The results are in…

• 1.25% signed the guest book
• 5.00% filled in the survey
• 1 person complained that three e-mails in one week was “too much”

The numbers don’t look too bad when you convert them to percentages… (They look utterly dismal as an integer.)

So my question for you this week… what do you think about the one person that complained? Should I completely ignore it and keep sending out messages regardless? I mean, I haven’t even begun to seriously send out messages yet.

I guess the biggest problem right now with this list is that it’s a list of non-buyers. Some coaching clients, some colleagues, some friends and family.

When a product launch rolls around — well, you know. I could end up e-mailing *daily* for a week. Maybe I should just accept the fact that once you turn on the marketing, you’re gonna see subscribers leaving… mostly the non-buyers and people that were not going to buy in the first place.

What do you think?

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. Have a comment? Please click on the link below and leave it in the comment box…

As you know, John sold this website recently (along with me!) — so we’re going through some transitions right now.

One quick change you’ll notice — we’re going back to short blogs like we had them last autumn.

I’ll still talk about the five aspects of my copywriting life (Personal Balance, Self-Promotion, Writing for Clients, Shaune’s Coaching and Finances). It’ll just be broken up to two or three blog posts a week.

With that said… I’ll start “dripping” e-columns from the past two weeks to catch you up.

—
Tough week.

As I mentioned last week, Shaune assigned the first long copy exercise in his Copywriting Coaching Program.

I simply couldn’t get “into” it.

It hung over me the last two weeks, this menacing, looming grayness.

One thing I will say, I believe that there is no such thing as writer’s block… only lack of research. And with this piece, without the leverage of Intimate Interviews(tm), the struggle amplified itself.

On a fun note — Queenie and I managed to get out to watch Coraline this weekend. Neil Gaiman, hands down, master of his craft.

The composer on the production wrote a beautiful, creepy score as well… however, the score was so unique, it ended up distracting me from the story.

There’s a copy lesson here.

To me, an ideal movie score should be subtle… it seeps into your subconscious and without you knowing, you start humming it a week afterward, out of the blue. The score should never “take away” from the story, but complement it.

In sales copy, replace “score” with “story” and “story” with “selling” and you got the same cautious warning Shaune gave me a few weeks ago.

The story in a sales letter should NEVER distract the prospect so much that he ends up slipping off the selling process.

Don’t forget — your job as a copywriter is to SELL. Not tell stories.

In the same token, the point of a movie is to tell a story, not spotlight the score. Otherwise it’s a music video.

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. Let me know your comments, thoughts and questions in the comment box below…

It hurts, dammit.

I also had small panic attacks this past week and a bit.

OK. Something changed right? It can’t just be the fact that I wake up at 530 AM and don’t sleep until half past midnight… fitting in job, copywriting and family right?

Yes, something changed. Shaune assigned the first long copy assignment in his copywriting coaching program and I am wrestling like Jacob and his angel on it.

Listen, I don’t want you to think I’m popping pain medication because of this coaching program. Becoming a copywriter doesn’t require the crazy stunts I pull – you have to remember, I have a full-time job, a young family and I’m accelerating my copywriting education and experience on top of that.

A sane person would take it easy and work on this secondary part-time business one hour a night. I am simply doing too much with too little. Do NOT role model me.

Also… I currently excel in Shaune’s coaching program and I set up tall expectations for myself.

I’ll talk more about struggling with this long copy exercise in the coaching section below…

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

Fuhgettaboutit. Didn’t you just read the section above?

Writing for Copy Clients…

Ditto. Very little work here.

Our subscribers at www.awakeparent.com reached the mid eighties though. Our traffic ranking on Alexa ranks at 785,000 from a 1.6 millionth ranking a month ago. And I got reciprocal links from a few parenting directories. Our page rank will achieve a 3 status soon… I can feel it.

(I have a secret weapon up my sleeve… good friend use to write articles on Adobe years ago. His byline linked to this old site he put up for his baby daughter… so it’s got a good page rank from that. He said he’d maybe link to us.)

To get away from the SEO-speak… I did write a bit of copy for the site. Added two new auto-responders to the main list. One “educates” the list on how to comment on blogs and asks them to “try it out” on a guest book. The second one asks them to fill out a survey.

Surveys rock. They rank second to an Intimate Interview™ if you can’t get them. You got to post the questions just right though, to identify their frustrations, fears and desires.

Of course… you need a much larger sample size with surveys when compared to 3 or 4 interviews conducted Shaune-style with the Secret Six™. And I must add… you may never reveal those hidden, emotional frustrations and unspoken objections with surveys. (Not many people type out their darkest secrets to a survey, you know?)

Like I said though, next best thing. A far second, sure, but better than visualizing the conversation in your prospects’ heads.

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting
Coaching Experience…

As you may already know… Shaune Clarke’s copywriting coaching program focuses on a no–hype, graceful persuasion approach to copywriting… looking to break down buyer resistance through connection rather than shouting loud adjectives at the reader.

No surprise, then, the market he assigns the long copy exercise for – absolutely, utterly rejects hype. (The target audience: maternally-minded women, 25-40 years old.)

Yeah. Tough bananas.

You see… I’m a guy. I have problems understanding my wife… let alone her entire market segment.

