“You have this way of saying things!
I borrowed that line from my own life.
Back when I was manic and many-levels-deep insightful at all times, I could turn the most eloquent of phrases, conveying loads of info and emotions, in an instant, without even breaking a sweat.
I still have that ability but now I must be in the flow for it to hit.
But the doctor I protected at the time (now there’s a back story I’d love to share one day!) helped change my life when he said that.
His words about my words…stuck
I realized (not that I did anything about it for many years) that something to do with words was where my path should be headed.
I have so much to say about that but it’s not the point for this page.
The point is:
You have to make your messages interesting and easily understood at a glance
I do my best to get better at this all the time and I have days when I nail it and days when I sort of wander or trail off in the wrong direction, as I believe some of the sentences on this page are doing. 😉
But even that is part of my point.
You can make the error I shared a moment ago and still get the job done if you know how to use the most important skill in communications and web design:
Copywriting
Copywriting is a science and an art form that can take years of study to get right.
But the beauty of it is, you’ve already been studying it for years!
It’s in every written ad you’ve ever seen!
All you have to do to get started learning for free is pay closer attention to how you’re currently being pitched in print.
And notice which pitches appeal to you and which don’t.
Then try to understand WHY!
WHY do you act on some of it and WHY do you hate the rest?
WHY do you act immediately on some of it and WHY do you keep some for later review, rather than trash it with the rest of the junk mail?
When you take an action after reading something, it is because someone massaged you into doing so with their words.
And not just their words but:
- How the words are placed on the page
- How the story is told
- How interesting they make it
- How they designed the page to catch the eye
- How they’ve build tension
- How they’re informing you
- How entertaining it may be
and:
How they get you to act when they know you have limited time and attention
This is all part of copywriting.
A little known secret about it is that copywriting’s main job is to get you to take an action, not just to make a sale.
It can be used anywhere that a message is trying to lead an audience into DOING something. Take one more step with you.
And if you don’t know how to do this, you’re pretty much dead as a marketer. Only your most stalwart supporters are going to stick around.
And that’s just not an efficient way to move your mission forward – to scale.
That’s why it’s crucial to your web page design efforts
You have to become good at copywriting in order to lead people down the path you know will help them get what they need most from trusting you.
Now, you’ll find copywriting tutorials in Copyblogger’s Authority program, programs for it through Jason Leister (as well as his completely unique view on how to go about it), and lessons within the guts of your Rainmaker Platform site.
But I want you to know about AWAI
Because I started learning a lot about all of this through them before I ever found the rest.
And some of you are wordsmiths, like me, or wish to be.
They offer many programs and I’ve gone through a handful.
There are two copywriting courses and I went through the bigger one.
Those are what you should consume first.
Because the skills you’ll learn there are the backbone to making any of their other programs succeed. (And mine.)
But they have one particular item that I found to be very cool, if writing is going to be more of an entity in your life, beyond the mission that brought you my way.
They have a magazine called, Barefoot Writing. I LOVE it!
Back when I was still kicking around ideas for making money, as well as building all of this, I read that magazine all the time and went through the back issues too.
I ultimately decided to devote myself full time to to this and also did not want writing clients, but you may feel the opposite.
So, go visit AWAI, poke around, take your time, and see if anything they have opens some more doors for you.
They’re not a mandatory part of anything I offer.
And they’re obviously not the only place in all that I share where you can get their kind of help.
But their style of training may be just what you need and their focus on outside writing gigs may lead to a whole new life experience for you.
And it’s that last bit that is a huge part of what I like to bring to my crowd.
