What lessons can we draw from these power players?

Madonna:  You know your business best.
Madonna runs a giant organization, but everything she does is based on her own vision.  She knows she’s the one who cares the most about her own success, and acts accordingly, which empowers her business.  The same holds true for you when you write your own copy.  You know your business strengths better than anyone, and, when you master this very learnable skill, you empower your business.

Madonna:  Pick what you like and make it your own.
Although she is known as the Queen of Reinvention, Madonna knows no idea is completely new.  She gets ideas from an amazing range of sources, from Marilyn Monroe movies to geisha stories to Broadway musicals to what the kids in a Tokyo neighborhood are wearing this week – then she gives it her own spin.

Build swipe files (a collection of great copy clipped from all around you) from magazines, direct mail, and even tabloids.  Capture great copy you see in daily life, whether it’s a billboard or a picket sign.  (I keep a spiral-bound deck of index cards handy to jot down these nuggets.)  Even if the ad or letter seems way outside your target market, parts of it may be just the kick in the pants your copy needs.

Madonna: Embrace your passions wholeheartedly and without apology.
Madonna would understand your desire to shuck off your current identity and dive into something completely different. Nude centerfold to nursery rhyme writer, boy toy to the reincarnation of Queen Esther: she’s leapt even further and thrived just fine. It could be argued that without her continual reinvention, Madonna would be just another ‘Where Are They Now?’ 80′s Pop Tart.

Martha: You are the sole CEO and brand manager of your own life.
Not your boss, your company, your friends, or the people who tell you you can’t do it. Madonna runs her empire modeled after her own vision and values, no matter what those happen to look like this season.

Martha:  Publicity is powerful.
Successful entrepreneurs like Martha not only score publicity at crucial moments, they use that attention to get more attention, unleashing a domino effect of business-boosting buzz.  She started with a book and put herself out there as an expert on entertaining, which led to appearances on TV, radio…you know the rest of the story.

Think of the area where you’re the expert, and start offering to share the (knowledge) wealth with local media.  Don’t put off writing that press release a minute longer. With so many publications, e-zines, blogs, sites, podcasts, satellite radio shows out there, the media needs fresh content like never before.  They’re all dying to talk about something interesting – so be snappy and interesting!

Martha:  Learn something new every day.
Martha closes out all her interviews and shows with this motto, embracing skills too numerous to mention and maintaining curiosity about everything from the names of birds to the best wax to use on your car.  Take a look at any of her magazines, and you’ll find yourself drawn into something you never dreamed could be fascinating, thanks to the great copy and stunning design.

To build your own business, make it a point to soak in something every day:  subscribe to e-zines, browse the bookstore, take a teleseminar or an e-course. When you make the commitment to never stop learning, you put yourself far above the pack.

Madonna AND Martha: When emulating role models, you don’t have to buy the whole package. Both have qualities you can cherry-pick from. Take what you like and leave the rest. Make yourself into the “you” you want to be.

See when my boys, Justin and Chase, were first born in 1990 and 1992, I was a stay-at-home mom. We spent everyday reading, going to parks, visiting museums – just hanging out together. It was terrific. But with my divorce in the mid 1990s, I was forced to go to work each day, leaving them in the YMCA after school care program. I realize I’m not alone – a lot of parents have to do work outside the home to make ends meet. But my oldest son had a serious case of ADD and emotional immaturity. I was warned by two of his preschool teachers that he was a child who REALLY needed his mother or he could self-destruct…like those kids at Columbine.

That was the day I realized I couldn’t continue being away from my kids anymore. I had to find an escape. It took some research and a leap of faith before I pulled together enough courage to quit and become a full-time writer. It wasn’t a straight path to success but that is the story of why Red Hot Copy was born.

Stories are wickedly effective in getting attention. They work in conversation. And they work like gangbusters in copy. Why?