Due to the turnaround on this exercise, conducting Intimate Interviews™ proved near impossible. I tried though. I posted on a few highly relevant forums to see if I could bait a few strangers to help me out. No luck. One moderator took my posting down lightning fast. Thought my message was inappropriate.

Geez. It was the most graceful, gentle forum post I’d ever written. Shouldn’t have said I was a marketing student doing research probably. If I had lied and said I was a psychology student… maybe. More honourable.

Welcome to your new world as a sales copywriter. Might as well accept it now. People HATE marketers. Deal with it.

So anyway… what’s the reason I wrote this blog so late? This long copy exercise. It’s killing me bit by bit and ever so softly.

Shaune warned us about this. The “power of the struggle” as he so eloquently put it. And a struggle it is.

I think I’m one of “those” writers who likes to talk about writing, critique writing, brainstorm writing, sketch out writing… but has chronic issues with sitting down and ACTUALLY write.

Several great writers dealt with this problem too. Coleridge, Fitzgerald, Heller.

Yep. I am definitely not an Asimov or King.

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

I gave up the “putting off” and plunked down the $95 for Eugene Schwartz’s “Breakthrough Advertising.” Going through my “about time” list recently… realized I still need to read all the classics.

Can you believe I have a copy of Scientific Advertising sitting around for over six months now? Don’t tell John. It would upset him.

And yeah… Caples, Reeves, Schwab. All on the list.

Otherwise… yet another neutral week.

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. Let me know your comments, thoughts and questions in the comment box below…

The application is called “Distant Shores.” You walk around this deserted island collecting bottled messages and sending them out. When you send one out, the app selects someone randomly to receive your message. They can choose to reply to it, or “discard” it - which then goes to some other person’s “beach” to find.

Think of it as sending an anonymous letter to a random name on an anonymous list.

As a sales copywriter, I cannot help but delight in the social experiments my marketing mind comes up with. I send out messages like…

• If you had to kill an innocent person to prevent the world’s destruction, would you?
• When was the last time you floated down the sidewalks, oblivious to the world - because you just received the happiest news?
• Or Shaune Clarke’s Secret Six-caliber questions.

The responses you get vary greatly, and I find if you want an interesting answer, you have to write your message as clear as possible.

Now, after promoting this time-sucking application, I strongly recommend you NOT to download it. Go study your copywriting manuals instead.

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

Were you expecting another week of apologies for not gaining ground on creating my marketing materials for Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting Client Marketing System ?

You win… sort of.

I am SORRY to disappoint you… because I will NOT be apologizing this week.

I managed to squeeze some self-promotion work in last week.

Ha! (That felt good… especially after John’s little cheap shot on Sunday at my addiction to House on his podcast.)

If you haven’t already downloaded John’s podcast to your iPod yet… please do - especially if you’re just starting out as a copywriter. John offers a lot of wise answers to newbie questions… questions I had when I first got into this game.

Anyway…

I began to sketch the outline for the free eBook that I’ll be giving to prospective clients - I decided to work backwards on the sales funnel. eBook, then report, then sales letter. Makes sense to me as I am essentially selling the next step in every step of this multi-step campaign.

Remember, this eBook (and report, and initial sales letter) is already written. The dilemma I wrestled with three weeks ago was whether to send out pre-made material and start making money or create it myself.

The one, most important advantage to doing this my way…

I understand the material intimately - so in theory, when I consult potential copywriting clients… I am much more comfortable in my knowledge.

Writing for Copy Clients…

Did “traditional” research this week. Read a parenting book that highly influenced my client’s philosophy as a parent coach.

I also started to read another one. (They pushed five books on me!)

The two books I read fell on opposite ends of a language continuum. One was very easy to read — I skimmed through it and the concepts simply sunk in. As well, at the end of each short chapter, the author suggests techniques you could put into action straightaway.

The other one spent pages talking about how she came to learn her philosophy - including detailed, irrelevant minutia, like her childhood and etcetera, etcetera.

Why do I bring this up in a copywriting e-column?

Simple. It’s about SIMPLICITY. (Repetitive pun intended.)

I’ve been toying this idea around my head for a long time now. Most copywriting courses and books tell you to write in a conversational manner… but they don’t really go into WHY you HAVE to. And for the most part - it seems to just “make sense” in our heads so we don’t question it.

Let me explain further with a story…

When I first started editing my clients’ blog posts, I met a wee bit of opposition. They had strong academic careers behind them. Their writing style reflected that.

The problem with academic writing, however, is that it is disengaged, aloof and objective. (Like the second book I’m reading.)

It got my gears going. How can I explain the “reason why” for writing at a 5^th grade level?

What results do my clients want, I asked myself?

They want their customers to USE their parenting tips to become better parents. Busy parents can’t spend time reading difficult-to-understand books. They need ideas they can digest quickly and start using the very next hour when little Johnny starts throwing a tantrum.

Here was my revelation.

Sales copy and info-products MUST be written at a fifth grade, conversational level. Your reader cannot spend ANY time trying to figure out what you’re trying to say… or you will lose the sale, or generate a refund.

In other words, your readers CANNOT stumble over your words at all. They must be able to digest your ideas immediately and start visualizing how their life can be better.

