Copywriting For ****heads!

Hi All,

You know, it takes a lot to get me worked up about anything these days. I've certainly mellowed over the years, as you do. But just recently my attention was drawn to a copywriting service being offered by someone claiming to be a... copywriter.

It turns out he was getting "copywriters" from India to write articles and then selling these on as his own for a profit. Now, I don't begrudge anyone trying to make a profit. Making a living these days is hard no doubt about it. But c'mon!

These articles were being written for just $3 a pop and being sold for £25 each!

Wish I'd thought of that! No seriously... these articles were rubbish. I mean bad grammar, poor English, no punctuation and typos everywhere. It made me mad!

Why?

Because someone, somewhere was actually buying them and probably using them as content for their websites. 

So What?

Yeah! I asked myself that question... so why was I so bothered?

The people buying and using them probably didn't know any better. They probably speak that way anyway and write that way too, so it would probabaly appear to be good work to them... right?

Yeah... Yeah... but who would buy this crap?

I had to know so I contacted the "copywriter" and I had a serious chat with him. At least it was serious for about 5 minutes because after that I couldn't stop laughing. Boy that made my day....

Turns out he's quite a savvy young marketer and all he was doing was acting as a middleman for his overseas clients. Who just happen to be Chinese.... LMAO!

So, he was getting Indian writers to write articles for the Chinese, who assumed that because he was English, the articles would be okay. And of course they don't know any different.

Good luck to him. Wish I'd thought of that... no seriously :)

For great copy that converts to mega sales contact me first... please!

All for now,
Bill

BusyVids
Knight-Writer

Conservation or Speculation?

Hi All,

Well, anyone in business right now just might have noticed that we appear to be in the depths of a huge recession, and anyone that has been in business for many years will have experienced similar situations in the past.

For me the most damaging recession was in the early nineties. I was running a completely different kind of service business then and I got hit very hard, having to to lay of 5 of my 7 staff.

So, if you're in business what's the best way to get through a recession? Conserve your resources, i.e., hard cash or is it best to speculate and buy your way out of it?

It's only human to recoil and shed excess baggage when you're in pain but this could be suicidal in business. You still need to make money, in fact even more so, and you still want to be in business when this whole sh*t blows over don't you?

Sure, cutting waste and making savings where possible is the natural thing to do but what many small business owners do is cut their marketing budget, which is just plain crazy! If anything you should increase your marketing to ensure your customers don't forget you and to encourage new customers to buy from you. 

Those who stop advertising and stop spending on promoting their products and services will have to compete with a whole new batch of competition later along the line and then they'll know what pain really is...

Having lived through 3 major economic crashes I think I'm pretty clued up as to how to cope with this one. During the downturn of the 80's I stopped spending on marketing and so stopped getting customers and eventually had to close my business.

In the 90's so many of my creditors went bust I found myself up the proverbial creek without a paddle and my bank (NatWest) were firing broadsides at me like they were going out of fashion. Did I give up? No but it was damn hard work trying to stay afloat, let alone steer my way out of trouble. Many events, which affected my business were completely out of my hands then, but I still advertised and I still got work.

Today is a bit different as it seems the whole world is affected in some way, so I guess we're all in the same boat this time, and as this mess was mainly caused by greedy bumbling bankers and incompetent politicians the onus is firmly placed on them to get us out of it.

Okay, I am digressing somewhat. So back to the point in question...

Should we cut back on our marketing and save a few quid or go overboard and splash out like we've just won the lottery? My advice is to don't stop spending on marketing because that's what makes your business live and breath, but during these hard times it neeeds to be approached in a slightly different way. I know money is tight for many small business owners and cash flow is... well... just not flowing as fluidly as we would all hope.

What you need to do now is look at ways in which you can add value to your products and services instead of spending more. Look at my own example with BusyVids...

This year we have changed our output format and now create all videos in High Definition, and for no extra cost to the customer...

We have also increased the length of videos to 3 minutes or more but only made a small increase in price...

And just recently we have added at least 100 free backlinks to each order. These links can be applied to the client's video or to their website, and at no additional cost.

You see, the aim is to create so much value for money that the client will not even consider going anywhere else for their videos. The best part is, it has cost us very little to add this service when compared to the new business we have generated.

So, whatever business you are in right now, don't stop spending on your marketing, and do increase the value of your products or services. It will help you get and retain more customers during these difficult times, and when times do get better they'll still be loyal to you above your competition. 

You know it makes sense!

All for now!

Bill

BusyVids.co.uk

Knight-Writer.co.uk

The Power of Press Releases

Hi All,

Having written many hundreds of press releases for my own business and for my client's businesses over the years, I thought I'd remind you all about how really powerful they are.

Whilst some small business owners are shelling out hundreds if not thousands of pounds on SEO and PPC, in the hope they will get their websites noticed, I as usual don't pay anything and still get a formidable presence on the first page of Google for whatever search terms I want.

Let me prove it to you...

Recently I joined a forum because forums carry a lot of weight in terms of importance on the internet, especially when it comes to positioning on Google. This is because the content of forums is constantly being updated by its users. User generated content is always fresh and that's like prime real estate in the eyes of the almighty Google.

So, here's what I did. I wanted to get some global exposure for my BusyVids operation so I wrote a press release, and here it is...

UK Based, Small Business Video Marketing Service Set To Go Global

A new video marketing service, capable of generating free website traffic, has just been simultaneously launched in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The video marketing service, currently being offered by BusyVids, has already received rave reviews from many small business owners in the UK, where it was first launched in April, 2011.

