone to write it for you (hey I'm over here! www.knight-writer.co.uk) :)
Seriously, you have to get... well serious if you're... serious about your website, and I'm being serious.
It's the only way you can beat these algorithm updates and stay on top.
You need fresh content... unique content... regular content. It can be articles... product descriptions... sales copy... blog posts or videos. You need it because everyone is demanding it. And if you value your website and your business you had better get to work before the next round of updates is released.
All for now
Knight Writer
Busy Vids
Friday, June 07, 2013
Lost In Translation
Hi All,
This week I had quite a stressful experience. It was my own fault... well at least I think it was. What happened was...
I have an account on Elance (www.elance.com), which I set up about 8 or 9 years ago as a means for finding a few new clients. It's a good place to find new entrepreneurial marketers who are looking for someone to help them promote their products or services. I still have clients with me now that selected by bid on their projects all those years ago. A few have made many thousands from my sales letters so I guess they want to keep me close.
So, last week I was searching around to see if there were any jobs I might find interesting and also whether they were willing to pay the right price. By that I mean some people post jobs and are only prepared to pay peanuts so what do they expect to get? Yes... exactly!
I found a couple of interesting jobs and I placed my bids on them. I soon got some interest from what I think is a marketing agency based in the US. I say I think because you never can tell who you are dealing with. Now the problem with agencies is they are acting on behalf of their client, who happens to be my client. Get my drift?
Okay, well basically they are the middleman. They find the clients, find out what the clients want, give them a price for delivering, and then recruit freelancers via sites like Elance. Believe me working for any type of agency is hard work.
That's because most of the time they don't really know what their client really wants and so the brief can be quite fuzzy or at best a little ambiguous. Basically, an agency can keep the freelancer producing work and forever revising it until their client is happy and of course they take all the credit.
Well, I found myself mixed up with this agency who told me what their client wanted but not exactly how they wanted it. I mean the layout and construction of the web page content they needed. So, being a direct response copywriter I wrote some content as I would for any web page. That is, I communicate with the reader on a one-to-one level. You know... like I am with you right now. To be honest, it's the only way I know how to sell with words.
Well, I sent off my draft for their perusal and guess what? They hated it. They wanted the old institutional type ad copy you read in the Yellow Pages, you know that stuff that never really worked for anyone. I thought we'd all moved on from that stuff but evidently not.
When I was lecturing in college, many years ago to young start-up business people, I had to break down the barriers to their beliefs about traditional sales and marketing, and educate them about how to talk to their customers through words on paper, which now applies equally to the web. Direct marketing or direct response copy has been responsible for billions in sales so why would anyone want to ignore it? Beats me!
There's a kind of irony in this story because some of the best direct response copywriters in the world came from the US. Many of their proteges exist and flourish in the US today. Some of the old masters like Gary Halbert, Ted Nicholas, Clayton Makepiece and Bob Bly have made such a huge impact on direct response copywriting techniques in the US over the past 40 years. Makes you wonder why some of the ad agencies haven't even heard of these guys.
Anyway, back to my experience...
So I was now faced with the question of... what do I do now?
Do I revise and submit, revise and submit until eventually we get somewhere near what this client wants? I needed an exit strategy. So I thought, the best and fairest thing to do is to write another version and let them have it for free. In fact I didn't earn anything from the whole exercise, which after all is said and done probably took around 4-5 hours of my time. At £50 per hour that was quite an expensive mistake.
The moral of the story? Don't deal with third party agencies. Only deal directly with the client. It will save a ton of time and stress in the long run.
All for now. Have a nice day.
Bill
Knight-Writer
BusyVids
This week I had quite a stressful experience. It was my own fault... well at least I think it was. What happened was...
I have an account on Elance (www.elance.com), which I set up about 8 or 9 years ago as a means for finding a few new clients. It's a good place to find new entrepreneurial marketers who are looking for someone to help them promote their products or services. I still have clients with me now that selected by bid on their projects all those years ago. A few have made many thousands from my sales letters so I guess they want to keep me close.
So, last week I was searching around to see if there were any jobs I might find interesting and also whether they were willing to pay the right price. By that I mean some people post jobs and are only prepared to pay peanuts so what do they expect to get? Yes... exactly!
