Web Optimized Direct Response Copy
Hi,
I'm a freelance copywriter specializing in copy for the web. The web isn't just like direct mail or print advertising, and what worked last year might not work this year.
What you need is someone who understand and works with web-based direct response marketing and community building. Someone who knows New Media and how to make it work for you. Here is some of what works on the web today:
- Email newsletter marketing
- Blogging
- Social Networking
- Podcasting
- Article marketing
That's not all that works on the web. Some of the old direct mail classics work, too. Special reports and guides work great – especially for email newsletter list-building. Beef up those special reports, or combine related reports, and you have the making of an ebook. And those typically do well online, either as package premiums or simply a book you sell.
Static, brochure-like sites just don't work any more. In order to compete in today's Internet marketplace, you need a dynamic, content-driven site that web surfers will want to visit. Get those visitors, give them a compelling reason to take direct action, and you'll build a successful site.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a family man, small business owner, and online marketer. I know what it's like out there, and I've learned what works and what doesn't work. And I've got the experience to help you take your direct response online marketing to the next level.
If you want to...
- Start an email newsletter
- Use blogging as a marketing tool
- Get some articles online to establish expertise
- Get some response-grabbing landing page copy for your web sites
This entire site is my book – my online portfolio. Take a look around and see what I've written. Marketing articles, email newsletter examples, special reports, ebooks, and more.
I'll come up with a package that works for you, write it to your specifications, and deliver it on (or before) your deadline.
Contact me with your problem and I'll get in touch with you with a solution.
Making changes to your web sites and online marketing can mean the difference between cashflow and ...
Recent Copywriting Projects
Blogs are Marketing Tools
If you’re not blogging, you’re behind. Blogging is a great marketing tool, and a great way to interact with potential or returning customers.
I’ve been blogging regularly since 1998, and I’ve a learned a lot since I started. My first blogs were like most people’s, I suspect. They were just pointless ramblings about stuff that I wanted to talk about. It was all horribly written and I’m sure I was the only reader. Well, my brother read something once, I think…
After a few false starts, a lot of learning, and a lot of writing, I started to produce blogs that people read. Not only did they read, but they subscribed, commented, and kept coming back for more. Today, I run three blogs, each with their own focus.
That’s what I want you to pay attention to: Focus. I write my blogs for my audience, not for me. That’s what you’ll want to do if you hope to create a successful blog. Readers want to get something in return for their time and effort. Your blog has to give that to them, or they won’t return.
Here are the three blogs I currently run:
Cube Escape - This is an entrepreneur and small business blog, focused on helping people transition from working as an employee to running their own company. I post to the blog regularly, sharing tips, tricks, and recommendations all centered around the site’s theme. And that theme is centered around the reader.
Outdoor Survival Info - I started this blog in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It’s focus is to help people learn how to prepare for disasters, and how to survive if they find themselves in the middle of an emergency. A little bit of outdoor fun is thrown into the mix as well. I write articles for this blog, but I also act as an editor. I find articles written by others that I can post to the site. It’s all about publishing content the readers will find useful and informative.
The Pen of Caleb - This is the fun blog. Fun, but it does have a reader-centric purpose. You see, I love stories. I love all kinds of stories in all kinds of mediums — books, movies, and video games, to be specific. So I write reviews of stories I enjoy (and maybe some I don’t). This helps the reader by telling them about stories they may want to enjoy themselves.
Do you have a blog that’s lingering, and you don’t know what to do with it? Maybe you don’t have one at all and want to start one? I can help you start, maintain, or polish a blog. Your blog should work to market yourself, your products, or your service.
Contact Me today for a quote.
Editor of Three Email Newsletters
I am the editor of three email newsletters. I both write and find articles to publish to each. Each subscriber is given a premium bonus for signing up, and all emails comply with U.S. CAN-SPAM laws.
Here are the sites that have the newsletters:
- Cube Escape: Entrepreneur-focused blog. The newsletter’s theme is business opportunity, entrepreneurship, and genereal business. It is published weekly.
- BDR Gear: An online shop focused on emergency survival gear. This newsletter is more of a product announcement message, but it also pushes selected products. Reviews are also included. This newsletter is published twice a month.
- Outdoor Survival Info: A blog about surviving and thriving in the outdoors. The newsletter acts as a compliment to the blog, offering content not published on the site. It includes articles, product reviews, and survival tips. It’s published weekly.
