*when HiFi is just not an option

People ask me all the time for recommendations on premium WordPress plugins, and I often have nothing to say. With people like Chris Pearson, Sean Jackson, and Tony Clark as partners, if we want WordPress to do something it doesn’t, we build it.
Luckily, the premium WordPress market has matured to the point that excellent developers [...]

Sometimes I sit down to write the introductions to these weekly wrap-ups, and I’ll try to think of some funny way to describe why you or I might not have seen this week’s posts.
This week, however, I don’t really have to try to find a reason, because I’ve been frantically launching my Question the [...]

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” ~William Morris, poet and designer
Imagine the household you would have if you got rid of every item that was neither useful or beautiful.
Gone would be the plastic doodad with no known purpose, the ugly frame your [...]

If you read Copyblogger and dream of striking out on your own, you need to know that independent business isn’t always good. Bad things do happen.
For instance, I’m writing this in a bookstore cafe. Two tables down from me, there’s a guy with his headphones on belting out “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon. (You’re [...]

Today’s copywriter is more than a mere “wordsmith.”
If that’s how you think of yourself, you’ll be stuck in Junior Copywriter ad agency purgatory for eternity.
Think back to recess in third grade, when you kept getting stuck on the see-saw with the fat kid at the other end. All the cool kids were playing kickball. And [...]

I blogcrastinated (see Tuesday’s post below) on writing this for a long time because I’ve been busy perfecting my Rock Band drumming. Nobody warns you about the time-suck danger that the Wii holds for the self-employed.
I only got down to it and wrote these summaries for you when, somewhere between some kick-butt drumming for The [...]

If you’re like me, you may have missed a lot of this week’s Copyblogger content because you ate so much Easter chocolate last weekend that you:

passed out in the center aisle at Wal-Mart
were declared dead by Mort, the acting manager
were incorrectly tagged at the morgue due to budget cuts
were shipped off to a medical school [...]

If you’re like me, you may have missed a lot of this week’s Copyblogger content because you ate so much Easter chocolate last weekend that you:

passed out in the center aisle at Wal-Mart
were declared dead by Mort, the acting manager
were incorrectly tagged at the morgue due to budget cuts
were shipped off to a medical school [...]

This is the second and final installment of The Secret Life of Testimonials.
Most of us ask for testimonials. And if we follow up and pester our customers enough, we get testimonials.
There’s only one problem. Our testimonials have no power.

Testimonials are stories. And stories have power and grace, flow and rhythm. Look around you and [...]

Do you sound smarter when you use big words?
According to a study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology , the answer is no.
In fact, complex writing makes you sound small-minded. Just consider the title of the study: Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly.
Wouldn’t it be better to title [...]

I was walking the streets of downtown Austin between SXSW parties last month and someone asked me when I was going to do another pop-music-analogy post on Copyblogger.
“What do you want to see?” I asked.
“I bet you can’t do one using Depeche Mode songs, “ he challenged.
“I bet I can,” I countered.
“Look at that guy [...]

I was walking the streets of downtown Austin between SXSW parties last month and someone asked me when I was going to do another pop-music-analogy post on Copyblogger.
“What do you want to see?” I asked.
“I bet you can’t do one using Depeche Mode songs, “ he challenged.
“I bet I can,” I countered.
“Look at that guy [...]

You’ve seen résumés, haven’t you?
What’s common to all the résumés on the planet?
Yup, they’re all created to make the candidate look wonderful. So what’s the first thing a company does when you present them with a résumé?
They go back and do some digging. They check the details. The smarter the company, and the more important [...]

Writing is difficult.
So is teaching it to distracted, hungover college students whose cultural touchstones are TMZ and the Twilight series.
But after years spent writing in professional newsrooms, I was surprised to discover how teaching college students actually helped make me a better student of the craft of writing.
And it’s not (just) because I now have [...]

I know what you’re thinking. Here you thought it was Saturday, and yet there’s a new post on Copyblogger.
So either you’re drunk, or it’s actually a weekday and you stayed home by mistake and now you’re going to get fired and lose the family farm.
Or maybe this is a new feature. Maybe each Saturday, [...]

