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The best time to start blogging is "NOW"!
John Chow started TechZone and make decent incomes right before the dot com crash in 2001. He later made use of his own domain name (johnchow.com) to launch a personal blog. It started without making any money for the first year but later being monetized as a case study to show how a blog can make serious money.

Advertisement copy should be based on facts, not opinions. Sometimes, those who have the ultimate decision (think of the director and the sales manager) often are wrong about their decision on advertisement copy. Always test the effectiveness and study the sales based on real numbers and facts.

Three testing methods
1. Retail Sales
2. Test cities
3. Key numbers

Headlines
Headline is the most important element in an advertisement. Readers won't read your copy if your headlines can't get their interest.
The best headline is self-interest headline - that shows the readers the benefits they will be interested in with provided by your products.

Qualities of a good headline
1. self-interest
2. news
3. curiosity
4. quick, easy way

Five rules for writing headlines
1. get self-interest into every headline
2. get news into headline in big way
3. avoid headlines that merely provoke curiosity
4. avoid gloomy or negative side of the picture
5. try suggest quick and easy way
extra: avoid "too good to be true" statement - believable!

13 additional aids to headline writing
1. try to decide what would make you buy the product
2. avoid too short headline that fails to convey the message
3. avoid the "dead" headline
4. avoid the "too smart" headline
5. avoid meaningless headline
6. suggest in the headline that the copy contains useful information
7. get the big point into the headline
8. get curiosity into the self-interest headline
9. headlines that are merely a statement of fact are not effective
10. advertiser's logo at the bottom of the ad ca n be considered part of the headlines.
11. picture may be used to supplement and help make clear the meaning of the headlines
12. avoid "hard-to-grasp" headline
13. do not run advertisement without headlines.

35 Proven Formula for Writing Headlines
1. begin with the word "introducing"
2. begin with the word "announcing"
3. use words that have an announcement quality
4. begin with the word "new"
5. begin with the word "now"
6. begin with the words "at last"
7. put a date into headlines
8. write in news style
9. feature the price in headlines
10. feature reduced price
11. feature special merchandising offer
12. feature an easy payment plan
13. feature a free offer
14. offer information of value
15. tell a story
16. being with the words "how to"
17. begin with the word "how"
18. begin with the word "why"
19. begin with the word "which"
20. begin with the words "who else"
21. begin with the word "wanted"
22. begin with the word "this"
23. begin with the word "because"
24. begin with the word "if"
25. begin with the word "advice"
26. use a testimonial-style headline
27. offer the reader a test
28. use a one-word headline
29. use a two-word headline
30. use a three-word headline
31. warn the reader to delay buying
32. let the advertiser speak directly to the reader
33. address your headline to a specific person or group
34. have your headline ask a question
35. offer benefits through facts and figures.

Finding the right appeal
Effective Appeals: make more money, save money, better health now, enjoyment, prestige, easier chores, comfort, reduce fat, freedom from worry
What you say is more important than how you say it.

Prepare every advertisement "as if" it were a mail-order ad.

How to put enthusiasm into advertising copy
Write immediately when you are excited about something!

How to write the first paragraph
Begin with "This is a story about"... then eliminate that phrase from the description.
Formula:
1. interrupting ideas
2. The shocker
3. News
4. Preview
5. Quotation
6. Story

Simple rules for writing a good first paragraph:
1. Make it short
2. Continue the thought expressed in the headline
3. state in a few words the most important benefits for readers

Right methods of writing copy
1. straightforward copy
2. story copy
3. "you and me" copy
4. imaginative copy
5. factual copy
6. fact-plus-style copy
7. forthright copy
8. superlative copy
9. signed copy
10. title copy
11. teaser copy
12. news page copy
13. competitive copy

three kinds of copy to be used with caution
1. card copy --- too short
2. clever copy
3. humorous copy

three kinds of copy to avoid
1. poetic copy
2. affected copy - extravagant phrases
3. unbelievable copy

20 ways to increase selling power of copy
1. use present tense, second person -- "you, you, you"
2. use subheads
3. put captions under illustrations
4. use a simple style of writing
5. choose simple words
6. give free information
7. arouse curiosity
8. selling copy versus style copy
9. make your copy specific
10. use long copy
11. write more copy than is necessary to fill the space
12. avoid helping your competitors
13. use mail order methods in direct mail advertising
14. overstatement copy versus understatement
15. avoid tricks slogans
16. get help from others
17. do not say that salesperson will call
18. study the selling copy in mail order catalog
19. make every advertisement a complete sales talk
20. urge the reader to act

How to avoid special problems in copywriting
Dramatizing Dull products

The best I've read so far in 2010. Chip and Dan Heath (brothers) simplified the big "change" we all seek in a simple pyramid diagram. Although they didn't draw out the illustration of the Switch Framework, the ideas are perfectly elaborated. You can download their one-page Switch Framework by subscribing to their website.

There are only three major parts that make a change possible:
1. Direct the Rider
2. Motivate the Elephant
3. Shape the Path

Then every major parts branches out to three smaller actions that work out the change.

Direct the Rider
Follow the bright spots
Script the critical moves
Point to the destination

Motivate the Elephant
Find the feeling
Shrink the change
Grow your people

Shape the Path
Tweak the environment
Build Habits
Rally the Herd

The book is well written and following Heath brothers' previous best-seller Made To Stick, their ideas for change really stick!!!