Dave Snyder's presentation from CopyPress Unconference 2014

1. U N C O N F E R E N C E
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2. Agenda for the Day
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Breakfast
Kickoff
Dave Snyder CEO, CopyPress
There Was Content in the Beginning and There Will Be Content in the End
Dave Snyder CEO, CopyPress
Lunch
How to Create, Curate, and Convert Great Content
Joe Sinkwitz CRO, CopyPress
Break
Site or Campaign Review
Cocktail Hour and Networking
9:00
9:30
10:00
12:00
1:00
2:30
3:00
5:00
9:30
10:00
12:00
1:00
2:30
3:00
4:30
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3. WiFi and Housekeeping
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#CopyPressUT
Wifi Network
Password
Access to
SlidesHashtag

4. There Was Content in the
Beginning and There Will Be
Content in the End
U N C O N F E R E N C E
2 0 1 4

5. What is CopyPress?
A Marketplace for Custom Content
in Multiple Formats
We also have offerings that maximize
visibility for content once created.
(Native Ads and Publisher Outreach)
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6. What is CopyPress?
Helping companies scale in
multi-format content production
(copy, videos, interactive media)
Large scale content creation which
is equally difficult to manage
The key difference is our trained
and certified creative base,
software, and optimized workflows
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Our specialties are

7. Who Am I?
Working in Online Marketing since 2008+
Former English Teacher+
Before CopyPress I founded several consultancies,
and worked with brands like eBay, Disney, Conde
Nast, and Intuit
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My specialties lie in: SEO, Content Development
(Ideation to Workflows), Content Visibility
(I am not a huge fan of buzzwords like content
marketing and viral marketing)
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Dave Snyder
CEO, CopyPress

8. 8
Let’s Start with Some Secrets

9. 9
Today You Are
Content Murderers1

10. 10
You Kill it Before it Even Has
a Chance to Really Live

11. 11
Content is a Multi-Level Strategy;
Creation Alone is an Action with
No Result
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12. 12
Content Isn’t Hard
to Create2

13. 13
Content is Everywhere!

14. 14
Seriously…

15. 15
So Why Our Focus on the
Same Old Thing?

16. 16
Copy + Link Focus

17. 17
Copy + Link Focus = CRAP

18. 18
And now they lead to...

19. 19
Platforms Killed Content

20. And Now?

21. 21
Content is Killing Platforms

22. Traffic Over Platform
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23. COE: Conversions Over Everything!
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24. 24
Content is a Multi-Level Strategy
Creation alone is an
action with no result
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25. Doing Content Marketing
Before it Was Cool
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26. 26
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2008
2014
What’s Different?
Digg, IGs, Reddit, Forums
Personas, “Power Accounts”, and Gaming
Social Ads, Advertorials, and Native Ads
>>
What’s the Same?

27. Awesome Content Wins Awesomely

28. 28
Buzzwords
… Fun buzzwords for stuff that we have been doing since the start of the Internet
Content Marketing and Native Ads …

29. Native Ad Examples from the Past
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Deep history in advertorials dating back to the early 20th century.
Magazines are the place with most traditional advertorial examples
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1996 - LINK EXCHANGE >>
SPONSORED POSTS

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31. Content Marketing from the Past
31
History in direct
mailer business, and
traditional sales letter
The Custom Content Council is founded
(formerly the Custom Publishing Council)
1998
Microsoft launches first major corporate blog2004
25% of all marketing spend going to content2010
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32. 32
E X A M P L E
01

33. 33
E X A M P L E
02

34. 34
E X A M P L E
03

35. 35
E X A M P L E
04

36. 36
E X A M P L E
05

37. 37
E X A M P L E
06

38. 38
E X A M P L E
07

39. 39
NATIVE PAID
CONTENT
MARKETING EARNED
Easy Way to Cut It

40. 40
Where
NATIVE PAID
CONTENT
MARKETING EARNED

41. 41
The Market for Custom Content
Production AND Distribution in the
US was $43.9 billion in 2013
This dwarfs the “HOT” Native Ad Space
which is estimated to break $3 billion
in spend by 2015
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How it Shakes Out

42. 42
Content is the Key…
… and Everyone Keeps Forgetting It

43. 43
What Makes Content Great?

