World Copywriting Blog

Study: 50 million blogs, taking self-indulgence to a new level

It's the Me Generation staking out their real estate on the Internet.

That's the unsurprising conclusion of a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Washington, DC.

Worldwide, there are 50 million bloggers.  Thirty-seven percent of posts are in Japanese; the second largest number, 31%, are in English, according to David Sifry, founder and CEO of San Francisco's Technorati.

According to the Pew Study, 52% of U.S. bloggers use blogs to express ourselves creatively, and 50% see blogs as a way to document personal experiences, or to share them with others.

While only 7% blog to make money.

That's great.  Blogs are, after all, primarily a social medium.

For business people and especially copywriters, though, it's important to remember that -- unless you are a celebrity or an unusually talented narcissist -- you won't make any money unless your blog is about your customer, and what they are interested in that would make them want to buy something.

And, as tests repeatedly prove, that's usually not you.

Source of study data: article by Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Mickey Spillane, 1918 -2006: A book writer with some good ideas for copywriters

No love lost between America's haughty literary critics and writer Mickey Spillane, who died yesterday.  His specialty was especially brutal detective novels, rich with lusty women and blatant prejudice.

Spillane wrote 7 of the 10 all-time top bestsellers of the 20th century and sold well over 100 million books.  He rejected the job description "author" and chose "writer" instead -- because the latter term, according to him, meant that you sold what you wrote.

The critics didn't like Spillane because his work was replete with violence, racism and sex.  This was  especially in the 1950s and 60s, when violence, racism and sex were not yet standard fare in movies and tv.

Spillane didn't have much patience with the critics.  He said, among other things:

• Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.
• If the public likes you, you're good.

---

Writer Spillane was featured in the August 26, 2005 edition of the World Copywriting Blog.  Here, as a tribute to him and as something of possible benefit to you, is a reprint of selected parts of that post:

Last weekend, I saw an interview with the world's best-selling author (sic), Mickey Spillane.  He's been published for 58 years, has sold 140 million books, and is currently the most translated writer in the world.

The article, by Jeffrey M. Anderson, appeared in the San Francisco Examiner and is not available online, so I can't give you a link.  But let me share a couple choice quotes that should help you in your copywriting:

Anderson: Why do you write?

Spillane: I write to make money.  It's an income-making device. It keeps me eating. I'm not an author; it's a business.

Wow.  The guy behind tough-guy detective Mike Hammer novels doesn't talk about the literary life and influences of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Homer; he talks about cold, hard cash.

...

One more Mickey Spillane quote for you:

Anderson: What's your technique for writing mysteries?

Spillane: I always start with the ending.  When you read a book, why do you stick with it?  To get to the end.  And you hope the end is so good that you hope it justifies all the time you spent reading the thing.

This is a guy who has sold 140 million books.  I strongly suspect he might know what he's talking about.

And yeah, it might be worth your while to read his words a second time.

Before you do, a question to ponder:

Do you think the same thing, about beginning with where you want to end up before you start writing, could also apply to copywriting?

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

The Vitally Important Lesson For Copywriters from Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth'

What's your idea of a good time?  Probably not watching a movie about a guy whose name rhymes with "bore" -- as this guy gives a PowerPoint presentation on the silver screen he readily admits he's given 1,000 times before.

Right?

That was my trepidation as I went in to see "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary about Al Gore's quest to raise awareness about global warming.

I'm not an environmentalist, although I am worried about this phenomenon and the politicization of science at the expense of, quite possibly, our future on this planet.  I'm not particularly proud that my country is one of only two (the other being Australia) that isn't abiding the Kyoto accord... just so you'll know where I'm coming from on the issue.

Anyway.

The one saving grace I was looking forward to in the 1 hour 40 minute program involved something I had read about a week ago in an article by Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Garofoli interviewed the movie's director, Davis Guggenheim.  Something he said really caught my eye:

Guggenheim waited until filming was nearly completed before approaching that terrain [Gore's personal life, which for all kinds of reasons was potentially off-limits.  But including some of Gore's personal life] ... would be critical to the film.

Finally, in a Los Angeles hotel room, the director did something "that most filmmakers would think was crazy": He spoke with Gore without any cameras. Just a microphone. Alone. When they started to talk, the sun was pouring into the room. Three hours later, they were sitting in darkness.

"As a filmmaker, you're always looking for a truth, but it's an 'emotional truth,' " Guggenheim said. "I wanted to go deep, deep, deep with him. That was what would resonate with a lot of people, no matter where they stood on global warming."