This particular video marketing service is designed to generate free website traffic from Youtube and other video sharing sites, and helps to get business websites ranked and listed in Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines. Many of these small business marketing videos are now residing on the first page of Google for their selected keyword phrases.

Video is becoming increasingly important for business, as a means of delivering sales messages, with more than 92 billion video page views each month on Youtube alone. However, this new video service taps into a hidden loophole, which sends free targeted traffic from the video sharing sites directly to the small business owner’s video.

Once there, the video is designed to drive traffic to the business owner’s website. This targeted traffic then helps the video to rank in the search engines, moving it higher in the search engine ranking as it generates more traffic. And so the process goes on creating a continuous loop of free highly targeted traffic.

Almost all of the videos created by BusyVids get to the top of Youtube within 2 or 3 days, and then show in the Google Video search results a few days later, and eventually climb up the general search results. Many of these unique videos have made it into the first page of Google within 24 hours. Some of the videos go viral after a couple of weeks generating even more views and free traffic. It’s an ingenious marketing idea and obviously works extremely well.

Video is the perfect media for getting a marketing message right in front of a potential customer because video is readily accepted by Internet users worldwide, and fits in nicely with social networking sites like Facebook. It’s also perfect for raising brand awareness and for developing a loyal customer base, as many people will actively seek out videos on just about any subject of interest.

This insatiable appetite for online video shows no signs of slowing down any day soon. In fact all indicators suggest it is getting more and more popular with both advertisers and consumers every day.

BusyVids managing director, Bill Knight said, “A business operating online needs to get its sales message, or in this case its website, right in front of people who actually want to see it. It’s more than simply a numbers game, but you do have to go where people congregate in very large numbers or where people will instantly find you. That means Youtube, Facebook and the search engines, especially Google. The videos we create for our clients tick all the boxes. It’s the best form of free advertising anywhere on the Internet.”

The BusyVids video marketing service is currently being offered as a special low-cost advertising option, and is only available to individual business owners, SME’s and entrepreneurs.

A user-friendly and dedicated website has been set up to provide all the relevant information, and which also has several video demonstrations and examples of videos that have already been created. Visit www.busyvids.com for further details.

Contact Email: info@busyvids.com

Tel: 01275 837 577

Notice the keywords in the title. This is very important for where I wanted to rank. Now the forum I joined has a free Press Release option for full members so I was quick to make use of it, otherwise I would have used PR Web, but that would have cost me about £90.00. 

Now if you open a Google search page and type in "global video marketing service for small business", without the quotes, you'll see that out of 73 million results my press release is at the top of the page (as of today's date).

It also ranks for quite a few variations of the title. And that's for just one press release I'm showing you. I have several runing all over the internet. So, can you see how incredibly powerful they are? Don't ever underestimate the humble press release for getting your message out there. The secret is not to make your sales message look salesy, instead you have to make it look and read like news.

A well written press release can work for you whether you operate an International business, a national business, a regional business or just a small local business. It could even work for you if you only operated a small shop on your local High Street!

Now to prove that this isn't some kind of fluke or just a stroke of luck, I wrote and released another press release. Here's the title...

 

News About Video Marketing For Small Business

Now here's your mission should you accept it. Go to Google now, and type in my headline title word for word...  

... see what I mean guys?

I rest my case.

All for now,

Bill

BusyVids.co.uk

Knight-Writer.co.uk

Hey Man Wanna Buy Some SEO?

Hi All,

Everyone in business with an online presence, whether that's a website, a blog, a Facebook page or a Twitter account wants more exposure. More exposure to their potential customers and more cash in the bank, thank you very much. But what is everyone doing to get more exposure? Just how are these people exposing themsleves? :)

Well, just about everyone seems to be hooked on someting called SEO. "Hey man wanna buy some SEO?" And so what is SEO exactly? Well, many SEO "experts" will tell you it's all manner of things, and really nothing in particular. Some will tell you that you need backlinks and the more the merrier. Some will tell you it's all about on-page stuff like keywords and content and graphics and interactivity.

Does anyone really know what SEO is? Well I can tell you something for nothing. It's not what it used to be. Anyone in the know will recently have heard about the latest algorithms known as Google "Panda" and Google "Penguin", and that's just the start of what looks like a planned Google onslaught of useless spammy websites that have no place on Google's treasured search engine.

So what is Panda? Well if you have hundreds or even thousands of backlinks to non relevant websites like forums and blogs then you'll soon find out. And what is Penguin? Well if you have all kinds of regurgitated crappy content on your site that doesn't make any sense to man or beast then it's curtains for you my friend.

Well what do you expect? Google are in the business of providing their searching surfers with good quality results. That's what makes them the biggest and best at what they do. So if you want to get into bed and cosy up with Google then you simply have to take on the submissive role and do exactly what they say... or else.

But hey, it's not that hard to do...

So here's my 10 point plan to help you...

1. Make sure all the images on your websites have alt tags, and your keyword tags are limited to 4, and you have your main keyword in your site's description.

2. Make sure your website has a site map.

3. Make sure you sign up for Google + Trust me you need this!

4. Make sure your website has good quality and informative content and your main keywords appear in the first 2 or 3 paragraphs.

5. Keep it fresh! This means keep the content coming regularly... like a blog for example.

6. Get some quality and RELEVANT backlinks. Pay if you have to!

7. Link your website to your social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.

8. Have some quality videos created an uploaded to Youtube and make sure your website URL is included in the description. Put a copy of the video on your website.