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting
Coaching Experience…

Diving into Shaune’s “unique techniques” (Part II) of the copywriting coaching program. This one call on Saturday alone surpassed the value of the entire course put together.

Not kidding.

By the end of the first hour, we had barely covered 20% of the exercises to be discussed. We went into copywriting mastery concepts I simply cannot share in a free e-column. I’m sorry.

The more I study with Shaune, the more I realize what it means to be in the “inner sanctum.”

There are certain tricks-of-the-trade that just stay behind closed doors. Take Gary Bencivenga’s $5000 DVD set for example. He doesn’t sell you the DVD set. He makes you sign a leasing agreement that allows you to use his techniques on the DVD set. If you get caught sharing those secrets… you’re in trouble.

And yes. It’s limited to 2000 copies.

This week’s call with Shaune Clarke was an “inner sanctum” call.

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

And yet another neutral week. I bought a few books… but nothing financially serious.

One of them was “Being Direct” by the father of modern day direct-marketing.

• In 1967, this man named direct marketing in a M.I.T. speech. (Before him, it was simply called “mail-order”)
• You can blame him for getting sucked into the Columbia Records Music Club (I did it. Twice.)
• Whenever you flip through magazines at the grocery store, and you get annoyed by the card insert falling out? That’s him too. (I remember stealing those things to subscribe to magazines I wanted. I didn’t want to pay cover price for one issue just to get the card…)
• Toll-free 1-800 numbers? Yep.
• Royalty Programs for Credit Cards? Ditto.

His name? Lester Wunderman.

It’s important to study the history of your industry, I feel.

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. Let me know your comments, thoughts and questions in the comment box …

Yeah… too much House…

I know what some of you are thinking though… (Go watch Mad Men.)

I’ll get around to it.

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

Wow. I must confess in embarrassment here… NO PROGRESS, yet again, on creating my own marketing materials for running Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting Client Marketing System as I said I would two weeks ago at this post.

What happened? Let’s do another “diagnosis” while we’re on that theme…

It’s not like I didn’t do ANYTHING last week. If you follow my blog you know I’m not the type to sit on my butt and do nothing. In fact, I get antsy, anxious and impatient when I’m not *doing* anything.

(For example, when I’m waiting for and riding public transit… I always have either a book or my iPod Touch with me - consuming marketing training.)

That said, my need for “constant busy-ness” may very well be my downfall last week.

I fell into the “e-mail trap.”

I spent almost an entire day last week going back and forth with my clients on “details” of various little things like their blog, the product creation schedule, what affiliate program to use, etc. etc.

On another day, I lent a hand to John to help with little WordPress technicalities. (If you dropped by this site last Thursday, you might seen major wonkiness… frustrating as heck that Internet Explorer simply refused to cooperate on displaying REALITYcopywriting.com properly. For heaven’s sake everyone - just use FireFox.)

Throw in completing homework for Shaune’s copywriting coaching class… and writing this blog post once a week…

And with that… you got a week of no progress on this aspect of my copywriting career.

All was not lost however… read on in the next section.

Writing for Copy Clients…

Despite some productivity-killing activities last week, I still managed to progress somewhat on writing copy.

For the parent coach - last week, I completed a good portion of the copy platform from the Intimate Interview^TM notes. As well, I asked my client to “modulize” her coaching services.

Yes, I made up that word. Let me explain what it means…

I sent my client a table with four columns.

• The first column asks her to brainstorm and list out every type of problems her coaching clients bring to her… e.g. toddler tantrums, fights with spouse, etc.
• The second column asks her to write down her clients’ feelings with the problems
• The third column asks her to list down the broad, general techniques and advice she would give to this suffering parent
• The fourth column asks her to list the feelings her clients go through after the parents experience results from the solution

I then “’sifted” through the problems and converted them into “lessons” or “modules” so that on the sales letter the prospect would see a “curriculum” of sorts… or a preview of what they would get out of the coaching.

Hopefully, they would identify with more than a few modules and order a larger coaching package. (We decided on offering them at 6, 12 and 18 sessions.)

Thoughts on this? Good idea? Bad idea? Better ideas? Let me know. This would essentially be my first “paid” sales letter. (On commissions only, no advance.)

One final piece of this puzzle…

My client has yet to convince some of her current customers to do an interview with me. Another extremely important step in Shaune’s “13 steps to Dynamic Copy” manual included in his coaching program.

Absolutely no reason to sit around and “visualize” what your prospects are going through in their lives when you can pick up a phone can ASK them.

The main purpose of these calls is to nail down why they bought at the time that they did. Source out those emotional triggers… then implement into your sales copy.

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting
Coaching Experience…

Diving into Shaune’s “unique techniques” in weeks five and six of the copywriting coaching program.

Since I have a musical background, the one “unique technique” I want to share with you…

Rhythm and Cadence.

An insight came to me while we discussed rhythm and cadence on the call this past Saturday.

A story first…

In Grade 9 or so… I started to listen to jazz. As per usual Colin modus operandi - got OBSESSED with it. Listened to all the greats - Davis, Coltrane, Bird, Monk…

Anyway, while rummaging through my high school music teacher’s closet, I found this beat up book on playing jazz.

The first chapter talked about how great music tended to be fifty percent predictable and fifty percent unpredictable. This fluctuation between certainty and uncertainty. A reflection of life - routine and variety.

