Affiliate marketing lets you earn money online by getting other people to sell your products f0r you. They earn a commission and you get money for jam. In theory. Copywrite Matters is a member of a few affiliate programs but I am extremely picky, only recommending products that I have used myself, or where I have a lot of trust in the creator.

One of those trustworthy bods is Danny Iny at Firepole Marketing and I interviewed him recently about the launch of his first affiliate program.

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You will have read the stories of the life of a freelance copywriter. Working from the beach in Mexico, or spending a few hours in a favourite café to soak up the flavours and sounds while you create amazing copy for your clients. You aren’t tied to an office, which means you can work anywhere. Right?

When Copywrite Matters first opened its virtual doors, it was from my newly decorated home office. I was happy to ditch my 2-hour daily commute but little did I realise that my business still needed to be mobile. The first lesson came with an all-day power outage and no access to my server. I realised then that I had simply tied Copywrite Matters, and therefore myself, to another office!

This post will take you through how you can make your business mobile so you can work anywhere (even if you don’t).

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A few weeks ago I admitted a secret to you. I’m not very good at proofreading. There. I’ve said it again. I was forced to face this fact after a fellow copywriter, Paul Hassing, very kindly pointed out more than a few typos in my weekly blog posts. I was mortified. I’m sure you know what it’s like when you have a regular blogging schedule. They sometimes get left until the 11^th hour and a rushed job is a rubbish job. Well, Paul saved me from rather a lot of embarrassment and he was very professional and kind about it, too. Thanks, Paul. Seriously.

Now, in addition to sending my clients’ copywriting to a professional proofreader, I now send my blogs and other marketing material. And I’ve not had a typo reported since!

This small change started something a lot bigger for Copywrite Matters.

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Every now and then you come across something that is worth your hard earned cash.

Finding online courses that will actually boost your bottom line is tough. In the first year or so of running my business I was pretty sceptical of almost every online course I saw. I thought I could do it all myself, which was pretty arrogant. I quickly realised that investing in help from experts would improve my business much quicker than I could ever do on my own.

I got a chance to look over a marketing program run by Firepole Marketing and I was impressed. It’s like an ultra-marathon of marketing but the prize is a super accelerated business.

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Meeeeerry Christmas HO HO HO!

I’m knee deep in the great mystery of Christmas holidays but I wanted to take time out from jingling my bells to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Holidays and Festive Family Time um … any other greetings you share with the people you love.

I hope you all enjoy some quality time off work, get to laugh until you cry, get to eat yummy food until you’re comfortably full with maybe just one more rum ball after that.

I hope you have a sense of achievement when you think about 2011, whether you frame that around business or personal goals.

I hope you’re putting together some great goals for 2012. Goals are important. Especially the goals that seem a little unachievable.

Actually, I hope you have more than goals.

I hope you have a mission.

My mission is to rid the world of “Welcome to my website”. I’m going to do that by showing business owners how they can improve the way they write about their business.

Treading water isn’t good enough. Stretch further. Do Better.

I hope the big holiday guy is kind to you all. I’ll see you in 2012. I’ll be back on January 9th (and not a moment before).

The Copy Detective

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It’s getting to the end of the year and the sound of Christmas jingles is drawing ever closer.

As business owners our brains are starting to feel stretched. We’ve been working non-stop and all our efforts are starting to take their toll. But never fear – we have Christmas to look forward to! A time when everyone swaps the stress of running a business for the stress of hanging out with their extended family.

Ho Ho Ho!

This year I am going to giving Copywrite Matters its very own Christmas present.

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The Problogger Training Day is happening again and over 300 bloggers and business owners will converge upon Melbourne to learn from the experts. There are pre-event drinks the night before and the event starts early, finishing with more drinks and networking at the end of the day. It’s going to be BIG!

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Testimonials let you show off the good side of your business I mean, let’s be realistic here. I’ve never seen an iffy testimonial published and I expect you haven’t either but even so, testimonials show some proof that you’ve solved real problems for real customers. And that’s what makes you more credible to prospective customers.

Blogging superstar, Jon Morrow recently created a testimonial page for his Guest Blogging program because he knew that a little bit of proof goes a long, long way. But how do you get those amazingly powerful quotes? Here are some tips to get testimonials that make your prospects go “WOW, I gotta get me some of that.”

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This blog post originally appeared (in full) as a guest blog post on Firepole Marketing.

When you start your own business you have to be confident and at some point between believing in your idea and putting in the hours to make it work, you have to make some decisions about who your message comes from. Will it be “me” or “we”?

You know that you’re the only one making all the wheels turn but do you want your clients to know that?

There are benefits and challenges to both approaches but your answer to “we” vs “me” question can dictate how your target market will engage with your business.

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Has your website got a marketing video yet? Do you welcome your visitors with a visual summary of who are and what you offer them, or do you have quick how-to about your products? Marketing videos are a fantastic way to create original and shareable content and right now, they are ranked really well by search engines. But more than the SEO benefits, a good marketing video will help you to engage with potential customers that don’t want to read all about you.

So how do you write a marketing video script that says everything you need it to in less than 2 minutes? This is how ….

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