9. Get some interesting and informative articles written and submitted to the article directories especially ezinearticles.com - Pay attention the bio section!

10. Send out press releases every month. (This is like gold dust!)

Is it really that difficult to understand SEO? No! It's not rocket surgery it's just plain common sense. So, don't fall for all that specialist SEO stuff that the SEO specialists are trying to sell you for silly amounts of megabucks, just follow my 10 point plan and you too could be riding on the crest of the Google wave.

So what's next? Oh you want to know how to get more customers? Well, that's coming in my next post and don't miss it. I'm going to blow your socks off with some amazing tried and tested marketing strategies that virtually nobody has ever even dreamed of. 

All for now

Bill

Knight-Writer.co.uk

BusyVids.co.uk

The Magic Story - Revisited

Hi All,

I was recently asked about how business was going and whether I was feeling the effects of the downturn, recession, depression, austerity measures or whatever you want to call it. It all amounts to the same thing whatever label you put on it. I replied, "well we're ticking over". I consider myself and my close work colleagues to be in a very fortunate position, in that we always seem to have work.

This is probably because we offer so many diverse services to our clients. From copywriting to web design and graphic design to video production and marketing, we are the ultimate one-stop shop for online business services. But that's not all. We also generate income from affiliate programs and product sales too. So all in all I guess we are doing okay. (Although we've lost our Adsense income stream as mentioned in my last post).

So is there something to be learnt here? Yes. Don't just rely on one source of income or one product or even one product range. To survive in this harsh economic climate you have to get out there and find out what people are looking for and what they're buying, and then offer it to them. Sell it cheaper if you have to, package it better, offer free delivery... anything to give you an edge over your competitors. But keep it legal and keep it clean.

Whatever business you are in you should always play by the rules. I mean the unwritten rules, which means never rip off your customers or your suppliers. Don't bullshit anyone and do act with the highest integrity at all times. Yes undercut them, out-sell, out-perform, out-advertise, out-promote and out-do them on everything else but never, ever stoop to low-life tactics. It will always come back and haunt you later... guaranteed!

Okay, now I know that some of my clients are really struggling this year, and I know a couple of them have even decided to throw in the towel. So what I want to say is... whatever your situation right now don't give up.

If you are feeling a little despondent don't despair. To help you get back into the right frame of mind I think you should perhaps read this story. We all need some motivation at times and even though you might have read this story once already I highly recommend you read it again and take in the message. It's very important... here's the link. The Magic Story

Till next time.

All for now,

Bill

www.BusyVids.com

How I Got Done Over By Golf Oscar Oscar Golf Lima Echo

Hi All,

I have to be  bit careful what I say in this post. "Why?" Because I was mugged by yours truly. "Yours truly?" Yes you know... the boss. "The boss?" Yeh, you know... the Internet god. "OMG not?" Yes exactly!

Got it? Okay here's the story but I'll be careful not to mention any names for fear of further reprisals..

About two weeks ago I was innocently working away on one of my ideas to create a new income stream from affiliate marketing. I had already built several small websites for this and filled them with banners from my CPA affilaite programs. The income comes from the companies who want me to get them leads, and so every time someone clicks on one of these banners and submits their email, they get a lead and I get a dollar or two.

So I had four of these sites up and running and I was promoting them using videos, well what else?

Two of the sites were doing quite well. One was promoting several oline surveys and the other was promoting video games and free games downloads. Now when I say they were doing quite well, what I really mean is they were making a few dollars each every day. So then I thought of a great idea. I thought... Why don't I put some Adsense links on each site and then drive tons of traffic to them using a CPV program?

For those of you unfamiliar with CPV (Cost Per View), this is a paid program where you can get your site to pop up in front of people who are searching for something similar. Take a look at DirectCPV.com to get an idea. Using this program I can get a view of any of my sites for just 1.5 cents. So for $100 that's over 6,600 views.

Now needless to say with all this traffic hitting my affiliate sites, clicking on the banners and clicking on the Adsense links I was getting a little excited. I could see my Adsense income increasing daily. Not by thousands of dollars but certainly by hundreds. Then... Wham!

I get this email from Golf Oscar Oscar Golf Lima Echo telling me that my Adsense account has been disabled. Here's the gist of the email I received...

"After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due to invalid activity, we've found it necessary to disable your AdSense account. Your outstanding balance and Google's share of the revenue will both be fully refunded to the affected advertisers.

Please understand that we need to take such steps to maintain the effectiveness of Google's advertising system, particularly the advertiser-publisher relationship. We understand the inconvenience that this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation."

So, naturally I file an appeal. In my appeal I explain exactly what I had been doing, which in essense was just getting more traffic to my sites. As far as I could see I wasn't committing any crime and I wasn't even breaking any rules. Well, they weren't having any of it.

They replied within a few hours and basically said their decision would be upheld and my account was going to be closed. I had over £250 in my Adsense account and they took it all. Some of it had been earned before I used the CPV program, but it was all gone.

I used to have Adsense ads on this blogtoo. You can see the big empty space on the right hand side. My ads had been there for years. It now feels like I've lost a close friend, and I didn't even have time to say goodbye :(

I had been robbed, mugged, violated and humiliated by the Internet God. They just took my money, shut me down and there's nothing I can do about it. And all I did was what every Internet marketer wants to do... get more traffic!

Well, they make the rules or should that be laws? Whatever, there's certainly an element of 'Big Brother' about the whole thing. And is there a moral to this story? Beats me!

