Copywriter extraordinaire Bob Bly writes sales letters, direct mail packages, inserts, Internet direct mail, ads, brochures, articles, press releases, newsletters, Web pages, white papers and marketing materials. As a freelancer, he's written copy for more than 100 agencies and advertisers, and prolific writer that he is, he's the author of 45 books, including "The Copywriter’s Handbook," "The Perfect Sales Piece" and "Business-To-Business Direct Marketing." He's also written "Internet Direct Mail" with Steve Roberts and Michelle Feit, who is no slouch herself in the list management business. It's one of the best books to read when it comes to practicing the principles of DM on the Internet. You'll find reams of information about copywriting at this site, whether you are looking to hire a copywriter or you yearn for the writing life yourself... as Mr. Bly has made a second career out of helping other freelancers become more successful. A must for copywriters of all stripes. Do be sure to subscribe to the Bob Bly Direct Response Letter email newsletter; WDFM Publisher Larry Chase does and he highly recommends it.
Copyscape is a nifty tool that searches for copies of your content on the Web. Simply input a URL from your website and -- voila! -- up pops a list of sites where the page's copy (or portions thereof) has been posted verbatim. Click on the link, and your copy is conveniently highlighted on the referred website so you can determine whether or not it has been presented with permission or credit. To use this tool, you must input individual URLs in the search box; in other words, to search for all the content on your site you would have to conduct a search page by page. However, this publication found multiple infractions on the very first try. Since there is no cost to use Copyscape, it could be quite a valuable resource.
Copyscape is powered by Google Alert technology and uses the Google Web APIs (there is no affiliation with Google, Copyscape is simply using Google for its database). Should you find that others are using your copy without your authorization, links to copyright laws and resources are available below the search results.
Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale is a renowned marketing consultant, author of a multitude of books as well as the best-selling Nightingale-Conant tape set "The Power of Outrageous Marketing," and copywriter extraordinaire. At his site, you will find an excellent Copywriting Profit Center which contains dozens of articles such as "How to Write a Million Dollar Sales Letter!" and "How I Made $68,000 Teaching E-Classes!"
The latter article houses a funny story. Mr. Vitale fell in love with a BMW Z3 and set his mind to acquiring one. In a recent book, "Spiritual Marketing," he had designed a five step method to create miracles. So he took his own advice and used his miracle method to open himself up to opportunities and new forms of cash flow. He ended up offering an e-book bundled with an online class, priced at $1,500(US) a student. That fee included personal consultation on the homework assignments. Lo and behold, students signed up, Mr. Vitale reorganized his book into an e-book and tutorial format, sent out the information, and NOT ONE student did the homework! He was well on his way to the BMW Z3 and a lucrative revenue stream - with no upfront investment and very little additional work on his part.
If you need a motivating kick in the arse to take your business ventures to the next level, this site is for you. Be sure to sign up for the monthly email newsletter while perusing the articles, book reviews and past editions of the newsletter. This colorful copywriter has authored a book about about P.T. Barnum with chapters titles including "Get Attention: What P.T. Barnum Learned When He Was Almost Hanged" and "How an Unknown P.T. Barnum Met Queen Victoria - And Got Rich."