Sloppy Copy... Write Right Already!

by Trina L.C. Sonnenberg


Being in the Internet marketing industry, I see and awful lot of ad copy, splash pages and sales letters every day. I am on the mailing lists of many popular gurus, and get email from them all. The one thing I have discovered is that not only do novices stray from the preaching of these so-called gurus, when advertising and creating web pages, but they themselves do not follow their own advice. What's up with that?

What do I mean by that statement?



I am completely amazed at how many sales letters, and sales pages consist of sloppy copy; grammar and spelling errors abound; even on the pages created by these gurus! There is no excuse for this. They keep telling people to proofread their own copy before making it public; then they turn around and tell you to use the pre-written copy they've created, and even provide site pages with sales copy on them that is disgraceful. And, they claim to be pros!

This is not rocket science folks! It takes the click of a button to use SPELL CHECK, and it takes less than 30 seconds to do, but for some reason people just don't do it.

Sure, people make mistakes, I know that I do, but if they happen to be people who are in the business of telling others the right way to do things, those mistakes should not occur. Especially not with the frequency that they do.

I visited a site, just moments ago that had me laughing. So, I am going to pick it apart right here; and no, I am not going to link to the page.

This page is an invitation to joint venture with Scott Case. And this is the first mistake I found: In the second paragraph he implies that he is two people. "My name is Scott Case. Your friend Scott Case and I..." Forget the bad grammar, is he advertising a multiple personality disorder, or what? He does it again in another paragraph: "Here's what this is all about. My name is Scott Case. Scott Case and I've just created a smoking hot new JV that is going to grow your email list like crazy!"

He reintroduces himself, like you may have forgotten him between paragraphs two and four.

Further down the page, he claims this offer is the biggest JV of the New Year! Doesn't he own a calendar? For pity's sake, it is almost October! What year is he talking about?

"These promos are skillfully crafted by our highly paid copywriters for maximum response... so you get the most bang for your effort." I certainly hope that the pre-written promotional copy hasn't been written by the same person who wrote this page.

Here's another instance of bad grammar: "It's unfortunate, but many of the top marketers aren't willing to Joint Venture with someone who's got a small list, because they either don't have the time, and they don't want you to compete with them."

It should be written as follows: It's unfortunate, but many of the top marketers aren't willing to joint venture with someone who has got a small list; because, they either don't have time, or they don't want you to compete with them. What this translates to is that the big guys have bigger fish to fry, and they don't want to waste time with small potatoes.

Or, how about this one: "This is an invite-only deal..." I believe the correct word is invitation.

This program is supposed to grow your list with lightening speed, and have these big name marketers flocking to you to do other joint ventures with them. Yeah Right! Who is he trying to kid? Penetrating the inner circle of gurus, and getting them to joint venture with you is not that easy. These guys have spent years to build their lists to the massive proportions that they've become, and if you don't have a list that even resembles their numbers, they will not likely be contacting you for anything, except to sell you some more of their stuff.

So, not only do I find the claims made on this page to be hype, but the presentation of the content is downright dreadful too. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to do business with someone who at least appears intelligent enough to use a spell/grammar checker and to make coherent statements. Nothing personal, Scott.

Don't get me wrong... Scott Case isn't the only marketer that has this problem; Oh no! Many of the big name marketers fail here too. I even contacted Russell Brunson's support desk, to let them know that the copy I read was rampant with mistakes. The reply I got from the Help Desk was shocking. It went something like this: We do not have the time to proofread our web site content, or correspondence/sales material, and to hire out for it to be done is too expensive.

What?

I don't have the time to make sure I don't look like and idiot?

Me, multi-millionaire, Internet guru, can't afford to outsource? I thought he was a big fan of outsourcing. Was that just a sales pitch, or perhaps I am thinking of someone else? At any rate, what does this tell you about the people you are giving your money to?

Think about it.

