Michael Fortin

Internet Marketing Archive:

Michael Fortin

The Michel Fortin Blog
Top copywriting tips, news, and thoughts on the world of direct response copy, Internet marketing, branding, and positioning from copywriter Michel Fortin.

How to Capture and Captivate Attention
Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:28:16 +0000
One morning, you go into your mailbox and discover there’s an envelope waiting for you from an unknown source. You bring the package into your living room, tear open the envelope, pull out what’s inside, put on your reading glasses, unfold the letter, and begin to read the contents. After completing all of these steps, you [...]

The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:03:46 +0000
Last night while watching TV, my wife and I had an interesting debate on the whole “The Secret” phenomena. And we came to the very same conclusions. I believe in the law of attraction. I also like the premise behind the book, which is largely influenced by Wally Wattles’ 1910 book, The Science of Getting Rich. But [...]

Two Shining Stars in an Age of Darkness
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:40:21 +0000
One of my favorite shows on TV of late is Shark Tank. The show centers on aspiring, brave, and sometimes downright idiotic inventors and entrepreneurs who pitch their ideas in front of a group of merciless, seemingly heartless multimillionaires, begging for investment capital. Some of the advice that come from these “sharks” are pretty obvious and [...]

Changes, Relaunches, and Extreme Makeovers
Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:11:55 +0000
A couple of new things to tell you about today. First off, I’m trying a new experiment. I’ve decided to close and remove comments on this blog. Just to see what happens. Why? Here’s the thing… When I post a new blog post, it will be crossposted to a few social networks. Some, by design with the [...]

Superior Value Equals Superior Sales
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:36:24 +0000
If your car needed repair work, would you go to a garage that offers free estimates? You likely would. Today, most garages offer them. Not only has it become a customary practice, but also everyone expects a free estimate from mechanics. However, here’s an interesting scenario. Let’s say your car broke down at the worst possible time, [...]

On Not Playing The Blame Game
Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:28:13 +0000
Is the Internet marketing industry imploding? I think it is. But if not, it sure seems like it. In fact, it seems to be a sign of the times. For example, we see it with the FTC cracking down on misleading advertisers, Visa and MasterCard closing down merchant accounts for forced continuity billings, and Google permanently [...]

The Future of The Internet is Cloudy
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:01:27 +0000
One of the things I love about new year’s is reading about year-end predictions. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s my curious nature. But I’m fascinated when I see where some people think we’re headed. There are some bloggers whose predictions fascinate me. Two have captured my attention: ReadWriteWeb and the Manhattan Marketing Maven. And yes, even [...]

Carve Your Niche By Dominating One
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:03:06 +0000
I was recently interviewed by a print magazine about how I started my business. In it, I offered several tips and ideas on how to carve a niche in the marketplace that I personally applied. I realized some of these tips were particularly powerful. So I wanted to reprint some of my answers here for you. If [...]

Can Copy And Content Commingle?
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:44:51 +0000
Last year, a bunch of copywriters who also blog — like yours truly — shot the breeze on the Nuts and Blogbolts talk radio show. It was an interesting and at times spirited discussion. After some talk about content and copy (or should I say, writing content versus writing copy), the show’s host, Mike Sansone, asked each [...]

Drastic Changes Are Coming
Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:44:43 +0000
The new year is around the corner. It’s a time for resolutions. A time for change. And sometimes, those changes need to be drastic. On December 16, 2009, while we conduct our regular weekly webinar for our Success Chef students, we will be making a major announcement about radical changes we’re making to our current business [...]

Tangibilize Your Copy To Increase Response
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:26:38 +0000
I remember 10 years ago. In the wake of rumored proposals to regulate the web, in 1999 the CRTC, comparable to America’s FCC, officially declared that the Internet is not a broadcast medium. Now, that ruling was significant for many reasons. Technically, the Internet is a medium. But the government based its decision on the fact that the [...]

How to Negotiate Better Copywriting Fees
Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:23:03 +0000
After reading some of my articles on how to find copywriting clients, one of my students, Jeff, asked me an interesting question. He’s an aspiring copywriter and wants to build his own freelance copywriting business. When he read that I wrote copy for free when I started my career as a copywriter, he told me he [...]

Blame The Copywriter, Not The Copy
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:55:42 +0000
Lately, I’m seeing a lot of posts in public forums and blogs these days about people getting sick and tired of seeing “crappy,” “hypey,” used-car, Ginsu-like, looooong copy. Some of them come from guru-bashing naysayers who hate marketing, which I always take with a grain of salt. But some are intelligent, mature, and commonsensical. They are interesting [...]

How to Make Salesletters Interactive
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:45:55 +0000
In The Death of The Salesletter, I talked about hiding content so it could open up based on a user’s actions and thereby personalizing the salesletter, dynamically, on the fly. You can hide content on the same sales page, making the page look shorter and less intimidating. And only desired content appears depending on a user’s [...]

The Greatest Marketing Secret of All Time
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:15:14 +0000
I wrote this article way back in 1998. It seems to have made a resurgence, especially with today’s economy. So I said to myself, “Why not republish it?” So here it is. Enjoy! If there is something about which I’m pretty adamant, it’s the idea of attracting qualified prospects who are willing to do business with [...]

Crowdsource Your Way to Success
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:01:54 +0000
If you ever wondered how to outsource your work using new and creative ways that get it done faster, cheaper, better, and ethically, too, then you need to watch this video. Called “crowdsourcing,” this relatively new outsourcing technique — I say “relatively,” as the term may be new but the technique is as old as outsourcing [...]

New To Copywriting? Start Here...
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:04:54 +0000
As part of my coaching program, students can ask me unlimited questions via email. One common question I seem to get is, “I’m new to copywriting, where do I start?” Since my coaching students also get access to any of my digital programs, they also get access to my Copy Doctor website, where I share over [...]

The Fortin Clan Photos
Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:09:53 +0000
A few weeks ago, we wanted to update our family photos since all our kids have grown up, and we wanted something more recent. So we had a complete family photography session done by a local executive photographer, Luc St-Amour. “Isn’t our family beautiful?” Says the proud dad. (When you compare these to the photos from [...]

Publicity-Producing Posts Pull People
Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:50:40 +0000
Organic traffic is a fantastic source of visitors that’s often ignored by many marketers. Search engines change all the time and many of them now charge for the privilege of including your website. So, people often ask me how to generate traffic, beyond the search engines and with little to no cost. Let me be candid by [...]

Give Your Testimonials a Reality Check
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:30:24 +0000
After reading and re-reading the latest FTC guidelines, I’ve come to some important conclusions that I want to share with you. Particularly as they relate to testimonials. Last night, my good friend and top copywriter John Carlton called me up, and we had an interesting discussion on this whole FTC thing and the hysteria it has [...]

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