16 Strategies to Create A Successful and Effective Ebook

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Ebooks are a valuable asset to any business owner. They range in length from ten pages to hundreds depending on your topic, your purpose and your audience. And they can be written on just about any topic under the sun.

The key to a successful and effective ebook is to make sure you write your book with your reader in mind. What do they have to gain from reading your book?

Give it a great title. Write it clearly so it’s easy to read and understand and create a product you are proud of.

Once your ebook is complete, you can use it to build credibility in your industry, to build business awareness and to drive profits.

#1 Choose a Tight Topic

The reason is twofold. It’s much easier to write thoroughly on a very narrow topic. For example, it’s easier to write a book on how to meditate with your dog than meditation. OR How to create a household budget rather than home finances.

The second reason for choosing a narrow topic is that it’s easier to offer value to your readers. Thus it’s easier to market your ebook.

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#2 Solve a Problem

In addition to choosing a tight topic, it’s important that your book offers value. If the reader doesn’t benefit in some way from reading your book then they’re not going to buy it. Think about your customers and what their problems are. What topics might make good book topics?

For example, if your customers are pet owners, common pet problems can include but are certainly not limited to:

  • Grooming
    • Grooming behavior problems
    • Grooming tools 
  • Health
    • Obesity – How to help your dog/cat lose weight
    • Common skin problems and how to cure them 
  • Training
    • Dog housebreaking
    • Not using the litter box 

You see there are many potentially tight topics that can be found within any given problem. Make a list of the problems your customers commonly face and brainstorm book ideas that can solve these problems.

#3 Give It A Compelling and Attention-Grabbing Title

Prospects will make a decision about your book in just around twenty seconds. In that amount of time they have the opportunity to read your book title. If it intrigues them enough they’ll move onto a description of your book or look for more information. If it doesn’t attract their attention, they’ll move on.

What does an attention grabbing title include?  It promises a benefit, for example, “Learn How To Housebreak Your Dog In Three Days Flat.”

Think about these bestselling book titles:

  • How to Win Friends and Influence People
  • The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
  • You Can Heal Your Life
  • The Purpose Driven Life
  • Think and Grow Rich
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The list could go on and on but you’re probably getting the point. The books make a promise or offer a benefit right in the title.

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#4 Create a Format for Your Book

This may sound strange but once you’ve chosen your topic and have maybe chosen a few potential titles for your book, it’s time to sit down and start writing it. This means you need to come up with a structure for your book. We’re not using the word outline because this evokes memories of primary school and tedious, extremely structured, outlines. If this structure works for you by all means use it. If not, no worries. There are many other ways to go about it.

The easiest and often most effective is to use a question and answer style. We’ll use the example of a book on how to train for your first marathon. Your chapters might include the following (note they’re formatted as questions):

  1. What equipment do you need to run a marathon?
  2. How long does it take to train for a marathon?
  3. What is a good first marathon or how do you choose your first marathon?
  4. How do you fuel your body?
  5. What health problems should you expect when training and how do you treat them?
  6. Are you too old, fat or unhealthy to run a marathon?
  7. What can you expect from your first marathon?
  8. What should you know about running form?

Each of these topics can be chapters and each chapter can be further broken down into useful and easy to answer questions. For example for chapter one you could ask:

  • How do you choose running shoes?
  • What kind of socks work best?
  • Should you wear a heart rate monitor?

This is an easy format to work with as answering the questions makes it pretty straight forward. Once you have your outline worked out, all you have to do is fill in the necessary information.

There are however, other formats you can use to create your book. These include the How to format which generally follows a step-by-step process. You can also present it as a class or tutorial type format. The type of format you choose should match your topic and your audience. If you’re unsure, read a few ebooks or even print books and take a look at the format or style of them. You can use that as a guideline to create your ebook.

#5 Research Wisely

You can probably spend the rest of your life researching information for your book. This is because information changes and most of us are prone to procrastination. It’s easier to surf the web and read books than it is to write one.