This idea came back to me while we were on the call when we talked about rhythm and cadence in copy.

How you need to “mix it up” when you write. Long flowing sentences punctuated by shorter sentences. Carefully choosing the right word with the right amount of syllables in the right context… (e.g. economical, affordable, low-cost or cheap.) Adding emphasis or drama with ellipses and em-dashes.

(Shaune thinks I came up with this brilliant insight now… don’t tell him otherwise.)

Get a sneak peak preview of some of Shaune’s “unique techniques” on the following audio…

Sell More Without Hype: Indirect Persuasion Copywriting Secrets Revealed

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

Yet another neutral week. No income, no expenses.

A few big Internet Marketing products launched this past week - I almost wanted them but I managed to justify them out of my head.

This is progress for my content addiction.

One day, I won’t want Internet Marketing products unless I NEED them for a justifiable ROI-proven venture. That’s the goal.

To read my most commented post on REALITYcopywriting.com … (about content addiction, obviously.) Click on the following link…

www.realitycopywriting.com/copycubs/?p=214

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. Let me know your comments, thoughts and questions in the comment box below.

I took advantage of this to spend some quality time with the family…

Went out to a dinner and movie with Queenie on Saturday night. Saw “The Reader…” an Oscar worthy film - but I felt like it missed the emotional highs by a few scrapes. I highly recommend you go see it though. Stellar performances by all three leading actors - Ralph Fiennes, Kate Winslet and David Kross.

We also bought a cute little table and chair for Cedrik from Ikea.

Oh and yes… I watched more House reruns. (I have four seasons to catch up on here!)

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

I had a quick lunch meeting with a former colleague and good friend last week. She’s willing to help me on the administrative side of my business for a cut of my gross revenues. (I made the offer.)

I think it’s important to have gatekeepers for positioning regardless of what business you’re in… but especially the “professional services” industries.

Other than that, no more news here. I have yet to start on the last stack of work I assigned myself last week. With good reason, however. See the next section, “Writing for Copy Clients…” and you’ll see what I mean.

Writing for Copy Clients…

A lot of progress and work on getting my client’s info-business up this past week.

First, we sent the opt-in letter to my client’s old mailing list to transfer the customer database over to Aweber. Got a 23.9% response rate.

I’m not fully satisfied with these results.

The list is warm… but old. That said, we will do two more mailings before we call it quits.

Secondly, as for the blog, traffic has started to pour in and we’re capturing a steady number of new subscribers. We got a few good comments on the columns we already have up too! My clients love it. They can “see” what I “sold” them on a few months ago when I said a blog builds community.

On the copy side, I plan to work on the copy platform for the parent coaching service tonight. I reviewed the two Intimate Interviews^TM I did with my client last week and will transfer all my notes into an organized format.

Creating the copy platform is one of the thirteen steps in creating dynamic sales copy a la Shaune Clarke. We learn about it in his Copywriting Coaching Program.

Finally, I researched the competition. I stumbled through it actually… my first time. Here’s roughly what I did…

I brainstormed a list of relevant keywords, then used Google’s keyword tool to generate even more related keywords. Ended up with a list of 937 keyword phrases.

I pared down the list by eliminating keywords I didn’t want.

I then searched those keywords to see what Pay-Per-Click ads came up, clicked on the ads and reviewed the info-products available in my client’s industry.

I took down their product name, the unique positioning (if any), the product medium (pdf, mp3, workbooks, CDs or DVDs) and the price points.

What an invaluable exercise!

Seeing what others have for sale and how they market gave me a huge confidence boost. Mostly because I know I can do better.

(I found a lot of “flat” hypey sales letters –lacking visual appeal to boot… see my last blog about the importance of visual appeal.)

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting Coaching Experience…

As I mentioned already… break week — so no call this Saturday.

I’ll share an insight with you from two weeks ago, however.

On that particular call, we worked on an exercise where we dissected each other’s mini-biographies. Shaune asked us to keep our eyes open and look for the elements of the copy we could pick out and emphasize. These elements were…

• Resonance
• Provocativeness
• Real Life Tidbits
• Story

The goal here for us was to hone our sense of discernment. (Something I had talked about in an older post… .)

The more we dived into the conversation, the more the gears in my head cranked. Shaune had warned us that certain elements in any copy could fall under any of the four elements… but my mind brainstormed on it further.

What if it were a spectrum? A graphical one, where on the x axis you had the emotional response and on the y axis, you had the narrative level - or depth?

It would look something like this…

As sales copywriters, the way we extract the “good stuff” from a stack of research and interviews falls in the domain of how well we can DISCERN what’s unique and what’s irrelevant to making a sale.

I hope this little chart helps you discern better.

To learn more about Shaune’s Copywriting Coaching Program, click on the following link…

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting Coaching Program

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

Another neutral week. No income, no expenses.

I want to talk to you about pricing strategy though, as I did that with my client this past week.

It applies to you too as a freelance copywriter.

The question that plagues any freelancer out there, copywriter or otherwise…

“How much do I charge?”

Most aspiring copywriters take the path of looking at their competitors — using Marlowe’s guide or calling up other copywriters pretending to be potential clients.