1. Stories boost credibility. In order to tell a good story, you had better know your stuff. When your expertise is illustrated in a story you are more believable.
2. Stories spark emotional connection. We buy from an emotional state of mind, not a logical one. And dry facts seldom get us worked into an emotional lather the way stories do.
3. Stories can explore the pain of a problem. If you’re looking to paint the picture of suffering and agony in order to contrast how you or your service can be the solution, nothing does it better than a juicy story.
4. Stories make the prospect trust you. Whenever we hear a story, by nature we look for connections to our own lives (after all, it truly IS all about “me”). That relating slashes the timeframe for bonding. And we all do business with those we know, like and trust.
5. Stories bust through sales resistance.  Nobody likes to be sold to. But we don’t mind kicking back and listening to (or reading) a story. You’re much more likely to keep the prospect’s attention by telling a story than hitting him or her over the head with hype.

So for your own story inspiration, pay attention to little events that happen to you. Get in the habit of writing them down every day in a notebook you dedicate just to stories. (Type them if you like but it’s been proven there is a connection between writing things out by hand and brain stimulation.) Don’t edit at first. Just get it all out there.

Over time, you will start getting more concise. The point is to create a habit. It will take a little practice at first, but the payoff is huge.

Here are 7 surefire tips to make your order page work harder for you…

1. Check marks the spot. Add a check box with a big, bold “Yes! I’ll take it! I understand I get blah, blah, blah.” For extra impact, consider adding a red border around the box so it stands out.

2.  Repeat yourself. Remove all doubt about what the prospect gets for her moolah. List all bonuses and the guarantee (if there is one). Include directions on when and how the product will arrive. Hold her by the hand and take all the mystery out of the order.

3. Be kind. Remind. We all want to feel like we made a great choice. You already know how cool your product is. Let her know it too. Something as simple as, “You’ve made a smart decision. Imagine how much your life will improve with this widget.”

4. They like you! They really like you! The order page is a natural place for a stellar testimonial. As my friend Jonathan Mizel (one of the original Internet marketing pioneers) told me, “It’s not over until they actually order.” Consider adding audio as well. www.redhotaudio.com Studies show it adds a human element to your testimonials.

5. Type the easy stuff first. Psychologically the credit card fields should be at the bottom of the page after the prospect’s name and address. Once she starts typing, the sales resistance goes down and the buy in begins. (Note: One Shopping Cart does this by default.) www.clickstartcart.com/

6. Give ‘em options. Some people are still nervous to reveal their credit card info online. If you don’t have alternate methods of ordering like by fax or phone, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table. Marty Foley (http://www.convertmoretraffic.net) suggests you reassure your prospect that your security (SSL) has “bullet-proof encryption”.

7. Wait! Don’t leave! We all hate pop ups (and many are blocked). But they work. if the prospect clicks away, why not add a pop up box with another offer, like the downloadable version at a cheaper price? After all, she’s leaving anyway. What do you have to lose? Tom Antion does this masterfully at www.wedding-toasts.org. (By the way, for an unblockable pop up ad, I recommend the one I’m currently using on my website by Ad Impact at www.red-hot-copy.com/recommends/popup).

These improvements should take less than 30 minutes to put in place so there really is no excuse for putting them off. Tiny tweaks to your copy go a long way toward improving your sales. Never stop improving.

Objection Number One:
It’s Darn TOO Long!
The funny thing is when I got my first long copywriting assignment I secretly snickered too. I didn’t see any reason for it to go on and on for pages. (Of course I didn’t know anything about marketing at the time either – I just knew what I didn’t like.) But, hey, if that’s what the client wanted, I would deliver. So I had to learn the style and cadence of long copy. I studied it extensively. I read whatever I could get my hands on by the masters. I read other people’s long copy. I collected my junk mail.

In the end I turned out a 15 page letter that hit every objection and flowed like the letters I had studied. That letter launched my copywriting career. Even though I was a novice at the time, my letter actually out-pulled every copywriting guru my client had previously hired. If fact, that letter made him A LOT of money…and allowed me to finally leave my corporate job and work from home with my two sons again!

