More on Viral Marketing - From the Horse's Mouth

You'll have read me elsewhere, perhaps, writing on the subject of viral marketing techniques. Essentially, its a kind of 'pass it on' marketing, where you give an incentive to your reader to pass on the information, product, or whatever to their friends and associates. Eventually, once you reach a 'critical mass', your product or service becomes self-publicising.

Major players like MSN, with Hotmail, and Google have used the technique - that's why they became major players.

Now I'm pleased to be able to report that one of the major players in viral marketing techniques, Justin Blake - CEO of ViralShock.com, has allowed me to reprint an article on the subject on my Well Versed articles pages.

He explains the principles behind the method and how you might use it to increase your own business - almost regardless of the type of business you're in.

You can read the article here or go straight to the horse's mouth at his website, here.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

Marketer Denies Theft of Newspaper Headline

Says, ‘I was only borrowing.’

I did a good thing today, and a bad thing. Resisting my normal urge to avert my eyes from the tabloid press, I took every headline writer’s advice, and actually made a note of the headline on the front page of The Sun. It was so simple, so brainless, that it was, of course, absolutely brilliant.

Brainless, that is, for the reader, who could deduce both sides of the story, and the back-story, just from the 11-word headline, without needing to think about it. A simple denial that implied accusation, suspicion, the anger of the falsely accused and even a sense of guilt (although that last part may just be me).

It was:
‘Prince’s club girl speaks out
I’M NOT TRYING TO STEAL HARRY’

So I stole it – sorry, borrowed and adapted it - and used it for this article.

Every copywriter of any note will have a ‘swipe file’ of letters and headlines they can adapt and re-use in future campaigns, and we should always be alert for headlines that work as a headline should – grabbing and holding the readers’ attention.

Because a good sales letter always needs a brilliant headline to capture the attention of the reader – who is trying to resist becoming interested, after all – and newspapers need their headlines to do the same in their perennial circulation war, we can usually find at least one great headline on every news stand, every day.

Which ought to be enough for the busiest copywriter to be going on with.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS. Speaking of theft, don’t miss your chance to ‘steal’ hundreds of pounds from us – just for making a call, sending an email or writing a letter – by visiting our new company’s web site, at www.cinnamonedge.com.

Just click on the ‘Let us pay you’ link and help yourself to some of our money.

So - There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch?

Just occasionally you do get the chance to get something for (almost) nothing.

Here's one such occasion. Pop across to our new company website, at http://www.cinnamonedge.com/ and we'll show you how easily you can earn yourself hundreds of pounds, or more, for doing no more than making a phone call, sending an email or writing a letter.

Really. Just follow the 'Let us pay you' link on the front page.

So, a very nearly free lunch - and it could be a damn fine lunch, at that.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS. Get your friends and associates to take a look as well, and you could ALL benefit. Go to http://www.cinnamonedge.com/ right now, and click the 'Let us pay you' link, to see just how easy we've made it for you to cash in.

An End to Slavery

It's 200 years, in case you hadn't noticed, since Britain voted to outlaw slavery. Most civilisised countries followed suit in subsequent decades, and today, slavery only exists in countries we probably wouldn't call civilised, or it exists contrary to the law. And yes, I do know it's still far too common, even in these shores.

But, for most of us, slavery simply doesn't exist any more. Not really. You'll still hear people referring to their jobs as 'slavery', or to themselves as 'wage slaves'. And it is, almost without exception, total nonsense.

No one I know has ever been literally chained to a desk, a restaurant kitchen or a production line. Nor is anyone actually locked into a supermarket, a warehouse or a fast food restaurant.

The door is always open for those who want to leave and have the gumption to do so. It follows that those who stay choose to stay, for whatever reason. Is that reason fear, conditioning, or something else? Something like security, predictability, a pension or (whisper it) that they secretly like their job?

Liking your job is nothing to be ashamed of. Enjoying the relative security is perfectly reasonable (but keep an eye out for signs you may not be as secure as you thought). Predictability and not having to make too many decisions for yourself is attractive to plenty of people, too. And a pension plan is not to be sniffed at, but again, keep a careful eye on it.

But, if you really feel enslaved by your job, leave it. Find another one or find a way to work for yourself. You are NOT really a slave. Your employer does NOT own you or any part of you. They buy some of your time from you, invest some money and effort into training you, and exert some control over your spending when they run a company pension sheme, but they don't own you. Only you do that.

If you want to leave, leave. If you don't, don't. Either is fine, if it's okay for you.

I left. Plenty never will.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

How to Spend More -- And Waste Less

Saving money doesn't always save you money...

If you run a business of any kind, you'll know how important marketing is to your success. You're probably also aware of how much it can cost. What you might not find so easy to measure is the return on investment that you're getting from it.

It follows that when you're looking to save money in your business, some of these intangible, difficult-to-measure things are the first to go. That could be your biggest mistake.

