Is information marketing effective? Does it really work to attract clients and income? Let’s look at Steve Pavlina, one of my favorite bloggers.

For almost four years, Steve has been writing about “personal development for smart people” and posting the articles on his blog. Today, his first book is among Amazon’s Top 100 in sales — three months before its release!

“It currently has a sales rank of 94. It also sits at #13 in the self-help category, #4 in the personal transformation category, and #5 in the motivational category. Those rankings are adjusted hourly, so they may be different by the time you read this.”

Steve has posted about 700 articles. That’s it. No outside promotion or advertising. Just quality content and word of mouth buzz, which have generated an incredible number of incoming links. Even his Google pagerank is a modest 4.

Not only has his writing attracted a publisher, Hay House, (yes, they came to him), but Steve claims the advertising and affiliate links on his blog earn him over $10,000 a month income.

It’s not the mere fact that he’s writing that has brought him this success. It’s the quality of his material.

Just do it. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Most wanna-be writers think they have to save up a year’s salary, quit their jobs and flee to Tahiti to write their novel (or move to Nashville to become a songwriter). Not true. Here’s all you have to do: write a little every day. Maybe a half-hour, or an hour, even two hours.

Writing, especially creative writing, is not the kind of thing you can do all day, every day. Most fiction writers have a daily word count (or page count) they try to hit, then they take a break and do other things. Most need to get “out of their heads” for a while to let the embers of their creativity cool.

Singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield recently told the NY Times’ Measure for Measure blog how she writes little-by-little.

“(A)ll you really have to do is write a little bit every day. Even if it is rubbish, even if it’s really bad, just set aside a half hour every day to write. Write something, anything, and don’t worry about whether it’s perfect. So when you’re songwriting and you’re staring at a blank page before you — I’m talking about when you’re feeling daunted about the future and afraid to make any step, afraid that the bad stuff is going to get embarrassing — just let the bad stuff come out!

“I found out it that it doesn’t even matter if I fall because even if I fall, that gives me another good story to write… Learning all of that really freed me.”

So what are you waiting for?

When is a complaint letter like a sales letter? When it gets the immediate, affirmative response you’re looking for. Take the letter “professional complaint letter writer” Bruce Silverman wrote to the Ritz-Carlton that ended up getting him a week, totally comped, at the company’s Kapalua in Hawaii.

As today’s Consumerist detailed, Silverman has been amazingly successful in getting companies to give him all sorts of free stuff: First class upgrades, hotel room upgrades (how does a free week in the Presidential Suite sound?), hundreds of dollars in cash — all from his way with words.

Silverman has now written a book filled with advice for complaining. The basic technique isn’t too far off from the way to write an effective sales letter. Basically his advice is:

1. Make the opening of your complaint letter personable and personal. Hook their interest.
2. Praise first before you explain why you’re dissatisfied.
3. Keep it brief. The reader is busy and easily distracted.
4. Be reasonable — don’t ask for the moon.
5. Make it clear you haven’t written them off, that you pl;an to be customers again in the future, and that you would welcome some sort of compensation.

As the Consumerist put it, “It’s really just an artful way of demonstrating the basic principle of “it will cost more to ignore me than to take care of my problem.”

Check it out. It’s a fun read. And it may get you what you want next time you’re wronged.

Lawyers are the latest professionals to use their written work as marketing tools to attract clients.

JD Supra is a Web site that gives consumers legal information while helping lawyers raise their profile. The site hosts its members’ articles, court papers, legal briefs and other tidbits of their craft. Along with each document is a profile of the lawyer who wrote it. Thus, if you have a legal problem and want to do some online research, you’ll presumably find not only the information you want — but a lawyer who can help.

Says the New York Times:

Contributing lawyers get publicity and credit for the socially useful act of adding to a public database, and visitors get free information, said Aviva Cuyler, a former litigator in Marshall, Calif., who founded the business. “People will still need attorneys,” Ms. Cuyler said. “We are not encouraging people to do it themselves, but to find the right people to help them.”