They get this “sense” of how much everyone else charges. Then, based on what they believe their skill level delivers, they stick themselves in that spectrum.

Absurd! Shaune would say. Well… not really. He’d say it in a more measured tone of voice and ask you, “Why not develop a unique position and charge more because you’re the only copywriter that writes in that industry?”

John wrote a great report on “building your own ladder.” Check it out here…

http://www.realitycopywriting.com/usps-for-copywriters/

Anyway, so my client and I were chatting about what to charge for her coaching services. She wanted to raise her prices now that we were building a stronger web presence.

I told her, “You know my feelings on this. The day we first met, I felt like you were undercharging.

“The truth is, with services, you can charge whatever price you want and you can probably find a market. The question is, do you FEEL comfortable charging that price and delivering to that higher-income market?

“You have to feel entitled to it in order to charge it. It breaks down to your psychology and what you feel you’re worth.”

We rose her prices.

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. Let me know your comments, thoughts and questions in the comment box below.

Also had one of those weekends…

The kind where my head was stuck in marketing gear while the family was vying for my attention…. The aftereffects of taking a big “next step” closer to profitability with my clients, I guess.

(This week may have been technical, but technical tends to be “essential.”)

The daydreaming kicked in and the brain started firing off more and more ideas on how to increase traffic, leads, sales.

Fortunately, it was Chinese New Year this weekend. I forced myself to “turn it off” on Sunday to celebrate. (above: me with Red Pocket Money… well, actually, it’s Cedrik’s. Little known fact: Once you get married, it is Chinese tradition to stop getting Lucky Money, and start giving it out. Guess who’s BREAKING tradition?)

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

So I decided to write — or at least “rewrite” — the templates that come with Shaune Clarke’s “Copywriting Client Marketing System” after last week’s self-debate.

Luckily, I won. Or lost. (That’s the problem with self-debates… you’re not sure if you won or lost.)

I decided to rewrite the lead generating templates because… well, the poet in me won out. I wanted creative control over the concept. I wanted intimacy with my copy.

All of it… all six parts to this marketing system.

Yes, this creates work for me and slows down the money-getting factor.

Fortunately, I have time on my side. Despite the menacing recession, my employment status continues to flash “securely salaried.”

Some may argue that my decision to make the templates my own a clever stalling tactic. What do you think? Am I subconsciously procrastinating?

Writing for Copy Clients…

Launching a blog sucks the soul out of you… for at least a full productive day.

Running through the list of things that need to be “just right” before turning the website “live” reminds me of a NASA rocket launch.

Templates uniform? Check.

Links live and correct? Check.

Images in their place? Check.

Subscription funnel flows? Check.

RSS and E-mail? Yes, check.

And so on…

Fortunately, my client maintains a “Microsoft” momentum. We didn’t get EVERYTHING perfect before launch. We will fix as we go. They key is to keep moving. Always moving.

The excitement starts when you direct traffic to the site. We captured 11 RSS subscribers on day one.

We will also start transfer of her old house list of around 300 names this week.

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting
Coaching Experience…

One key, rare insight I want to share with you this week…

The visual appeal of your copy.

Another platinum nugget I got from my copywriting coaching with Shaune Clarke. (If you missed my previous ones, check out the older Copy Cub posts.)

Let’s get into it.

I’ll “rewrite” something you just read a few minutes ago. Let me know how this one fares…

Templates uniform? Check. Links live and correct? Check. Images in their place? Check. Subscription funnel flows? Check. RSS and E-mail? Yes, check.

Now scroll back up to the “Writing for Copywriting Clients…” section and read that part again.

Notice a difference?

Where you hit the “hard return” button in your copy matters. A lot.

As sales copywriters, we must never forget that we are writing to persuade our readers as quickly and as effectively as possible.

They cannot be bored. The copy must read FAST. In order to do this, the copy must appear visually appealing.

Nobody likes big blocks of text. Reminds them of textbooks and contracts. Boring and intimidating.

Fast one-line zingers however…

Well. Call me the Rodney Dangerfield of copy. (You’re welcome to insert your favorite one-liner comedian in lieu of Mr. Dangerfield if he offends you.)

Now. I’m not saying that your entire sales letter should consist of fast three word sentences… however, if you come from a literary background like me, you’d do well to break up that long column of text you have going on right now.

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

Nothing new here this week… reconsidering a few or my monthly subscriptions, though.

Only in the “Make More Money” industries can you justify charging $30 - $125 and up per month for a “flimsy” 16 page newsletter. It doesn’t matter if it’s marketing, stock options trading or biz ops.

The “Make More Money” industries just charge MORE for training because they can.

Whenever I get together with my photographer buddy to talk about our careers, it never ceases to amaze me how much he spends on his apprenticeship in his industry compared to me.

Two months ago, he hung out in Paris with his mentor for nearly a full week. The “class size” consisted of less than ten photography students. His tuition cost? $1500.

Now if this was a marketing mastermind group with a comparative big name guru… say… Perry Marshall or Frank Kern… $1500 might get you half a day. Maybe.

I’m considering writing a newsletter myself in the near future. Half-kidding. Half-not.

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. Let me know your comments, thoughts and questions in the comment box below. I still really want to know what you think about the poet vs. pragmatist argument… If you didn’t comment last week, here’s your second chance.

