In newsletter publishing, an area where I write a lot of copy, publishers divide their products, mostly newsletters, into two categories: “must-have” and “nice-to-have.” I think these categories can extend to virtually any type of product or service, and I … Continue reading →

I live and work in New Jersey, where I have my home and office in two different towns, both in the northern part of the state. In December 2005, New Jersey authorized a bear hunt to control the bear population, … Continue reading →

“SEO (Search Engine Optimization) copywriting” requires that the copywriter concern himself with strategic placement of key words, tags, and the like within his Web copy to optimize search engine rankings of the pages he writes. The problem is that to … Continue reading →

“Amateurs may talk about creativity, but professionals insist on structure,” copywriter Martin Chorich recently said to me. In direct marketing, structure is key: if your copy does not follow the formula for persuasion, it won’t work … no matter how … Continue reading →

Some time ago, I wrote a column “10 Marketing Books Actually Worth Reading,” in which I recommended ten classic direct marketing books including Eugene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising and Dick Benson’s Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, both recently republished by Boardroom. … Continue reading →

It sounds like a good idea: survey customers to find out what they want, and then let their answers shape your product development and marketing. But in reality, it’s often a bust. A case in point: according to an article … Continue reading →

I recently published an e-book, which I commissioned from another author, titled “Overcoming Infertility.” It is now available online at http://www.overcominginfertility.com/. Being a total novice in e-book publishing and marketing, I asked subscribers to my e-zine, The Direct Response Letter … Continue reading →

Because so many Web sites crowd the Internet, you need to make an extra effort to get yours noticed. One way to attract attention is to make your site search-engine-friendly — that is, to increase the odds that search engines … Continue reading →

People frequently ask me to recommend my 10 favorite marketing books: 1) How to Write a Good Advertisement by Vic Schwab (Wilshire Book Company, 1962). A common-sense course in how to write advertising copy that gets people to buy your … Continue reading →

Those of us who make our living with words are naturally disheartened when we hear the various “war cries” of hardcore online users and marketers: “Nobody reads anymore” … “Print is dead” … “Copy doesn’t matter” … “Books will disappear.” … Continue reading →