Don’t believe it.

Even in the grips of the recession, email marketing is enjoying a renaissance. And yes, “Twitter gets the press, email gets the order” is a phrase uttered by plenty of email marketers.

I’d suggest it’s true.

The ROI of email remains higher than other media channels – a reality every marketer ignores at their own peril.

And small businesses – who typically must retain customers at a higher rate than their larger competitors – find email programs indispensable.

After all, email programs still represent the single best way to keep in touch with most customers – who aren’t going to visit a blog or site every day.

I can see a day when the combined might of RSS and social media channels (like Twitter) will dent or damage email, but email remains a staple media channel among my students and client businesses.

Why? And how do I get less-than-technically-savvy clients to embrace email?

More importantly, how can you add value to your copywriting services – providing a complete “content cycle” for you small biz clients?

Enter WordPress

I know. One minute I’m talking about email, the next I’m suggesting blog software as a solution.

It makes perfect sense. Really.

Simply put, email marketing integrates beautifully with a blog – to the point that several of my non-blogging clients have installed a WordPress CMS.

Why? Because it’s a powerful, email-friendly publishing platform.

Publishing content remains a huge barrier to small businesses, who often rely on static Web sites – and sometimes-expensive, often-hard-to-reach Webmasters to update those sites.

Publishing via the simple WordPress editor is something most small business users can grasp – a process that is far faster, easier, and cheaper than paying a Webmaster.

The key is this: Each blog post offers its own unique URL, so each article can serve as its own landing page.

That’s useful.

Today’s business-oriented emails work best when they tease several articles, giving the reader a choice of content and allowing them to jump when they wish.

By contrast, publishing complete articles in a newsletter is a bad idea; if the first story isn’t of interest to the recipient, they may not make it all the way through to the second.

Using a WordPress CMS as an article bank makes perfect sense – and it also helps my clients derive an SEO benefit from their newsletter content (which doesn’t happen when you simply send a newsletter).

A WordPress CMS also easily integrates other social media channels (like Twitter).

That’s important too.

One of my key tenants of online marketing for small businesses is this: Leveraging the same (or similar) content across multiple channels makes perfect sense for those who have better things to do than sit and “generate content” all day long.

(And yes, most small businesspeople have better things to do.)

A Caveat

If a small business installs WordPress solely for the purpose of intermittently publishing articles, then don’t call the installation a blog.

Instead, give it a name that isn’t weighted down by expectations of daily posts. It’s not a blog, it’s a “builder’s journal.” Or a “What’s New” page. Or a “Fresh Ideas” page.

In other words, don’t create expectations your client’s not going to meet.

Next week, I’ll offer up another of my dirty little email marketing secrets for small business – resources that make it possible for less-savvy, time-constrained small businesses to succeed with email marketing.

Keep writing (and now, consulting), Tom Chandler.

The podcast player should appear below; if not, simply click here and play it via NPR’s page.

One of my ongoing engagement marketing projects is an advocacy site aimed directly at a major multinational corporation – one with a distressing tendency towards intimidation lawsuits.

My background in journalism and prior study of media law means I’m confident I’m not breaking any laws, but that’s small comfort when a multinational’ legal team comes after you simply to shut you up.

There’s even mention of a free, one-hour long media law course for bloggers (developed in conjunction with Poynter), but I couldn’t find a link. Maybe tomorrow.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

And yes, I did notice the Copywriter Underground fell off the list this year, and that was expected; I’ve de-emphasized the Copywriter Underground as a marketing vehicle (transforming it into a soapbox for a cranky veteran copywriter), and the winning blogs simply do more for their readers.

