It’s very easy to become overwhelmed when you’re trying to figure out exactly how to make a steady income online. Everybody has their own “system” for generating “mega bucks” online, and there are many ways to make money online, but wouldn’t it be great if there was one skillset that you could develop over time, a skillset that could ensure you never struggled to make a living online, ever again? Well, there is, it’s called copywriting.
So how do we start to develop this skill? Here are a few suggestions:
“They say practice makes perfect, right? Well, how can you get better at writing, if you don’t do it on a regular basis? I’ve written at least 1,000 words almost every single day this past year. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing — just going through the exercise helps to internalize some of the basic psychological elements of persuasive writing…”
2. Read How To Win Friends and Influence People. This book does a great job delving into what really makes people tick, and how to use this information to become more influential, both in person and in print. Obviously, this is very important for any aspring copywriter.
3. Read Ogilvy on Advertising. This is an older book but many of the principles still apply even in the modern, tech-drenched world we find ourselves in today.
4. Start selling something, anything. The only way to determine whether or not you’re getting better is to test your skills in the real world. You do that by putting together a real offer and asking people to buy! While you’re at it, write up two variations of the sales letter and split-test them against each using Google Experiments inside Google Analytics.
I decided to try my hand at Kindle Publishing after researching the topic for several months. You can check it out on Amazon here.
The plus side to Kindle Publishing is that I gain access to a huge marketplace, but the downside is that I’m not building a list of customers when visitors buy from Amazon. I would have tried it out sooner if it wasn’t for that major downside.
Right now I’m only promoting it from this blog post and from my sales page, which I promote using this blog exclusively. On the sales page I give visitors the option to buy directly from me using Paypal, a major credit card, or they can click over to buy on Amazon.
Right now the sales page is converting at about 8-10%, which isn’t a bad start. I’ll be sure to report back on how well this approach is working out!
Have you published on Kindle? Leave a comment and tell me about your experience.
“Trying this for the first time tonight at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
It’s a card that has a unique promo code. People go home and scratch off the back to redeem. I can also autograph the card–ala a baseball card, so it has an “analog” feel.“
If you’re publishing a digital magazine, and want to reach iPad users, you need to add your magazine to Apple’s Newsstand.
Amazon is still king, and you can reach some iPad users by publishing on Amazon (thanks to the Kindle App), but most iPad users prefer purchasing from The Apple Ecosystem.
Fortunately for us, ScreenCastsOnline has made a helpful video showing us how to publish on Apple’s Newsstand using MagCast.
What are your opinions on Apple’s Newsstand? Will it rival Amazon Magazines? Leave a comment and let us know!
Bharati Ahuja, of WebPro Technologies, does a great job of breaking down the pro’s and con’s of both content creation and content curation. Most bloggers think it’s a matter of one or the other, but personally, I like to employ both techniques.
Sometimes I’ll even merge the two in one post.
(Note: I explain my whole approach to content curation and content creation in this video, so be sure to check that out.)
As Bharati explains, in a post Panda world, both can play a help you attract a larger audience, week after week, month after month:
“Content Curation vs. Content Creation
Curation can’t exist without creation, but quality created content gets more visibility and outreach because of curation.
Creation is a creative process but curation is a logical and a scientific process. Curation involves assimilating content, filtering unwanted content, adding own opinions, and sharing the content.
Curation isn’t the easy way out, but a different approach for getting correlated to the niche content of your industry. Curating helps the curator create an identity, get connected to the community, reach out to an audience, gain trust, and establish online authority.
Content curation and content creation aren’t competitive, but complement each other. It wouldn’t be surprising if Google comes up with a curatorship markup to give content curators an identity the way Google has implemented the authorship markup for content creators.
Curate or create content, but get correlated to the topical content of your industry and meet the quality standards to become fit enough to survive the evolving World Wide Web.” [Continue Reading]
How about yourself? Have you started to employ content curation along with your content creation? Leave a comment and let us know!
Hi, my name is Steve Longoria. Thanks for stopping by my site.
I strive to bring you only the freshest, most relevant marketing content from all across The Internet Tubes!
I also enjoy playing the drums, riding my bike, and pretty much anything wrapped in a warm, cripsy tortilla!