That doesn’t pardon me from the general rush of everyone else making resolutions, however. In my last column I noted how my clients suddenly had this “urge to push forward.”

Fine by me. Back in the holiday season, we were cooped up in our house by the largest snow storm in thirty odd years. Can you say “cabin fever”?

I was EAGER to get back into work mode after that…

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

No update here. After last week’s sprint to solidify the administrative side of this business, I found myself busy with client work.

Just as well… my capacity problem lingers on with a day job, Shaune Clarke’s coaching program, family, RealityCopywriting.com etc. Not sure if I can handle another client if I were to get one.

(Maybe I could safely quit my job then… which, really, a milestone I’d be more than happy to celebrate with you when I achieve it on this very blog… just not there yet.)

Truth is… Shaune’s “Copywriter’s Client Marketing System” brims with power. Looks almost too easy. Note that easy doesn’t mean “no effort required.”

Which brings me to a harsh realization this week… implementation is HARD WORK.

After digesting so many marketing and copywriting materials these past eight months… talking about sales funnels, Adwords campaigns and copy concepts just rolls off my tongue … (listening to and modeling after John also helps.)

Putting it into action, however?

HUGE DIFFERENCE.

Like I said. Shaune’s system appears simple…

It’s a multi-step marketing system that would make any direct response marketer proud.

AND… it’s easy to OUTLINE campaigns. You even sound brilliant rattling that off.

You still have to write everything out though! (Shaune’s marketing system has at least 6 elements to it depending on how you look at it.) You also have to do the administrative stuff. Collect prospect names, stamp them, mail them, register a domain name, set up a hosting service, etc…

Fortunately, Shaune’s Copywriting Client Marketing System has pre-done templates you can start using right away.

What’s my problem, then? You want to know?

I’m not keen on using tried-and-tested, pre-made templates and reports.

Back when John first used the Copywriting Client Marketing System, he WROTE everything manually… and I mean everything. He told me over the phone a few weeks back, how when he first started, he wrote those autoresponders AS they were going out live in REAL-TIME.

I don’t know. There’s a romance to that. Getting intimate with your own copy. The poet in me wants “ownership.”

The real question I need to ask here… how fast do I want to make money? Should I ignore the poet and go with the pragmatist? The templates are RIGHT there, after all. What do you think? Tell me in the comment box below.

Writing for Copy Clients…

Conducted my first “Intimate Interview” this week using Shaune’s Secret Six ^TM .

Nervous as heck during the call and stumbled a bit.

Thankfully, Terri Dumont (the Copywriting Client Marketing System teacher), was gracious enough to give my first interview a listen on a Sunday afternoon flight. She gave me great feedback to work off of.

Back to the interview… I realized that one hour was not enough.

I’m selling a higher-end service for my client here (12-18 weeks of 1-on-1 coaching.)

I set up a second interview for tonight. I need to extract more rich material to uniquely position my client before writing a single word of sales copy.

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting
Coaching Experience…

Dense call this past Saturday.

Digging into the slight and refined nuances of copy. Nothing I ever heard or seen before in any other copywriting guru’s work.

Then again, I never paid the big bucks to join other copywriting gurus’ inner circle before.

That said, I know what Shaune teaches on these calls… these platinum nuggets… they will set me apart from 90% of all amateur copywriters right from the get-go.

Let me give you one example of why writing copy with Shaune’s coaching puts you ahead of the game…

If you take the time to read (or at least, skim) most sales letters out there - and you should as an aspiring copywriter - often, you might feel a “similarity” between them all…

The copy reads “flat”, lacks “feeling” or seems “sparse.”

It appears as if the copywriter behind the letter ran out of the good stuff, the rich material that sets the product apart,

They probably did. They probably had to stretch out the few cool facts they could to spin the product’s position better. It could be after the first few paragraphs, or the whole letter just seems to have a  lot of “filler.”

The remedy? (Don’t worry, I’m not about to talk about the Secret Six ^TM again…)

It’s not just Intimate Interviews… something deeper exists.

It is DISCERNMENT.

Put another way, during the market research phase of your sales copy, you cannot simply gather information and slap it on to a sales letter.

No… you have to turn your radar up, look for the little details with powerful stories hidden in them –and chase them.

Most experts and clients will often talk about the development of their product and their personal philosophy in a blasé manner because they live it every day. Your job is to zone in on those hidden stories.

Note: I’m not talking about “gimmicks” or “hooks” here. Not the archetypal story of Claude Hopkins and the “steam cleaned beer bottles”…nor John Carlton’s “One Legged Golfer”

It goes beyond that.

Concepts like “weighing the elements” and “multi-faceted dimensions.”

I’d encourage you to book a  FREE 30 minute consult with Shaune if I piqued your curiosity.

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

Still no income… but I expect to start seeing money in two months… latest.

My clients brainstormed an averaged size product line on our last business call. Simply a matter of completing the products and putting up the sales letter. (A lot of them are three quarters done.)

Some of you may be wondering how I have “clients” but no income. I’ll tell you. I have 100% royalty-based contracts… no advance.

Not the type of contract I want down the line… however, my clients are happy to let a rookie like me get my hands dirty. Experiment a bit too… as long as I don’t lose money.
I love it because we’re starting from scratch. I get to “try” all these new things that an established online business might balk at.