Objection Number Two:
It Won’t Keep My Interest!
As Mike Fortin postulates, “People object to reading copy because: a) they are not targeted and b) the copy is boring. Length is the excuse because it’s a common currency. Boring is subjective. Long is objective. When copy starts to bore you, you naturally are inclined to say it’s too long. It’s too long because of the fact that it started to drag, causing the reader to lose interest.” www.successdoctor.com

And Dan Kennedy weighs in, “The person who says ‘I would never read all that copy’ makes the mistake of thinking they are the customer. And they’re not. We are never our own customers. There’s a thing in copywriting I teach called ‘message-to-market match’. It is this: when your message is matched to a target market that has a high level of interest in it, not only does responsiveness go up but readership goes up, too.

The whole issue of interest goes up.
The truth about long copy is that, first of all, there’s abundant, legitimate, statistical research, that’s split-testing research, to indicate that virtually without exception, long copy outperforms short copy. There’s some significant research has been done that indicate that readership falls off dramatically at 300 words but does not again drop off until 3,000 words.” www.dankennedy.com

Objection Number Three:
It Should Be Broken Up Over Several Pages!
Funny enough clicking around through several pages is a BIG TURN OFF to Internet users. In fact a web usability study from User Interface Engineering (www.uie.com) noted people prefer longer copy on fewer pages! That’s right. Users would prefer to scroll down one long page versus hopping around to find their information.

They write:
1. “Our research shows that fewer, longer pages may be the best approach for users. In the trade-off between hiding content below the fold or spreading it across several pages, users have greater success when the content is on a single page.”
2. “Increasing the levels of information, similar to adding sections to an outline, also seemed to help users.”
3. “Users may tell us they hate scrolling, but their actions show something else. Most users readily scrolled through pages, usually without comment.”

But most of all I agree with Mike Fortin’s assessment of keeping copy together on one page – It’s all MENTAL! He writes,
“Clicking to another page causes what psychologists call ‘cognitive dissonance.’ (Also known as ‘buyer’s remorse’ or having ‘2nd thoughts.’)
The idea is that, by clicking to another page while one is engaged in the reading process of sales copy forces readers to think twice, as it causes a brief, mental dissassociation or distraction, which interrupts the flow, momentum and intensity of the sales pitch.”
We have short attention spans. So asking a prospect to take even a split second to click to another page may be all it takes for him/her to shift gears and be gone forever. The goal is to keep your prospect in a sort of trance of subtle persuasion. Which is why the copy must also be INTERESTING. As Gary Halbert says, “Copy can never be too long. Only too boring!” www.thegaryhalbertletter.com

Objection Number Four:
A Single Column of Long Copy Is So 20th Century!
Why restrict yourself when today’s website could actually look like a digital version of a glossy magazine or a newspaper? (In fact, take a gander at many a corporate site and you’ll recognize the touch of “high tech graphic artistry” with little regard to salesmanship.)

Well, according to the Poytner Institute’s Eyetrack Study held each year, www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm, there are a few problems with steering away from the traditional single column.
“Eyetrack III results showed that the standard one-column format performed better in terms of number of eye fixations — in other words, people viewed more. However, bear in mind that habit may have affected this outcome. Since most people are accustomed to one-column Web articles, the surprise of seeing three-column type might have affected their eye behavior.

What about photos on article pages? It might surprise you that our test subjects typically looked at text elements before their eyes landed on an accompanying photo, just like on homepages. As noted earlier, the reverse behavior (photos first) occurred in previous print eyetracking studies”

Objection Number Five:
I NEVER Read Long Copy!
Say what you will but the outcomes beg to differ. Marketing Experiments has built their business on testing “every conceivable marketing method on the Internet”. www.marketingexperiments.com Here are the results of a long copy/short copy study:

“In the first test, we sent traffic to two landing pages using Google AdWords. The first page was the home page, which contained short copy describing the product. The second page was similar, but featured a much longer article about the product. Both pages prompted visitors to click through to the order page, from which point they would be taken to the shopping cart.