Yeah, you could make a cheap joke and say that for historical and political reasons, the emotional truth of Gore's life would turn out to be an inconvenient truth for the filmmaker.  But let's not go there... <groan> ...

Here's the golden thread for copywriters:

Against some valid, legitimate concerns, Gore opened up about his life in that room with Guggenheim and his recording equipment. 

What resulted was an extraordinarily personal, unscripted and unvarnished commentary which later turned into a surprisingly compelling voice-over throughout the film.

It truly did put the human face on Al Gore that his public presentations always seemed to lack.  It made me feel, maybe for the first time, that I had some sense of this man as a person, as another fellow human being.

He talked about how he felt being out in nature. 

He talked about the death of his sister to lung cancer, and how his family stopped growing tobacco on their farm. 

He talked about nearly losing his son at a young age in an accident, and how this changed the way he viewed things profoundly. 

He talked about traveling the world and hoping to spread his message with enough impact so that people take action before it's too late.  As in, forever.

Now. 

• When you write your copy, do you add a human face to it? 
• Do you put a human voice in it? 
• Do we get to know about the circumstances that incited the product, service or whatever it is you're promoting? 
• Do we understand the emotional truth of what motivated the individual or group behind what you're promoting, to come up with it?

By the way.  How does this "emotional truth business" translate into box office... you know: bottom line... ching... jack... cash on the barrelhead?

Pretty well. $17 million so far.

The movie is the third-highest-grossing political documentary of all time, after "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Bowling for Columbine." 

But... and this is a big 'but'... it's filling theatres in parts of the country that do not find Gore politically appealing in the least.

Hmmm... think about that.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter 

Unusual Shop Debuts in San Mateo, California

Interesting new store my friends Irina, Nick, Boris and Elena Busel opened on Third Avenue in San Mateo, a hop, skip and a jump from the part of San Francisco where I live.

I went to visit New Wave last weekend with my friend and colleague Ben Mack, who was visiting as part of month-long international tour of business and leisure -- and I ended up taking home this lovely dragon candle-holder (pictured at left).

Nick and Irina came here from what was then the Soviet Union many years ago, and opened this store a few months ago.

You can browse through a small selection of photos I took in this online gallery; or check out the store's Web site.

Well worth the visit!

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

The Most Powerful Technique in Copywriting, Part Deux

Got a note today from my friend Ron Klein, co-author of the forthcoming book, "Turn your imagination into money."

Ron suggested a follow-up to the June 30 post in this blog about storytelling.  He pointed to an article in Monday's Advertising Age about how large companies, like Perrier, are using stories in their advertising to get higher prices for what would otherwise be commodity products.

The article is excellent; let me recommend it.

The writers are Christian Budtz and Klaus Fog of Sigma, a branding agency based in Europe.  They are also co-authors of "Storytelling: Branding in Practice."

Key point from their article:

"Storytelling in a business context is not about telling stories just for the sake of it. Rather, as rational and physical features are becoming easier to imitate, authentic storytelling is becoming a growing source of competitive power."

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Blog

Three Powerful Ways to Use Testimonials

In any copy that you use to promote your business, you inevitably run up against the same problem: keeping the person reading your copy interested... and believing you.

The time-tested way to solve this problem is a testimonial quote.

Most marketers know this, but one question frequently remains: how, and when, do you use testimonials?

During a mentoring session last week, one of my clients asked me this question.

Here are three ways I shared with my client that may be useful to you:

1. As a way to nip objections in the bud.

Anytime you make a claim, a promise or any other type of bold assertion, your prospect will naturally be skeptical.  You can prove your point with logic or facts, but a good third-party testimonial that refutes the unspoken objection ringing out in the prospect's mind will work infinitely better to soothe and neutralize the skepticism, almost all of the time.

2. As a way to simplify and make real a complex technical point.

Having a customer relate their personal experience of your product in action will take the abstraction of a technical process or feature and make it "real life." Customers don't talk like experts when they are talking about what happened to them.  They talk like real people.

3. As a way to keep interest level high in long copy.

No matter how good a writer you are, people can and will get bored with what you have to say if you don't throw in a change of pace on a regular basis.  Subheads and sidebars can help to some degree.  But a high-energy testimonial in a different voice will work wonders to keep your prospect interested.

A few posts ago (June 30), I wrote about how stories are the single most powerful copywriting technique available.  I got a huge number of intelligent, spirited comments on that post. 

