11:59am
Saint Paul
“There’s nothing here!”
I was invited to follow a Gold Jewelry company on LinkedIn.
So I went to the website to see what they offered.
But it was pretty empty.
So—like marketers do—I signed up for their email list to see their welcome sequence.
That was two hours ago. I haven’t received a welcome email from them yet.
But—unknown to them—I did get a great gift.
Continue reading “How to find Shopify stores that need your help”9:23am
Saint Paul
Ahh.
I’m recharged after a family trip to Montreal.
We visited friends, saw the city, climbed a ropes course (Voiles en Voiles), and ate our share of gravy-soaked Poutine.
Now I’m back to it and realized there are 99 days until Black Friday.
Do you have your offers dialed in?
If not? No worry.
I’ve got 15 ways you can structure your Black Friday deals.
Continue reading “99 Problems and Black Friday is One”8:32am
Saint Paul
“I have something for you.”
The waitress took the lotto ticket from my hand.
“What’s this for?”
Continue reading ““I have something for you.””3:33pm
Saint Paul Minn
Last we chatted, I told you my son and I had camped out in the back yard.
Here’s the sequel.
So, because “income,” I spent Friday working.
Which means the tent didn’t come down.
Which gave my son Sam a reason to bug me to sleep a second night in the tent.
He was relentless, and so I relented.
Come Friday night, we followed the same routine:
Continue reading “Adds 4 hours of uninterrupted time to your day—to do anything you’d like!”10:51am
Saint Paul
Skreeeeek!
“That’s a howler monkey,” I said.
“Dad.”
Last night, my son and I pitched a tent and camped in the backyard.
“And that growl? I think that’s a wolf.”
Continue reading “Howler monkeys in Minnesota?”12:17pm
Minneapolis, Minnesota
She slams down my Big Mac with more anger than most cashiers.
“Nobody has spoken that language in thousands of years,” she says.
My eyes pop. I didn’t think this was possible. Not anymore. Not in 2023.
The cashier follows me to my booth.
“How did you do that.”
Continue reading “Hooking your audience with Stories”2:44pm Thursday
Saint Paul
Yesterday I wrote about the muffled radio I could hear at midnight…
which was no where to be found.
I was telling my kids about it. My wife chimed in:
“Oh, I heard it too!”
Continue reading “109.5 on your FM Dial: “The Ghost””3:!7pm
Saint Paul
I slept in today.
Just a little, like 15 minutes past my usual.
Because I was up late, hearing voices and music in my house like a muffled radio somewhere.
It wasn’t coming from the basement bathroom radio.
It wasn’t coming from the living room hi-fi.
It wasn’t coming from outside.
In fact, I couldn’t find it anywhere.
Continue reading “Mystery Radio STEALS Energy”1:27pm
Saint Paul
Last week I sat—virtually—with a few dozen other copywriters in a webinar about Financial Copywriting.
If you don’t know, Financial is one of the “Big Three” markets. The other two are Health and Relationships.
This webinar, no doubt, was filled with good advice on writing for companies that sell financial “get rich this week!” type info.
And those promotions generally do well. Because most everyone wants to get rich.
Including the webinar attendees… including me… who were promised that the financial info companies were all in desperate need for copywriters.
“If you can write an email like this one,” said the guest, showing a simple, 5-line message, “then you too can earn big royalties!”
Continue reading “Did I just meet Bruce flippin’ Barton on LinkedIn?”2:05pm
Saint Paul
In a Newsweek article from 1995, computer engineer Clifford Stoll predicted the Internet would be dead within a year.
Boy was he wrong!
Stoll couldn’t foresee the tech advancements that have since transformed… well, everything.
But Stoll did get this part right:
Continue reading “Model Collapse: When AI feeds on its own filth”