Keith Goodrum

Ryan Healy was in New York City Monday for some business. Since I live about 20 miles north, we decided to get together for dinner. I’ve worked with Ryan on a couple projects, and we’ve emailed, talked on the phone but haven’t met face to face before.

It was something I’ve looked forward to for a while. Actually I figured we would hook up at a seminar, or when I would be visiting family in the Denver area. It was surprising to hear he was coming to New York City.

In case you’re not familiar with Ryan; he is a top-flight copywriter, and marketer. He has consistently earned a six-figure + from his copywriting. He even created an ebook showing copywriters how to get their first clients called Get Copywriting Clients. I can vouch that this ebook works because it’s what I used to get my 1st client. You can read about my experiences here… New Copywriter Gets His First Client.

Ryan’s blog – Business Growth, Copywriting & Advertising is one of the few I stop what I’m doing to read when he publishes a post. Head on over there and check it out.

Ryan was staying at a hotel close to LaGuardia Airport… so I figured he needed to experience an Italian restaurant in Queens. The restaurant we went to was Bella Via on Vernon Blvd & 47th. We had a blast, and 3 1/2 hours flew by. One of the best things about the dinner was the conversation. We spent some time on Internet marketing & copywriting… but most of the time we were getting into stuff we both have a passion for.

You know one of the benefits of blogs, and this online community is meeting people you never would have had the chance to otherwise. It has broken down geographical boundaries. It’s pretty amazing.

I was reading Manuel Viloria’s blog and he wrote a quick post saying the Blog Rush has shut down.

Wow… So I clicked over & sure enough there is this announcement…

After careful consideration, we have decided to shutdown the BlogRush service. If you have the widget code on your blog you will need to remove it.

When BlogRush launched in late-2007 it spread like wildfire all over the Web. Thousands of bloggers were talking about it and the service exploded to become one of the fastest growing free services in the history of the Web. During the first year of the service it successfully served 3.4 Billion blog post headlines and the BlogRush widget could be found on blogs all over the world; even up until the moment we closed down the service.

I never did get around to adding Blog Rush’s widget here, but was considering back in May. I did have their widget on one of my other blogs, and did see traffic from it. I’m impressed John Reese was so upfront about the problems, and issues they faced trying to get Blog Rush to work. It’s a shame it didn’t survive.

Hats off to John Reese for “going for it” and seeing if a crazy idea would work.

Here are a few blog posts you might have missed.

Ryan Healy wrote a funny post this week titled You Know You’re A Freelance Copywriter if…

You go shopping and find yourself analyzing how the store could increase its sales.

You study great copy… only to wind up buying the product being advertised.

You save junk mail — and then proceed to critique it.

You flip through local ad magazines and mutter things like, “I can’t believe this. These guys are so stupid.”

This is a few of the top 10 list Ryan came up with, and really got a kick out of reading what he came up. As I read this Becky she laughed out loud, and said I do several of these things a lot.

Maybe this list could be expanded to include more than just freelance copywriters…

A blog I regularly read is called JT Pratt’s Blogging mistakes. It’s owned by… Who else JT Pratt. He wrote a very good post titled Should I Use A Blog Or A Niche Store. This one caught my interest because I just started using a Niche store software this past week. This software gives you the option of setting up a Niche store, or add a widget to your blog. It’s a very versatile program, and will give a review of it soon.

Anyhow, JT discussed the pros & cons of a blog vs. a niche store. Really great objective review I recommend you should read. Here is a quick overview from his post…

I’ve seen the discussions a thousand times in forums “should I use a niche store (BANS), or should I use Wordpress”. Some say “static pages are best for mini-sites”. Some say – “I use a blog and an affiliate plugin”.

What I’m going to do in this post is explain once and for all the clear differences between those three things, including when to use them. My opinions may or may not be popular with some of the so-called “gurus” – but my advice is aimed at those of you still trying to build a monthly income over time, and it’s not to position myself to “sell” you something. When I use affiliate links on this blog, it’s because it’s a product that I use myself to build sites and generate income.

Hope you enjoy these two posts…