by Brad | Nov 9, 2021 | Blog, Featured, Free Advice, Latest News
Admittedly I’ve been lax in my blog posts and updates. For that, I’m sorry.
I would say that I’ve been ‘busy’ but I truly hate that word and don’t regard it as any sort of badge of honor. Read: Lazy: A Manifesto
I’ve been focused over the last (19 months…wow sorry!) on my faith in God who continues to provide, on my awesome family, and various business projects.
God has kept us here for now, and with summer on the horizon, we’ll ‘tough’ list out for a few more months.
Currently in South Africa, and it’s been VERY eye opening a place to be during Covid. Townships projected to suffer mass causalities that never came,
the government stole (yes stole) 26 billion
dollars worth of Covid funds , and resilient South Africans survived the worst the government and media could throw at them.
South Africans are truly a special people! Blessed to also watch the USA and the world from afar…given us lots to chat about with kids as they grow.
Oh yeah, speaking of kids…we’ve got 7 now and I THINK I can safely say that we’re done.
Could brag on the wife and her kids for ages…maybe I’ll let her ghostwrite my book!
TradersNewsMedia.com is still niche focused helping clients achieve 7X results on their ad spends with some clever internal tech along with good old fashioned intuition.
(Want to know what’s been working for them, and what could work for you? Just ask: I’m happy to help level up good people!)
It’s fun to see clients grow, even if they don’t always take our advice, and it’ll be fun to see what the next few months will bring! It seems the industry is in a very unique spot. FTC coming for many of the well known guys, as well as surprise scammers.
Stock markets at crazy (and unbelievable) highs while inflation increases the prices of literally everything. Subscriptions and sales lagging a bit. And when the other shoe is going to drop and give us marketers something to REALLY sink our teeth into!
Now is the time to get creative ASAP!
- Consider a business model pivot?
- Or at least a recalibration of your ad spending plan based on what I’m seeing?
- Maybe a new lead gen product? Fresh spin on current product lineup?
- And most important the cost of traffic.
The ad costs for quality trade has been one that’s not gone unscathed by inflation as well. So keep that in mind as you consider your future.
Speaking of the future…what’s your plan?
- How are you going to navigate the new FTC world?
- How are you going to innovate some new lead generation products?
- How are you going to better manage and track your ad costs?
- How are you going to GROW?
Let’s make a plan. brad@bradstafford.com
Cheers,
Brad
P.S. I’ll try to write more often…but if I get a good project and 7X results for a client…I may be dark for a while, but it’s first come first serve basis 😉
by Brad | Jul 28, 2020 | Blog
I told him I would post an update today July 28th if he agreed to do a public speaking gig with me at some point ????! So let’s hold Brian to it!!! (Contact me to get to Brian lol)
Family Update:
Aubree and the kids (all 6 of them) are doing well. School, skateboarding, surfing, and being grateful that they have plenty of siblings to keep them entertained!
We’ve got a homeschool and ‘work from home’ lifestyle that has given us a great foundation during a time when lots of other families are struggling to make a solid plan.
With 12 years experience homeschooling my wife keeps amazing me with these genius children!
If you have any questions about homeschooling or working from home just ask as I’m happy to share what’s worked for us…and what’s not!
Business Update:
Despite global chaos, our creative and advertising clients are generating more interest, more leads, and more sales! We’re blessed with great clients who allow us to customize campaigns that can grow their company.
We’re delivering more email clicks as our lists grow and our engagement on those lists increases. Our clients are receiving and converting more leads from our external media buying plans and strategies.
Quietly we’ve been building up our creative skills. Copywriting for funnels, advertorials, and ebooks continues to improve as USER engagement increases! If people are spending more time on our advertorials, then they’re learning more about our clients and engaging better…and the client results speak for themselves!
We have a team that continues to amaze me as pivots are needed and speed is required. Being 100% remote work has given us an advantage along with people who are always professional and focused on providing the best quality of service for our clients.
We can help you get more leads, more engagement on your website, and massive attention to a new project or campaign.