Copyright © 2008
The Trii-Zine Ezine
http://www.ezines1.com/triizine

About the Author:
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg Publisher - The Trii-Zine Ezine - Your Trusted Source for Internet Business and
Marketing Information. EST 2001. ISSN# 1555-2276

Author of: My Journey A Lifetime of Verse, ISBN: 978-0-61516405-2
Co-Owner: Internet Marketing Mavens
http://internetmarketing-mavens.com
Keywords: writing, copy writing, gurus, grammar, spelling



Making Cultural Differences Work in Your Business

By Kit Lum



Advancements in technology have made the world so much smaller, don’t you think? We used to be separated by mountains and oceans, color and culture.

But now on the highways and byways of the internet, we’re but a single mouse click away. Think about this for a moment. You and I may be thousands of miles away at opposite ends of the globe, but on the net, we may as well be sitting across a coffee table.

The internet’s really one huge melting pot of people, ideas, culture. Just take a look at any forum or message board and you’ll see what I mean. So if you're going to be doing business on the internet, you should consider that your business will be open to the world, and you're going to be serving customers from the West Coast to the Far East, and everywhere in between.

I know many of us have this idea about starting small, and so we start out thinking we'll only be dealing with local or domestic customers, the people in our neighborhoods, our city, our country. So the issues of cultural and business differences were not something we spent too much time worrying about.

Sure, as a start-up, the bulk of your business may initially come from your local marketplace, and your customers are likely people who speak like you, live near you and do business the same way you do yours.

But hey, wait a minute, take a good look around your community and chances are you'll see a pretty diverse group of people. Unless, of course, you live in some place like the South Pole where the only other person in your neighborhood is... well, yourself!

Running a business on the internet is not quite the same as operating a small retail shop at your local shopping mall. On the internet, you are for all intents and purposes opening your business to the world. Like it or not. And when that happens, it's important to note some points about international business.

Not every one speaks English. While it's impossible to give a simplistic figure for how many people in the world speak English, estimates put the percentage of people whose mother tongue is English at 7% of the world's population. The percentage of the world's population who speak English as a second language is estimated at 30%. A quick bit of math here tells us that over half the people we come across in our business dealings may not even speak English.

When dealing with people from vastly different cultural backgrounds and business practices, it's best to remain patient and polite at all times. It never hurts to pepper your communication with 'thank you's' and 'please's'. Common courtesy can go a long way in customer relations. Keep your language simple at all times. No jargon, no fancy sentence structures please. Just say what you mean as clearly and as simply as possible. The objective is to be understood, not to win the Nobel Prize for creative communication.

In times when it's not clear to you what the other party means, it's best to seek clarification. Paraphrasing can be quite handy in confirming your understanding of what the other person means - simply rephrase what you think is being said with a simple question at the end asking if you've understood right. If you're on the phone, speak slowly and clearly. It's entirely okay to repeat, paraphrase, and ask. Make allowances for the other party to do the same as well. Misunderstandings can be costly in terms of time and money, so save yourself the inconvenience and profit margin.

Not everyone is in your time zone, so do allow for slight delays in terms of timing. If you're planning something in real time (such as an online event), find a time that's convenient to all or at least the majority. For example, if you're planning to call someone in another part of the world, it's good customer service not to plan to call someone at some unearthly hour.

So there, we're all set to hit the international business scene. And when the going gets tough, it helps to remember three things:

someone somewhere is having or has had a similar experience, it's all part and parcel of business, once you get the hang of working around cultural differences, you can only get better.

And the best part about all of this is you get to reap the rewards of the global marketplace. ----------

About the author

Kit Lum brings over seven years of online business experience into Go Get Global and its ezines - guiding small/home businesses to global success. Quality business resources and advertising services are only a click away at http://www.Go-GetGlobal.com . More FREE business tips at http://Go-GetGlobal.com/g3blog . Convenience and better living for busy people at http://Go-GetGlobal.com/mcblog .