Opt-in newletters (as these all are), are great marketing tools — they help to foster a relationship with your customers. If you’ve been thinking of creating an email newsletter, or if the one you have now needs some work, I can help.
Contact Me today for a quote.
Entrepreneur Mindset - A Marketing Article
Being an entrepreneur is different than being an employee. Not only is the work different, but one’s outlook must be completely changed to successfully transition from employee to entrepreneur.
However, keep in mind that there’s no reason to worry. For some, this will be a difficult transition, but it can be done. For others, it will feel as natural as walking barefoot through soft grass. Having the proper mindset is the key to success.
At it’s core, being an entrepreneur means that you need to be able to do these three things: Solve problems creatively, be willing to take risks, and know when to hire professionals. I believe that these three abilities are at the core of any good entrepreneur. Let’s take a look at each.
Creative Problem Solving
Everyone has problems, and many of those problems come up in a work environment. Part of the reason – I suspect – people start their own company is because they can solve a particular problem better than their employer. Or at least they think they can. Many successful companies came about because someone had a creative way to solve a common problem and wrapped a business model around it.
If you find yourself solving problems creatively, with great results, then you probably already have this ability nailed down. You might already have the entrepreneur mindset.
Take Risks
Starting a company is a risk, but the risks don’t stop after the company is set up. Once a company is started, it can be faced with risk after risk. There will be times that you, as a business owner, feel like the whole world is stacked against you and the success of your company. I know from experience that this is not a pleasant feeling.
Regardless, you have to be able to take it. Even if those risks you take have negative consequences, you still have to be willing to take another risk. Being an entrepreneur means that you’re going to have to take a risk from time to time. You should be smart about it, but if you have to take a risk, you have to.
Know When to Bring in the Big Boys
Not everyone is good at everything. Typically, people are good at one thing or a handful of things. In the course of running a business, many, many things need to get done. Sure, you can do it all yourself, but you’ll be starved for time, over-stressed, and you’ll soon start tripping over your vast array of dangerous mistakes.
If you need help, hire a professional. If you’re not an accountant, hire one to do your accounting. If you need to repair your office bathroom – very important – hire someone to do it so it gets done right.
The entrepreneur mindset consists of more than those three traits, but they’re a good place to start. Get a handle on these concepts and you’ll be able to tackle the more complex aspects of entrepreneurship.
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This article was published in an online article directory. The page linked to an entrepreneur-focused blog.
Contact Me today for a quote.
How to Choose a Career That’s Right For you - A Marketing Article
Choosing a career isn’t as hard as you might think. It basically boils down to you finding something that you can do for eight hours a day, five days a week. This particular thing may or may not be something you have ever done before. For example, if you have never given an hour-long deep-tissue massage, then you don’t really know if you would enjoy it as a career.
Don’t let that lack of experience stop you from jumping into a potentially great area. Here is how I recommend you explore the question of what you want to do for your career: Picture yourself doing a job day in and day out for years. How does it look? Do you seem bored or happy? Do you look at each day as a chore or is it fun and exciting?
What you don’t want to do is embark on a career simply because you think it would be cool. I made that mistake and ended up being unhappy for years. Instead, what you should do is ask yourself the questions above. And remember that just because you can do a thing doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do that thing for a career.
A job is work, but a career is something you can really get into. That’s what you should be looking for. Find out what the average day would be like for any career path you are considering. Then, take that average day and multiply it out by weeks, months and years. How does is look now? Is it something you can get into?
Finding a career that is right for you is simply a matter of finding something that you would actually like doing day in and day out, and then transforming that into a career. There’s not much out there that kills a career faster than boredom and annoyance at your daily tasks.
Remember, picture yourself doing the job day in and day out. If it feels wrong, or boring, or like a glorified chore, then you might want to just tuck it away and move on to the next potential career on your list.
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This is an informative and persuasive article designed to bring visitors to a blog about education and careers.
Contact Me today for a quote.
MRE - The Ultimate Survival Food - Ecommerce Copy
If you’re looking for some high-quality emergency food that you can buy and forget about until you need it, look no further than the SurePak MRE! Not only will these meals satisfy your appetite, they taste great, too!
The problem with having food in an emergency is that it’s heavy, goes bad, and you might even get tired of it. After all, who really wants to eat cold beans every meal for two days? I don’t. And what about energy? I don’t know about you, but if I’m in a bit of an emergency, beans, rice, and a protein bar just don’t cut it. I need some real food to get me through the day.
