About Bill Knight… Freelance Direct Response Copywriter

I’ve been in the business of copywriting and marketing for more than 30 years. Yeah… I know I don’t look that old. I first started writing copy for direct mail and if you’re too young to remember that, it was before the Internet even existed… well in its present form anyway.

I would help my clients sell their products by first placing an ad in a newspaper. These short ads would contain some very brief teaser copy. The ad would ask the reader to call a telephone number to receive more information or to send a stamped addressed envelope to receive a free report.

The whole process was designed to build a list of names and addresses which we could market all kinds of products to. This type of marketing was known as “2-step marketing” and it worked very well for business opportunity and investment type offers. Today, it would be equivalent to something like Clickfunnels.

Many millionaires were created through the mail order business, both in the US and the UK, some of which I met personally, and some of which I worked with on various projects. If you are over the age of 45, you might have bought some of these products yourself.

It was about this time I met copywriter Stuart Goldsmith, who had already made his first million by selling his own business writings by direct mail. Stuart inspired me to expand my copywriting business and to get involved in Direct Response copywriting, which I did without any hesitation.

My plan was to focus on writing sales letters for websites, which I still do to this day… among many other things.

Since 1992 I have written hundreds of sales letters, and articles, endless press releases, numerous telesales scripts, ads and advertorials, what seems like millions of marketing emails and trillions of product descriptions and… well it seems like it anyway. 

I’m sure you get the picture. I have worked with clients from all over the world and I’m not kidding. I’ve even worked with clients from Russia, Venezuela and China!

I’ve helped countless people make some very serious mulah from online marketing and I still do. Individuals and small business owners have never had it so good… believe me!

Today, most of my clients are individual entrepreneurs or small business owners looking to market their niche products or services either online, offline or both. Among them are Waverley Media (Tim Lowe), Streetwise Publications, and many of Andrew Reynolds’ students. 

I’ve seen many changes in marketing methodology over the years, and it never surprises me when someone comes up with a completely new idea for marketing products and services. I absolutely love innovation!

At this point, I would have to say that I think the day of the direct mail sales letter is just about over. Along with the mail system itself, which has obviously taken a big hit due to email, social media communications and the cost of postage!

The Internet and email have proved to be far cheaper, much more convenient and much more accessible. You know what’s funny? I was telling small business owners more than twenty years ago that the Internet was going to be really BIG, and some just refused to believe me!

One guy even said it was just passing fad and would eventually disappear. (You know who you are!) Well, far from it. The Internet and social media have extended their grip on business and society as a whole… but has it been for the best? (Oh No! Don’t get me started on that one!)

Suffice to say that many High Street names are feeling the heat right now and if they don’t quickly adapt they’ll simply die. So where do we go from here? Well, in terms of where do we go with online marketing…

It seems we also have to adapt or die. For example, the web page sales letter has only been around for a few short years and already it’s under threat from social media marketing, especially video marketing.

Video marketing is as good as it gets, and I’m glad to be on the inside. I saw this coming a few years ago and so I set up BusyVids, which is a small video production and marketing company. (I’m so glad I did this).

Since then I have created many hundreds of video scripts for clients all over the world and continue to do so.

I’ve tried just about every type of online marketing technique, strategy and formula, and in my opinion, video is by far the most effective. I’m still busy writing direct response copy though and will be for many more years to come… hopefully.

So, now you know almost as much about me as I do.

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