Please reach out if you’d like to run a test buy on our lists, or review our creatives to see if we could help you with your next campaign!
OK…back to lurking and working.
Brad
P.S. Thanks for those wishing happy birthday in the comments!
by Brad | Mar 18, 2020 | Featured, Latest News
This offer available for discussion to first 3 people who say YES! (sent to over 3,000 others)
I’ve got a writing itch that feels like 2008 all over again and I want to write!
If I look back at 2008, that is when things REALLY took off for me and the companies I worked with. Fear was everywhere, panic, and crazy ideas.
But if managed CORRECTLY the disasters of today could mean massive GROWTH for tomorrow!
I truly saw that play out in 2008 and I’m getting the same feeling now.
To you I ask this…Can I write for you?
Here are the strings:
– You have a product you’re buying media for (or CAN buy media for)
– You need/want new creatives to match market tone, and get people taking action.
– You want a 100% commission based writer.
That’s IT!
Contact me today if you qualify as I’ve got a few million in copy that I’m ready to write!
Talk soon,
Brad
P.S. Even if you don’t qualify, let me know how you’re doing. Staying positive and looking for bright spots!
P.P.S. Sorry but I do reserve the right to say no to a project. Burned too many times to not say no when I
get the feeling. But chances are, if you’re reading THIS far…I might not say no!
by Brad | Aug 20, 2019 | Blog
If you’re a business owner who writes his or her own copy, this is for you.
If you’re a pro copywriter… this is also for you! (But hopefully more of a reminder to keep you on top)
One thing I’ve noticed recently is a disconnect between the product being sold, and the message being used to sell it. All in all it’s not terrible across the board, but I’ve been seeing a lot of products just miss the mark.
I’d like that to end and for everyone to sell more…
So I’m sharing a strategy I’ve developed to make sure that my copy CONNECTS with buyers!
I use this strategy when I’m writing emails for sales funnels, sales pages, and squeeze pages. It’s how I’ve been blessed to work with some of the top players in our industry, and how more keep coming!
And again in my quest to help everyone sell MORE… here it is:
No. 1: Create two ideal buyer characters that you can ‘speak’ to each time you write for a product or service.
At first glance this might seem like a lot of work but the reality is each product is going to speak to a different type of consumer and their current goals/fears (both of which drive sales). We might say that an options product might cater more towards an engineering mindset versus a penny stock offer that’s more interested in the get rich quick angle.
Now the reason I have two is to cover both the goals/fears angle of a buyer depending on the MARKET! Here’s where financial copy is special because it’s so driven by the stock market and it’s volatility. I mean honestly, you can have new/fresh copy almost WEEKLY!
Then depending on market conditions, you cater the copy to fit the market and your ideal buyer.
Note: Sometimes the customer will be different depending on products and services. So analyze the products benefits and problem solutions and see how that speaks to your buyer character.
No. 2: Know the market conditions and political news that could influence your buyer!
Even living in Africa, I always read the news for a general sentiment of what’s happening in the world. It may seem simple but checking in on the news helps me to speak directly to the people who I want to reach by knowing what’s actually affecting their everyday lives.
To use the options product example from above, we have an engineer type as our generalization of our customer… now the news breaks that Trump is approving 10X more HB1 visas in 2020 than in 2019. You and I might read over that, but our engineer who’s moving towards the end of his career but has 2 kids in college that he needs to pay for, that GUT CHECKS HIM!
He’s thinking the worst. He’s potentially panicked that his job could be on the line and how will he pay for his kids college…
See? Kinda simple if you’re paying attention and can see those opportunities in the market and your product.
No. 3: and this one is crazy… Talk to customers!
I would encourage every copy writer or somebody who wants to do persuasive marketing in any capacity to do customer service and actually get to know the people who are buying your products.
Again it seems so simple but being able to read customer emails, respond to customer emails and just in general interact with customers will give you a much better sense of how to solve their problems, help them achieve their dreams and how your product fits into those two categories.
Simple right?
But deep enough that if you make the above into your writing strategy whenever you write copy…you’ll improve 10X!
