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Marketing copy and PRHanging out with marketing folks is always more exciting than sitting around the lunch room with tech writers. Enthusiasm, excess, and hyperbole obscure the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. These sites will inspire you, and show you how much more work you need to do, if you are writing marketing copy or PR. I once interviewed the fabulous PR genius Regis McKenna, who started off by getting insulted when I called him a PR guy. Entrepreneur, venture capitalist, nudger, information strategist--whatever you call yourself, you'll get a kick out of the ideas on some of these sites. If you have some incredibly insanely great sites to add, let me know. |
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Bob Bly |
Advice on advertising, book publishing,
copywriting, and marketing in general. Bob's a star in the marcomm world,
and he gives away at least as much as he pitches. http://www.bly.com/ |
ClickZ |
If you're into marketing or advertising, in any way, ClickZ is ground zero for trend-spotting. Alive with animated ads for conferences, agencies, white papers, and studies, the home page announces clearly, "We are marcomm!" Typical topics:
Living under the umbrella of Internet.com, the site links to other useful sites such as Jupiterdirect at http://redir.internet.com/webring/ecommarket_intresearch/www.jupiterdirect.com InternetPR Guide at http://redir.internet.com/webring/ecommarket_internetprguide/www.internetprguide.com SearchEngineWatch. At http://redir.internet.com/webring/ecommarket_searchenginewatch/www.searchenginewatch.com Bonus: For many years, Nick Usborne wrote weekly columns on copywriting. Go through the archive: |
Creative Ways |
Marcia Yudkin has really thought about how to make marketing more fun--for you.
I like her ezine, too,
because it contains only one tip, it comes only once a week, and she
swears you can read the whole thing in one minute. She pitches her courses
and reports, but, hey, she's found a creative-and helpful-way to market
herself. |
Email Universe |
A world of sites and discussion lists for email list operators, list
moderators, epublishers, newbies, and writers. My favorites: the best
ezine of the week, and the list of the day. If you need extra content for
your site, you can pick up articles here. |
Expert PR |
Email newsletter from MediaMap and Bacon's, two vendors of software and
data for the PR business. Articles come from industry experts. Pretty good
stuff, despite the commercial sponsorship. |
E-Zine Tips |
Janet Roberts gives good, practical advice on content, format, list
management, promotion, and trends in the e-zine business. She takes on the
tough issues, clarifying the situation. |
I-Copywriting Discussion List |
From Marketing Wonk, moderated by copy-writer par excellence, Nick Usborne.
Lively, good-looking weekly in HTML or plain text. |
Marketing Profs |
Great info on marketing, most of which applies to online copywriting. From
professors and professionals. Fun newsletter. Topics: email marketing,
branding, marketing strategy, content, customer relationship management,
usability, marketing metrics, search marketing, and global marketing. |
Marketing Sherpa |
Advice and news on Business-to-Business, Business-to-Consumer, and e-mail
marketing. Interesting case studies. Half a dozen useful email
newsletters. Recent articles are free, but you have to pay to read older
pieces in the archives. Tips and recent job listings appear in Career
Climber. |
Marketing Wonk |
Lively moderated discussion list, with archives and numerous newsletters. The team has persuaded a lot of creative and opinionated people to contribute brief personal pieces reacting to the latest news in fields such as:
The site draws you in to sell you white papers (on business blogging, for instance), at reasonable prices, but you can disregard the sales pitches pretty easily. Definitely worth a visit if you are exploring a new area. Or sign up for one of their newsletters on internet marketing. |
Media Channel |
To follow trends in all the media, but particularly the Web, look at this
nonprofit's action toolkits, special reports, forums, and job lists. Their
mission: tips and resources for making some noise in the information age.
They offer guides to current issues, an index of global news, bulletin
board, bookstore, and teachers' guide. Their toolkits offer advice on
jobs, style, and research. |
Nick Usborne |
Hard-hitting, no-nonsense advice for copywriters. Home of the Excess Voice
newsletter. Definitely worth spending a day or so, just reading through
his advice. Or get his book, Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy |
PR Bob |
A blog on events, trends, and surprising mistakes in public relations. A
quote from a press release or wire service story, and then an acid
comment. On to the next. |
Public Relations Society of America |
The trade organization for PR folks, so only a small sliver of the site
deals with online PR. But you can find out if there is a chapter near you,
sign up for the newsletter, and pick up interesting slants on the
business. |
Target Marketing |
Jim Sterne's corporate site offers articles and research reports on what
works and what doesn't, in online marketing. |
Webbed e-Copy |
Doug Lavender does beautiful large-format photos, and marketing copy. He
gives good advice about scannability, focus, construction, wording, and
troubleshooting. He describes this section of his site as "the new
copywriting rules for online content." Nice layout (as if you were reading
a binder), good links to research behind the advice, and practical tips
for professionals. Caution: when Doug talks about money, you need to
recognize that he is working in Canadian dollars. |
WordBiz Report |
It's an ezine, a site, a pitch for reports on email marketing, web
marketing, corporate writing. Debbie Weil gives out the advice with a
friendly tone, and sure hand. |
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