The SurePak MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), solve these problems. Imagine having an entire tasty meal in a tough plastic pouch, which will fit easily into any backpack. They are slender enough, in fact, that you can fit three or four of these full meals into your backpack or duffel bag and still have room for all your other gear. These pouches don’t add much weight either, thanks to the no-nonsense packaging.
Inside each MRE pouch, you will find a full meal (which has a 5 year shelf life under typical conditions, by the way) with a main dish, a side dish, a dessert, crackers, a spread (jelly and similar), and a condiment pack. That’s a lot. You don’t even have to pack a spoon, because each MRE pack comes with one! It’s a whole meal in a convenient package that will stay dry even if you take a swim in a lake with your pack on.
Inside each case, you get 12 MREs, which is enough to keep you going for a while – each MRE contains about 1200 calories, and calories mean energy. Eat two a day, and you can outlast a 6 day emergency with a full belly. Have a large family? Get two or three cases and feed them all for a week. Each case contains two of each of the following main dishes (though you’re not guaranteed any particular one):
- Beef Stew
- Beef Ravioli
- Chicken with Cavatelli
- Black Bean and Rice Burrito
- Cajun Rice with Beef Sausage
- Minestrone
- Beef with Mushrooms
- Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
- Meat Loaf
- Chili Macaroni
- Grilled Chicken Breast
- Chicken and Rice Pilaf
- Cheese Tortellini
- Jamaican Pork Chop
- Country Captain Chicken
- and more
Each condiment pack contains coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, a napkin, a wet nap, and a spoon.
During my time in the Marines, we took MREs out while training, to eat in the field. They were enough to keep me going while I was running through the woods with my M-16 A2 Service Rifle and pack, so I think they’ll work for you whether you need food for an emergency or your next camping trip.
So pick up a case today!
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This copy went live on a survival gear shop and sales for this product started picking up immediately.
Contact Me today for a quote.
In the Wrong Career? Start a New One! - Marketing Article
It’s never too late to start a new career. You’re not too old, and you’re not too busy to get your life on track and your career headed where you want to go. Many people aren’t happy with what they do, and if you’re not happy, you don’t have to take it.
Over the years I have seen people wake up and go to a job they hate. They do this as I would image a robot would – going through the day because it’s what they do, because it’s all they do. Don’t be one of those people. If you hate your job and want to do something different, then do it. It will take planning, time, dedication, and even a bit of bravery, but you can do it.
How do you take on a new career? The first and most important step is to actually make the decision to embark on a new career. That might sound like a simple thing, but it’s not. This is the stage where you make the decision to change your life and dedicate yourself to that decision. Many people talk about it, but how many do something about it?
That’s the first step. Dedicate yourself to creating a better situation for yourself. Once you do that, you will have the drive necessary to complete the rest of the process. Then you can find the right kind of training you need for whatever career you want. When you find the right training, you’ll be able to complete the training because you dedicated yourself to it.
The second step is finding the training you need. This part is tricky. What you’ll need to do, once you have decided what career to pursue, is find a school that offers what you need. This presents two potential problems. If you find the perfect school, it might mean you have to move halfway across the country to attend. On the flip side of the issue, the ideal school might be a ten minute drive away, but costs as much as your house. What you need to do is find the right balance between what you can afford, location, and quality of training. Unless you have already found a school that meets your needs, you’re going to have to spend some time researching the issue. Read all you can about your chosen career, training programs in that field, and any financial aid and scholarship programs you can find.
Getting the right training for the right career can make your life more comfortable. Imagine going to work not as a robot, but as a person. A person that likes what they do, who they work with, and who comes home feeling good at the end of the day. If you’re tired of your career, make a positive change and start a new one.
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This is a motivational article written for a career and education blog. If you need something like this written for your site, Contact Me today for a quote.
Classic Messenger Bag - A Review Article
The classic canvas messenger bag. How does it measure up as a “get home bag?” In this review, I will be describing the basic features of the bag, and relating those features to my own use of it for carrying gear. I asked the question, “How will this work as a gear bag for use in emergencies?” Here is what I learned.
The first thing I noticed about this bag is that it’s pretty big. For a shoulder bag, it seems like it can hold enough gear to help get you home, or at least to a safer location during an emergency. This bag is an old-fashioned messenger bag, and as such is missing some of the bells and whistles that come on modern bags. But this lack of “modern” features doesn’t detract from this bag’s general usefulness. What you have is a simple bag you can use to carry some basic gear.