I found a couple of interesting jobs and I placed my bids on them. I soon got some interest from what I think is a marketing agency based in the US. I say I think because you never can tell who you are dealing with. Now the problem with agencies is they are acting on behalf of their client, who happens to be my client. Get my drift?
Okay, well basically they are the middleman. They find the clients, find out what the clients want, give them a price for delivering, and then recruit freelancers via sites like Elance. Believe me working for any type of agency is hard work.
That's because most of the time they don't really know what their client really wants and so the brief can be quite fuzzy or at best a little ambiguous. Basically, an agency can keep the freelancer producing work and forever revising it until their client is happy and of course they take all the credit.
Well, I found myself mixed up with this agency who told me what their client wanted but not exactly how they wanted it. I mean the layout and construction of the web page content they needed. So, being a direct response copywriter I wrote some content as I would for any web page. That is, I communicate with the reader on a one-to-one level. You know... like I am with you right now. To be honest, it's the only way I know how to sell with words.
Well, I sent off my draft for their perusal and guess what? They hated it. They wanted the old institutional type ad copy you read in the Yellow Pages, you know that stuff that never really worked for anyone. I thought we'd all moved on from that stuff but evidently not.
When I was lecturing in college, many years ago to young start-up business people, I had to break down the barriers to their beliefs about traditional sales and marketing, and educate them about how to talk to their customers through words on paper, which now applies equally to the web. Direct marketing or direct response copy has been responsible for billions in sales so why would anyone want to ignore it? Beats me!
There's a kind of irony in this story because some of the best direct response copywriters in the world came from the US. Many of their proteges exist and flourish in the US today. Some of the old masters like Gary Halbert, Ted Nicholas, Clayton Makepiece and Bob Bly have made such a huge impact on direct response copywriting techniques in the US over the past 40 years. Makes you wonder why some of the ad agencies haven't even heard of these guys.
Anyway, back to my experience...
So I was now faced with the question of... what do I do now?
Do I revise and submit, revise and submit until eventually we get somewhere near what this client wants? I needed an exit strategy. So I thought, the best and fairest thing to do is to write another version and let them have it for free. In fact I didn't earn anything from the whole exercise, which after all is said and done probably took around 4-5 hours of my time. At £50 per hour that was quite an expensive mistake.
The moral of the story? Don't deal with third party agencies. Only deal directly with the client. It will save a ton of time and stress in the long run.
All for now. Have a nice day.
Bill
Knight-Writer
BusyVids
Friday, May 17, 2013
In Business? Don't Hold Back On Marketing
Hi All,
Are you in business? Finding it tough going at the moment? Well, you're not the only one. There are many small business owners right now who are literally living from day to day and from week to week. I get to speak to many of them in the course of my own business, which incidentally has not been left unscathed. Our turnover is down about 15% on this time last year, which was 22% down on the previous year.
You've just to to hang in there guys... but you know something... there is still plenty of money changing hands, and if you want to get your hands on some then you just have to get out of your little box, that you've been hiding in for the last couple of years, and go get some. I'm talking about diversification.
Whatever business you're in there must be something or some way that you can get more work or make more sales. If you are a service provider then look at other related services you can provide and if you sell products, then get on the BOGOF trail and get some new customers. Look guys, selling your products for half the usual price right now is not all that bad. It's certainly better than not selling anything at all... right?
I'm sure the only reason why we, and I mean the Anglox Group, is managing to ride this wave of economic misery is because we offer a diverse range of services. That includes copywriting, video production & marketing, web design & graphic design. Plus lots of other little add-ons and stuff. It keeps us all going and it helps put "bread ont table". We too have cut the prices of some of our product/services. We offer our busyvids video production services at a whopping 30% discount to all UKBF members. That's the UK Business Forum. If you're not a member join now it's free. (www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/)
Now, the other bit of advice I'm going to give you guys is about your marketing. I know times are tough and money is tight but if you stop spending on advertising you will definitely not get any customers, at least no new customers. Whatever your circumstances and no matter how bad things appear to be, you must keep marketing your business.
Otherwise some little upstart is going to come along and carve out a slice of your business and you'll never get it back. If you do get back in later it will have cost you a small fortune, and if you don't you'll simply go under. I'm serious! I've seen many a small business die a slow and painful death because of a lack of marketing. You don't have to spend a fortune, you can do it on the cheap...
