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How to stop a target market train wreck

Published May 13, 2014

How to stop a target market train wreck.

I had a great conversation with a woman who joined the Write Your Website lab yesterday, and it brought something up that’s worth knowing.

There is a simple way to avoid spending a lot of time and energy on a “target market train wreck” – that is, talking to people without money, strong motivation to act, or self-esteem.

So she and I were talking about what she was working on.

To put this in context: she’s doing everything right. She’s getting new leads onto her list. She’s following up with a warm … Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting

Why I don’t care about SEO keywords

Published May 6, 2014

You need words to express what you do in a way that resonates with your people.

Oh, mama. You just might want to sit down for this one. It’s time for Stella to attack one of the interweb’s most popular darlings.

Search Engine Optimization.

The way SEO works is that you pump a webpage full of keywords that people are searching for, in the hopes that it will bump you up in the search engine rankings on google.

Now, to be clear – if you do SEO for a living, that’s great. I think you provide a valuable service to … Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting

Why you should write like you talk (and how to start)

Published April 22, 2014

BIG HINT: Don’t use marketingspeak or try to convince them of anything.

One of the biggest hang-ups business owners tell me they have around writing copy is that it doesn’t SOUND like them.

It’s like they are one person when they are on the phone with clients (or in person). Warm, genuine. A guide. An authority.

“But Stella, when I sit down to write – ARGH! – it’s like there’s a stranger typing at the keyboard. And I don’t like that person. How can I stop?”

It’s a valid question – and one that needs to be answered if you … Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting

3 things you get when you write your OWN website

Published April 8, 2014

Let’s have a quick chat around what writing a website is REALLY about.

Here in our neighborhood, we’re gearing up for another round of our uber-popular Write Your Website production lab. So I always like to have a conversation around what writing a website is REALLY about:

(1) The BIG questions. When you write your own website, you’ve got to spend time BEING with the fundamentals of your business. Getting clear on YOUR answers to questions like:

How do I actually work with people?
What is the problem I solve for clients and customers – and do I have evidence

… Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting

3 tips for writing a great About Me page

Published April 1, 2014

Hairy Beast

Oh, the mighty About Me page!

How you humble us with your simple demands.

For many business owners – especially those running serviced based or coaching businesses, the About Me page on their website is an especially ferocious hairy beast.

Even if you’ve done a “good enough” job on your Homepage and laying out your top 3 ways you work with people on your Services (or Programs) pages… the About Me poses a special challenge:

How do I show my credentials, without sounding braggy?
How do I come across as who I really am?
There’s a big gap

… Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting | Tagged copywriting

How my event sold out in 6 hours from 1 email

Published March 25, 2014

Shout it from the rooftops.

In marketing, as in life, you often only get half the story.

When I was a high school teacher, working at an alternative school in a church basement in the sort of neighborhood in Seattle where daytime shootings were not uncommon, this was what I taught in history class.

As my friend Rob Hallock from teacher school used to say, “where you sit determines where you’ll stand.”

In the case of history, I always told my students that there is more than one side to every event.

And often, it is the winners who write … Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting

The truth about people buying from you online

Published March 18, 2014

Money won’t cascade into your pocket just from “automating your marketing.”

I’m tired of the tricks. Fed up with the smoke and mirrors. Got a bone to pick with people contributing to the illusion that you can create a Niagara Falls of money, cascading into your pocket, just from “automating your marketing.”

Know what I say to that?

Horsepoop.

Now, let’s preface this by saying one of my personal fascinations this year is how to do more relationship building and nurturing of leads through email.

But I continue to believe that there’s only one way to build a business that … Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting

The 2 biggest myths about people buying from emails

Published March 11, 2014

Copy isn’t magic. But relationships are.

I’m seeing too many business owners who want all the BENEFITS of having a mailing list that buys from them repeatedly…

… but when it comes to the work, the contribution, the sheer grit it takes to nurture relationships to the point where people will buy from a mere email…

… they aren’t interested, willing, or able.

So, let’s talk myths here.

Myth #1 – “I’ll just buy a mailing list.”

If I talk to another person who tells me they are working on an eBook/ecourse/group program but oh, they just can’t get it … Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting

4 steps to getting the writing done

Published March 4, 2014

Last week, I sat with a group of 8 business owners, teaching how to write copy in my mentor’s year long business building program.

The question up for discussion was:

Okay, Stella, it’s time for me to do a teleseminar – and write emails to get them on the line. And copy for my partners to promote it. And a sales page. How do I figure out what to do first?

Oh, how I adore this question.

I realize it’s not sexy. It’s not “how do I make a gajillion dollars?” or “how do I trick people into thinking I’m … Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting

9 roadblocks to getting your writing done

Published February 25, 2014

Two female laboratory workers test synthetic rubber in the Polymer Rubber Corporation plant. / À la Société Polymer Limitée, deux employées font des essais sur du caoutchouc synthétique

Check out what we’re cooking up in the Stella Orange laboratories.

There’s a reason why we call our programs “production labs.”

Because they’re about three things:

1) Learning to write copy as you actually get the writing done.
2) Discovering how to work with your own production process
3) Experimenting with being bolder in your message.

And because we’ve already taken hundreds of business owners through the Stella Orange laboratories, there are a few things I’ve noticed about what gets in the way.

Here they are, with some questions to dislodge yourself:

1) Not giving yourself enough time to think, … Read the rest >

Posted in copywriting