Good luck,
Brad
P.S. If you’d like a free copy consult, just ask. I’d love to help you tighten up your copy and get to know your two buyer characters!
Have a great one!
by Brad | Jul 2, 2019 | Blog, Featured
As a writer I like to follow and read other writers especially good copywriters… and Kevin Rogers is CLEARLY a good one!
I don’t want to hype him up too much, but suffice it to say he’s good.
Anyway, I’m on his email list and received the below email, absorbed it immediately, then asked if I could repost on my site. He said ‘Sure man’…and here we are.
I’m leaving his pitch in at the end (no affiliate links) just because it’s a great one!
Enjoy!
Hey there,
Good copywriting pretty much lives or dies by the quality of communication between the writer and the client.
The better the communication, the stronger the copy. Period.
With other contractors, like, say, tech developers, communication can be handled by a trusted team leader. Ideally, one who understands all the weird phrases and acronyms around tech.
When I’m in a tech meeting, I feel like an actor in a Star Trek episode who was given a script for the Dukes of Hazzard.
TECH PERSON: I recommend we align the impulse drive with the deuterium detectors and harmonic combadge.
ME: Well, gol durn, I recon that dog’ll hunt, let’s commiserate on it up yonder at the Boar’s Nest with some sippin’ suds and pickled pigs feet.
Maybe you feel just as out of place talking to a copywriter?
However, as CEO, especially if it’s your name in the subject line, it’s critically important to form a solid working relationship with your copywriter.
You don’t have to plan a fly fishing excursion or a spa weekend together…
… but you DO need to block a few solid chunks of uninterrupted phone time with your copywriter.
And agree to go deep on those calls about your history, the inspiration behind your business — especially the product they’ll be writing about…
… and a lot about YOU.
I talk to so many CEOs who are nervous about a copywriter getting their VOICE wrong.
There are some really good ways for a decent copywriter to learn how to write in your voice…
They can listen to you talking – on podcasts, stage presentations, web trainings – and apply a system like Abbey Woodcock’s CODEX to break down your speech patterns and become an effective version of your voice in copy.
If that’s all they had, a skilled copywriter could do a decent job of playing the role of you in copy, like an actor playing a historical character who died before they ever met.
However, add to your “public voice reel” some quality one-to-one conversations with your copywriter where they can really HEAR you, in real time, get genuinely excited about some things, subtly annoyed over others, the way you pause before reflecting, how your timber shifts when you talk about family…
… and a good copywriter, like a method actor, will adopt the role of playing you so well that people go, “Wow, you can’t even tell the difference.”
Like Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson.
True copywriting goes far beyond voice, of course.
Later in my freelance career, I was brought in on projects long before the product was even created.
Some clients would ask me to vet potential experts before entering into a product deal to make sure they had the goods to be a dynamic spokesperson, and the material to develop truly valuable products.
Those projects where everyone was fully bought in, as you can imagine, were always more successful.
So, if you’re an expert looking to bring on a copywriter, go beyond reading over samples and make time to have real conversations with your best copywriter candidates.
Feeling some genuine chemistry during those calls is a good sign that you’ll develop a strong relationship and get an Oscar-worthy performance.
And if you’re a pro copywriter, be respectfully demanding of your client’s time.
You know what you need to do your best work, so get full buy-in from your client and their team to help you become far more than a contractor… and become an Oscar-worthy actor playing the role of your expert.
And the winner is… everyone.