So congratulations to the 2008/2009 Winners:

1. Copyblogger: As the undefeated champ, this blog has held the number-one spot for three straight years! The baby of Brian Clark, this blog keeps winning because of its excellent and educational articles.
2. Men With Pens: James Chartrand and Harry McLeod are the dynamic duo who continue to deliver rich content and community discussion.
3. Freelance Writing Jobs: Founded by Deb Ng, this site is the first stop for freelance writers seeking new work and great articles (and it remains a top winner since this contest began).
4. Write to Done: This blog delivers a steady stream of excellent articles for all writers and is the product of top blogger Leo Babauta.
5. Confident Writing: Looking for encouragement? Joanna Young will help you take your writing to the next level.
6. The Renegade Writer: Linda Formichelli and Dianna Burell, authors of a book by the same name, help freelance journalists find inspiration.
7. Remarkable Communication: One part writing, one part marketing and one part selling, this excellent blog by Sonia Simone will help any writer succeed.
8. Writing Journey: Looking for a great stop on your writing journey? Bob Younce’s blog will refresh and energize you.
9. Freelance Parent: Two moms, Lorna Doone Brewer and Tamara Berry, provide excellent perspective on writing while balancing time with little ones.
10. Urban Muse: Susan Johnson covers a wide range of excellent topics that all writers will enjoy.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Top 10 writing blogs

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Undergrounders spoke, and I made the list of finalists – a nice, gift-wrapped warm fuzzy in a contest that saw the number of nominations double from the prior year (144 to 300).

Thanks again to my readers – who stick around despite my absences and generally grumpy ways. You guys rock.

Here is the list of finalists; all are worthwhile blogs, and reflect a healthy sampling of different approaches to the craft of writing:

• A n n a r c h y
• Beyond the Rhetoric
• Book Deal
• Confident Writing
• CopyBlogger
• Copywriter Underground
• Diary of a Wordsmith
• Freelance Parent
• Freelance Writing
• Freelance Writing Jobs
• Get Paid to Write Online
• Golden Pencil
• Hell or High Water
• Ink in my Coffee
• Ink Thinker
• Itty Biz
• J A Konrath
• Men with Pens
• Pro Blogger
• Remarkable Communication
• Renegade Writer
• Rogue Ink
• Story Tellers Unplugged
• Urban Muse
• Wealthy Freelancer
• Well Fed Writer
• Whatever
• Word Count
• Word on the Page
• Word Tales
• Write from Home
• Write to Done
• Writer Dad
• Writer Mama
• Writer’s Manifesto
• Writers Resource Center
• Writing Journey

I’ll be back in my office on Wednesday. Until then, keep writing, Tom Chandler.

top ten writers blogs, top ten blogs for writers, writers blogs, writers, freelance writer, copywriter, freelance copywriter, writing white papers

Michael Stelzner of Writing White Papers has once again set his “Ten Best Blogs for Writers” contest in motion, and as a Top Ten “winner” the past two years, my nose would grow long indeed if I said I wasn’t honored by the attention.

He’s accepting nominations on his site, and yes, I’m always gratified to be nominated.

Early voting suggests Men With Pens may supplant Copyblogger atop the list, though that may simply be the result of an early “get out the vote” effort.

What’s true is this: the writing blogosphere offers today’s writer more help, advice, perspective and hard-won knowledge than has ever been available to freelancers – and by a wide margin.

In one sense, it’s a true marketplace of ideas: my perspectives on new client acquisition, ethical practices and how to stay alive in this interesting (and unstable) business sometimes clash with the perspectives of others.

Amidst those discussions, there are no losers or winners – except the lucky readers, who have harvested perspectives they may have never considered.

That’s a win.

With that in mind, it seems the writing community has already “won” this contest, and they did so long before Michael (graciously) fired up this contest.

To all who are nominated – and those who aren’t – congratulations.

We’re all winners.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

top ten blogs for writers, writing white papers, top ten, writer’s blogs

Powered by ScribeFire.

It’s not easy. Businesses don’t necessarily believe a freelance writer can write coherently about their business or their industry.

And then there’s the question of money. Blogging often pays poorly, and businesses have a lot of marketing options.

Still, it’s being done. And today’s copywriter is ideally positioned to handle the whole project (instead of letting some agency rake off all but a pittance).