If you haven't already, create a Facebook page and open a Twitter account. Pinterest is a good way to get some free traffic. Linkedin is your link with other businesses. Youtube offers unlimited opportunity. Then there's Craigslist and Gumtree for free ads. If you can write then write some articles and post them to ezinearticles.com with a link back to your website. You can place a "Buy it Now" ad on ebay for just 40 pence a month! Keep getting your message out there, keep plugging away, and don't ever, ever, ever give up.
Recession? What recession!
All for now!
Bill
Copwriting Services
Marketing Videos
Are you in business? Finding it tough going at the moment? Well, you're not the only one. There are many small business owners right now who are literally living from day to day and from week to week. I get to speak to many of them in the course of my own business, which incidentally has not been left unscathed. Our turnover is down about 15% on this time last year, which was 22% down on the previous year.
You've just to to hang in there guys... but you know something... there is still plenty of money changing hands, and if you want to get your hands on some then you just have to get out of your little box, that you've been hiding in for the last couple of years, and go get some. I'm talking about diversification.
Whatever business you're in there must be something or some way that you can get more work or make more sales. If you are a service provider then look at other related services you can provide and if you sell products, then get on the BOGOF trail and get some new customers. Look guys, selling your products for half the usual price right now is not all that bad. It's certainly better than not selling anything at all... right?
I'm sure the only reason why we, and I mean the Anglox Group, is managing to ride this wave of economic misery is because we offer a diverse range of services. That includes copywriting, video production & marketing, web design & graphic design. Plus lots of other little add-ons and stuff. It keeps us all going and it helps put "bread ont table". We too have cut the prices of some of our product/services. We offer our busyvids video production services at a whopping 30% discount to all UKBF members. That's the UK Business Forum. If you're not a member join now it's free. (www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/)
Now, the other bit of advice I'm going to give you guys is about your marketing. I know times are tough and money is tight but if you stop spending on advertising you will definitely not get any customers, at least no new customers. Whatever your circumstances and no matter how bad things appear to be, you must keep marketing your business.
Otherwise some little upstart is going to come along and carve out a slice of your business and you'll never get it back. If you do get back in later it will have cost you a small fortune, and if you don't you'll simply go under. I'm serious! I've seen many a small business die a slow and painful death because of a lack of marketing. You don't have to spend a fortune, you can do it on the cheap...
If you haven't already, create a Facebook page and open a Twitter account. Pinterest is a good way to get some free traffic. Linkedin is your link with other businesses. Youtube offers unlimited opportunity. Then there's Craigslist and Gumtree for free ads. If you can write then write some articles and post them to ezinearticles.com with a link back to your website. You can place a "Buy it Now" ad on ebay for just 40 pence a month! Keep getting your message out there, keep plugging away, and don't ever, ever, ever give up.
Recession? What recession!
All for now!
Bill
Copwriting Services
Marketing Videos
Saturday, May 04, 2013
Video Options - Which Ones Rank Best?
Hi All,
I should think most of you have by now realised that I'm quite passionate about video marketing. Well it might be because I have my own video production and marketing company or it might be because I just love video, but whatever it is it's not going anywhere fast.
Truth is I'm spending more and more time getting involved in creating videos than I am at copywriting, apart from writing video scripts that is. I think it's because the video sales letter is now fast out-performing the plain old written version. Anyway, we have just launched a new 3D HD video option, which is for those clients who want something a little more dynamic.
These dynamic videos are great for putting on websites but for some reason they lag a little behind the screen capture and voiveover type of videos when it comes to getting them ranked in the Google search pages. The only reason I can see for this is the missing voiceover dimension.
Now it's no secret that Google has a way of knowing what the video content consisits of. I mean they know whether it has a voiceover, they know whether it has a music soundtrack and they know if it has good informative content. Don't ask me how they know but trust me they do. I have proved it by simultaneously uploading a screencast video with voiceover and the same one without. I've also tested with and without soundtracks.
The result? To get ranked high in the Google search pages it has to have good content, a good soundtrack and a voiceover. Well, it stands to reason. The more you can put into your video the more you will be rewarded. So don't think that a 30 second flashy HD video is going to get anywhere with Google... it won't.