However, research is likely going to be a part of your book writing process. You have one of two approaches here. Research the content in advance, after you’ve written your outline and know what you’re going to be writing on.

Or, start writing and leave space for where it feels more research is needed or where you’d like to cite a fact, provide data or fill in with a quote. This approach is often more expedient than the first, but it’s your choice.

It’s said that most successful novels are written at a primary school reading level. We’re talking third, fourth and fifth grade and that even the New York Times is written at around a sixth grade reading level.

Why is this?

Certainly not because we’re slow. Nope! It’s actually just because often the simplest words and sentence structure are the most easy and effective. This isn’t’ about winning the Nobel prize, it’s about writing an effective and successful ebook.

So on that note, let’s continue with some writing tips to make your book easy to read.

#6 Use Short Sentences

Each of your sentences will ideally be around ten words or less. Don’t count your words as you type, just take a look at your readability score when you run your spell check and grammar check. And as you’re editing, separate or clean up the long sentences. Short sentences are easier to read on a computer screen. They’re easier to comprehend and they’re often more effective and efficient than long ones.

An entry in The Guinness Book of World Records claims the longest sentence in English is from William Faulkner’s novel Absalom, Absalom! It has 1,287 words.

#7 Use Short Paragraphs

Short paragraphs, like short sentences, make your ebook easier to read. This is definitely the case for ebooks because it’s often difficult to read a lot of text on a computer screen.

The general rule of thumb is no more than 3-5 sentences per paragraph.

#8 One Subject per Paragraph

Too many ideas in one paragraph is confusing for your reader. In general, this shouldn’t be a problem if you create a structure or format for your ebook before you start writing. This is particularly the case if you’re using the question and answer format.

And it’s fine if it takes more than one paragraph to explore a topic. An easy rule to remember when creating the structure and paragraphs for your book is this:

  1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. (Your introductory paragraph or two for each new topic)
  2. Tell them. (Your main information)
  3. Tell them what you told them. (Your summary or conclusion for that information.)

This process can be repeated over and over again each time you introduce a new chapter and a new topic within that chapter.

#9 Use Headings and Subheadings

Headings and subheadings help provide structure to your book. They tell the reader what’s coming up in the next paragraph or section and it helps readers who often scan for information, know where to stop.

#10 Use Small Words

Before we started this section we talked about reading level. You want to make you’re your prospects and readers easily understand what you are trying to say. There’s no need to intentionally strive for a third, fourth, or fifth grade reading level. However, you can use the readability feature on your word-processing program to give you an average grade level when you’re done. Try to keep your book around an eighth grade reading level or below.

#11 Formatting

One easy way to improve your books readability and therefore its effectiveness and success is to use formatting that makes it easy to read. We’re talking about bullets, text boxes, graphics, and numbered lists. This breaks up the content and makes it much easier on the eyes.

However, be careful to not get carried away. Too much formatting can make a book look a little silly.

 #12 Go Easy on the Punctuation

Have you ever read an email or an article that practically screamed too much enthusiasm? All those exclamation points! It looks silly! And yet people still do it! This goes back to keeping your sentences short and to the point. There’s no need for indulging in too many punctuation marks.

#13 She Literally Floated Away

How often do you hear that a person literally did something that is actually physically impossible? Newscasters, of all people who should know better, do it quite often.

Figurative language is language that uses metaphors, similes, personification and so on. Use them sparingly and make sure they’re appropriate for the context of your topic. And also make sure you’re not confusing people. She can’t literally float away, right?

#14 Make It Active

Nouns and verbs are your core components in a sentence and certainly in a book. Choose them wisely. The more active your verbs the more interesting it will be to read your book. And watch out for passive voice.

Passive voice is often confusing to readers; it mucks up your sentence structure. Rather than dive into an explanation of active and passive voice just make sure when you’re writing, the subject of your sentence is doing the action. 