The Wall Street Journal Independent Street blog outlines a Florida-based company selling blogs to businesses (note their rates & their process):

The company brainstorms “hot topics” to blog about with its clients and then its search-marketing-experts-slash-copywriters write “keyword rich” posts on those topics, says Danielle Leitch, executive vice president. The ghostwriter also embeds relevant links in the posts and lets clients review the posts before they’re published.

MoreVisibility charges clients about $500 a month for one weekly post to about $2,000 a month for daily posts. It also charges a one-time fee starting at $2,000 for setting up the blog. The company manages blogs for about 20 businesses, Ms. Leitch adds.

Want to bet their “search-marketing-experts-slash-copywriters” are working for peanuts?

If you’re already blogging – and you’re good at it – then why not scale your revenues by offering businesses a Blog in a Box? (Because I’m a friend to all copywriters, I’m giving that idea away free.)

Basically, make it as easy as possible – the client’s only decisions should revolve around “how much” and “how do you want to pay me?”

Blogging is hardly the highest-paying gig in copywriting, but there is something to be said for that steady, reliable stream of money – especially if you’re new to the game.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

The Orwell Prize is delighted to announce that, to mark the 70th anniversary of the diaries, each diary entry will be published on this blog exactly seventy years after it was written, allowing you to follow Orwell’s recuperation in Morocco, his return to the UK, and his opinions on the descent of Europe into war in real time. The diaries end in 1942, three years into the conflict…”

The rich comedy opportunities aside, this could introduce a new crop of people to an interesting writer (whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair). Blogs are simply powerful electronic publishing platforms, and this promises to be an interesting publishing project.

The posts begin on August 9… 1938.

Keep writing (even after you’re dead), Tom Chandler.

Not many posts? I’ve been spending my time here.

The results have been instructive, if not always thrilling.

First, let’s talk wi-fi access.

While Ubuntu glommed onto my home wi-fi network without a hitch, it didn’t want to connect to my friend’s wi-fi, even after entering the correct WEP key.

Making it all the more galling was Vista’s facility; I re-booted in Vista, entered the exact same WEP key – and basked in the glow of an instant connection.

This wasn’t looking good.

After 30 minutes of mucking around, I discovered the solution. Well, “a” solution.

Entering the WEP key into an alternative pop-up choice in the Ubuntu wireless menu solved the problem (I used the “WEP Passkey Hexadecimal” choice).

But why?

Ubuntu was no help. But OK, lesson learned. Try stuff until it works.

It’s not a ringing endorsement of the OS, but it is one strategy for success.

Now That We’re Connected, Let’s Work.

My non-blog writing projects have gone swimmingly. Ubuntu’s fast boot times have made road use a joy.

In addition, my blogging workflow has been excellent. I wrote my longer Trout Underground posts in OpenOffice (excellent).

Pasted the text into the Scribefire Firefox-based blog editor (easy).

Downloaded the photos from my digital card reader (easier than Windows), and edited them with Gimp image editing software (again, a winner – fast and powerful).

Then I added the photographs to the article (annoying; Scribefire would only add the image code half the time), and fired the article.

Which is when things got weird again.

Only one of the images (of eight) appeared on my article. And even weirder, replacing the first image in the Wordpress editor solved the problem for all the photos.

While Scribefire is a nice product, it’s really strongest when doing quick cut & paste jobs from online sources. And it seems to suffer from odd bugs.

And while the photo failure shouldn’t be laid at the feet of Ubuntu, it’s clear the lack of a killer Linux blog editor still hampers my Ubuntu test – enough that I may look at running a Windows blog editor under Ubuntu’s Windows emulator (Wine).

But not until I’m back from my vacation.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

My offense?

Simple. I didn’t want to write five blog posts a week for free.

Overexposure

This call came from an “entrepreneur” who contacted me by email; he said he wanted an experienced, knowledgeable writer to populate a “high profile” blog, though the true “height” of the profile fell as the conversation wore on.