Go carefully my friends!

All for now.

Bill

www.busyvids.com

Don't Fall For The Software Scam

Hi All,

Have you ever bought a software program because you were led to believe that it would create automated income streams for you, and all you had to do was less than 30 minutes work a day? C'mon... own up. Well I did and quite recently too. In fact to my shame, I'm going to admit to buying into no less than 3 different programs. Phew! Glad I got that off my chest. I feel like I've just confessed my sins and now I'm cleansed and redeemed.

Okay guys I'll let you into a secret about these software programs that the sellers say will create massive passive incomes for you while you sleep. Here's the scenario...

I want to make a lot of money right... so I get together with a few friends and we sit down and brainstorm. We come up with the idea of creating a software program that builds websites, loads them with affiliate products, content and adsense ads ets etc. It's going to be the all singing, all dancing, out of the box, set it and forget, push button program to knock the socks off everything else on the Internet.

But will it work?

Well we call in a programmer and ask him if he can build such a beast. Programmers say everything is possible and will never be beaten, and so he agrees to write the code for the software for a whopping price on the condition that it will do most of what it is expected to do. We also promise him lots of beer in return for sticking with it and ironing out any bugs.

So this is what happens. We give the programmer our brief and explain exactly what we want the software to do. He gets to work.

I the meantime, we write up the hyped-up sales copy and create some amazing bogus videos showing clips of big bank balances and continuously show new incomes being generated in "real" time. This is guaranteed to whet the appetite of every gullible shmuck who sees it. Then we'll run a webinar and invite everyone to attend... for free. In the webinar we'll talk about this amazing software and say things like "you can easily make $50,00 a month with this". And then we'll get a few friends and relatives to back us up. Getting the picture?

So the sting begins to work and we start making dozens, then hundreds of sales. Problem is the software doesn't work properly. Only that's not a problem because as customers start complaining we just tell them that there's a minor issue, which will be resloved very soon and then remind them that they have 30 days guarantee. We could even extend it to 60 days.

As the complaints start rolling in our programmer works on them and fixes them one by one, at least as best as he can. So, in effect, what we have done is get our customers to pay for the development of our software. Then we pay the programmer, pocket lots of dosh and slope off into the sunset to work on another software project. Simples!

Oh yes and we make a few reluctant refunds. So did the software work? Who cares... next!

All for now comrades.

Bill

www.busyvids.com

Social Marketing - What Works?

Hi All,

Social marketing? Well I can categorically tell you what doesn't work and that's Twitter and Facebook. If anyone can make money from marketing on these social networks I'd be very interested to know exactly how they do it.

As far as I'm concerned IM twitterers would just like to think that all their "followers" are actually reading their tweets, when in fact nobody is. And the reason? Nobody is the slightest bit interested and everyone knows that they're just trying to sell them something. Now if you're a celebrity then that's a different matter. In that case everyone who is following will hang to to every tweeting word.

Now then what about Facebook? Well I tried an ad last year when I was promoting my License2Profit product. I spent $100 and I didn't get a single sale from it and only a handful of clicks. Well since then I kept on hearing and reading about how people were making money from Facebook so I thought I'd have another go.

This time I thought I'd put up an ad to promote the BusyVids service to the business community. Many businesses have scrambled to get a facebook page recently because... well it's a trend. But that's all it is... a trend.

So, I created an ad and submitted it for approval. And I couldn't believe it when it was disapproved. You just can't track these Facebook bods down to ask them why exactly your ad is disapproved, which is really frustrating. You're just referred to their policy and guidelines, which are pretty ambiguous to say the least.

Well, undeterred I revised the ad and submitted it again. Wham! The same thing happened. They refused my ad because of the image, which just happened to be the image of a video button. Well, I mean I was trying to promote a video service so what was the problem?

Okay, I thought I'll have one last try. I kept the description the same and changed the image to a laptop. I submitted it for approval and ... well I was now beginning to sound a bit like Victor Meldrew with my "I don't believe it" chant. "Oh let's just forget it", I said. Yes I do talk to myself.

Hmm Hmm do de do... twiddle twiddle... No! I can't stand being beaten and I was NOT going to give in. Actually, maybe this was the reaction they really wanted, so I'd willingly throw money at it without question. Hmmm... good marketing ploy.

Okay so I rewrote the description to something much less salesy and much more bland, and I changed the image to a UK flag. Well, what could they do? They had to let it pass, although it wasn't really what I had wanted. Right let's cut to the chase...

Here's a screenshot of my ad campaign more than half way through my $100 budget.

As you can see, it was running on a CPM at a cost of $0.19 per thousand views. But it was costing me almost a dollar a click so it would probably have been cheaper to have set it up for PPC. Anyway, at the end of the campaign I had a grand total of 102 clicks for my $100 and not a single call or email.

Well, in my opinion Facebook is simply for friends and not for business. Unless of course you know different?

All for now.

Bill

www.busyvids.com

Video Creation & Resurrection

Hi All,

Well it's been a busy time for our new venture BusyVids, and it looks like we're going to get even busier this year as more and more business owners finally realise the true value in video marketing. However, it can sometimes be an uphill struggle to fully explain our service and educate business people about the big advantages of video marketing.

Many business people are notoriously difficult to presuade when it comes to promoting new marketing ideas, and our video production and marketing team has recently come up against a few of them. First, many business owners don't like to get out of their comfort zone, in terms of advertising options, preferring to stick with tried and tested methods like pay-per-click and banner advertising.

