Mid Life Marketer’s Kick Start

A couple of weeks ago I got a message from Dan Foley. Just another in a string of infommercials after I had subscribed to one of his list offers. That’s what I thought at first glance. I read on for a few sentences, because it was obviously a case of Dan TESTING his advertising and trying to get feedback about whether his readers favoured longer articles or “chunked” information. Thinking back, I don’t think I actually answered his original question… “Doh!”

The article was by a guy called Willie Crawford and I am going to put it up in 3 sections on the blog as it was a “Right Riveting Read!”

It set out out in words, even I could understand, how to set up your advertising copy and test the results. So here ya go! Here’s part 1.

My Ads Aren’t Working!
by Willie Crawford

My ads aren’t working! I don’t get much response to my ezine ads! How can I improve my ad response rates? These are comments I hear frequently from associates who advertise regularly online. After taking a look at their ads, here is the advice I often offer them on improving their ads:

First of all, the ad must be BELIEVABLE. Fully 80% of the ads that I review lack credibility. Yes - people want to believe that they can earn a fortune - in a month - with absolutely no work. However, things don’t work that way! If it were THAT easy, everybody would be doing it.

After all, we like to share secrets with our family and friends. Anyone discovering a way to earn money THAT easy would have shared it with their friends .. who would have shared it with their friends….. and they would have shared it with their friends. Soon everyone would know about it and be making a fortune.

This great moneymaker would not need to be advertised since it would be spreading so fast by word-of-mouth.

Your potential customers are very intelligent. They can spot a hyped-up exaggeration when they see one. Don’t use them - make your ads believable.

Starting with the most important part of your ad - the headline. It must be believable and it must grab their attention.

How do you get their attention? You tell them how you are going to solve a problem for them, or how you are going to prevent them from having a problem in the first place. There are many “hot words” that have been proven to grab a persons attention better than others. You need to use these in your headlines too. Examples of these words include:

“Free”
“You”
“Discover”
“New”

Any good book on copywriting will give you more of these terms so I won’t elaborate on that here. If you want a good ebook on how to write using language that excites a customer get a free copy of “The Net Writing Master’s Course”

Here’s a useful blog by Ron Castle on the noble art of copywriting:

After my initial growing pains in this game, I was pleased to find a plain English guide to getting the advertising right. I doubt I’ve got it right yet, but I am now working on it with a lot more of a “clue”.

Keep an eye out for part 2 coming soon to a blog near you!!

By the way; don’t forget there are a whole bunch of giveaway events kicking off at the moment so just have a look at the previous post on my blog. Details of my personal favourites.;-)