Web marketing is fairly unique to offline marketing in that the technology and trends are changing constantly. Audiences move from site to trend by the time a campaign hits the last one.

April fools day coupled with the random 1-2-1 webcam website chatroulette provided a great opportunity for one soft drinks manufacturer to show that they are indeed looking into these new crazes.

ChatRoulette provides an interesting platform and who knows what the potential is here. This is however a very slow and narrow market especially for someone like Dr Pepper who rely heavily on volume rather than quality sales, would someone be able to use the same platform for quality sales?

This video however is topical, has been well edited, it has elements of the reality ‘hidden camera’ which has always been popular. So may well go viral. I’m assuming this was the goal of the campaign from the get-go.

At this time, the video has been seen only 27,000 times but it has already surfaced on viral sharing websites so keep an eye on it.

After buying a tripod for the animal rescue video project (more on that later), I decided to experiment. This is my first attempt at a virtual tour. If I can perfect the technique, perhaps we can offer it as a service. For the time being however, there are too many niggling problems at the moment.

Not bad, but could be better. Click and drag image to view. (may take a while to load on slow connections)

Dear Freelance Copywriter,

I send out a monthly newsletter but my list isn’t growing. I’ve listed my website on loads of  free advertising sites and I’m even paying for advertising, but I’m not getting any new sign-ups. What can I do?

Yours sincerely

Billy-No-Mates

Dear Billy-No-Mates,

Number one, you’re not alone. Even though you’re putting a lot of effort into this, it doesn’t mean you will be guaranteed success. You need to think about long-term ways to grow your list.

A great way is by giving away articles.

Website and blog owners are always looking for new content and there are places called Article Directories (basically a library of free articles) where they can go to find articles that they can use for free. You’ve probably heard of Ezine Articles? Well, that is just one. If you search Google under ‘free article sites’ you’ll find loads more.

Simply write and submit articles to these websites.

When submitting you’ll be asked to complete an Author Bio which goes at the end the article (see below for an example). This is where you can sell yourself and talk about your business. Make sure your link takes your reader to a page on your site with a sign up box for your newsletter. Also give them an incentive to fill in their details – give away a free report or eBook.

Once you’ve done that, everyone who clicks through that link will be taken to the page where you can offer them your wonderful newsletter and your list will grow.

Sally Ormond is a professional freelance copywriter with extensive experience in B2B and B2C copywriting markets. She can be contacted at +44(0)1449 779605 or at sally@briarcopywriting.com for any copywriting project you may have.

Direct response copywriting is everywhere and can take several different forms – such as a direct-mail campaign or direct response ads.

Many companies employ direct response copywriting. But you must ensure that what you are writing is interesting and compelling enough to get your reader’s attention. When you are doing direct response copywriting, you should make sure that you are writing to your reader as you would write to a friend so it needs to be conversational.

There are no hard and fast rules as to how long your writing should be – instead you should write until what you need to say has been said.

Direct Response Copywriting Formula

OK, as the advert says here comes the science bit.

There are three main parts usually attributed to a direct response letter:

• The headline – this must be attention grabbing.
• The offer – make sure you explain in great detail what a person will receive if they take you up on your offer.
• The postscript – this is where the incentive goes for someone to respond immediately to your offer.

The key behind direct response copywriting

The key is that you want the person to immediately respond to the offer that you have presented.

A good freelance copywriter knows that success in the direct response market is achieved by focusing on the three main parts such as the headline, the offer, and the postscript. Get this right and you’ll be setting yourself up for a high success rate.

Sally Ormond. Briar Copywriting

It seems like just about everyone has a blog these days.

Do you have one yet? Well, if not (or even if you do), continue reading and see for yourself why blogging is so popular.

What is a Blog?

Basically, it is a web page that contains short articles, known as posts, on a variety of subjects. These posts are arranged in reverse chronological order (that is, the latest comes first) and each one is identified by an anchor tag marked by a permanent link that can be referred to by others who wish to link to it.

Blogs are a means of communication – some just point to other websites, others contain long articles, some are personal diaries, and others promote new technology. In other words, bloggers can write about anything they want.

Why Blog?

Why not?

Through blogs, people can express themselves freely. Writing blogs gives you the power to get what you have written printed immediately. No questions asked.

Another reason why many people are blogging is the freedom of design, layout, and its structure. You can write anything about what you want regardless of what it looks like. Your point is to attract readers in the way you think is the best. That is the power of blogging—giving you the freedom of what you want your blog to look like.

More than that though, blogging can be an excellent way of promoting your business and driving traffic to your website. All you have to do is write a few blogs about your business using carefully selected keywords.

Blogging Tools

Before you begin you need to know about blogging tools. These tools enable you to post your blogs either on your own website or to a certain blogging community. Popular blogging tools are Blogger and WordPress software; web-based tools that don’t require you to install software to your personal computer or on your server.

These are just some of the basic things you need to know about blogging. Remember that blogs give you the power to publish anything you want. And don’t forget to place a link directing to your own website. It can help you generate the traffic you needed.

Sally Ormond of Briar Copywriting also has a blog – FreelanceCopywritersBlog full of excellent copywriting tips.