What I'd like you to think about is how a good testimonial is a "mini-story": in as little as one or two sentences, readers can get a full serving (albeit a small one) of what they are so desperately looking for.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Watch This Trend, Cont'd... Internet Aspirations Heating Up in Advertising, Media Worlds

Six long years ago, when the word "bomb" was an allegorical suffix coming after the term "dot" -- and not an anxiety-producing, one-word threat looming over the future of humanity -- I was editor of a curious, paid-subscription newsletter called "What's Working Online."

Good thing there wasn't a question mark at the end of the title on the masthead, or we would have had to start each issue with the same phrase:

"Not very much."

What a difference six years makes.

Two items that caught my eye over a late dinner from today's San Francisco Chronicle:

• Omnicom Group, New York, a major ad-agency holding company, just bought a big stake in San Francisco's EVB, a big online ad agency.  EVB has clients like Wrigley, Adidas and Kellogg. In his report, Chronicle reporter George Raine quotes Omnicom president and CEO John Wren as saying "we recognize that the Internet is a vital and quickly growing component of the marketing mix."  Though one estimate has Internet advertising as only about 5% of the $300 billion U.S. advertising sum total, online advertising was up a whopping 38% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter a year ago.
• When was the last time you saw a newspaper bragging about an editor's multimedia experience in the headline announcing the hire?  The Chronicle did just that in trumpeting its new deputy managing editor for features, Meredith Ann White.  Ms. White was an award-winning TV producer for ABC News as well as a big-time magazine editor.  The key phrase in the article that set off the "I told you so, I've been telling you so, when are you going to listen?" bells in my head: "White also said she's intrigued by the challenge newspapers face in using Internet formats to present information."

Translation: It's not just about text anymore.  Watch for podcasts, Flash mini-TV shows, and increasingly bizarre innovations in animation and other virtual experiences to keep your eyeballs glued to the littler screen.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Who's that click-click-clickin' on my ad?

Ask not for whom the mouse clicks -- it clicks for you.

But is it a click from a qualified lead -- or a nasty competitor or disaffected former employee, who wants to eat up your pay-per-click advertising budget, one fraudulent click at a time?

According to an Outsell, Inc. study quoted in today's San Francisco Chronicle, the chances are about 1 in 7 that it's a garbage click.

"Internet advertisers paid $800 million for bogus clicks on their marketing messages last year," reports Verne Kopytoff, adding in his article that three-quarters of online advertisers "said they had been victims at least once."

What to do about it?  You can ask for a refund.  The average refund is $9,507, according to Outsell.

The bigger issue is that online advertising - which is primarily a measurable, trackable, testable direct response medium (at least 85% of the time) - is growing up and here to stay.

When problems of this magnitude occur, you know you've got a real business.  The more real the business, the bigger the headaches.

Kopytoff also reports that another huge sector of online marketing, eBay, is planning to syndicate its auctions out to topic-specific Web sites and run the ads outside the eBay site on a combination of pay-per-click / pay-per-sale basis.

The key takeaway: Learn how to make the cash register ring online, if you don't already know.  It's becoming less and less of an option and more and more part of the mix that matters.

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter

Best Snappy Answer to a Rude QuestionI've Seen in a Long Time

If you write: a newsletter... a blog... a column... or anything else that goes out to a community, you get your share of questions and comments on what you write.

Most of the people writing back to you have no idea what really goes into it.  So, you tend to have more respect for the thoughtful and constructive messages you receive than for the mindless and ill-mannered ones that someone just throws together to blow off a little steam.

I happen to love the work of Mick LaSalle, the movie critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.  He writes a lot -- sometimes six reviews a week -- and I would say he puts more into his reviews and essays than your average bear.

In other words: He's no slouch.

So you can imagine his grimace when he got the following question in his Sunday column, Ask Mick LaSalle. 

Dear Mick LaSalle: I have read some of your comments, and I just wonder: Do you actually view all that you review? Because you are way off base.
Joe Burnett, Lucerene

Now look at his answer...

Dear Joe Burnett: Actually, I haven't seen a movie since 1987. The way I usually work is, if I'm going to review something, I print out the title in block letters and put it under my pillow. When I wake up, I have the whole review in my head and just have to type it out. Some critics put as many as three or four titles under their pillow, but I think that's inexcusably lazy. It probably accounts for most of the bad reviews for "The New World" -- and for every good review of "A Prairie Home Companion."

Mick speaks for many with his deft journalistic aikido...

David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter