2915 readersOne unfailing characteristic of online business is The Latest Bandwagon that’s perpetually rolling down the road toward us. It’s usually some kind of new, sexy, easy, fast, 1-2-3 fad that will ensure you’re bathing in champagne by 10 o’clock tonight. As you may well know, a strategic fad fetish can be a very expensive habit,
5049 readersYou ever been out with your pals having a good time, laughing so hard that the surrounding tables end up giving you the stink-eye? Or maybe you host a knitting club at your house. You’re a band of obsessed knitting fanatics who can’t get enough of yarn, patterns and the latest celebrity knitting gossip. One
4168 readersContrary to reports of its demise, email is alive and kicking. And email marketing is what works as the most effective and profitable “last mile” to turning prospects into customers and clients. That said, all of us are far too familiar with email newsletters that waste our time, pitches that annoy us, and downright spam.
4083 readersYou’ve probably had fantasies of winning an MMA world championship wherein the title match is between you and a skinny seven-year-old. Maybe you dream of writing a Booker Prize winning novel – with Sir Salman Rushdie working as your confidential ghost writer. Or perhaps you’re determined to become the next President of the United States,
2743 readers“You Are Not Alone” In two and a half years of sending all kinds of emails to all kinds of lists, the simple phrase “You Are Not Alone” is the most-opened subject line I’ve ever seen — by far. Because Aweber counts each email that’s been opened, even if they’re from the same user, that
2670 readersEmail is back. Despite repeated proclamations of its extinction, rumors of the death of email marketing have been greatly exaggerated — especially since email and social media are a powerful combination. You might not reach the average college freshman, but for slightly older types (you know, the ones with the money), email is still the
9023 readers
Welcome to The Lede.
Every week I’ll be digging up and linking to stories, news, and opinion relevant to online marketing and copywriting.
Email, social media, innovation, SEO, productivity, mobile, conversion, publishing, and everything in between.
No commentary, just a fast, single page of headlines that you can grab, scan, and squeeze for all they may
3312 readersThe plan is nothing, planning is everything. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower Everyone has an opinion on it. Should you or shouldn’t you write a business plan? Are they a total waste of time, or a necessary vehicle on the path to online entrepreneurial glory? What if there were a third way to think through and write
10904 readers
If there’s an art to email marketing, it’s being able to write messages that are simultaneously:
Interesting content, and
Persuasive sales pitches
Unfortunately, most emails are either pure content or pure pitch.
But when you merge those two elements, you can see a large (and long term) increase in sales.
I’m going to give you precise examples of what I
2700 readers“First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.” ~ Blake, Glengarry Glen Ross Sometimes you’re on a sweet little vacation in Italy and you need to convert miles into kilometers. Sometimes you’re smashing your thumb with a hammer doing some light roofing and you