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#15 Write Like You’re Writing a Letter To A Friend

When you write a letter to a friend you do several key things that will actually make your book a better book. These things include:

Using the word “You.” When you write your book you want it to feel as if you’re speaking directly to the reader. You want them to feel a connection to you and become involved in the content. This is how you write a letter to a friend so pretend your book is a long letter to a good friend. In fact, share stories in your book to strengthen the connection, add interest and help demonstrate points you’re trying to make.

Use Contractions. When we talk and when we write to our friends, we use contractions. Contractions are those nifty combinations of words like:

  • You are – you’re
  • Can not – can’t
  • We will – we’ll
  • I am – I’m

And so on.

Use contractions in your writing and your book will feel less formal and more personal. It’ll be easier to read and have more impact on your reader.

Another thing you may do when writing to a friend is to use examples. This is a great way to illustrate a point or further explain something without having to rephrase it ten different ways. And examples are interesting to read. Share a story!

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#16 Give It a Professional Shine

Many people spend way too much time fidgeting with the graphics for their ebook. Yes, it is important to give your book a professional shine. However, this is better accomplished with an easy to read and professional looking layout. Excellent editing including spelling, grammar, formatting consistency and an easy to read and understand book.

It’s great to include a table of contents, a cover page, a disclaimer, an about the author and a section for resources or an appendix. Also remember to include page numbers, a header and a footer and your copyright statement along with your URL.

Always save your book as a secure PDF. This makes it easy for anyone to download with a free PDF reader and the contents cannot be copied or changed. If you’re publishing to Kindle or other established ebook sellers, you will need to follow their appropriate formatting.

An ebook is a wonderful marketing and business building tool. Put in the thought and energy to do it right and you’ll reap the rewards for years.

Publishing Your Content – What is the Last Step?

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Once you’ve gone through the work of creating your content, the next step is to make it available to your audience. It’s time to publish. In general, the publication process doesn’t take too long. However, there are a few time-saving tips you can embrace here as well. Heck, every minute you save is a minute you can spend doing something else for your business or for yourself.

 

#1 Use a Plugin

There are WordPress Plugins that take the work out of uploading and publishing content. Some work like a content management system and create custom field types. Your content is automatically optimized and organized on your site by type. Ultimate CMS, http://wordpress.org/plugins/ultimate-cms/ is one example of a content management plugin as is My Content Management, http://wordpress.org/plugins/my-content-management/.

SEO plugins help you optimize the content for search engines. All in One SEO, http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/ is a popular WordPress plugin.

Additionally, there are plugins like APLC Speedy Publisher, http://contentrix.com/aplc-speedy-publisher/254 that make it possible to upload several articles or posts at once.

Plugins can make the data entry aspect of content publishing much more efficient.

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#2 Pre-Schedule

WordPress allows website owners to pre-schedule their content. This means you can upload a month’s worth of content in one sitting and be done with it. Of course, this means that you need to have a content plan and have written your content in advance. It may take a little time to adopt this type of content writing and publishing system. However, once you make it part of your routine you’ll realize how much time you can save. The next challenge will be to decide what you’re going to do with all that free time.

#3 Outsource It

Once the content is created, you can outsource the publishing to someone else. In fact, if you have a skilled virtual assistant, you might hire them to edit, format, and publish your content. This gives you the free time you need to brainstorm, plan, create and enjoy the profits.

Ideally, publishing your content will be the step you spend the least amount of time on. Explore the technology available to reduce your time and effort.

So, What’s The Last Step?

The last step of the content process is to test and track your results. Not only do you want to create systems and use analytics to track the success of each piece of content, you also want to test and track your content process.

Track the time it takes you to brainstorm, write, research, and publish. Look for ways you can optimize your new systems to save even more time. Remember, each hour you cut can be an hour spent making money or pursuing other interests.

Content is so important to a business, but publishing it shouldn’t be a chore. With a little planning and using techniques and tools that support you and your business you can make quick work of writing and publishing your content.

Bogged Down By Content Research? 6 Tips to Make the Process Fast and Painless

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Let’s be blunt here for a second. You can waste tons of time researching your content. In fact, it’s not uncommon for someone to spend twice as much time researching for their content than writing it. That’s precious time. Time you could be spending doing something much more fun and interesting.

