Many professional copywriters don't think much of blogs as sales vehicles. Why? Because blogs are not a "direct-response” sales environment, and some of the very best copywriters are in the direct-response field.

Direct-response copywriting is a form of marketing designed to elicit an immediate action that is specific and quantifiable. Meaning, you've essentially got one shot at getting a certain percentage of readers to respond in the way you want them too. The response rate dictates your level of success.

Now, why any copywriter wouldn't want to sell in conjunction with the relationship environment that blogs provide, where you don't have to beat people over the head in an all-or-nothing gambit, is beyond me. If you want to use direct-response materials, just take your blog readers "off road” for more focused education and persuasion. Instead of one shot at the prize, you've got many (albeit softer-pitched) opportunities to turn a reading relationship into a customer or client relationship.

But there is one way that a blog is a direct-response environment:

Gaining traffic.

Whether you call it viral blogging, creating link bait, or the old-fashioned getting press, the strategies that direct-response copywriters use are directly applicable to generating publicity in the blogosphere. Copywriting is an essential element to all great publicity efforts, but in the information-overload blogging realm, direct-response techniques will help you grab someone's valuable attention, and keep it.

One of the most effective direct-response techniques is storytelling, mixed in with various psychological triggers and all polished with basic copywriting techniques. But the real magic happens well before a word is written - in the formulation of the story itself.

Now, apply the direct-response methodology to blogging, and your quest for links. You want to write things that truly connect with people, and that also result in a direct, specific and quantifiable action — a link.

Each link, tag and vote you earn has a tendency to create others, depending on how well your copy offers something of real value to the reader. Check Technorati.com for how well you did. Rinse, repeat.

You're now trading words for traffic.

These days, traffic from blogs is essential for acquiring new readers and prospects. Add to that the importance that Google and other ranking systems place on links, and creative copywriting is the new search engine optimization.