It also levels the playing field in a competitive field. “The site puts solo practitioners like me on an equal footing with huge law firms, providing exposure that would otherwise be nearly impossible to get,” said Mitchell J. Matorin, a lawyer in Needham, MA, who launched his own practice last summer.

To make your writing seem personal, write like a person, for cryin’ out loud.

That goes for most corporate communications as well as speeches and presentations, as Dick Cavett pointed out in a recent NY Times blog post. The former talk show host was referring to political candidates’ speeches, but the same principles hold true for effective copywriting and business writing.

First, contractions are OK except under the most formal circumstances. Cavett’s suggestion:

“Change all “I wills” and “I shalls” from the speech to “I’ll’; Also, “I haves” and “I ams” to “I’ve” and “I’m,” etc. You’d be surprised how much this cuts down on the oratory tone.”

Cavett’s second tip is the secret of all effective writing, speaking — even radio personalities.

“Tip #2. Pretend you are speaking to one person. One single person. Because that’s what everybody is. No one watching or sitting in the audience is an “all of you” or an “everyone” or a “those of you” or a “Hi, everybody,” and no one is a “ladies and gentlemen.” You, out there, are a “you.” So, speaker, think of yourself as being viewed by only two eyes. (Presumably on the same person.) The most magical word you can use, short of a person’s name, is “you.”

Hey, you — got that?

Seth says write like a blogger. Good advice.

The two biggies on Seth’s list that hit home for me were:

#3: Drip, drip, drip. Bloggers don’t have to say everything at once. We can add a new idea every day, piling on a thesis over time.

#9: Say it. Don’t hide, don’t embellish.

I’m always making the mistake of expanding and reworking and polishing my posts to make them as complete and “stand-alone” as possible. Must be the ex-journalist in me. As a result, a single post can take me an hour, or two or three. Not necessary. And who’s got the time?

As a result of all this pseudo-perfectionism, I don’t manage to post very often. Seth has something to say about that, too:

#8: Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.

(Slapping myself in the face) Thanks for the reminder, Seth.

PS: Success (sort of)! I managed to write, edit and upload this post (with a photo, no less!) in about 20 minutes. Is that good? It is for me!

Photo by lapideo

Strong, powerful, confident words communicate and convince. Lame, wimpy writing kicks the legs out from under your message, and waters it down.

The most common kind of wimpy writing are “qualifiers.” If you remember what your 7th grade English teacher told you, qualifiers are adjectives and adverbs that limit (”qualify”) your message — thus modifying it — and too often, undercutting it. You’ll find lots of them in your own writing — words like “sort of” and “I guess” and “I think.”

Obviously , there are places where certain adjectives and adverbs are appropriate. Take this sentence:  “The dimpled cloud drifted lazily across the blue sky.” In that example, “dimpled” and “blue” are adjectives, and “lazily” is an adverb. You can see how these words describe (and hopefully enhance) the meaning. Unfortunately, most of us overuse adjectives and adverbs, but that’s a topic for another day.

But too often we use qualifiers as a cop-out, as a way of softening or watering down a statement. Note the wimpy qualifiers in italics: “It’s a piece of junk, in my humble opinion.” “She’s sort of a monster if you ask me.” Maybe it’s a little over the top.”
Whether you’re trying to convey a marketing message or a marriage proposal, state whatever you’re trying to say strongly and clearly. Don’t lie or mislead, of course, but don’t water down your message with wishy-washy qualifiers.

I mean, how would you respond if someone wrote,

“I sort of love you. Will you perhaps marry me? I think I could make you fairly happy.”

Doesn’t exactly sweep you off your feet, does it? Now strip out those wimpy qualifiers and see how much stronger and more confidently it reads:

“I sort of love you. Will you perhaps marry me? I think KNOW I could make you fairly happy.”

Don’t feel bad if you find your own writing peppered with wimpy and unnecessary modifiers. That’s what revising and editing is about. Even professional writers and speakers fall into the habit, as Seth Godin admitted today:

“I noticed a little while ago that I was using the word “just” and the phrase “sort of” in my writing. All the time, in fact. In my last book, a search and replace removed more than 80 unnecessary ‘justs’. Just say it. Don’t hide behind waffling terms that don’t mean anything.”