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#1 Write First, Research Later

One common suggestion is to write your content first. Write what you know and say what you want to say. As you’re writing your content, whenever you come to a point where you want to insert a statistic or share data, highlight it. Continue writing.

Once you’ve finished the piece, then hit the search engines and find those key data points you want to share. This helps you save time because instead of looking for random information, you know exactly what information you need to search for. You’ll spend a few minutes researching instead of a few hours.

 

#2 Find and Bookmark Key Resources

Depending on your niche, there are likely a few reputable resources you can turn to. For example, if you’re in the nutrition industry, then you might turn to Harvard’s Health Letter for information. If you’re in the dog niche, then perhaps you turn to the American Veterinary Association or Cesar Millan. Identify your key sources and bookmark them. This makes it very easy for you to locate information from trusted resources.

 

#3 Use a Search Friendly Browser

Some web browsing tools are easier to use than others. When you’re researching online try a few tools. For example, if you often use Chrome, then try Bing or Firefox. Use a browser that allows you to open multiple tabs. This makes it easy to find, and keep, the information you need.

 

#4 Note Taking Software and Applications

9-research-toolsDo you have a system for organizing your research? Consider using a tool like EverNote, https://evernote.com/ , or Microsoft’s One Note, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/. These tools make note taking and research easy. You can also use them in combination with your topic brainstorming sessions.

For example, as you’re making your list of content topics for the month, you can also identify key sites for information and even outline your content in the note taking application. Technology can make the content creation process streamlined and efficient.

 

#5 Source Your Information

Always give credit where credit is due. For example, as you’re writing your article on puppy care, if you use data from the American Veterinary Association, then source it and let your readers know where you found your information.

As you’re researching for your content, take notes on the relevant and useful information and don’t forget to note where you found the information. Then, you can be sure you’re linking to the appropriate website or person and it makes it easier to go back to verify the information.

Research doesn’t have to take long. In fact, ideally it should only take a minute or two per content piece. Organize your favorite sites, document your sources, and research only the information you know you need to save the most time. Speaking of organization, your systems are an important element of success.

Adding Effective Product Recommendations to Your Content

Part of an affiliate marketer’s job is to make product recommendations. You are recommending the products that you are promoting for your programs. So, how can you do so without sounding biased or like all you are interested in is selling a product?
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Affiliate Marketing Today

Affiliate marketing has evolved. The FTC guides say that any endorsement needs to be truthful. In order to be truthful, the reviewer
has to have personal experience with the product. Otherwise, you are simply regurgitating what the sponsoring affiliate program has already said on their site. This isn’t good enough for customers or the government.

Why? There have been too many affiliates wearing “black hats” that have used not so honest methods for gaining clicks and making the sale. Loopholes in search engine algorithms were exploited so that recycled content or poor quality content made the front page of the results. Biased reviews were written in order to get people to buy the product.

The new regulations are designed to stop fraud and promote fair competition in the marketplace. Everyone deserves a quality product that is trustworthy.

Creating Quality Content that Promotes a Product

One concern is how to incorporate product recommendations without sounding like you are strictly selling the product. Here are some ideas for you.

  1. Provide the research – What percentages of people are using this product? What were the criteria they considered for
    2-researchpurchase? This is useful information. Let your readers know what others think about this particular product and the class of product it represents. Present it in simplest terms so that readers can decide for themselves. If you poll the visitors to your site, include the results in your content so readers can see what real customers have to say.
  2. Add personal experience – Do you use the product or have you used several generations of the product? What were your thoughts and experiences? If you had a mishap, work it into the content as a humorous anecdote. This lets your readers know
    that you are human and deal with the same issues that they do.
  3. Show your expertise in the field – Craft content that shows you understand the product inside and out. Offer tips and tricks for managing issues with the product. For instance, if you have a blender that seems to burn up the motor when you make smoothies, ask readers to cut up their ingredients or used crushed ice to put less stress on the motor and preserve the product.
  4. Add images – Who says that content has to be only words? Include photos of you using the product with keyword-targeted captions. Search engines like that. Readers can see that you actually have used the product and know what you are talking
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  5. Provide questions – Give your readers a place to begin when evaluating their need for your product. If you are selling jeans, offer guidelines for choosing which to buy like:
  • Do you like baggy or fitting jeans?
  • What color works best for you?
  • Where will you wear your jeans?
  • How tall are you?