Marketing should always be a strategy - you should never rely on a single method alone, and all the threads of your campaign should ideally reinforce each other with a consistent message. That message should sum up the benefits of your product to the consumer or the aspiration that your product is associated with - whatever works. *

Also, ideally again, you should have a pretty clear idea of which parts of your campaign are doing the best job and which are less effective, pound-for-pound or dollar-for-dollar. Often though, it's hard to be sure.

That's why it becomes dangerous when you start to make cuts. Most of your campaign's threads are inter-dependent. Cut one and you disable the others. Save thirty percent, say, by scrapping one promotional method and you might reduce the effectiveness of the whole campaign by eighty or ninety percent. Effectively, you've killed it.

Saving money has effectively cost you money by making the money you are still spending a total waste.

You should try to maximise the effectiveness of the methods you're using and be inventive and open-minded in exploring other methods. Because, when all is said and done, you need sales, but...

... look very carefully before you cut a single element of your campaign. Cut costs, by all means, but don't cut your business' throat.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

* The subject of a great many articles, on my old blog and elsewhere. Coincidentally, it's also something we at Cinnamon Edge can help you with...

The mystery of Adsense earnings demystified, by 'Adsense Decoded'

If you're a regular internet user, or even an occasional browser, you'll be familiar with the ads that many websites carry these days.

These 'Adsense' ads can be a useful earner for sites where visitor numbers are sufficently large, but generally the 'click through rate' (ie, the percentage of visitors who click on the ads) is fairly small, mostly in single figures, so earnings can be disappointing, even though it's pretty much 'money for nothing'.

Now, however, there's a new way for Adsense publishers to cash in with click through rates sometimes exceeding an astonishing 50%, through a system known as 'Adsense Brokerage'.

The man who developed the system is Dr Patrick Hillenbrand, and he's convinced that anyone can follow his system and turn their ordinary Adsense pages into serious earners, PLUS the 'brokerage' part of the system will bring in even more money for anyone who applies it.

Dr Hillenbrand can explain his system far better than I can, so here's a link to his website, which includes a 65 second audio message wherein he tells us all about it: simply Click Here

You'll find a whole load of testimonials from people who have used 'Adsense Decoded' already, even though it's only recently been released.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS. You might remember a blog post from me a few weeks ago, talking about multiple income streams: 'Adsense Decoded' is an excellent way of maximising a particularly 'hands-free' income stream, so if you've grasped the muliple streams concept and you're serious about applying it, take a look at Adsense Decoded by Dr Patrick Hillenbrand Here.

Hmmm... something not right here...

Everyone I've emailed in the last week or so will have got entirely the wrong idea - and it's all my fault.

I've been busily telling everyone I know that I'm doing the Great North Run at the end of September, and I'm pretty sure I've been saying it's on the 30th, which it is.

On my email signature for the past ten days, however, I've been telling people it's on the 20th...

Now, I probably could run two half marathons in ten days, but I don't plan to. More specifically, I don't plan on making the long trek up to Tyneside twice in ten days, however wonderful the fine City of Newcastle may be.

So, September 30th it is. I'll be running for MS Society (because my father had MS), and you can sponsor me here: www.justgiving.com/royeveritt

I'm aiming to raise £2,000 at least, so it's probably a good idea to do it on the right day, with everyone watching...

So, nothing to with business, writing or even mindset today. Except, perhaps, that it pays to pay attention to detail, especially when we're making promises or asking people for money!

Roy

The Secret's Out, and 'Cinnamon Edge' is Born!

It's taken us long enough - the price we pay for being popular! - but, finally, our new company and its new website are both up and running.

Well Versed (that's me) and JC Writing (my wife Jacqui Carrel), have now joined forces to form a totally new company: Cinnamon Edge, and today we can at last announce that www.cinnamonedge.com is online!

The company name was Jacqui's idea, but we knew we'd be forming a new company as soon as I gave up the day j.o.b. ('just over broke') as some people put it. How did I ever find the time for that anyway?

By joining forces in this way, we're able to combine our talents to create top-quality products, from sales letters to books, via everything in between, for large companies and sole traders, but especially for SMEs.

Now you can contact both of us (or should that be either of us?) at win@cinnamonedge.com and find out about all our services at our new website http://www.cinnamonedge.com/

There's a free newsletter you can sign up to from the website, too - full of tips and advice for business owners and marketers.

My website http://www.wellversed.co.uk/ will continue, and continue to evolve, so keep an eye on that, too. Likewise, http://www.jcwriting.com/ will also still be available for a while at least.

I've no doubt we'll be tweaking the new site still further as we get feedback from our customers and readers, but the future is Cinnamon-coloured at http://www.cinnamonedge.com/ !

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

'Would You Rather Be Right or Rich?'

