Readers Put Ideas To Work

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence,
is the quality that most frequently makes for success.”
– Dale Carnegie

Special Reader Feedback Issue #194:
CP Readers Put Ideas To Work
by Monica Day

Krista and I agree…there is only one thing that keeps this column going, even when we sometimes feel too busy and preoccupied with life and business to put out yet one more issue:

You!

Every time we write you, we get these great emails in response. The successes you’re having, the things you’re struggling with, the funny stories along the way – and it makes us realize that even as we toil away in our home offices every day, we’re part of a community.

So today, I wanted to share a few of my recent favorites with you.

This one from Mandy Marksteiner in response to Ilise Benun’s advice about using business cards:

I was sitting by the window at Starbucks, feeling perplexed over the enormous box of Verbal Ink Advantage business cards that I ordered. I read the section on marketing myself in the 6-Figure Copywriting course that said I should tell everyone I know that I’m a copywriter. Still, how can I possibly talk to 3,000 people and find an excuse to hand them my card without looking like a character in American Psycho?

A man on the sidewalk caught my attention. He wore a tie and a baseball cap and was approaching people with a clipboard. He pulled a business card out of his pocket.

Now, someone passing out business cards obviously needs a copywriter. I gathered my things and moved to an outside table and pretended to be absorbed in my green tea frappuccino and the lovely weather.

Within second he sidled up to me and asked me to sign a petition that would put him on the ballot for a district election. I signed the petition and he handed me his card, I thanked him and then handed him my card (so glossy and new) and told him I was a copywriter.

He looked at my card, grinned and blurted, “If I get on the ballot I’ll have a $6,500 publicity budget.”

I told him a few things I could do for him, like help him win, and wished him luck with the petition. He said that if he gets it, he’ll call me, and he moved to the next person.

That wasn’t so hard, I thought, and it was kind of fun. Now I have only 2,999 more cards to go.”

And here is an update from one of our CP Mentoring Program participants who has been achieving one success after another in the year since we worked with her:

I ordered Ed Gandia’s e-book, Stop Wishing and Start Earning from CP a while back, and wanted to let you know what a great resource this is.

It’s a real "nuts and bolts" method for starting an independent business from a part-time starting position while holding down a more-than-full-time job. It sounded perfect for me and it was.

I was inspired by Chapter 6 – Picking and Developing a Specialty – and decided to change my writing business to target my interest and experience in the environmental area. I’m now the proud owner of Logical Ecology–Down to Earth Writing and Marketing.

I started my blog earlier this year, and just finished my website, www.LogicalEcology.net. I plan to branch out into publishing eventually (still working on What You Need to Know About Your Drinking Water).

By the way, will you be at Bootcamp this year? Hope to see you there if so.

Take care, Donna Kaluzniak

We have heard many good things about Ed’s book, and believe it is a great addition to any new copywriter’s toolkit. If you haven’t already, we recommend you check it out.

And the answer is YES! Krista and I will both be at bootcamp this year. Hope you will join us! Click here to see the agenda – and all the highlights that are new this year. Even if you went last year, it’s definitely worth going back.

(Hint: I understand that if you register by September 1st you’ll be $200 richer than if you wait! So don’t hesitate.)

Speaking of Ed Gandia, we liked his book so much, we asked him to review our publication, Finding the World’s Best Ideas: How to Access More Than $100,000 Worth of Intelligence for as Little as 55 Cents a Day!. Here’s what he had to say:

One of the biggest challenges for any writer of lead generation materials, white papers, reports and bylined articles is to continually come up with new, interesting and compelling ways to frame issues and ideas. And with information growing at an exponential rate, finding facts, figures, quotes and analysis to support claims is becoming increasingly difficult. The information is out there. But it’s getting harder to cut through the noise and find what you need, quickly.

Finding the World’s Best Ideas solves this very problem. Richard Conero shows you how to mine better information, analysis and ideas faster—information that will make your white paper, report, article or sales letters much more effective…and enable you to command higher fees. This is the kind of resource I wish I would have had years ago. Well worth the price of admission!

We first met Ed several years ago when we had a small online copywriting agency and Ed did some of his first assignments for us! Now that he has crossed the six-figure mark himself and become a sought-after copywriter, we consider him an expert in the field and turn to him for feedback and advice.

Which is the point of this issue – we really have become a community of practitioners together. Each reader brings some piece to the puzzle and makes the path to success a little more clear.

And we’re such an entrepreneurial bunch! Every day we hear of someone else writing a book, starting a blog, writing articles for websites, becoming experts in the field.

Please keep your letters and articles coming…and we promise to do the same! It’s exactly the inspiration we all need to reach our goals.