Although these methods are costly and very few businesses see any relevant ROI, they tend to hang in there because they don't really understand what the alternatives have to offer. Inertia is one word that might describe this reaction, or should I say inaction, and technophobia is another. 

Unfortunately, plain old ignorance is one I would tend to use, albeit very quietly. For example, just recently I was emailing an "interested" client about having a video created and I mentioned keywords and keyword phrases. He emailed me back and said, "Well I don't know... there doesn't appear to be any keywords that suitably fit our business".

Phew! So, I emailed him back with a very long and detailed explanation about keywords and how they work with search engines etc etc etc. Well, that was the end of that. I didn't hear from him again. 

In our marketing, we do our level best to get the message across as painless and as simple as possible. We have created numerous videos explaining how our video marketing works and how it will work for them. And yes, thankfully, many business owners get it, but sadly there are those who don't. I guess they'll come round when they see the rest of the flock heading over to greener pastures. So till then...

Okay, now I just wanted you to know that we have added another video related service to our repertoire, which we have duly christened "VideoResurrection". This is for businesses that have already had a video created but it has done absolutely diddly squat since it's launch, birth, inception or whatever.

This service is mainly targetted at the many thousands of "punters" who have been cajoled into buying a video from Yell.com. These videos are at best mediocre but at an average cost of around £950 plus VAT, they also represent very poor value. Our own BusyVids videos are only £149.95 and get ranked in Google, so maybe we should be hiking up our prices!!!

So what we do here is we contact the video/business owner and ask them if they would like us to get their video into Google. There's no upfront fee for this service and if we don't succeed then there's no fee to pay. It's a win win offer for the business owner. Needless to say it's beginning to take off big time. You can find out more about this sevice here.

Well, that's about it for now. Look out for my next post as we continue to deliver amazing results for our clients with our BusyVids service, and there will be some news about another video related service coming very soon. 

Till then take care all.

Bill

www.busyvids.com

www.videoresurrection.com

What Does The Future Hold For Your Business In 2012?

Hi All,

Well if only we could see what is going to be in store for us in 2012, we could avoid the pitfalls and embrace the successes. In 12 months from now we'll be able to look back and say, "wish I had seen that coming", or "glad I made that decision". Okay, if you're in any kind of business right now then heading into 2012 must feel like walking into the abyss, falling over the edge of a cliff or treading water in the middle of the ocean.

Yes it's all looking a bit scary. The reason is... even our politicians don't know what to expect in 2012, and worse, our fiscal "stick your finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing" policy makers seem to be absolutely clueless. These are people we trust...ed!

So where does that leave you and me? Simple... on our own!

Individually we can neither change the world's financial situation or even influence it in any way, so for us it's got be business as usual. And I mean "business as usual". That means you should continue to promote your business but with vigour. Continue to advertise but make every single penny spent, work harder for you. Look for ways to effectively get your business in front of potential customers for the least possible cost.

What you definitely shouldn't do is stop advertising or marketing all together. That would be suicidal because you'll let others trample all over you as they desperately try to win new business... your business. So for you... just go with the flow. But all the time look for new ways to target your market or even delve into new markets. Diversify if you have to. It's a much better option than holding on to the mast of a sinking ship.

Yes 2012 is going to be a toughie for most of us but everyone can get through this uncertain period if they just keep their heads. Make a New Year's resolution to get more customers and make more sales starting in January. If you can achieve that in this economic climate, and then keep the momentum going all year, you'll have lots of pleasant things to look back on in 12 months from now.

I have a plan for my own business starting in January, and it involves helping as many of my clients as possible to survive and prosper over the coming 24 months. My BusyVids business is already helping my clients get their websites onto the first page search results of Google and on the top of YouTube search.

For me 2012 is going to be all about video marketing and social marketing... combined, and reaching out to all those mobile phone users worldwide. I know for a fact that this time next year I'll be looking back with a big smile on my face. You could too.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Bill

www.busyvids.com

BusyVids Captures The Imagination

Hi All,

Since the launch of our new video marketing service back in April, BusyVids has really captured the imagination of small business owners. It's become very clear that a BusyVids ad running on Youtube, Metacafe and Dailymotion has enormous benefits for businesses in terms of advertising, marketing and in creating brand awareness.

Since the launch we have added a newer longer option. Business owners can now opt for the two minute video, complete with professional voiceover and audio backing track. The one minute option is still available but is only being marketed on eBay. This is seen more as a lead generator.

We have also set up an affiliate program, where affiliates promoting the BusyVids service can make $58.00 (£35.00) per sale. Here's a direct link to the affiliate program signup page: SIGNUP

Promoting the BusyVids service just couldn't be easier and costs absolutely nothing. We have found that the best way is to scour the Google Adwords ads, visit the advertisers' websites and copy and paste their contact emails into a spreadsheet. Then use a prewritten email, that we supply, and send it out to the advertisers... simple!

The reason we are targeting Google Adwords advertisers, is because they are already spending  money on advertising, so should be receptive to our offer of trying something different.

Currently, some advertisers still don't quite understand how our service works, so here's a video, which shows the possible results that can be achieved. VIDEO

Now we're probabaly jumping the gun a little, but we are already looking at creating animated videos for next year... wach this space.

All for now.

Bill

BusyVids.com

A Copywriting Course With A Difference

Hi All,

Well wouldn't you just believe it! No posts for months and then two come along at once...

