Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
Blues icon B.B. King was once asked how he found his heart-warming, bone-chilling sound. “It’s simple,” he said. “I only steal from the best.”
After publishing more than 2 million words — online and print — we’re convinced that King was right. To become a good writer, one must first be a studious reader. (How else will you know whom to steal, er, borrow from?) So, in that spirit, we’ve compiled a list of some of GrokDotCom’s favorite Web copy resources in hopes that copywriters everywhere will steal the best tips from our colleagues, friends, and staff. Enjoy!
Writing Headlines
1.) “Headlines: Do You Really Need 200 to Land a Good One?” — Attversumption.com
2.) “Are Your Headlines Missing These Precise Psychological Triggers?” — Ezine @rticles
3.) “Top 10 Ideas for Testing Your Headlines” — GrokDotCom
Readability
4.) “Nobody Reads Web Pages — But Everybody Engages Websites” — American Small Business
5.) “The Secret of Writing to be Read” — Seth Godin
6.) “People Really Do Read Online — Who Knew?” — Marketing Interactions
7.) “Fight the Bull” — Bullfighter software helps to eliminate jargon from web copy
Customer-focused Copy
8.) Test your customer-focus ratio with Future Now’s ‘We-We’ Monitor.
Copywriting Techniques
9.) “Six Types of Words That You Should Axe in Business Writing” — Bizcovering
10.) “Going for Broca: Show Don’t Tell in Action” — GrokDotCom
11.) “Time vs. Money” — GrokDotCom
12.) “What is Substance?” — GrokDotCom
13.) “Style vs. Substance” — GrokDotCom
14.) “Pain vs. Gain” — GrokDotCom
15.) “Intellect vs. Emotion” — GrokDotCom
16.) “Emotional Perspective Redux” — GrokDotCom
17.) “You Ain’t All That! — A Marketing Copy Autopsy” — GrokDotCom
Trust & Relationship Building
18.) “Transparent Marketing: How to Earn the Trust of a Skeptical Consumer” — Marketing Experiments Journal
19.) “Inspiring Online Credibility” (a three-part series) — GrokDotCom
20.) “Screencast: Building Trust & Credibility Online” — GrokDotCom
Email Marketing
21.) Retail Email blog
22.) MailChimp resources center
23.) GravityMail — keeps your emails and newsletters from getting junked by sp@m blockers
24.) SpamAssassin — Open-source spam filter
Copywriting Blogs & Resources
25.) Copyblogger — Brian Clark
26.) The Copywriter Underground – Tom Chandler
27.) Grammar Girl — Mignon Fogarty
28.) ChrisG — Chris Garrett
29.) ProBlogger — Darren Rowse
30.) The Copywriting Maven — Roberta Rosenberg
31.) WebInkNow — David Meerman Scott
32.) Visual Thesaurus
33.) Word Spy
Transcription Services
34.) SpeakWrite
35.) Casting Words
36.) AccuConference — Record interviews and conference calls, download them as MP3 files, and even have them transcribed for an extra fee. Great for podcast interviews, content planning and tutorials.
Copywriters
37.) Jack Forde
38.) Cynthia Williamson
39.) David Garfinke
40.) Chuck McKay
41.) Bob Bly
42.) Tim Miles
Public Relations
43.) “Podcast: David Meerman Scott on the New Rules of Marketing & PR” (a two-part interview on how to make the most of multi-channel public relations) — GrokDotCom
Blogging
44.) “Blogging for Beginners” — ProBlogger (Whether you’re starting a blog or just thinking about it, this is the place to be. A great collection of must-read how-to posts from Darren Rowse.)
45.) “5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang” — Copyblogger (Finesse tips from Brian Clark.)
46.) “Write a Review — Rediscover Your Blogging Groove” — ProBlogger
47.) “How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic — The Ultimate Guide” — Copyblogger
48.) “The Two Most Important Words in Blogging” — Copyblogger
49.) “Lessons in Corporate Blogging” — Nicholas Carr for BusinessWeek
Persuasive Online Copywriting
50.) Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa T. Davis. In our first book, the Future Now team gives a step-by-step tutorial in writing for the Web. Out-of-print since 2006, you can either pay $100 or more for a used copy on Amazon, or download the ebook for just $19.95.
Part 2 of the Cheat Sheet…
Since there are so many great resources to copy, we’ve decided to start with the essentials first — but, yes, there really are 101 links! In Part 2, we share some our favorite tips, including how to use web copy to engage different customer personas and personality types. To make sure you don’t miss out on future copywriting and marketing optimization tips, subscribe to GrokDotCom (weekly, monthly, or daily newsletter — or read daily via RSS). Thanks for reading!
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Written by:The Grok
This is an amazing resource!
Cheers, David
And I thought I already had the whole collection.
Thanks for the links. These are going to be quite useful.