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. Let me know your comments, thoughts and questions in the comment box below. I really want to know what you think about the poet vs. pragmatist argument…

Overcoming guilt during “down” time.

You may know it well…

I could work on my self-promotional website instead of playing video games (left: me playing Rock Band 2…) I could research my client’s competition instead of downloading applications on the iPod… I could gather more prospective client names for my database instead of watching reruns of House M.D.

I shook that feeling off this holiday season and enjoyed it.

(Yes, doing the above said things.)

I hope you did too.

As the holiday seasons ground to a halt this past week however, surveying the game plan for 2009 floats to the top.

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

A fellow copywriting student in Shaune Clarke’s coaching program pings me on e-mail to see if I’m interested in doing some role-playing. (I talked about the value of this in a previous post.)

Anyway, I jumped at the chance to but I want to show you her e-mail quickly. Note where I put a big red box around…

It's a little small. It says...My postcards have gone out and my reports will follow this week

Oh.

A big “oh.”

(She’s ahead of me…)

Now, don’t attack me for being the stereotypical male… but yes, it DOES bug me that a peer raced ahead of me.

I know competition drives me, but I amazed even myself when I accomplished tons last week after that fire-starter e-mail…

• Registered a domain name for the campaign
• Upgraded my GoDaddy Hosting account to Deluxe so I could host more than one site
• Snuck out the day job during lunch to open a business bank account
• Applied for a Visa Bizline credit card
• Opened a PayPal account and attached it to my business bank account.

Talk about fast. Things got DONE this week.

We just had our role-playing call as I write this. Went very well. I got to play the mean ‘old business owner and she played the prospecting copywriter.

Even as “the other side of the call,” I learned TONS.

Let’s face it, as much as we’re introverted copywriters who would rather sell-in-print than sell face-to-face, we still got to prospect to drum up business…

Both my role-playing partner and I empathized with each other how tough it is selling ourselves on the phone.

With practice however, comes fluidity.

Writing for Copy Clients…

New Year usually kicks everyone in the butt to get things moving… but it seems like my clients got their heinys kicked harder. They’re hungry for profit and I don’t blame them… we lost a lot of momentum during the holidays.

It also doesn’t help that I can’t devote as much time writing copy for them either… what with a full-time job, family and working for John here.

We made progress this week though.

I convinced them to use more social media tools like blogs, Twitter and the like to attract traffic a few months back.

We slowly uploaded Wordpress and this week I slowly formatted the site to match their previous site.

Herein lies the problem.

We sorta didn’t put anything on paper yet. So am I increasing my job scope without knowing it? I definitely ran into a brick wall when I tried to design the header.

I sucked. (And that’s why I quit the visual arts in high school…)

Fortunately, they hate it and we agreed that this was outside of my job description. We will ask my client’s stepfather for help. (He designed the original site.)

I should get that agreement written up.

Oh, and another kerfuffle I managed to avoid…

Almost got suckered into a bit of business politics and became the go between for the two business partners. I basically drew the line there and said I was uncomfortable with talking between the two. She was fine with that…

Again. I really need to write that agreement up.

Shaune Clarke’s
Copywriting Coaching Experience…

I talked about this before and I’ll say again.

My intellectual nature seems like more of a problem… than a raw resource I can leverage at this stage in the game. Now, mind you, reading this and the last e-column, you’d think Shaune had it in for Creative Intellectual-types.

Hardly the case.

He simply makes you aware of what your strong points are… and makes sure you fine-tune them so that the pipes don’t overflow.

For John Manley, he fine-tuned his super-empathy. For Jason Moffatt, he adjusted his provocative antics. For me, Shaune cautions against my natural tendency to be “smart.”

Right now, I end up with copy squeezed dry of emotion.

This week’s homework consisted of stripping down three short stories for a faster read.

I peeled mine to the core. Just the facts ma’am. Didn’t even notice how much imagery I skinned.

More importantly, didn’t realize how cold the copy became after I was done with it.

I did afterward… reviewing my homework shortly before the call.

Fortunately, I am aware of my flaw and can go back in to revise my copy - re-inject the human warmth.

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

Alright… more expenses this week and no income yet. Business bank account. 9 bucks a month… 10 free transactions… 80 cents per after that.

Visa - free. (There is ABSOLUTELY no reason you should EVER, EVER pay an annual fee or “insurance” on those things.)

Domain name - 12 Canadian smackeroos at GoDaddy.com and upgrading my hosting from the Economy package to Deluxe? 22 bucks for the year.

That ends this week’s entry.

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. What’s your number one motivation this year to kick start your copywriting business?

Are you a sucker for competition like me or do actually have that “internal strength” all those self-help gurus talk about?

I’m kidding… about bashing the gurus… but I’m not about you letting me know your thoughts in the comment box below…

Let me say this, however…

I work inside a cubicle with constant Internet access. When work gets monotonous, which it can at times… I check my personal e-mail.

On top of this, we’re encouraged to keep our Outlook always on for urgent work communications.

On average, this happens thirty to forty times a day (personal and work e-mails).

Four out of five times, the inbox remains clear.

This repulsive habit FRIGHTENS me.