Besides asking the questions, offer helpful hints for how to answer them. For instance, if you are below 5 feet, baggy jeans make you look shorter. This might not be true but it is just for the purposes of an example. You get the idea.

  1. Embed an interactive tool – This can work with just about any product you are selling. The tool’s job is to offer recommendations for the user from the product line you are promoting. It not only offers useful information for the reader but also helps to point them towards the type of product they want to buy.
  2. Become transparent with your audience – Emotionally connecting with your audience is imperative. When a person can identify with a product on a different level besides simply a want for it, they are more likely to buy. Create content that explores why you have bought the product. Why do you believe in it? What emotional need does it fill for you? If we use the jean example
    4-thumbs-upfrom #5, perhaps you haven’t been able to find a pair of jeans that make you feel good about yourself until you found this company. You have now linked the product with the desire to elevate your self-esteem.
  3. Link to testimonials and feedback – Let them read the words for themselves. If you have a page for testimonials or for
    feedback from previous customers, send your readers there with one click. Because you are sending them away from your content, be sure to include your affiliate link on that page too along with a call to action so they don’t miss out on purchasing when they make the decision.

Readers can see through blatant advertising. They want to be talked to not talked at. Use these methods for providing effective product recommendations within your website content.

10 Tips for Conducting Interviews Like an Expert

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Conducting interviews is quite different than producing a solo podcast. It’s also much more involved than most people realize. You can’t just “wing it” and do well on a podcast interview. You need to prepare for it, plan for it and carefully make sure every piece falls into place.

At the same time, you have to make sure you sound natural while you’re on the air. The audience has to be able to feel the flow and chemistry between you and your guest. It has to appear spontaneous, but also informed.

A great podcast interview will have your audience captivated for the entire duration. If it’s an educational podcast, your audience will learn something. If it’s not, they’ll walk away thoroughly entertained.

So how do you produce a spectacular podcast interview?

Tip #1: Do a Pre-Interview

Talk to your guest beforehand. Don’t just jump on the call and do the interview.

Start by giving your guest a list of sample questions. You might want to hear the answer to some of those questions to make sure they know how to answer. Don’t try to guide their answers; you just want to make sure you’re both on the same page about how the interview should be conducted. Also ask them if there are any questions they want you to ask.

Get clear on their story. If you’re interviewing someone whose background is important, make sure you know the chronological order of how things happened. And make absolutely sure you know how to pronounce your guest’s name.

Tip #2: Feel Out Their Limits

Often time’s the best interviews are the ones that really push the boundaries to the limits. Of course, you don’t want to make your guests uncomfortable. So if you’re going to be asking those kinds of questions, make sure you run them by your guest first.

For example, if you’re running a business show, questions you might want to run by your guest first include:

  • How much money do you personally take home?
  • When your first business failed, how did you face the investors whose money you lost?
  • Did you use any “black hat” techniques when you first built your company?

Questions that might cause your guest to balk shouldn’t be avoided, but you should try to feel out their limits before the call.

Tip #3: Do Thorough Research

Do thorough research into your guest’s background. Even if you have extreme cooperative guests, this can still make a big difference.

Where did their career start? What were some highlights of their career and what were the rough spots? What opinions do they have that are more controversial? What original ideas did they put out in the world?

Read their website. Look them up on Google. Check their LinkedIn profile and Facebook pages.

Learning about your guests will allow you to formulate informed questions.

Tip #4: Fix the Sound before You Start

4-MixerBefore you start the interview, make sure all your sound is good. This needs to be done with every interviewee.