Our initial results were gathered after a five-day period:
Test 1 – Short Copy
——————————-
Clicks = 810
Cost = $94.29
CPC = $0.10
Revenue = $271.75
ROI = -14%
Conversion = 0.37%
——————————-
Test 1 – Long Copy
——————————-
Clicks = 1,163
Cost = $135.61
CPC = $0.10
Revenue = $547.50
ROI = +21%
Conversion = 0.52%
——————————-
In our initial micro-test, long copy outperformed short copy by 40.54%. Click-through traffic sent to the short copy page was unprofitable (-14% ROI), while traffic sent to the long copy page produced an ROI of 21%.
In this first micro-test, it appears that the long copy page performed much better than the short copy page. However, a five-day period is not enough to account for statistical fluctuations that may skew our real results. So we continued to test.

We maintained the same test, expanded our keyword bidding slightly, and gathered additional results over the subsequent five days:
Test 2 – Short Copy
——————————-
Clicks = 1,700
Cost = $258.62
CPC = $0.15
Revenue = $295.75
ROI = -66%
Conversion = 0.18%
——————————-

Test 2 – Long Copy
——————————-
Clicks = 1,440
Cost = $218.83
CPC = $0.15
Revenue = $1,094.15
ROI = +50%
Conversion = 0.69%
——————————-
Again, long copy outperformed short copy, this time by an even greater factor of nearly four to one. Our ROI was a dismal -66% for the short copy page and a very respectable 50% for the long copy page.

And…
In general, long copy offers the following advantages:
1. Your visitors will have most of their questions answered and will have less anxiety about ordering from you.
2. Long copy can reduce customer service by qualifying your customers to a greater degree.
3. Long copy with bolded or emphasized points can allow some of your visitors to skim, while others more interested in specifics can find all the information they want. In this sense, long copy gives visitors more options.
4. Long (and interesting) keyword-rich copy often performs well in natural search engines.
Even more…

The long vs. short debate often overlooks the most important factor when it comes to website copy: quality. High-quality short copy will outperform poorly written long copy every time. The best possible copy should be developed and tested before you even begin to worry about the long vs. short debate.

Utilize an A-B split test. This will ensure that other factors (such as time, traffic source, and so on) do not skew your results.
Here are a few software solutions that will enable you to run A-B split tests:

And finally…
Copy should be long enough to do its job effectively, and not a word longer. Long copy for the sake of long copy is not to your benefit. Always keep in mind the primary goal of your website’s copy (to sell your product or service, to solicit subscriptions, etc.).

Utilize bullets and/or numbered lists where appropriate. These make it easier for visitors to digest your information and prevent your pages from becoming one long block of gray.

Utilize testimonials. Praise from your satisfied customers is much more effective than self-praise.
While our initial Long Copy vs. Short Copy micro-tests returned results clearly in favor of long copy, true optimization of your own website’s copy will only come through your own testing. However, the guidelines above should give you a good place to start. We will continue to revise our own testing and share our results.”

So there you have the long copy story from independent sources. You can continue to fight it, but the truth is LONG COPY WORKS. If it didn’t it would not be used to the degree it is.

What Steps to Take Before Writing Your Sales Letter
One of the biggest misconceptions new clients have when they come to me is I can whip out a sales letter in a few days. Wrong, wrong and wrong. A lot of preparation goes into writing copy. I spend on average 50% – 70% of my time PREPARING to write copy. If you don’t do your homework, the chances go up exponentially that your copy will fall flat on its face. Use this simple checklist to get you prepared for writing your own sales copy.

¨      Use the product or service yourself. I wouldn’t dream of writing copy about something I had never experienced. (If it’s your product, you may want to let someone else test it, then interview her about her experience). It’s one of the fastest ways to get a complete understanding of its strengths and weaknesses.

¨      Research your target market thoroughly. If you know anything about the way I help others write their own copy, you know about the “tarket” concept. Basically it goes like this. Segment your market down by age, income, marital status, etc. Then write out a detailed description of ONE PERSON in your target market – your “tarket”. When you write, speak only to that person.

¨      Spy on the competitors. Make yourself a customer to your competition. Then study how they handle marketing and customer service from A to Z. Sign up for their ezines, study their websites, collect their direct marketing campaigns. Learn to think like they do. Soon the differences between your company and theirs begin to reveal themselves. Your unique selling position pops its head out!

¨      Anticipate objections by writing out the FAQs ahead of time.  Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think like she does. What questions come up for her that would stop her from buying? Expect those frequently asked questions to come up and address them in your copy.

