Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging and social media expert, online marketing consultant, speaker and author of The Corporate Blogging Book (Portfolio). She consults with large companies, CEOs and senior executives on how to create blogs that connect with customers and attract media attention.

We shared a six-seater helicopter tour of San Francisco. It was awesome. Anyway, my heli seatmate was a fellow attendee at The Big Seminar - a three-day event in San Francisco (Aug. 22 - 24) that’s the best direct response marketing conference I’ve ever attended.

Yeah, I know. The conference page is filled with screaming sales copy. Ignore it. These guys know how to sell.

After the heli ride I asked him what he does. This guy is THE REAL THING. He has a list of 100,000 names that he sends promotional offers to. Just do the math (which he helpfully offered). If you make 30 sales on a vitamin enhancer/body enlargement etc. product that sells for $40, that’s $1,200. OK, so the response rate is three one-hundredths of one percent. That’s a nice chunk of change for one mailing.

He’s a young guy based in San Diego. Struck me as extremely bright and articulate. In fact he sounded like a ClickZ columnist unraveling email marketing best practices. “Your list is the most important; then comes your offer. Your copy is a distant third,” he said. I guess it comes as no surprise that successful spammers know what they’re doing.

Addendum: I do NOT condone what this fellow is doing!

P.S. I took the photo above from the helicopter. You’re looking at the Golden Gate Bridge from Sausalito.

P.P.S. If you’re interested you can download my Big Seminar Notes to learn more about guerrilla direct response marketing tactics.

P.P.S. Get the inside scoop on Insider Secrets of Profitable E-Newsletters!

A recent study by Osterman Research concluded that “a typical email user will spend about 1.7 weeks just managing their mailbox, or about 3% of their time at work.” Based on an annual salary of $60,000, that’s a productivity cost of $2,000 a year. Thanks to Sue Duris of M4 Communications for this tidbit.

Barbara Feldman has penned the best explanation of RSS I’ve run across. She’s an Internet entrepreneur who clearly never sleeps. She runs SurfNetKids and publishes a weekly newsletter as well as several blogs. She’s now offering her e-newsletter as an RSS feed. What does this mean? You can subscribe to her newsletter using a news aggregator. This bypasses delivery by email all together. And thus avoids the problem of spam filters blocking email messages.

You can also read about RSS in the September 2003 issue of PC World. Heck, it’ll soon be old hat…

I have no idea what possessed me to write about my dog last week. I guess I liked the headline, “My dog barfed.” A colleague just emailed to ask whether I had lost my mind. Particularly after permission marketing guru Seth Godin noted that I don’t blog about “cats, the weather or my mood.” Well, he’s a dog, OK? And that’s all you’re gonna hear about him. Unless he dies. He’s really old.

Back to regular programming… only serious stuff about online marketing. Well, maybe a few exceptions. This is a blog, right?

Think this kind of thing is purely the stuff of a Woody Allen comedy? Nope. When I got up this morning at 5:55 AM (yes, it was really that early), my aging Labrador came upstairs to greet me… and to barf at my feet. It was soooo gross. Went downstairs to let the dog out and discovered… yup, more of it.

P.S. Sorry, Seth. But he’s a dog; not a cat. (Special thanks to cartoonist Brad Fitzpatrick for the illustration.)

On the evolving topic of “Can you pitch a blog?” with an article or clever idea… I was emailing back and forth today with Seth Godin (he’s a WordBiz subscriber). He wrote to say, “Great promo gimmick! Here’s my name: Blue Walnut.” To explain, I’m running a naming contest this week, inviting WordBiz readers to suggest a title for my new E-newsletter Seminar Report coming out this month. I’ll be upfront. I stole the “naming contest” idea from Lisa Sparks, a smart copywriter in Florida. Whoever submits the winning title gets a free copy of my report (value USD $147). So anyway… Seth loved the idea and submitted Blue Walnut. A title along the lines of his new book Purple Cow, I suppose. I emailed back and asked if he wanted to blog this clever contest idea. He responded: “I don’t think I’ve ever blogged someone who asked. Not sure why, but that’s the deal.”

P.S. He changed his mind ! And I don’t have any cats. Ugh, hate ‘em. I like dogs and babies.

Per usual, I’m getting snippets of news I can use from up2speed.

A recent post talks about RedPaper, a new marketplace for citizen reporters to sell their words for as little as two cents.

I dunno. I can’t shake my background as a real reporter & editor. Why should I spend my pocket change on this stuff?

Here’s how the site describes itself: RedPaper gives everyone the ability to be a reporter, have your own column, post articles, name your story price, and sell your work to millions of potential readers around the world.

Recent article postings cover vegetarian dogs & cats, celebrity sightings (Michael Jackson), a yummy sounding recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and lots of original poetry. Priced from $.05 to $.75.

Oops, I just recognized someone I know. Marketing expert Jon Lowder is selling 4 Simple & Free Steps to Market Your Biz Online for $.10.

Maybe I should sell the free guide to killer copywriting I offer to each new subscriber to WordBiz Report. Waddya think?