The bag is olive drab canvas with a two inch wide non-padded shoulder strap. The strap is stitched to the bag through some reinforcing canvas, so it’s going to stand up to some abuse. The canvas isn’t a hard, burlap-like material, but a soft canvas, similar to jeans. The main compartment doesn’t have a specific enclosure, so it relies on the Velcro flap to hold everything in. The flap attaches to two pockets, which are sized perfectly for carrying an MREs.
If you need to put small items in the bag, I would suggest you do a couple of different things. Inside the main storage compartment, there is a small zippered pocket you can use for small loose items such as spare keys, a multi-tool, or similar. Larger loose items, such as paracord or a backpack first aid kit can go in one of the smaller pockets on the side of the bag. There is one pocket on each side, and a lone snap to secure your items.
Like most bags, this one isn’t waterproof. It can withstand a little bit of rain, but if you’re out in a downpour, your stuff is going to get wet. If you have anything in the bag that doesn’t interact well with water, put it in a zippered plastic bag. That’s a standard thing to do with your gear, so make sure you do it. Matches, pocket survival guides, etc., should all be in plastic bags. This will make your bag easier to organize, your gear will stay in place better, and it will stay dry.
Overall, I think the bag is a fine candidate for a “get home bag.” It’s got room enough for a little bit of gear and some food and water. That should be plenty to get you home, or to some other safe location in case of an emergency. The wide strap – even though it is not padded – makes the bag easy to carry. I filled it up with some books to make it heavy and walked around with it. The wide strap helps tremendously. Even with the bag filled with heavy items, you’ll be able to carry it a long way if you have to.
If you’re looking for a small bag to carry some survival gear in your car or keep at the office, this simple shoulder bag will do the trick. It’s light and durable, and it has enough storage space to carry the gear you’ll need to get through the first stages of a disaster.
[Note: This is a marketing-oriented article that reviews a piece of merchandies, but then links to the item's product page -- an online survival gear shop -- in the resources section of the page. It was published in an article directory.
Contact Me and we'll talk about your marketing goals.]
Life as a Programmer – Advice for New Programmers - Marketing Article
Programming really isn’t such a bad job. Nor is it always such a walk in the park. After over a decade in the business, I’m spilling the beans, so to speak, on the programming world. You won’t find anything revolutionary here. What you will find is experience and some basic advice for those of you thinking about a career in programming.
Programming is a job like any other, but there are some perks to it. Typically, you’ll get a desk, computer, a decent chair, and even some air conditioning. Right off the bat, that sounds like a comfortable work environment. To be honest, it’s not bad. You sit and you think and type. You draw flowcharts, analyze data, and play with a database. All in all, it’s really not bad. Basically, you will get paid for three things: Thinking, typing, and solving problems.
Now for the rough part. This is something that many programmers have to learn to deal with early in their career. Some are fine with this circumstance, but others are not. Many large corporations severely restrict your computing freedom, and they do so with antiquated systems. Sure, you’ll have a great desktop computer, but you may find yourself interfacing with mainframe systems as old as you are. The company has to get all their money’s worth out of that system before upgrading, after all. Don’t be surprised if you run into a severe lack of creativity, corporate red tape, and dull-looking cubicles.
If you are looking for a career in programming, I have some basic advice for you. First of all, specialize in something. I have found from experience that it’s harder to find a job if you have some skill in a lot of things, than if you have great skill in one or two things. Pick an area of programming and learn all you can about it.
Second, have some online samples of your work when you go for job interviews. Even if you don’t look at the examples during the interview, the prospective employer can check them out later and see what kind of work you do. This is especially helpful when you are just breaking into the business. If you don’t have actual work experience, a live portfolio of samples can make you shine.
Finally, I would advise you to seek out smaller companies. Sure, you might not get paid as much or get great benefits, but there can be some perks to make up for that. In a smaller company, there are typically fewer rules. There aren’t any large committees meeting to determine how you should spend your day. You should work, yes, but you might be able to do it how you want, instead of how some committee wants you to do it. Going right along with that, you might get some creative license in your projects. If you don’t have a group of non-programmers telling you how to program, you can cut loose a little and create some really great software.
Don’t let the job market scare you. Right now, at the time of this writing, tech jobs are a bit scarce, and most of them are underpaid. Though that’s no reason to pursue something else if what you really love is programming. Programming can be a nice job if you take your time to specialize and find a place where you fit.
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This article was published in an online article directory. Its purpose is to drive traffic to a site about careers and education. Contact Me today for a quote.