Start by checking the levels. You and your guest should have approximately the same volume. If one or the other is louder, adjust the levels on your mixer.

If you’re noticing feedback or background noise, try to mix it out using your mixer. You might ask your guest to move closer to the mic so you can turn down their levels and blend out any background noise.

If they’re on a Skype connection and you’re noticing stuttering or delay, you might ask them to close other windows and other applications that might be taking up bandwidth.

Get your sound and connection issues sorted out before you start the interview.

Tip #5: Pick Topics and Guests You’re Genuinely Curious About

A lot of podcasters choose guests based on who’s big in an industry or who they think their audience will like. While this is OK every once in a while, the best way to produce home run content is to interview guests you’re genuinely curious about.

When you’re genuinely curious about a guest, you’ll ask much better and much deeper questions. You’ll be much more attentive and be able to dive in more with your guests. You’ll have more on-air chemistry and livelier discussion, which are much more interesting to your audience.

Much like you can get “sucked in” to an interesting discussion, you and your guest can both get “sucked in” to an interesting interview. For someone listening, these kinds of interviews have a magnetic quality. Whenever possible, try to interview people who you’re genuinely curious about.

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Tip #6: Demonstrate Your Guest’s Credibility

Start by demonstrating your guest’s credibility. Remember: Your listener’s attention is very scarce. If you want someone to sit through a 20 to 60 minute interview with you and your guest, you need to sell them on your guest.

Be brief, but be powerful and succinct. Talk about your guest’s past, your guest’s achievements and the benefits the interview can offer to your listeners.

Your intro for your guest should be no more than a minute or a minute and a half. But by the time your intro is done, people should be on the edge of their seats, ready to really absorb everything your guest says.

Tip #7: Ask the Hard Questions

questionsDon’t just play on the surface. The best interviewers are the ones that aren’t afraid to ask the really hard hitting questions.

Ask about their insecurities and their challenges. Ask about real numbers. Look for things that most people wouldn’t have guessed about your guest. Try to chip away from their public persona and really get to know the real person. Try to get to the real experience, rather than just the surface level explanation.

As an interviewer, it’s common to want to go easy on your guests. You want to maintain rapport with your guests. You don’t want to offend, to step on toes or to make your interviewee mad. Unfortunately, when you go light on your guests, you aren’t serving your audience.

Yes, you should absolutely help your guests look good on your show. But you can do that by digging for the real picture – Instead of just settling for more shallow answers.

Tip #8: Go With the Flow, But Have a Backup Plan

When your audience says something interesting, go with the flow. Ask them follow up questions. Don’t go into your interview with a rigid outline of what you want to talk about. Instead, follow the energy of the conversation. Go into things that seem most interesting in the moment.

That said, you should always go into your interviews with a plan. Once one line of thought is complete, you should immediately know where to take it next. There should be no down time between lines of conversation.

Don’t worry about transitioning. One topic does not have to smoothly transition into another. If one topic is finished, you can simply bring up another completely unrelated topic and begin a new discussion.

A great interview is one where the interviewer is sharing the excitement of a topic with a guest all the way until it starts to die out, then a new topic is quickly introduced and the energy picks up again. The interview should never feel boring.

 

Tip #9: Put Yourself in Your Audience’s Shoes

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What would your audience want you to ask your interviewee right now?

For example, let’s say you run a podcast for people who’re starting a restaurant for the first time. You’re interviewing someone who has started 20 restaurants in the last decade.

You might be tempted to ask him high level questions or questions about what it’s like to operate such a large operation. But when you put yourself in your audience’s shoes, you quickly realize that your audience doesn’t care about any of that. They want to know how to open and run one restaurant.

Put yourself in your audience shoes. It helps if there are specific people you can think of. What questions would benefit them most?

Tip #10: Talk Less

When you’re interviewing a guest, it’s important to remember that the interview is not about you. You might be tempted to share your opinions, your stories or your thoughts while your guest is on the air. More often than not, you’re better off letting your guest speak instead.