Kevin Rogers
I’m rolling out the red carpet for you with three more great ways we can creatively collaborate …
1. Come hang out with me at Copy Chief LIVE!
If you want to be “in the room” with some of the sharpest business owners looking to hire copywriters, and the hottest up-and-coming copywriting talent, then join me and the other Chiefs in St. Petersburg for Copy Chief LIVE. Click here for details
2. Up your copywriting game as a member of Copy Chie
If you’d like to quickly improve your sales message and copy with proven templates and immerse with the sharpest minds in the biz, reply to this message and put “Copy Chief” in the subject line
3. Join my higher level program for Working Copywriters
Helping freelance copywriters reach “the next level” is what my “Real Free Life” program is all about. If you want higher quality clients, with bigger checks, all while working less hours, hit reply and put “Real Free Life” in the subject line.
by Brad | Feb 27, 2019 | Blog
I’ll cut to the chase…
TradersNewsMedia is COOKING…
We’re generating a TON of high quality, high converting leads and traffic from Facebook, Google, and Native networks…
By ‘TON’ I mean over 8,000 clicks PER DAY…
BUT WE’RE HOLDING BACK THE FLOOD GATES!!
Why?
We need you.
We need your high converting offer!
Right now our biggest issue is that we don’t have enough high quality offers!
So…
If you have a quality offer: SEND IT!
I want it.
I NEED IT!
If it’s an OPTIONS offer…send it.
Stock…send it!
Strategy or course…SEND IT!
And let me tell you, if it converts we can EASILY send you 1k+ customers PER DAY…OR MORE!
What are you waiting for…you want traffic and I’m telling you I CAN SEND IT TO YOU!
Email me: brad@tradersnewsmedia.com or brad@bradstafford.com
Talk soon,
Brad
P.S. OH YEAH…if you know OF good offers, share that with me too and I can be a SUPER affiliate for you!! Introduce me to some new sources and you can get your MASSIVE cut!
But…stop delaying. Send me your offer or intros to offers!
by Brad | Dec 4, 2018 | Blog
Speed…
Anytime I think of the word speed the scene from ‘Cars’ comes to mind when Lighting McQueen is in this trailer hyping himself up before the big race…yes you can blame my kids lol.
But what ALSO comes to mind is speed in marketing.
So the question becomes how fast are you?
Can you change out pages within a day or two in order to try to improve conversions?
How quickly can you write an email funnel or TWO? 3 days or 15?
If a strategy you work hard to build turns out to be a flop, are you able to pivot to a new strategy using existing assets or build NEW assets? 1 week…3?
What I’m getting at is the difference between success and struggle.
“If you’re able to make changes quickly, then you’ll stay ahead of the curve in your OWN business cycle.”
If it takes you 4 weeks to change strategies how much time has been lost making revenue due to a delay in copy, or a new page not coming together quickly, or something like actually TRADING gets in the way?
Copy delay, page issues, life…those are all NORMAL things that slow down the success of your marketing.
So the question you have to ask yourself is this…
See what I’ve seen a LOT of recently is the inability to get ahead of the curve after getting SO far behind…then the strategy they banked so much time, effort, and capital into, turns out to be a flop simply because the market has changed.
Then it’s either a quick business death…or a slow painful one.
Either way, it can happen to you.
So…
Are you fast enough?
If yes, AWESOME! Keep it up and you’ll keep driving revenues forward!
If no, why?
You KNOW that you need to, so why aren’t you? Not enough time? Think you can’t do it? Not your area of expertise?
I totally understand.
Here’s your solution: Give me a call.
Let’s jump on a quick call so I can see if I can help you get to the WHY and then the HOW of the solution!
No obligation to work with me if we chat on the phone. And frankly you might not be the right fit.
But that doesn’t mean you should miss a FREE opportunity to put my 11 years and millions of dollars in revenue generated to work for you.
Email me or Farra directly to setup a call so we can see if make your 2019 THE BEST ONE EVER!
Brad@bradstafford.com Farra@bradstafford.com
Hope to chat soon!
Brad
by Brad | Nov 27, 2018 | Blog, Featured
Raise your hand if you’re on like 50 or more email lists…
Right…so was I until about 9 months ago.
That’s when I cut the ‘fat’ from my inbox and my writing, my funnels, and my REVENUES exploded!!
Before you say ‘ok Brad I’ll get off a couple of email lists, adios!” Please hear me out…
Because if you want to TRULY make more money and save time, you need to follow my SIMPLE plan.
Cool?
Ok, so for me, and you, and probably everyone else, you’re on those lists to actually learn something. See what others are doing, and testing it on your audience.
You saw an ad at some point that you said ‘oh that looks cool’ and clicked. And you thought that you might be able to glean some new methods to apply to your own business!
Years ago it was an AWESOME source of ideas of how to improve!
But today…not so much.
It really started when I realized I was spending about a hour or more a day, just DELETING emails that were either old, or from people I don’t follow anymore, etc etc.
Such a time suck!
But I didn’t opt out of everything at once, I had to have a plan that actually allowed me to still get premium content that challenged me, and improved my revenues.
Here’s the PLAN I executed a while back:
This is step one in your journey to make more money, save a TON of time, and improve your business.
When you’re watching a horse race, do you watch the horses at the front or the back?
THE FRONT!! That’s right!
Same is true with your inbox.
If you know I’m working with someone, and that person is making a TON of money…READ THEIR EMAILS! We’re doing something right!
We’ve got the messaging, timing, content, sales pages, squeeze pages, ads, etc etc that ARE WORKING!
And if you know someone who’s struggling, and their content isn’t great, and the sales pages aren’t compelling…CUT IT! Trust me you won’t miss it.
The ‘WIN’ here is two part:
First, you’re putting QUALITY INTO YOUR MIND and cutting crap out. If you read books by bad writers, will your writing improve…or get worse? You get it.
Second, by cutting junk you’ll free up a TON of time. Because you don’t always ‘delete’ the email right away. You might linger and see if what you’re expecting has improved…and when it hasn’t…you delete. But you’ve wasted 5 minutes.
See??
Never steal. Never. You’ll get caught and you’ll look like a fool.
Trust me. I’ve been doing this for 11 years (HOLY COW REALLY!?!?) and when someone steals they get busted. Never steal.
You analyze and adapt.
You HAVE to do this simply because YOU ARE UNIQUE!!
Just because Fernando and Palm Beach Letter are launching a huge webinar with a celebrity, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you.
Jeff and Jason with RagingBull sharing their winning trades is KILLING it for them…but might not work for you.
HOWEVER…they’re doing SOMETHING right, so analyze what they’re doing and how it COULD be adapted to YOU.
It takes a lot of time and introspective analysis to crack the code of why something is working for someone else, and how that code could be applied to the assets that YOU have.
And it’s often more than what you would classify as ‘assets’ like ebooks, videos, products, etc etc.
Often you’re not even aware of the intangible assets that you have! Sometimes you need a third party to clarify what makes you…YOU. Those are the assets you need to leverage and apply to the parts of the decoded success plan that you get by following the quality people.
Make sense?
Little confused?
Probably. But that’s ok.
If you ask me ANYTHING about a straddle option trade I’d be drooling on myself trying to wrap my brain around it!!
HOPEFULLY you’re not overwhelmed with step two as that’s the hard one. But the idea is that you’ve cut out so much junk from your inbox you’re only reading Pulitzer Prize winners.
So your inbox will only leave you the golden nuggets to analyze and ADAPT.
Then start SMALL.
Start with what you can do.
If it’s a headline style/font, then try it.
If it’s the timing on the emails…adjust yourself.
Is it messaging that’s more positive? Try it.
But keep a close eye to make sure that your baseline numbers do not DIP BECAUSE OF YOUR TESTING!
Numbers should be improving with these tests, that’s why it’s small, and manageable.
If you’re doing it on your own, it’s gotta be small.
But if you’ve got a dedicated person/team (like ME!) working with you, you can do a LOT more and cut right to what SHOULD really be working for you.
Because if you’re working with someone who’s focused on marketing, then success should come faster simply because that person/team can analyze YOU and apply the things that SHOULD work based on their own testing…vs you testing a bunch of stuff based on your gut.
I’ve got 2 openings for consulting clients for 2019…contact me TODAY for guarantees and costs.
No obligation, FREE, one hour phone consult.
Brad@bradstafford.com or Farra@bradstafford.com
Talk soon and good luck!