¨      Identify the features and benefits. We already know people buy more on emotion than logic. So have a list of what your product or service does (features) and how each feature makes your customer’s life better (benefits). The more you can stimulate an emotional response in your client with benefits, the deeper the connection goes.

¨      Collect compelling stories from the client. Nothing pulls us in psychologically more than a good story. Humans are a storytelling society. It’s in our genes. So give them what. Get the reader entrance by your copy with a hard hitting short story.  Then connect it back to what you’re selling.

¨      Gather testimonials from happy customers. How often do you read a testimonial about how badly this product stunk? Not very often. Testimonials are designed to increase credibility. To put a face on people who have had success with your product. How it made them richer, happier, thinner. Let them speak for you. Your trust quotient goes way up!

If you follow each of these steps thoroughly BEFORE you sit down in front of a blank screen, you have all the elements you need for a successful sales letter. I know. I know. Putting the pieces to the puzzle together can be easier said than done. But no matter what your skill level is at today for writing copy, we all start from these same basic steps.

So it’s EVERYWHERE. Some people will drop loads of cash on website design or graphics, but baulk at learning the one skill that’s a veritable silver bullet when it comes to boosting income fast – tweaking the copy. Don’t make that mistake. Your business is too important.

Here are 5 targeted hot spots any entrepreneur can tweak copy to start raking in the green.

HOME PAGE WEBSITE COPY

Your home page or index page is the most important one on your site for two reasons. First, it’s your welcome mat. It explains what the visitor is going to find on your site. Hopefully there’s enough information to entice him to stick around and check out other pages on your site. Second, the home page carries the most weight with the search engines. Good copy can attract search engines while strategically sprinkling keywords and keyword phrases around that get your message across.

Things to tweak:

• Headline
• Opt in form for ezine, etc.
• Privacy policy on opt in
• Add audio

SALES LETTERS
A good sales letter is at the center of most successful marketing campaigns. I call sales letters the “mother of all marketing” because they have all the elements you need for effective promotion. You can chunk it up to use it for descriptions about your product on the back cover, in ads, in mailings…the possibilities are endless. But you have to walk a fine line between over-the-top hype and grabbing a prospect’s attention. There’s a definite art to writing a successful sales letter, but it’s not ‘rocket surgery’, as I like to say. (I’m famous for unknowingly mixing my metaphors.) There is a specific pattern you’ll notice if your study other sales letters – which I recommend you do.

Things to tweak:

• Headlines
• Subheadlines
• Opening
• Price
• Bonuses
• Call to Action
• P.S.

ARTICLES

When people see your name enough times they come to recognize it (can you say, free advertising?) Best of all, you become known as an expert in your field. Post articles on your website and watch your search engine rankings improve. Just be sure to indicate your name and contact information must stay on any forwarded material. In general, people are pretty cooperative if you just ask. (Psst! I found a cool resource that writes basic articles for you for about $12! www.justarticles.com Personally I don’t use them for my ezine but they can give you a head start on your library.)

Things to tweak:

• Titles of articles
• Length
• Update shirttails (about the author)

EBOOKS

Ebooks (or “electronic” books) are completely downloadable files usually created in a format that’s difficult to copy like PDF. And they are fast becoming the new standard for printing. Microsoft projects that within five years, over 50% of all new books will be in ebook format. They are a great way to make some passive income. Spend some time brainstorming your idea. Check online bookstores like Amazon.com to see what’s in the marketplace already. If you want some help James Roche, the Info Product Guy, www.infoproductguy.com is uncanny at yanking the product right out of you.

Things to tweak:

• Titles
• Subtitles
• Back cover copy
• About the author

EZINES

One of the best ways to stay in contact with your clients is through an ezine or “electronic magazine,” like this one. These are newsletters emailed out on a regular basis with valuable information people want to read. You can also announce new products, contests and specials. As long as you provide something of value, people allow you to market to them. But beware. The minute your ezine becomes nothing more than one long ad, you’ll lose subscribers by the boatload. Need help getting started? My gal pal, Alex andria Brown , the Ezine Queen can tutor you through the process.