Well I just had to tell you about this because it's absolutely unique. After years of deliberation and procrastination I've finally done it.

I've just completed and now launched my Art of Copywriting course. Yes, it's a copywriting course... but like no other. With many other online courses you are sent a manual with a few exercises to complete. And with many offline courses you attend a one-day training session and pay up to £500 for the privilege.

Well my course is not like that...

There are 10 modules, which cover everything about copywriting and just as much about marketing techniques and strategies. This course is so in-depth it takes 10 months to complete.

And believe me... at the end of it the student will know everything I know. They will be primed to go out and start earning a living as a freelance copywriter. I even give advice about securing paid work and setting up a website.

I know that there is no other course like this because I've checked.

But make no mistake! This is not some mamby pamby, glossed over ebook packed with useless filler material. This is the real thing. At times it will be intense and it WILL be hard work. But for anyone seriously considering a career in copywriting, my course will be well worth the effort and expense.

Oh yes! You have to pay for it. A monthly instalment plan over 10 months. Students have access to my email and can phone me for help and advice. This course is going to take up much of my time but I'm willing to put in the time and effort as long as my students are too.

Realistically I can only manage to teach 10 students at a time. So if you're interested you'll have to be quick and enroll asap.

First thing to do is visit my dedicated website and find out more. Download information about the course modules and get yourself a free copywriting ebook.

Don't leave it too late... this could seriously change your life forever!

Till next time.

Bill

www.copywritingschool.co.uk

Video Marketing Rocks!

Hi All,

Well I'm glad to say that my video marketing service to small businesses, BusyVids, has been very well received.

We are now offering 2 levels of service. A one-minute video and a two-minute video option. Of course we will do longer if required but obviously it will cost more. We now have a choice of 4 voiceovers specialists to read the scripts and there's a whole library of back ground music.

Considering this video marketing service was only launched in April this year, it has really captured the imagination. And of course the results speak for themselves. About 95% of all videos we have produced have made it into the top 10 of Google's YouTube search results and many have made it onto the first page of Google search for the selected keywords.

Of course having a video climbing up the rankings like this also has a very beneficial effect on the actual website it is promoting. If the website is well optimised for the search engines then the promo video will help it gain a more prominent position in the general search.

A promo video can also be used to increase awareness of a company's products and services, and not only on YouTube. Videos are portable and can be shared on all the social networking sites as well as all the video sharing websites. It really does make a lot of sense for any business to have a marketing video created and uploaded to YouTube.

The most amazing thing about video marketing is its versatility. A video can be created to promote a whole website, a single product on the website or any kind of service that the company is offering. With a video you can target a local market or a regional market as well as national and international markets. It's perfect for promoting anything to just about anyone. And a video is much more acceptable to a market audience than any other kind of ad is, especially those old banner ads.

Watch this short promo video I have made to promote the service:

To find out more about BusyVids just nip over to the website here, read the information and watch the demo videos. Video marketing for any kind of business is a complete no-brainer! 

Till next time! 

Bill  

www.busyvids.com

Video Marketing At Last!

Hi all,

As you're probably aware I've been harping on about video marketing for years. However, just over 13 months ago I realised that video marketing was going to be big, I mean BIG! Much BIGGER than I originally thought, so I started experimenting. My self and Dave, my graphics designer looked into what professional video producers were charging for their services, how many clients they were getting and how the finished videos were faring in the search engines and on the video sharing sites.

At the same time we were creating our own videos, in various formats and uploading them to our websites and all the video sharing sites like YouTube and Metacafe etc.

Okay so here are our findings...

Almost all of the really expensive video productions didn't do much better than the cheapy ones we created in terms of popularity and driving traffic to websites.

So, we set about creating the perfect, or near perfect video ad at a price all businesses could afford. But our videos had to perform. I mean they had to get into the search engines and they had to drive traffic to our client's websites, otherwise what would be the point?

We listed a number of parameters and goals, which our videos must achieve and then set about creating all kinds of examples. We opened up 4 YouTube accounts and an account with Tubemogul so we could post our videos all over the Internet.

We tried using various screen capture software and settled for Camtasia as it had the most features and was relatively easy to use. We produced short videos, long videos and powerpoint videos. We used soundtracks on some and no audio on others. On some we used voiceovers and on some we just used text.

We tried promoting CPA products, Clickbank products and our own products and services. We logged everything we did and we tweaked and tested everything. We learned a lot of very interesting stuff along the way, but most of all we finally figured out what worked and what didn't.

During our testing and tweaking YouTube took down 2 of our videos and we received written warnings. One of our accounts was closed down completely for violating YouTube's terms and conditions. So facing a total ban we had to be careful. It was a wise move to create 4 different YT accounts and to use computers with different IP addresses, otherwise we would have been in real trouble.

So, after 13 months of trials, tribulations, late nights, lots of writing, lots of coffee, lots of swearing, drinking laughing, joking and falling asleep at the computer we were certain that we had cracked it.

We bought a great domain name, busyvids.com and .net, .org and the .info variations and Tom, my web design guy created the website with Dave's help. I wrote all the copy and we went to work on getting some clients. That was just about 4 weeks ago now and BusyVids is going from strength to strength.

Our videos do all that we say they do and more.

If you're in any kind of business and you want free traffic to your website and higher ranking for your website in the search engines then a BusyVid video is an absolute "must have".

We have kept the price very affordable because we know that our clients will want more of them when they see how powerful they are. We have created some proof videos and other demos and put them on our website so you can go and watch them. Seriously guys this is amazing and you really should consider having a video created if you want to dominate your market.