In my email reply, I said I’d been asked to write several blogs, but the stumbling block was always budget — a gambit I use to filter out those seeking freebies.

Sadly, he called anyway, but more startling was his attitude; he expected me to jump at the chance. And got agitated when I didn’t.

You Can’t Eat Exposure

Exposure is fine. Exposure is good. Still — despite recent scientific advances — you can’t actually eat exposure.

In the copywriting world, the promise of “exposure” is fast replacing “there’s more work in the future” as the empty negotiating promise of choice.

When a prospect promised me more work in the future, I learned to ask two simple questions: how much work, and what kind of contract were they willing to sign right now?

Similarly, when someone promises you exposure in lieu of monetary compensation, you’ve got every right to ask “how much exposure?”

If they can’t (or won’t) quantify the audience, it’s like saying “we’ll pay you, but we won’t tell you how much.”

Copywriting is evolving rapidly, and it’s not all for the better. Truthfully, I’ve never been asked to write so many commercial projects for so little.

When confronted by that choice, I simply asked the prospect exactly what he was offering me. He hung up, suggesting he wasn’t offering much.

I wouldn’t go for that. You probably shouldn’t either.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

That’s exactly what writer Tom Gaylord did, and interested in his success formula, I called him out of the blue to talk.

Gaylord is paid to write extensively in the airgun market, and a quick survey of that niche reveals Gaylord’s name atop:

• The industry’s most-popular blog (paid for by the industry’s biggest specialty retailer)
• A series of paid (and successful) podcasts
• Countless paid product reviews and articles on multiple Web sites
• On the masthead of an online magazine as airgun editor

What’s astonishing to him isn’t that he’s writing about a topic he loves — it’s that he’s getting paid for every word.

That’s a prescription for lifelong success, and — dare I say it — long-term job satisfaction. (There’s a sentence worth reading twice.)

Gaylord’s animated face stares out from the industry’s biggest Web site.

The Airgun Market: More Than Hot Air

I became aware of Gaylord while teaching an online marketing class; I used Pyramyd Air (the airgun industry’s largest speciality retailer) as a case study in the benefits of high-quality content marketing.

(Helpful Hint: use them as an example in your own pitches.)

While their Web site is not exactly a thing of beauty, Pyramyd Air leverages high quality content better than most Fortune 500 firms. They engage customers with a wildly informative daily blog (written by Gaylord), twice-a-month podcasts (created by Gaylord), numerous “how-to” and product review articles (yes, written by Gaylord), and even short video snippets (Gaylord again).

If you look closely, you’ll even see his animated face talking to visitors from the “Tom’s Picks” product recommendation page.

Pyramyd’s site isn’t pretty, but to search engines and airgun junkies, it’s pure art.

All that high-quality content generates excellent native search results for Pyramyd, and the stream of useful engagement content renders Pyramyd’s Web site far stickier than competing sites (engagement marketing binds customers to brands via shared passions and values).

In fact, Gaylord’s blog posts often generate more than 100 comments, and the comment count on popular posts exceeds 300.

Those are startling numbers given the size of the airgun market (as a niche, it’s not exactly in the same league as celebrity gossip or computers).

With the help of their successful online marketing strategy, Pyramyd’s retail growth has been phenomenal; expansion is forcing them to relocate to a bigger building.

What I didn’t know about Pyramyd was that Gaylord pitched all those projects to the company (a practice I advocate), and that much of the company’s online success could be laid right at his feet.

In the interest of brevity, I segregated our interview into categories. Enjoy!

The Successful Writer

Tom Gaylord is a direct, precise speaker (he speaks much like he writes), yet his directness belies a thoughtful interior. He often paused after I asked an unexpected question, and his answers were responsive and to the point (not always a given).

Still, it’s not hard to see what matters to him — the first words out of Gaylord’s mouth were: “Most important is to write about the things you love doing.”

Gaylord’s writing style is conversational, and not intimidating or pedantic.