Things to tweak:

• Put content at top
• Don’t overwhelm with ads
• Add stories and observations
• Provide useful tips

Remember, never stop improving your copy. Little tweaks go a loooong way when it comes to increasing pr0fits.

Please let me share with you some of the mistakes I made starting out so you can avoid those pitfalls yourself…and catapult to success much faster than it took me.

Mistake #1: Don’t attract new clients
When I first started out in 1999 I had exactly one client. He kept me very busy…for awhile. Then, without warning, he suddenly shifted his business to 100% offline and began using a copywriter with more experience in that area. I floundered for 10 months before I got back on my feet again from that blow.

Solution: NEVER stop marketing yourself. Even if you have a full practice, don’t stop getting the word out. Write articles and press releases. Do interviews whenever possible. Start an ezine and/or a blog so your name is always out there. Don’t get caught flat-footed.

Mistake #2: Don’t effectively manage your clients
At first I was so grateful to have any clients I let them call all the shots – regardless of what was in my best interest. It took me a long time to realize every client is not a match for me. Sometimes they were unreasonable in deadlines. Other times they would call me at all hours…including 6 a.m. and even on the weekends. (Until I learned to communicate better there were even a few clients I had to fire!) Bottom line is you can never have enough communication.

Solution: Have the client fill out a detailed questionnaire to open up lines of communication or have a long phone interview (which you record). Get a feel for his or her expectations. Add an extra cushion to your deadline. If possible, get a gatekeeper (assistant) to set up schedule so you can focus on what you do best – writing.

Mistake #3: Poor time management
Eager to please, I often did not give myself enough lead time for an assignment. I’d say, “I’ll do it!” before I looked at the reality of my schedule. So I’d have to pull all nighters or miss important family events. I was incredibly stressed and not a lot of fun to be around.

Solution: Schedule your daily schedule BEFORE you go to bed at night. Turn off email until you’ve made some headway with your copy. And use a kitchen timer to work in increments of 35 minutes (studies show after that frame your mind craves distraction). When the ding goes off, get up, stretch and clear your head.

Mistake #4: Not getting paid enough
Face it…in your business you do a lot more work than most people realize. You have to do deep research in your industry, around your competition, and with your own target market. You have to attract leads. Then you have to write powerful copy that crawls inside the head of the prospect and leads them to a specific action. You should get paid what you are really worth – no exceptions.

Solution: Value yourself enough to get paid what you’re worth.

Mistake #5: Don’t invest in yourself
I have read the classic “Think and Grow Rich” 16 times. Every time I read it, I learn something new. I have watched the motivational movie “The Secret” 6 times to date. I go to seminars (even when I’ve heard the speakers before). Because I learn something new every time. I have a huge marketing library of books, binders, home study courses, CDs, DVDs, MP3s and I listen to them over and over. Again, every time I take in material, whether it’s new or old, I learn something new.

Successful people in all walks of life invest in themselves. It’s one of the keys that separates them from the less successful. (Trust me, at times it hurt to part with the massive amounts of cash I’ve laid out for this education. But the payoff happens every time. Just do it.)

Solution: If you’re looking to attract more money into your business, start by investing in yourself. Think LONG TERM. As the old adage says, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

Mistake #1: Dull, boring headlines.
It’s hard to keep awake long enough to read the copy in those boring magazines and websites. Headlines like: “Make an impression and you can change the world” “Healthy. Happy. For Real” or “A Natural Partnership”…yawn.
Look – The job of the headline is to cut through the clutter and grab your attention. We are exposed to more advertising in one day than our grandparents use to get in an entire year. You’ve got your work cut out for you if you want to address anybody, and it starts with the headline. Stick with the tried and true attention-grabbing formulas. (Need help? Check out this cool software at www.redhotcopy.com/instantheadlines.com)

Mistake #2: Ignoring long copy.
I know you like to “think” the LOHAS market is just too smart for all that long copy. After all they are made up of wealthy CEOs and soccer moms. Don’t be ridiculous. They are a very educated segment of the population which means they make informed decisions. Just like anybody, when it comes down to making a buying decision, LOHAS want all the facts. Long copy continues to prevail because it WORKS. Now long copy for the sake of being long is plain stupid. You want copy that overcomes objections, makes a solid case, and answers all the questions in the prospect’s mind.