However, on the other hand Youtube is less fussy. Our tests have shown that any of our videos will get a number one position on Youtube as long as it is optimised properly.
So here's the latest offering from the Busyvids stable. The client was over the moon with the end result and gave us a great testimonial with a promise to come back for more. That's good enough for me!
See what you think: Watch Video
Now another service we are offering is to extend the marketing period for videos beyond the usual 30 days, and also to create a new video for the client every month. All for a low-cost monthly fee. I'll give all the details in my next post.
All for now,
Bill
BusyVids
Knight Writer
I should think most of you have by now realised that I'm quite passionate about video marketing. Well it might be because I have my own video production and marketing company or it might be because I just love video, but whatever it is it's not going anywhere fast.
Truth is I'm spending more and more time getting involved in creating videos than I am at copywriting, apart from writing video scripts that is. I think it's because the video sales letter is now fast out-performing the plain old written version. Anyway, we have just launched a new 3D HD video option, which is for those clients who want something a little more dynamic.
These dynamic videos are great for putting on websites but for some reason they lag a little behind the screen capture and voiveover type of videos when it comes to getting them ranked in the Google search pages. The only reason I can see for this is the missing voiceover dimension.
Now it's no secret that Google has a way of knowing what the video content consisits of. I mean they know whether it has a voiceover, they know whether it has a music soundtrack and they know if it has good informative content. Don't ask me how they know but trust me they do. I have proved it by simultaneously uploading a screencast video with voiceover and the same one without. I've also tested with and without soundtracks.
The result? To get ranked high in the Google search pages it has to have good content, a good soundtrack and a voiceover. Well, it stands to reason. The more you can put into your video the more you will be rewarded. So don't think that a 30 second flashy HD video is going to get anywhere with Google... it won't.
However, on the other hand Youtube is less fussy. Our tests have shown that any of our videos will get a number one position on Youtube as long as it is optimised properly.
So here's the latest offering from the Busyvids stable. The client was over the moon with the end result and gave us a great testimonial with a promise to come back for more. That's good enough for me!
See what you think: Watch Video
Now another service we are offering is to extend the marketing period for videos beyond the usual 30 days, and also to create a new video for the client every month. All for a low-cost monthly fee. I'll give all the details in my next post.
All for now,
Bill
BusyVids
Knight Writer
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Impressive Video Marketing Stats
Hi All,
As a copywriter I love it when I can include factual stats in my sales copy. It adds real credibility, which is just so important. So, I was looking around the internet in general when I came across some real eye-watering stats relating to video marketing.
Next, I sent out a press release, which was yesterday, from my UKBF account because I wanted these very interesting stats regarding video marketing, and which were from a trusted source, to be known... to be "out there". So here they are...
As a copywriter I love it when I can include factual stats in my sales copy. It adds real credibility, which is just so important. So, I was looking around the internet in general when I came across some real eye-watering stats relating to video marketing.
Next, I sent out a press release, which was yesterday, from my UKBF account because I wanted these very interesting stats regarding video marketing, and which were from a trusted source, to be known... to be "out there". So here they are...
According to Dr James McQuivey of
Forrester Research, one minute of video is
equivalent to 1.8 million words in terms of
marketing value. That equates to 3600 web pages or
about 150 days of actual time spent writing.
It is also reported that 100
million people worldwide watch online videos every
single day. And according to ComScore, the online
statistics company, the average internet user
spends almost 17 minutes a month watching video
ads.
It seems people actually enjoy
watching video ads as opposed to those who
registered a distinct dislike for TV ads. The
Online Publishers Association has reported that
80% of internet users
could recall watching a video ad on
a website they visited in the past 30 days.
Of that 80%, 46% of users took some
action after viewing the video ad. 26% looked for
more information about the subject of the video,
22% visited the website named in the ad, 15%
visited the company represented in the video ad,
and 12% purchased the specific product featured in
the ad.
ComScore also reported that
internet users who visited a website that had
video content, spent at least 2 minutes longer on
the website than if the site did not have video.
