Writing Tips at GarySpeer.com

I realize the title of this post seems a bit odd, but I have a reason for the question. I’ll explain.

In addition to blogging and other tortuous forms of life — I mean writing — I also spend a lot of my time trying to succeed at affiliate marketing. I’ve discussed all that before, so I won’t go into detail here.

I hang out at a large forum which is like the center of the universe for thousands of affiliate marketers. One of the more successful marketers there is a resident of Las Vegas. I read a profile of this gentleman in a marketing magazine. I found his lifestyle very interesting. He live in one of the Las Vegas hotels (I’ve forgotten which one) — and he spends most of his work hours at a casino (I’ve forgotten which one). He literally runs his business out of the casino, building websites and all the other stuff involved in affiliate marketing mostly on his laptop and using a WiFi connection to the Internet from the casino.

I personally work very often out of a study room at one of the public library branches where I live. But I find the idea of working in an “office” that’s really a casino somehow intriguing.

So I had to ask the question: Do any of you writers out there live in Las Vegas? If so, do you do any of your work out of a casino?

The only point to all this, I guess, is to satisfy my curiosity about casino living and Las Vegas lifestyles. Also, I suppose, to emphasize that writing is a career option you can do from just about anywhere.

If not a Las Vegas casino, what is your favorite home-away-from-home workplace? Coffee shop? Library? Internet cafe? Tell us, please.

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas hotels, Las Vegas casinos, portable workplaces, public work space, writing as a business, writing tips at garyspeer.com

When I began trying to write novels some years ago now (too many years ago now), I thought I would really like to write “Westerns.” Or, as they are often called now, “historical novels set in the West.” I’m not sure why this genre appeals to me, except that I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s when there were whole barns full of Westerns on television. I was first an avid fan of “The Lone Ranger,” then “Gunsmoke,” and of course “Bonanza.” Coming in between were such great series as “Wyatt Earp,” “Maverick,” and “Have Gun Will Travel.” There were a ton more, but you get the idea.

I’ve always thought I would not like writing anything resembling a “current events” historical novel. I doubt that’s a legitimate genre anyhow, but I can’t think of a better term. I’m referring to novels set in contemporary time that rely on any sort of intricate knowledge of the culture and world events going on. I’d always be afraid I’d get too many details wrong. (Remember our discussion a couple of months ago about anachronisms?)

I suppose I could pull that contemporary thing off if I dealt with a tiny snippet of current life. But if it required knowledge of computer software, for example, I’d be lost, especially if it were gaming software because I hardly ever do games.

If I had to talk about cars, I wouldn’t know a set of Z06 Corvette wheels from a set of Ford Contour hubcaps. (I guess they call them wheel covers these days.) Even here, though, I could find help. In fact, if you click on the link here to “Z06 Corvette wheels,” you’ll get to an entire website, “WheelHQ.com,” which features some excellent deals on custom wheels, and includes a section with “how-tos” related to using those wheels.

In fact, the Internet is a great resource for researching just about any contemporary cultural theme and historical period. But I personally would feel more confident and comfortable writing about something more “static” than contemporary history, if you wish to call it that.

What period of history do you write about? Why did you choose that particular time and/or place? Do you adhere pretty closely to the times and customs or do you “lie” and make things up when you must? Tell us, please.

Technorati Tags: historical writing, contemporary culture, writing tips at garyspeer.com

Writing ad copy often involves “pre-selling” rather than selling a product. Pre-selling means prompting the person your ad is aimed at to take additional action: You get them to make a phone call, to send in a coupon, to go to a website, etc.

Let’s look for a moment at a life insurance ad that runs on television often during the time of day when I watch “Leave It to Beaver” reruns on TV Land. (Yes, call it a confession if you wish.) This particular ad works with a tag line something like, “Only $7.95 a month per unit … ”

The ad itself is so smoothly written, with an aging but very famous pitchman, that when it’s over most viewers couldn’t tell you whether they had heard about whole life insurance or term life insurance. They couldn’t really tell you how much a policy would cost — nor could they tell you exactly what amount of coverage they would get for their $7.95 per month — but they probably COULD tell you that it was only going to cost them $7.95 a month, so at that price they’d be eager to call the toll-free number and find out more.

That’s good copy writing: You don’t clearly tell people exactly what the product is, nor exactly what they’d get for their money. But you DO “pre-sell” the product effectively and get readers/viewers to take action.

Writing ad copy means accomplishing one thing. You move your readers/listeners/viewers to some kind of action. If you fail to do that, you’ve failed to write good ad copy.

What do you know about ad copy writing? Are you a copy writer by profession? Of necessity? What’s the most successful ad copy writing you’ve ever done? Tell us, please.

Oh, yeah, as for that insurance commercial: If you have a DVR or if you “TiVo,” stop the commercial next time you see it and read the “fine print” near the bottom of the screen. You’ll find that “$7.95 per month per unit” isn’t explained in the commercial itself because there is no single explanation. The “unit” varies from state to state and might be as small as something around $300 or as large as something more than $1,000. And it’s term life insurance. Go figure.

Technorati Tags: writing ad copy, manipulating words, writing and marketing, writing tips at garyspeer.com