Sharing your own thoughts or experiences should be done only very briefly. You can share something if it helps you ask a question or helps cement a point home. You can use your own experiences to help move the interview along.

However, throughout the majority of the interview, all of your listeners’ attention should be focused almost exclusively on your guest. Yes, you can chime in here and there, but it should be the exception to the rule. Your guest’s time is a rare commodity – Make the most of it.

These ten tips will help you produce great sounding, enrapturing, lively, informative, entertaining and revealing interviews. These tips will help you produce interviews that people love listening to.

Top 10 Copywriting Information Sources

Close up on tha hand of young woman writing down on a paper using smart phone and notebook –

 

Whether you use video, audio or text in your web marketing, you still rely on words. Compelling words are what attract web visitors, get them on your mailing list and get them to buy your products. The art of compiling compelling words is known as copywriting and it is an essential skill for any online business. If you’re looking for copywriting information, here are top 10 sources for you.

 

Site #1: Which Test Won 

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http://whichtestwon.com

A very informative and real-world blog by Anne Holland. Each week, Anne posts two versions of an advertisement or sales piece so that readers can get guess which performed better. After you guess, you can click through to find detailed information on which test won and why.

 

Site #2: John Carlton

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http://www.john-carlton.com

John Carlton is a long time copywriter who refers to himself as the “most ripped-off writer on the web.” In short, people steal his approaches because they work and he readily shares them. His blog is very colorful, thought-provoking and may sometimes offend, but is usually at the top of the list for people serious about learning copywriting.

 

Site #3: Michel Fortin

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http://michelfortin.com

With a background in sales and working as a copywriter to big Internet marketing, Michel has plenty of real-world experience and test results under his belt. Michel often refers to himself as an “avid tester” and is constantly tracking and testing copy to improve conversions. Thankfully, Michel is very open about sharing those results on his blog, in speaking engagements and more.

 

Site #4: Marketing Experiments

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http://www.marketingexperiments.com

Marketing Experiments specializing in conducting research and testing to optimize marketing results. Website visitor can get access to a huge library of test results and read the blog for free. A podcast is also available.

 

Site #5: Ben Settle

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http://bensettle.com/blog

Ben Settle is a no-nonsense marketer that focuses on teaching the power email marketing. With praise from Gary Bencivenga, Ken McCarthy, Brian Clark and Ray Edwards, you know he’s someone worth listening to. Visitors can sign up to get a daily email marketing tip and get other helpful advice.

 

Site #6: Gary Halbert

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http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com

Unfortunately, Gary Halbert passed away several years ago, but his “The Gary Halbert Letter” still remains on the web and serves as an invaluable resources for copywriters and business owners. Click on “View our Newsletter” archive to be treated to a treasure trove of great writing and thought-provoking advice.

 

Site #7: Bob Bly

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http://bly.com

Robert (Bob) Bly is a freelance copywriter with over 30 years of experience and plenty of client experience. Many know Bob from the 70+ books he has written, but plenty of great advice is to be found on his blog.

 

Site #8: Karon Thackston

8-karon-thackston

http://www.marketingwords.com

Karon Thackston is a no-nonsense freelance copywriter whose forte rests in teaching copywriting and SEO to others. Her straightforward, no-nonsense advice makes the complicated seem simple.

 

Site #9: David Garfinkel

9-david-garfinkel

http://world-copywriting-institute.typepad.com

If you’re looking for someone who not only know what they’re talking about when it comes to copywriting, but also knows how to explain it, look no further. While David’s blog is not always updated frequently, you’ll find plenty of gems there.

 

Site #10: Perry Marshall

10-perry-marshall

http://www.perrymarshall.com

While Perry Marshall isn’t someone we immediately think of when think of “copywriting,” he certainly has plenty to offer in this area. As the leading Adwords and pay-per-click advertising expert, you can find great advice on his blog. Visitors to his website can download free guides, read articles and check Perry’s speaking schedule.