According to Forbes Insight, 59% of
senior executives would rather watch a video than
read text. About 65% of those who viewed a video
clicked through to visit the vendor website, 50%
looked for more information and 45% reported that
they contacted a vendor after seeing an online
video ad. About 50% of those who viewed an online
marketing video went on to make a purchase for
their business.
The stats are stacking up in favour
of video marketing, which seems destined to become
the primary method for delivering effective
advertising.
Video marketing is going from strength to strength and so are we! Check out our latest promo video, which is gracing our BusyVids websites here.
We've just started using an agency to handle some of our video production enquiries because we just can't cope with them all. They're not all converting to sales but there's so much interest in what we are doing.
Keep you posted!
Bye for now,
Bill
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Copywriting and Video... The Challenge
Hi All,
Big apologies for not posting for such a long time. My only excuse is I've been exceptionally busy, which according to my friends and colleagues is phenomenal in this current economic climate.
It appears there are lots of writers, designers and marketers who are really struggling right now, so I guess I shouldn't complain. And hey guys! Things can only get better so hang in there.
Okay, so I've finally got round to updating my copywriting services website, which was beginning to look old and shabby and unloved. I've replaced it with a much more simpler version, which is easier to navigate, and I've removed all traces of duplicate content. Here it is here
But I've also done something else... something no other UK copywriter has done. I've put a handscribe whiteboard video on my website. Well, why not?
I do own a video production and marketing company after all. www.busyvids.co.uk
Those of you who already know, we create screen capture advertising and marketing videos for small business owners in all types of sectors. We also create Powerpoint videos of images or text or both. But now we also create animated sales letters too.
These sales letters are so powerful I can hardly contain my excitement. I always knew that video was the way forward in terms of Internet marketing but animated video sales letters are just the icing on the cake.
This is a whole new and thoroughly entertaining way of communicating with your potential customers. Everyone who has watched my demo said they had to watch it all the way through. Here's the demo here
And in case you haven't seen my new website yet here's the introduction video here
And if you want to see what a video sales letter looks like, here's one I created for a client here
So can you see how my copywriting is now merging with video? That's why I've been so busy!
There's a lot of demand for this service especially from the internet marketers and so not being one to sit on my laurels and not being one to let anyone down or turn away business, I'm working flat out with this. And we have other ideas for our animated sales letters a little later on... keep you posted on that.
I've been writing more video scripts lately than sales letters so I was wondering whether I should change my title to video scribe... what do you think?
Well off to finish another video so catch with you all again very soon... promise.
All for now.
Bill
Copywriting Services
Video Services
Big apologies for not posting for such a long time. My only excuse is I've been exceptionally busy, which according to my friends and colleagues is phenomenal in this current economic climate.
It appears there are lots of writers, designers and marketers who are really struggling right now, so I guess I shouldn't complain. And hey guys! Things can only get better so hang in there.
Okay, so I've finally got round to updating my copywriting services website, which was beginning to look old and shabby and unloved. I've replaced it with a much more simpler version, which is easier to navigate, and I've removed all traces of duplicate content. Here it is here
But I've also done something else... something no other UK copywriter has done. I've put a handscribe whiteboard video on my website. Well, why not?
I do own a video production and marketing company after all. www.busyvids.co.uk
Those of you who already know, we create screen capture advertising and marketing videos for small business owners in all types of sectors. We also create Powerpoint videos of images or text or both. But now we also create animated sales letters too.
These sales letters are so powerful I can hardly contain my excitement. I always knew that video was the way forward in terms of Internet marketing but animated video sales letters are just the icing on the cake.
This is a whole new and thoroughly entertaining way of communicating with your potential customers. Everyone who has watched my demo said they had to watch it all the way through. Here's the demo here
And in case you haven't seen my new website yet here's the introduction video here
And if you want to see what a video sales letter looks like, here's one I created for a client here
So can you see how my copywriting is now merging with video? That's why I've been so busy!
There's a lot of demand for this service especially from the internet marketers and so not being one to sit on my laurels and not being one to let anyone down or turn away business, I'm working flat out with this. And we have other ideas for our animated sales letters a little later on... keep you posted on that.
I've been writing more video scripts lately than sales letters so I was wondering whether I should change my title to video scribe... what do you think?
Well off to finish another video so catch with you all again very soon... promise.
All for now.
Bill
Copywriting Services
Video Services
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)