44. 44
...being able to properly
regulate one’s emotions.
It is a complex process
that involves the initiating,
inhibiting, or modulating
the following aspects of
functioning
“
“
Initiation
Point
Thoughts Feelings
ActionsResult
Emotional Self Regulation

45. 45
Joy + Interest

46. 46
The Who of Content

47. 47
The Who of Content

48. How We Scaled
Creativity
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49. Some Numbers
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CopyPress first started
hiring writers in 2009
+ We added roughly 200
writers in our first year
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2009 200

50. Then in November of Last Year…
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You can setup your own membership based community using WordPress+

51. Where you can learn…
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52. And certify…
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We use ClassMarker.com for
multiple choice exams and
simple form submission for
practical exams
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53. Amazing Growth!
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54. This morning we had..
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7991 community
users
+ 1210 identify
themselves as
designers
+2738 of
these identify
themselves
as writers
+ We have had just
under 2500 tests
taken through the
portal
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55. Here is how you can do it…
55
Driving Conversion
Based Traffic
+ Quality Control+HR Protocol+ Payment
Management
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56. Driving Conversion Based Traffic
(Writers)
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Craigslist.org
Content Writer Job (LinkedIn)
Freelance Writers (LinkedIn)
bloggingpro.com/jobs/
Copywriting & Copyediting (LinkedIn)
freelanced.com
allfreelancewriting.com
Copywriters (LinkedIn)
Freelance Writers Inc. (LinkedIn)
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freelancejobopenings.com
guru.com
Simply Hired
freelancewritinggigs.com
linked Writers (LinkedIn)
The Freelance Writers Connection (LinkedIn)
freelancewriting.com
ifreelance.com
Suite101.com Writers Community (LinkedIn)
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57. Driving Conversion Based Traffic
(Writers)
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Writers and Bloggers (LinkedIn)
http://london.craigslist.co.uk
uk.gigajob.com
http://jobs.problogger.net/
http://www.writewords.org.uk
elance.com
Writing Jobs (LinkedIn)
gumtree.com
indeed.com
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sunoasis.com
http://www.wahm.com/jobs.html
http://journalismjobs.com/post_job_new.cfm
http://sunoasisjobs.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/find-jobs
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58. Driving Conversion Based Traffic
(Designers)
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Behance (http://www.behance.net/joblist)
AIGA Design Jobs (http://designjobs.aiga.org/public/jobs_browse.asp)
Authentic Jobs http://www.authenticjobs.com/
Craigslist
Coroflot http://www.coroflot.com/jobs#state=0&
LinkedIn
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59. Driving Conversion Based Traffic
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Optimized Content around topics creatives are looking for, especially as it relates to
monetizing their talent
Contributing as a writer to publications that target creatives
Active Twitter and Facebook accounts
Targeting specific creatives that meet channel based needs
The real key for our success this year was setting up a platform that allowed us to collect
creative information easily and easily work them into joining our ongoing workforce.
TLDR – A longer conversion funnel with a secondary conversion is key to growing out a
huge creative force.
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60. HR Protocol
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This is one of the biggest things you will underestimate.
Here is what you need:
W9s
Employment Contract
Specific language about ownership of
intellectual property and its use
Secure payment information collection
Handbook outlining what your standards as a
company are, and what they can expect if they do not
meet those standards.
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61. HR Protocol
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Our Process
Once they have been
certified we send them
an email with a link to
our creative application
(You can set this up via
Google Forms)
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62. HR Protocol
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Our Process
Once the application is completed we
utilize echosign to get all documents
filled out and digitally signed.
(http://echosign.com)
We then store all information in our
software with the writers’ details
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63. Quality Control
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Keeping out the cheaters!
Utilize CopyScape
We have built a crawl against Google’s
index as well
We have also built an internal
database crawl
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64. Quality Control
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Grading System Be willing to cut creatives based on
bad performance, but have a system
built to help develop them before
simply dismissing them
Layer your grading
Internal
External
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65. Payment Management
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Payment Processing is Tough
Need a system for automatically tallying content payouts based on type and length etc.
Must be able to assign those payments in your bookkeeping software for easy 1099
record keeping
Must then have ACH provider for automated payments, plus account for others that want
alternative payments. (We don’t deal with tough countries, but some may)
Pay on time - We have had issues
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$50,000 a month in content payments on average – we split it into two dates to mitigate issues
with cashflow, but this is always tough