Most successful Internet Marketers check e-mail twice a day. John checks his e-mail once a day (twice on rare occasions.)

What if this habit FOLLOWS me to my copywriting life?

Studies show it takes twenty minutes to recover from “interruptions,” such as e-mail and instant messages. Twenty minutes to get back into “flow.”

I survive at my day job as it demands quick turn-around tasks. I don’t have any projects that demands singular focus and flow.

Copy, on the other hand…

Ugh. I better break this habit before I go freelance.

Here’s my weekly update on my progress towards freelance freedom…

Promoting My Copywriting Services…

No update since last week with building a prospect list as I’m enrolled in Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting Coaching Program right now and he assigns a lot of homework. (Of course, my lack of time includes a day job and a young family…)

On a relevant note, this week’s exercise helps build my self-promotional sales letter. I’m in a group of nine, Shaune’s got us writing one page on what makes us unique as individuals.

Sounds new-agey and hokey? Not really… John wrote a great report on this. Check out his “Stop Being a Copywriter” report by clicking here.

To quickly summarize… a paradox exists in the copywriting world — it seems most promotional copywriters have a hard time… promoting themselves! They all seem to forget how to apply a USP to themselves.

I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this one. As an introvert, spelunking the caverns of my soul always passes the time well.

If you want to see what I write about myself, I don’t mind sharing. Let me know in the comment box below or e-mail me at colin@realitycopywriting.com

To get started with your own USP, here are three profound questions to ask…

• What career did you always want to follow but didn’t work out?

• What belief do you hold to be the most important to you in the world?

• What do you know that few others know?

For the rest of these questions, visit John’s report by clicking here.

Writing for Copy Clients…

No new updates here either. Losing a bit of momentum due to the holidays.

My parenting info-product client will soon transfer their mailing list. Right now, it resides in a ratty Excel spreadsheet on her laptop.

Never an enjoyable exercise though… switching list software tends to cause attrition of the World War I variety.

Yes, on one hand, you clean up the list (assuming the non-readers just never got around to unsubscribing…), on another hand though…

I worry about the people who WANT to be on the list, but faced too many technical hurdles… or had too much going on personally… or worse, the e-mail ended up in the junk mail folder.

My client’s personal list sits at 300 names right now. I hope our opt-in copy and premiums convert more than 50% to the new list. I hope.

(In case you’re wondering why you need an opt-in for a list transfer… thank CAN-SPAM.)

Shaune Clarke’s Copywriting Coaching Experience…

I learn the best when a mentor beats me up over and over again for the same mistake until I stop doing it.

I think we all come with these ingrained habits and notions, each one of us. Could be childhood. Could be laziness. Could be just the way we are. It doesn’t matter. It only matters when a great mentor slaps you upside the head every time he catches you “in the act.”

As an example, John usually splatters the first drafts of this e-column with red ink. Most of it due to my lazy use of the dreaded “to be” verb (am/is/are/was/were) – a zombie family of verbs you can replace 90% of the time. (I’m getting better though. Darn it. I just used it again.)

This week in Shaune Clarke’s New Copy Secrets coaching program, Shaune raised some huge, yellow “cautions” about my literary background.

Two traps I naturally step into…

One, months of studying “How to Write Fiction” books filled my head with “rules” on what writing “should” be. On the teleconference class, I got stuck on “structure” and “character.”

Story matters in sales copy. However, Shaune pointed out story acts as a “glue” to sales elements. I got so deep into the literary parts, I forgot my job. To sell.

Two, peacocking my exquisite word-smithing flair.

Oh. There I go again.

Just because I know big words don’t mean I should use them. Especially when it interrupts the reader’s flow. Did you have trouble understanding that paragraph’s opening? Did you “pause” to figure out what I was saying?

If you did, you can place all blame on me.

To think, this is only week one with Shaune. The bruising only just began. Bring it on!

Copywriting Income & Expenses…

Caved and got the headset I said I would last week. Take a look…

Something you may not know about professional headsets, they need amplifiers unless your phone comes equipped with one already. Got one included in the eBay auction. Came out to $75 USD… retails for over $200 altogether.

If you didn’t read the last column, quick overview – Shaune’s coaching program swears by interviewing for copy research. Done properly, it reveals rich gold nuggets you won’t find in forums or magazines.

Knowing the power of Shaune’s interviewing style now… I can’t imagine ever sprawled on my couch, panicking about what my prospect wants or fears by “visualizing” how to talk to them in my copy.

So, I purchased this headset to do phone interviews.

That said, totally unnecessary expense for the burgeoning copywriter. I have a headset. It works. I simply want something better. (I also have all my appendages, and could simply hold a phone to my ear.)

I get suckered into buying neat equipment as a habit from my guitar days.

Now, the music equipment industry (especially guitars) –lots to learn about back-end sales, up-sells and down-sells there. It never ends with just the guitar — straps, cords, amps, effect pedals, picks, strings. They will suck the cash out of your wallet. They took all my teenage income, at least…

Talk soon,

Colin Y.J. Chung

P.S. In case you’re wondering, to get “dooced” means to get fired from your job for blogging about work stuff you probably shouldn’t have. (This was made famous by now influential blogger Heather Armstrong at www.dooce.com)

Do you have a comment about this or anything else in this e-column? Let me know in the comment box below…