Well, that's the story. To read about the service in detail and to see for yourself how it all works, visit our BusyVids website now. BusyVids.com

Don't miss this opportunity to make your website earn you a living.

All the best,

Bill
www.BusyVids.com

Who Else Wants To Start A Home-Based Business?

As always and without fail, every January and February I get asked the same question. Can you really make money on the Internet? And my answer is always the same... YES!

Many people like the idea of working from home and earning a living from their laptops. The very thought of not having to commute to and from a place of work, being their own boss and being able to work at a desk, or even a kitchen table, wearing nothing more than a dressing gown has much appeal.

However, after considering the inevitable questions like… How do I get started? What will I sell? And, how will I get paid? Many people simply give up the idea. So, is it really possible for anyone to set up their own business working from home? Well, in a word… yes.

Buy It, Sell It, Love It

There are a number of proven ways to earn money on the Internet, including eBay, affiliate programs and developing and selling your own product. So, let’s look at these in a little more detail.

It’s completely free to set up an eBay account and you can sell just about anything, from the contents of your attic to cars and even multi-million dollar yachts. The main advantages of selling on eBay are you can reach a worldwide audience and you won’t have to pay a single penny in advertising costs. Also, you don’t need a website and you get paid for your items upfront.

And it’s not only work-at-home mums, students and OAPs who can make money with eBay. It’s suitable for just about anyone of any age and experience. Even small established companies can see the benefits of having an eBay account, as a means for offloading surplus stock.

It’s true that many eBay sellers just dabble in a few household wares and collectibles, which unfortunately has helped to create the image that eBay is not a serious business option. However, whilst many people have managed to create a real part-time business on eBay, a few savvy traders have gone on to make millions.

The key to making eBay work and generate enough money to be able to earn a full-time income is to source a variety of dropshippers. These are wholesalers who can not only provide you with an endless supply of goods to sell, but will pack and post the items direct to your customers.

If all you ever had to do to make a full-time income from home was to create a few eye-catching listings and then pay your supplier and eBay fees, wouldn’t that be worth checking out?

Affiliate Programs

Setting up an affiliate business is probably one of the easiest and potentially the most profitable of all work-at-home options. You don’t need any products of your own and you don’t need a website, although you might have to invest some money in advertising.

As an affiliate you simply promote other people’s products and you are then paid a commission for each sale. Commission payments can be as high as 75% in some cases and there are many US based affiliates who have managed to create a six-figure income from simply doing this.

Affiliate programs work well for both the product owner and the affiliate. And the reason why is because the Internet is vast, which can make it difficult and costly for the product owner to reach enough people in order to make sufficient volume of sales. So it’s better to recruit an army of other people to sell the product for you and pay them well for doing it.

Many affiliates promote these products either using Google’s pay-per-click advertising or by placing ads in ezines, which are the Internet’s equivalent of a printed magazine.

The most successful affiliates have built large databases of prospects by offering them free products, usually ebooks, in return for their names and emails. Any seasoned Internet marketer will tell you that “the money is in the list”.

You can sign up as an affiliate for free at Clickbank.com, PayDotCom.com and Click2Sell.eu. Many of the products in these programs offer commission payments of between 50% and 75%. Other affiliate programs worth considering are, Commission Junction and Affiliate Future.

Probably the most important thing to study and learn about promoting any kind of product on the Internet is marketing. And there are numerous ways in which products can be successfully marketed including pay-per-click, video marketing using YouTube, social network marketing with Facebook and Twitter, article marketing and email marketing to name a few.

Anyone who can master the highly successful tried and tested techniques and strategies of Internet marketing, can pretty much write their own pay cheque.

Creating Your Own Product

Creating your own product to sell on the Internet is not as difficult as you might think. Many products that sell very well online are information products, especially the “How To” guides and video tutorials, both of which can be created on your own computer.

Many people have some special knowledge or skill that others would be willing to pay for, but if you think that you might not have any, then you’ll probably know someone who does. Perhaps a relative, a neighbour a friend or work colleague could help you with this.

People all over the world want to know “How To” do things better, faster and cheaper. You might know “How To” cook fish a certain way, or you might know how to grow certain vegetables. You might know “How To” repair computers or “How To” learn to play the guitar quicker. The list is endless.

Basically, whatever you can think of, there will be a market for it, a little niche waiting to be exploited. All you have to do is research your subject matter, put all the facts together and write a book about it. If you’re not keen on writing then you can get someone else to do this for you.

Your book should be at least 30 pages long and produced using a word processor. This document can then easily be converted into an ebook, better known as a portable document file (PDF), which can then be downloaded from a website or blog.

A blog, such as Wordpress or Blogger is free to set up and so is a payment processing account like PayPal or Nochex. So you can host your product on a free blog and use a payment processor to be able to accept debit and credit card payments over the Internet.

Video tutorials are fast becoming very popular and do sell very well. If you are able to “show” people how to do something rather than “tell” them, then you could be onto a winner in terms of sales volume.

Most laptops have built-in cameras and come with recording software, and now camcorders are relatively cheap to buy too. Some good examples of video tutorials are dog training, tree pruning, building, plumbing and electrical installations.

If you know a local tradesman, you could agree a 50-50 split on profits from sales in return for filming them at work.

Providing A Service

Another work-at-home option, and one that does involve actually working, is to provide a service such as writing or web design. Website owners are always looking for new content and articles for their sites, which helps in their search engine rankings. Also, catalogue companies need product description writers and many companies that produce products need people to write the user manuals.