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Very useful, lots of information. Thanks for the tips and I’m looking forward to see the remaining tips !
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Hey, you could have created money buy making an ebook out of these resources instead you shared them for free here. Thanks for the information, I have bookmarked some of them.
Good post!
This is very useful for seo copywriters, also when they are writing in Dutch.
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What a great resource. But seriously, no Clayton Makepeace? Seems like a pretty big omission.
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As a job counselor, I recommend that job seekers learn from other people’s resumes. I’ve posted 90 sample resumes on my site, susanireland.com to help people come up with good phrases for their own resumes. I certainly don’t expect folks to steal a whole resume, but a line or two, here and there is totally fine.
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An excellent selection Grokster, especially Copyblogger and my buddy Tim Miles.
Please allow me to submit two of my favorite bookmarks, both from Copyblogger. Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work Part 1 & Part 2.
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This is a great list and I found a few really interesting reads. I recently started a part-time blog that I plan on taking pretty seriously and this resource will help out a lot. Cheers.
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Hmmm… My copy of “Persuasive Online Copywriting” is signed by all three authors. I wonder how much that would get on Ebay???
great list here, I have bookmarked this for future use.
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Excellent resource.
Thanks alot
Great resource for any level copywriter; The Grok is always my first stop whenever I have an SEO or general copywriting question.
Great resources! Thanks for putting the list together. Just one small thing - it’s David Garfinkel…
and I would also add master copywriter John Carlton to the list.
Um, that second link right at the top, (Are Your Headlines Missing These Precise Psychological Triggers?”) should point not to Ezine Articles, but to http://www.psychotactics.com/psychoheadlines.pdf where the original article sits.
Thanks for a great resource. This may have taken hours to put together.
Great list..thank you
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Thx for the cheat sheet! Lots of great posts in there.
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I’d like to add a suggestion of Paul Boag’s Advice for CMS Users. It’s actually a great resource for knowing how to write for the web. (Even if the title is a little misleading.)
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Very nice list another great webmaster resource to the list. Thanks.
Excellent information. What a Great Resource. Newbies and seasoned can really value from your list. Thanks for the time pulling this together. I will definately be returning to see what else you add to this page.
Megan Vaillancourt
http://PassportMentors.com
I love this! I will definitely be back, almost daily to read more. How long did it take you to get good at writing headlines and content? Thanks!
Simple Tiger
http://www.simpletiger.com
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Thanks for all the great information. I have checked out numerous sites you listed and gathered some great material to use with my site. On a side note, a great program that I found is Glyphius (http://www.glyphius.com/). It cuts down my copy time and helps improve sales to my site.
Thanks again for the great resources.
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I was thinking of investing in a software program that is supposed to help me figure out if my copy is profitable. It’s called Glyphius (www.glyphius.com), and I’d love to hear from someone who has used it before I invest in it. Thanks! -Lee
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Just a reminder for those interested in join us on January 14th in sunny Orlando for our Persuasive Online Copywriting seminar, where there will be plenty of time to discuss ways to improve your online copy and branding. If you’d like to save $100, act fast — the early registration discount has been extended to December 20th. That’s tomorrow!
Thanks for reading, everyone!
-Editor, GrokDotCom
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This really is a great list. I loved that article from Seth Godin.
I’m kind of miffed my blog didn’t make the list as an online copywriting resource though.
Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh
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An amazing list! I bookmarked it immediately. I am a big fan of Bob Bly’s stuff. Found a book by him entitled “Secrets of a Freelance Writer” at a used bookstore for a $1 that is a wealth of information. I think James Brausch sums it up well on his blog with his tag line, traffic + copywriting + product = internet marketing.
Wow! great list and very helpful. I added the post to my bookamrks!
I’m copywriter and it’s great info.
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Wow, lots of great links here - more than just copywriting, yet copywriters do need to know much more beyond “writing”, don’t they! One question, how did you select the 6 copywriters you linked to? Probably would be good to have a representative few from different specializations…
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This is really an excellent list. Thank you for sharing it. It is very useful for many of us that are new to online copywriting. Thanks for the time putting it together.
Best wishes,
Karl
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wow what a huge list. Now I know why webmasters put clients citations on their sites. Is suppose to create trust. Well, looks a bid strange for a European even though it’s getting more and more common in Europe.
This is a great resource if you want to bone up on basics or dig into some juicy copywriting.
I have placed your site into my RSS feed because I’ll be using as a swipe file of sorts.
Thanks for putting this together.
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Wow, no wonder why my sales pitches aren’t working. Luckily I found this on delicious. Bookmarked and passing this around to everyone I know. Thanks.
haha… this is great. i never thought i could find all this in a list. I’ve been reading a few on the list and i tell you i really learned from the best but still need to work my writings out for me to reach their level and create a killer content. thanks for the list.