The title is a quote from Dan Kennedy, although I'm sure it's been said or written many thousands of times.

As it happens, he was talking about neckties. He hates wearing them, and I'm with him all the way on that one, but when he's meeting clients, speaking at a convention or otherwise 'on duty', he always wears a smart jacket or suit and a tie.

Why? Because, as he says about a bank manager who once told him he couldn't be the chairman of a company because he wasn't wearing a tie: 'For every ten who say it, a thousand believe it'.

I popped into town with my wife this morning. I had at least shaved, but I was wearing a pair of combat trousers, an okay tee shirt and a jacket that's seen better days. Instead of just buying the one item we went for, we stopped off for a coffee and brunch. I don't think any prospective clients saw us, but you never know. Next time, I'll think a little more about the impression I'm making.

(My wife always looks lovely, needless to say...)

If you want to do better with your business, try to remember that eccentric dress and scruffiness will only win over a small minority of the people you're dealing with. Making a better, more professional impression can never hurt, it can only help.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

That Monday Morning Feeling

It's a chilly, rather bleak Monday morning. There's a little sleet in the air and there's work to do. Not only that, but the bin needs putting out, the traffic's horrendous and we've a couple of tricky decisions to make.

Don't you hate Mondays?

Actually, I don't. Now the school run is done, neither of us has to go out again. The work is a couple of letters to finish - one of those a sales letter for ourselves - and the tricky decision is if and when to go to the gym this morning.

There will be other work today, but it's work we choose to do. There's a loose timetable for much of the day, but only the children's comings and goings are really dictated by the clock. Any appointments we make will be at times that suit us. We decide what work to pursue and what to accept and, crucially, what to decline and how much to charge.

To think I could have been in and out of the office this morning, keeping track of the rain, sleet and snow, and getting cold and wet each time. Dictated to by the clock and the vagaries of the English climate, I would have had about as much self-determination as a milking cow and, I often felt, only a little more mental stimulation.

No more.

Giving up the day job has meant surrendering a regular monthly salary in exchange for an irregular income that promises to be much larger, and giving up a large chunk of my eventual pension in exchange for a private income that ought to out-weigh it many times over.

It's all just so much less predictable, and you might say unreliable, but I'll take my chances.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

Happy Birthday Mum, or Look Mum: No Chains!

Today was my Mum's eightieth birthday. Eighty! Amazing...

Anyway, we had a lovely lunch. My wife was there (one of the benefits of self-employment...), Mum's partner, and my sister and her boyfriend. An Italian restaurant I hadn't visited before, a lovely Pino Grigio Blush and gorgeous food.

All this, and a beautiful day for her birthday, too.

As we were standing beside her grave before we went to the restaurant, we reflected on the fact that we'd confidently expected her to live to a hundred - she had so much energy, such an appetite for life - and losing her last year, barely a month after our wedding, was a massive shock.

It's a lesson to us all to not waste a moment of our lives, however fit and well we seem to be, because there isn't always a tomorrow. Her death was probably the final nudge I needed to make the big leap - my father's passing had started the process almost five years ago.

She lived her life to the maximum - especially the second half of it. And that's true of so many people, it can hardly be a coincidence. Something about the deaths of our parents, which seems to more than just a reminder of our mortality, serves to give fresh impetus to our own lives.

Sometimes that impetus fizzles out, but I intend to follow her lead.

Dad was proud of my sister and me anyway, and I know Mum was proud of us both, too. I know we shocked and scared her at times as well, but I also know she'd have been proudest of all if she could have seen us both flying as we are now. Not wasting time, not living within self-prescribed limits and not living in fear of what people might think.

Except, perhaps, our Mum and Dad.

Happy birthday Mum. You were an example to us all.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

What IS 'Turnkey' Anyway?

Even on the hi-tech Internet, where so much can be so easily automated (once you know how), to create a business still requires more than just turning a key (or even pressing a key on your keyboard).

Still, there are systems that can make it easier to start, some that can help you be less 'hands-on' than you would otherwise need to be, and a few that make you wonder 'Why didn't I think of that?'

But many of the systems that the rival marketers try to sell you are variations on a small range of themes, so 'the system' often boils down to something you know you've read before.

Still, knowing the system, and the simplest way to work it, is still the way to go. Here's probably the most complete and straightforward instruction package you'll find on making money on the Internet. It even has a few 'Why didn't I think of that?' moments!

HAVE A LOOK HERE.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

Welcome to Writing For Results, the New Home of Well Versed

Welcome to Writing For Results. Here you'll find a continuation of all the threads from my old 'Well Versed' blog.

To refer back to my previous posts, click here and you'll be taken to Well Versed.

In this new blog I'll be concentrating on copywriting, marketing and mindset, just as before, but now you'll see it's integrated with my website, which makes a lot more sense.

Look out for the first proper post on 'Writing For Results' - coming very soon!

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results