Anyone with web design or graphic design skills could also ply their trade on the Internet, along with software developers and technical support professionals. To get an idea of what services people are offering and looking for visit elance.com, getafreelancer.com and rentacoder.com.

Anyone with artistic and creative skills can make a living on the Internet by either bidding for work or by advertising their services on a website. Some legal services also do well on the Internet along with accountancy, secretarial and virtual receptionist services.

That time tested reference to “supply and demand” is very much in evidence on the Internet and you just might happen to have a skill that you can readily transfer or use to your best advantage.

If you would like a change of lifestyle, earn an extra income or even generate a six-figure income from your own business, then working from home and running a home-based business is certainly worth considering.

Otherwise the rest of your working life could consist of early morning starts, traffic jams, clock watching, mundane tasks, long hours and the boss breathing down your neck. It’s your choice.

Here's a good place to start... License2Profit

Okay till next time.

Bill
Knight Writer

What Have I Been Up To Lately?

Hi all,

Yes I know, I know it's been a while... but I really have been very busy.

First off I still have to keep my large client base happy, plus I've taken on several new clients this year. I've also been testing some marketing products and... I'm working on my copywriting course.

So... what new clients?

Okay, well there have been a number of enquiries recently from people in the gambling business, resulting in my taking on two casino owners and a horse-race tipster.

There have been enquiries from a number of new Internet marketers, five of which are now my clients.

I have also taken on a client based in Saudia Arabia, but I can't really say what kind of business they are in except that it is government related.

My most recent new client is involved in spread betting and forex and will be holding training seminars all over the country early next year.

So you see, I've been busy with my copywriting service.

Then I have been testing some of the so-called automated blogging software programs. My verdict? Leave well alone... they are frustrating to set up and most of the time they don't work.

The principle is good but the software and support leaves much to be desired. I'll keep testing them as they become available and I'll keep you all posted.

Ones to avoid are, CB Predators and Stealth Profit Machines. My verdict? Useless!

Okay, and the last thing that's been keeping me awake at night is my copywriting course. I've been working on this now for what seems like years, although it's only been months.

Problem is, every time I think I've covered everything in one of the lessons I think of something else that needs to be mentioned. Anyway, I hope to make this available some time next year. It will be a monthly subscription and I'll provide all the support myself.

I can only offer this to a limited amount of people, purely due to time constraints, and yet I have more than 30 people on the waiting list already!!!

Well, I'll keep everyone posted on this soon.

Okay that's the end of this update and I'll be back asap.

In the meantime... have a great Christmas... by doing just one good deed for someone in need.

Regards to all,
Bill

www.knight-writer.co.uk

In Memory Of The Long Sales Letter

Hi Again!

You know... there was a time, long before the Internet, when most people looked forward to getting mail. I mean real mail like letters from friends and relatives. Letters that were written personally, in ink, using a fountain pen and later the more convenient ball point.

Then as time went on, marketers realised that people liked receiving letters, and so they hit on the idea of writing letters to people to tell them about products and services they were offering. These letters were quite generic in layout and although they were a little impersonal, people responded positively to them.

This became known as the Direct Response Sales Letter.

Later, marketers and copywriters realised that if they engaged their readers by tapping into their thought processes and then tweaked at their emotions, the responses to their product offers could be increased. And very soon marketers were making millions from their mail order businesses.

Now, like everything in marketing, if you can get one step ahead of your competition then you can make a small fortune virtually overnight. And that's when the mailing list broker was born. It soon became obvious that if you had a large list of names of people who were interested in buying certain products, then you too could make a lot of money.

A list like that was very valuable. A list that contained first and last names, postal addresses and details of previous purchases was like gold... and to the same extent it still is.

The list broking business soon became almost as big as the marketing businesses and list-building eventually became part of the marketing process.

Marketers started to look at ways that they could find prospects who might be interested in buying their particular products rather than just blindly sending out mail to random names and addresses.

It became obvious that marketers needed to focus on particular niche interest groups, and offer them products that would be more suited to their wants, needs and desires.

To more closely target specific markets, the 2 step process was deployed.

The first step was to place a small ad in a magazine that the likely prospect might buy, or to place an ad in a newspaper classified section. The small ad would always end on a call to action, which would either be to ask the prospect to write for further details, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope or call a telephone number.

Once the marketer had the name and address of the prospect, this became hot property because the prospect responded to the ad and was therefore interested in the product.

The marketer would then send the prospect a long sales letter explaining the benefits of the product, the features of the product and why the prospect should own the product. The letter would include an order form for the prospect to send back together with their payment.

Some switched on companied like Reader's Digest went one step further and personalized their mailings. This had a dramatic impact on response because it appeared that the letter was specially written for them. It would also appear as though the writer has personally signed the letter.

Many millionaires were created from direct mail, but today it has much less impact.

Today we all get far too much junk mail and don't bother to read hardly any of it. One reason is we simply value our time more. And the other reason is the Internet. If we want to buy something we'll just go online and find out all about it first. And compare prices.

Marketers still use some of the old mail order tricks, only now they are much more focussed on delivering their sales pitch via a web page. And that's a whole different story that I'll save for another day. Suffice to say that the long sales letter is dead or at the very least... terminally ill.

Ah well C'est la vie!

See ya soon.

Bill

Knight-Writer
eMarketingToolkit
License2Profit
MoneyHarvest