Is copywriting the key to Internet marketing success?

Master copywriter Ted Nicholas seems to think so.

“Mega success on the Internet is all about copy alone,” he writes.

“It’s also helpful to know about other things like search engine optimiziation, squeeze pages, twittering, and teleseminars.

“But without powerful copy to fuel the marketing engine, you will not even be able to make a living online, let alone become wealthy.”

Ted says his online marketing success “is 99.9% due to my copy which drives all the rest of the elements.”

Ted’s viewpoint about the importance of copy in online marketing is diametrically opposed to that of web usability guru Jakob Nielsen.

“We know that users on the web typically don’t read very much,” proclaims Nielsen in his 5/6/08 Alertbox.

He says that high-literacy users scan — and, on average, users typically read only 20% of the text on the page.

What he thinks drives sales online is a mystery to me, but obviously, he doesn’t think it’s the copy that no one reads.

My question to you is: who do you side with?

Do you agree with Nicholas that strong copy is what makes money in Internet marketing?

Or do you, like Nielsen and others in the usability crowd, believe copy is a necessary evil on the web — and the less, the better?

P.S. Let me tip my hand and say that I side with Ted’s view that copy is important, and think Nielsen is a gasbag full ot hot air.

Why? Simple. Ted’s conclusions are based on generating $6.8 billion in sales online and offline with his copy.

Nielsen’s conclusions are all based on statistical analysis of “page views” — people looking at and reading web pages — and not on people RESPONDING TO WEB PAGES BY SPENDING MONEY.

But enough about me.

What do YOU think?

One of my Internet marketing colleagues, GR, hates it when online buyers return his products and request a refund.

He hates it so much, that if someone does it more than once, he “bans” them from all his web sites.

That means he (1) blocks their IP address from his shopping cart so they cannot place another order and (b) unsubscribes them from his subscriber list.

His reasoning is that returns cost time and money, and he doesn’t want to waste either with people who are habitual returners of products.

GR feels that once is OK, but if someone returns multiple products from the same seller, he is deliberately setting out to cheat the seller — and GR will have none of it.

Serial returners aren’t just a problem for online information marketers. Traditional catalogers find them to be a headache, too.

For instance, there are women who will order shoes or a dress from a mail order catalog for a big event, wear them to that event, and then return them for a refund.

Some catalog marketers tag these buyers in their database, and if there are too many returns, removes their name from the mailing list.

What do you think?

Should a business “fire” a customer just because she has asked for a refund once … twice … three times? More?

Or should you just keep selling to that customer in the hopes that, some day, they will actually keep and pay for the information product they ordered from you and no doubt read, watched, or listened to before returning it for refund?

What say you?

Since I am highly selective on which projects I work on … and turn down 10 clients for every one I take on … I am frequently asked by these prospects, “Well, can you recommend a copywriter who can help us?”

You’d think it would be easy, but it’s not. Yes, there are more copywriters than ever today.

But most of these are beginners who, frankly, don’t really know what they are doing.

I don’t recommend cheap copywriters to my clients, because 99 times out of 100, the failure of their copy to work costs you much more than the savings you gained from their dirt-cheap fee.

I only recommend experienced copywriters with a track record of success.

Here is my short list of recommended copywriters:

www.freelancecopywriterdirectoryonline.com

Any you would add to the list? Yourself? Others? Any you would drop?

There are more gurus out there than you can shake a stick at selling courses on how to “get rich quick” selling information products on the Internet.

But how many are the real deal?

I’ve listed the reputable ones I can think of on the site below:

www.internetmarketinghallofame.com

Have you had experience with any of these folks and their products — pro or con?

Any good Internet marketing teachers I should ADD to the list?

Any I should delete?

Internet buyers LOVE discounts, yet most info marketers don’t use them nearly enough.

A case in point: on 4/9/09, we sent an e-mail to my list offering one of my e-books at the cover price of $79.

It generated 32 orders and $2,528 in revenues — not great, not bad.

Thursday of this week we sent the identical e-mail to the same list but added a P.S. offering the book at $49 — a $30 savings — if they ordered by midnight Sunday.

While orders are still coming in, we have already sold 155 copies at $49 each, generating $7,625 in revenues so far.

Does it bother me to let people have a $79 product for only $49?

Of course not. What’s important is not profit per sale, but profit per e-mail blast … which the discounting tactic will more than triple before the weekend is over.

P.S. Of course, discounting works with products where you have a large enough margin to sustain it — and in the case of e-books, the margin is close to 100%.

I wouldn’t do this with my own services, because discounting would lower my revenue per hour.

While my supply of e-books is limitless, time is not: you only have so many hours in the day to work, and when you work for less per hour, you are working harder to make less money.

Who wants that?

Not according to an article published this week in BtoB’s Vertical Insight Guide.

The article reports that only 20% of senior executives belong to one or more social networking sites — which would seem to indicate that all the noise about marketing with social media is either misplaced or premature.

If you want to reach senior executives on the web, your best vehicle, according to the article, is webinars, which 77% of C-level execs listen to at work.

Close behind are blogs, read by 58% of executives, and streaming videos, watched by 56%. In addition, 41% listen to podcasts.

And how do these senior executives spend their time at home? Blogging? Participating in virtual worlds like Second Life?

No — 76% say they watch television after work.

So TV advertising may not be as old school and archaic as the new media evangelists would lead us to believe.

For decades, retailers and direct marketers have used ?loss leaders? ? inexpensive items sold at or below cost ? to acquire new customers. Now, my new,free special report, ?The Internet Loss Leader Strategy,? shows Internet marketers how to build their email lists using an online variation of the offline loss leader technique.

To download the complete report, visit: www.theinternetlossleaderstrategy.com

HH, a freelancer I hired to write an e-book for me, sent me the first draft of the manuscript today as an attached Word file with his e-mail.

He ends the e-mail: “P.S. I’ll send me [sic] invoice under separate email.”

My question: Why, HH?

I just got your FIRST draft a minute ago. I haven’t even opened the file, much less reviewed it. And I certainly haven’t given you my comments so you can make the necessary revisions for the next draft.

Sending an invoice along with your product is bad form — it leaves a bad taste in the client’s mouth. He feels the only thing you care about is getting paid, not whether the copy is good.

But sending an invoice with a FIRST draft — when the project is not yet completed — can really piss off the client, as it did me in this case.

BTW, our agreement calls for payment upon completion.

To me, completion is an acceptable manuscript. Most publishers and business clients feel that way.

If the term “completion” is too vague, this rule of thumb applies: any ambiguity in the agreement is the fault of the vendor, not the customer.

If HH expected a check upon submission of a first draft, he should have specified that in his agreement and has me sign it.

He did not.

So what do you think?

Did HH make a major faux pas with his client — me?

Or am I getting crabby and difficult in my old age?