There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman? ~Woody Allen
You’ve got to feel for insurance salesmen.
They actually rank below used-car salesmen and bloggers on the list of people no one wants to hang out with. With only a slight edge over politicians . . . [...]

The P.S is one of those clichés of copywriting. It seems like every sales page has one.
Maybe you think it’s outdated. Maybe you think it’s unnecessary.
Until you learn the logic of why it works.
So before we get into that, do me a favor. Say the following words quickly, and then look away from the screen [...]

If you’ve read the Federal Trade Commission’s new 81-page Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, you might think the FTC is a really nice bunch of guys trying to do the right thing by consumers — which, for the most part, is true.
And yet, I just don’t think they give most [...]

You’re watching late night TV when you encounter the inevitable infomercial. The pitchman is asking you how much you’d be willing to pay for the super-new-thingamabob, and then it comes…
But wait, there’s more!
Then you discover you’re getting not one, not two, but three super-new-thingamabobs for only $19.95, plus a mechanized back scratcher and a wearable [...]

There’s a wonderful European-style market and bakery in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas. They serve everything from made-to-order salads and sandwiches to chef-prepared, ready-to-eat meals.
But what I love most about the place is the sign on the door when you leave. It’s classic.
The sign doesn’t read “Please Come Again” or “Thank You for Your [...]

There are two kinds of people on the Internet: the greedy and the generous.
The greedy want you to pay for everything. Every link is an affiliate link. Every recommendation has a profit motive. The really good content is locked away until you fork over some money.
The generous want to give you everything free.
It never occurs [...]

This is the final installment of a three-part series on how to translate advice from marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.
One of the smartest things any online marketer can do is to study the “old school” guys who wrote direct mail, magazine ads, and other artifacts of advertising history.
Why? Because it took [...]

I want to share a video with you. It was created for current Scribe customers to let them know what’s coming next month, but I’m going to hook you up too.
It’s a preview of the Scribe web-based application. So while you can use Scribe right in your WordPress interface, you will also be able to [...]

Just a quick note to let you know we’ve extended the Scribe introductory offer – where you get the Advanced Plan for the Starter price – until this coming Friday, February 26. So you still have time to take Scribe on a free test drive and take advantage of a great deal.

Take the Scribe tour
Frequently [...]

This is part two of a three-part series on how to profitably translate advice from old-school marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.
Last week we looked at the first 5 steps in Dan Kennedy’s Ultimate Marketing Plan, and how you can translate those old-school ideas into an online marketing strategy.
This week we’ve got [...]

Do you despise long sales letters, yellow highlighters and blood-red, hype-laden headlines?
These tried and true copywriting tactics are proven winners at converting “cold” traffic into paying customers – and $10,000-a-page copywriters use them without hesitation because they appeal to the baser instincts of the easily swayed. They may be embarrassing to look [...]

You may have noticed I’ve been writing a lot about SEO copywriting lately. More than that, I’ve been working on a content optimization software solution for the last 6 months with a team of very smart people.
It’s called Scribe, and it makes SEO copywriting simple. Creating search optimized web pages, blog posts, and press releases [...]

This is part one of a three-part series on how to profitably translate advice from old-school marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.
Dan Kennedy is the Sovereign of Sales Letters. (Or maybe that’s the Duke of Direct Response.) He knows exactly how to deliver a marketing message with maximum clarity and zero confusion. [...]

If you’re a regular Copyblogger reader, you get good advice about five times a week. Excellent advice, really. Stellar.
Especially on days when I’m posting. (Preens.)
Wait, what was I saying again?
Oh, right. You get really good advice, for free, five times a week. Very frequently, this advice would cost you upwards of $150 an hour for [...]

Hang around web writing circles for any length of time, and the inevitable “write for search engines or write for people” debate comes up. It’s a bit strange, really.
Last time I checked, it’s people who use search engines, not some other life form. So you’re always writing for people.
Obviously, the debate stems from the fact [...]