Brad
P.S. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are…YOU CAN IMPROVE and I can help you. But you’d better contact me ASAP!
by Brad Stafford | Oct 12, 2018 | Uncategorized
Whatever you’re doing, take a few minutes to read this quick email and call it a REMINDER!
Bookmark this because I’m finding myself saying this OVER AND OVER AND OVER again! And frankly, I’d just like to point people to this post and save myself the effort.
Ask some of the best marketers in the world, you have to constantly be adapting your marketing.
Look at successful marketers like Tai Lopez, Justin Brooke, Frank Kern, etc etc…they’re always changing their ads and processes to find the BEST process that’s working NOW.
Sometimes it’s as simple as changing your ad copy headlines. Sometimes it’s as difficult as creating NEW products…
But ultimately it’s worth the effort.
Focus on adapting RIGHT NOW, and never being content with what you have because as quickly as it starts working…it can stop.
In addition to testing your strategies, you need to TEST YOUR AD SOURCES!
Let me take you back several years…to the beginning of Facebook. When Facebook launched I tested ads on it. Ran different ebooks direct to sale pages, etc. And for the first few years came up empty. The results just were NOT there. Fast forward to a few years back, and I tested it AGAIN…this time with MUCH different! Our current TradersNewsMedia clients can attest to that fact!
The main point being to NEVER settle with your marketing…strategies OR sources. Things will change, you will need new methods and sources…so go out and get them!
If you need someone to take a look at your process, ads, etc. let me know and we book you for a FREE hour call/review. I’ll be brutally honest and share what I’m learning EVERYDAY from building funnels, sales pages, offers, ads, etc etc etc.
Email me if you want my unbiased and outside review: brad@bradstafford.com
In addition to new ADS you should also be testing new AD SOURCES. And frankly if you’ve not testing TradersNewsMedia.com then you might be missing out on a huge channel that’s a done for you, unique lead generation, and high volume source! Contact me for info on both 
Best,
Brad
by Brad Stafford | Oct 12, 2018 | Uncategorized
Last week I mentioned to you about a company that was looking to be acquired and my inbox was PACKED with other companies looking to grow through acquisition.
However TWO awesome companies, with people I know and trust, are looking to expand and I think I can help them (and YOU)…
I’ve vetted these TWO companies and they’re looking for quality products, services, email lists, and experts.
Note: none of these companies are Agora and NON require you to move lol
So if you’re interested in selling (or want to get a fair idea on price) EMAIL ME NOW!!
Brad@bradstafford.com
Here are some quick pitches from the companies that I promised I would intro and vet directly:
Company 1:
“Company One is the ideal partner for any investment publisher/analyst with high-quality investment ideas in search of high-octane marketing and efficient and effective back office support. Dating back to 1974, Company One has built relationships with millions of paid customers through its own products as well as through effective partnerships with many traders. Over the past three years, Company One has reinvented its marketing team with superior copywriting and distribution that has more than doubled its sales. Put the Company One marketing engine, strategic planning and support team to work for you. Focus on the work you love and let Company One do the rest.”
Company 2:
Are you tired of the daily grind of your business? Does your business own you instead of you owning it? Or are you an exhausted content provider who loves teaching, but are bogged down on the business side?
Great news is here!
One of the fastest growing online financial education companies is in acquisition mode. We are looking for only 1 or 2 strategic purchases to help grow our business. If you’re sick and tired of your business running you, then this could be the exit plan you dreamed of. Here’s what we are looking for:
* $50K to $1MM in TTM revenue
* An active list between 500 to 50,000
* A list actively engaged in stocks, options or Futures.
We have acquired businesses in this niche as recently as March of this year. C was running a small membership site. He was exhausted from running the business end. Plus he was not able to provide his clients with the level of help and support he wanted to. Since we have acquired his business he is able to focus on what he loves:
“I’m so happy to be part of a team – I love the trading but everything else with running a business and member site, not so much.” C
So if you even THINK you’d be interested in selling, NOW might be the best time to get the best price and work with the BEST fit to help you grow!
Email me: brad@bradstafford.com
Talk soon,
Brad