“I see my role as more an educator than salesman” he said, and his straightforward style of writing reflects it. He’s been writing about airguns for almost two decades, and expects to “continue doing so until I drop.”

How does he generate so much copy for so many venues?

“You should write about the things you love so much that you can’t wait to write the next post or article.”

The Successful Pitch

Pitching new media technologies to most business organizations isn’t for the easily discouraged. When pressed for the secrets of his success, he said “You have to start by getting to know people. You need to meet them face-to-face.

“I went to the trade show and met the owner of Pyramyd. When we first spoke about the blog, I already had a business plan ready.”

In this sense, Gaylord was lucky; the president of Pyramyd soon bought into the SEO and engagement benefits of a blog. Still, that’s not often the case, and Gaylord’s secret weapon is to find an internal champion for his information products.

“Often that’s an IT or marketing guy. Once someone on the inside is on your side, things happen.”

After the success of the blog, Gaylord kept pushing; he pitched a podcast (despite not knowing how to produce one), taught himself the technology, and delivered a catalog of podcasts that garner extremely high listening rates.

Gaylord couldn’t produce a podcast until he sold one. Now he has a page of them.

Still, the initial pitch wasn’t a no-brainer — until Gaylord found an effective sales tactic.

“I told them it was better to pay me to write the articles than it was to spend the money on SEO optimization or a huge keyword buy.”

That’s an intriguing tactic. Many companies spend small fortunes on AdWords and SEO optimization, but are experiencing diminishing returns.

The Successful Blog

Gaylord’s Five Rules of Successful Commercial Blogging are refreshingly simple, and reflect his down-home approach to the subject of writing for a living:

• Write about what you know and love
• You don’t have to know everything
• Charge appropriate to your market
• Serialize when the subject gets long
• Edit your work (People may use poor grammar and punctuation, but they don’t want to read it)

His posts are crammed with information, and slaughter some of blogging’s sacred cows. They’re long (by blogging standards), and though he breaks up the text with frequent subheads, the subheads (and copy) lack hype or strong benefits.

It’s an excellent illustration of engagement writing; he’s talking to a very engaged audience, and the slow buildup of disbelief fostered by excessively amped copy would eventually damage his credibility with readers.

They want information and a demonstrated passion for the sport, and he provides it. Gaylord’s writing is either a great example of a refined editorial/commercial writing style, or one of the softest sales pitches you’ve ever seen.

The Conflicts

When I asked Gaylord about walking that fine line between PR hack and credible writer, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

“I have to maintain my credibility, so I don’t say good things about bad products. And though I’m not an employee of Pyramyd, I represent them, so I watch what I say.”

Apparently, Gaylord’s done a good job maintaining credibility with readers and retailers; his articles appear on the Web sites of several competing retailers, and he recently wrote a blog entry largely condemning a new air pistol with “As the Typhoon stands today, it has very little to recommend it.”

Nothing creates credibility with a client like success, and given Gaylord’s contribution to Pyramyd’s rise, he’s built the credibility needed to deliver a less-than-shining product review — or pitch Pyramyd on new technologies.

The Job

“I’ve held a variety of regular jobs in my life, and I did not like them. When I found out I could make a living doing this fulltime — something I’d probably do anyway — I said to my wife ‘they’ll pay me to do this?’”

The fact that Gaylord hasn’t read a shelf of “How to write copy that sells” books likely works in his favor; the new engagement writer isn’t pitching products, he’s engaging via shared passions and values, and engagement doesn’t exist in an excessively hype-laden environment.

In fact, Gaylord isn’t really a copywriter in the classic sense, and he’ll likely never have the lead spread in Inc. magazine.

He’s simply a writer seriously engaged with his subject matter — so much so that he infects his readers with his enthusiasm.

In short, what Gaylord’s really selling isn’t airguns or pellets; the product here is his rampant, authentic passion for airgunning.

Keep writing, Tom Chandler

Technorati tags: tom gaylord, pyramyd air, copywriting, writing, engagement, engagement marketing, engagement writing, airguns, interview