Mistake #3: Not capitalizing on celebrity endorsement.
Ed Begley Jr. is a fixture in Studio City where I live. He has been known to ride his bike to work way before it was cool to look at alternative fuel options. Now he has launched his own environmentally safe cleaning products called Begley’s Best. Ed’s endorsement means something. If you tie a celebrity to a green product, it means instant credibility so you have a much better chance of succeeding in the LOHAS market.
Remember, you can market to the green folks, using many of the same marketing principles you would use for the regular Joe. Come from an authentic position and be respectful. Soon they’ll be showing you the green.

See blogs add humanity and instantaneous expression to the web. Like ezines, blogs are a way for your customer to get to know you.

However, unlike ezines, blogs help you with search engine rankings. Did you hear me? I said, unlike ezines, blogs help you with search engine rankings. That’s a big one.
Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Week, even the FCC (Federal Trade Commission) all believe blogs are here to stay. Just last month, Michael Powell, chairman of the FCC, started one. His initial post drew over 30,000 readers. A Microsoft spokesperson says Bill Gates is considering starting a blog. And filmmaker Michael Moore built a blog to promote his controversial new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11.

But who has time to read a blog anyway? Exactly! The job of a blog is to cut through the information overload and deliver searchable, relevant and current content. BlogAds.com recently conducted a survey of over 17,000 blog readers. Here’s what they report:

• Blog readers are older and more affluent. 61% of blog readers are over 30, and 75% make more than $45,000 a year.

• Blog readers are more cyber-active. 54% of their news consumption is online. 21% are themselves bloggers and 46% describe themselves as opinion makers.

• Blog readers are media-mavens. 21% subscribe to the New Yorker magazine, 15% to the Economist, 15% to Newsweek and 14% to the Atlantic Monthly.

• Whether on the left or right, blog readers have traits in common that often are absent in today’s public spaces: passion and initiative.

• Blog readers have apathy towards traditional news sources. 82% say that television is worthless. 55% percent say the same about print newspapers. 54% say the same about print magazines.

• Meanwhile, 86% say that blogs are either useful or extremely useful as sources of news or opinion. 80% say they read blogs for news they can’t find elsewhere. 78% read because the perspective is better. 66% value the faster news. 61% say that blogs are more honest.

• Blog readers appear united in their dissatisfaction with conventional media and their rabid love of blogs.

Don’t you want to be a blogger too? How about looking at some samples of the good, the bad and the bizarre?

Model citizen blogs: http:/ /www.marketingsecrets.com/blog/ – John Reese’s blog. Hey, the guy just made $1,080,496.37 online in a single day. Here’s a good rule of thumb. If Reese is doing it, you should be too.

http://www.talkbiz.net/ramblings/weblog.php – Copywriter Paul Myers keeps us up-to-date on SPAM and other Internet marketing nightmares.

http://ww w.thinkbigrevolution.com/ – Michael Port’s weekly calls to inspire those who aspire now have an online connecting point. Designed by Andy Wibbels.

Loser Blog (for now): http://www.red-hot- copy.com/blog.htm – my blog today. Check it out now, then check it out in 5 weeks after Andy helps me out (see end of article).

Bizarro Blog: Jeff Bridges’ site is considered a “blog.” It’s hand-written! (Yes, really). http://www.jeffbridges.com

I’ve been dipping my toe into the blogging pool since earlier this year. Now I’ve decided it’s time to really learn how to do this stuff with an expert who will take me by the hand through the scary forest of the blog-world. I’m going back to school! Through another client, I met blogging guru, Andy Wibbels. Sure, he has a funny name, but he is adorable! And his writing style has me rolling on the floor. Well Andy is a self- professed geek. And Andy knows blogs. He holds a 5 week class to get you up and running with a blog. He says it’s easy and I trust him. Wanna be in a class together? Read more about it here. www.easybakeweblogs.com