This is a promotional post for Jonathan Kantor’s online white paper 201 classes, scheduled for May 17th – 19th.

I attended Jonathan’s white paper 101 training last year, have read his book and follow his blog. The class was delivered over 3 days in a professional online webinar format, with slides, mp3s and transcripts available for those who couldn’t attend the live event.

White paper 201 takes the training a stage further and is focused on the business use of white paper as tools to help with lead generation.

Add Lucrative White Paper Lead Generation Techniques to Your Portfolio!

The best white paper marketers use their white papers to bring in hundreds of leads! If you were able to generate half of that, how could it help your business? Do you know “how” to produce these sought after services? The great news is you don’t need to be a techno-geek to generate lots of leads from your white papers.

Discover everything you need to know at the White Paper 201 Class, “Crafting White Papers that Generate Quality Business Leads“. This is a professional lead generation development course specifically designed for business marketers. Leading expert Jonathan Kantor, a 14-year veteran in with white papers will share his closely guarded secrets to white paper lead generation success at this LIVE online series of classes.

No travel is required. The online course allows you to attend class sessions from the comfort of your home or office. Only 100 seats will be offered for this session and it is sure to sell out quickly.

Find out how to qualify for a $100 savings and lock in your key to white paper success. Visit http://bit.ly/90Q9pe and discover how to get over $350 in giveaways.

Sign up here: http://bit.ly/90Q9pe

And here’s my samuraiwriter99 tweet feed from Jonathan’s recent free White Paper 201 Preview Call; hashtag #wppundit

I watched a replay of the free preview class Jonathan held recently. Here are the tweets I made while watching – preserved here for posterity because Twitter seems to ‘forget’ after about a week!

1) Set my alarm for 3:40am a few nights ago to attend Jonathan Kantor’s free white paper seminar with idea of live tweeting it. Alas, slept right through… Going to live tweet my own private viewing of the webinar playback shortly with hashtag #wppundit  (This was FaceBook status update.)

2) About to tweet live on watching replay of free online white paper webinar by @jonathan_kantor I slept in and missed the call! #wppundit

3) Title is “9 Ways to overcome the most common white paper lead generation mistakes” #wppundit

4) I attended Jonathan’s free class and the followup (pay) 3 class webinar on whitepaper creation (101) in 2010. Recommended #wppundit

5) I have Jonathan’s “Crafting white paper 2.0″. Goes well with Mike Stelzner’s Writing White Paper book #wppundit

6) Define “legitimate lead” – prospective, first-step, evaluating, solve #wppundit

7) prospective customer = not a repeat customer #wppundit

White papers as a prospective customer’s first step in a long evaluation process #wppundit

9) Gated content – the moat comes down? Sign up to download white papers… archaic? #wppundit

10) White paper mistake #1 – give me educational content, not the undercover sell… #wppundit

11) Over branding your white paper smacks of steering prospects into a sales corral – where they don’t want to go (yet, if ever)… #wppundit

12) That “tape drive” white paper jammed me on the title page too. #fail #wppundit

13) Solve a business solution, rather than sell a solution. See the diff? #wppundit

14) Trying again: Solve a business PROBLEM, rather than sell a solution. See the diff? #wppundit

15) Educational Value: 3 Key Areas for white papers: 1) T; 2) LP; 3) 3rd Party A #wppundit

16) White paper landing page – show me what I’m going to get… #wppundit

17) The lack of a “sample” was mistake #2 #wppundit

18) lol The chocolate white paper (I wish) #wppundit

19) Jonathan now discussing the structure of a 4 page sample white paper #wppundit

20) What benefit messages are your readers getting from a free sample white paper? #wppundit

21) White Paper Mistake #3 Are you targeting the ideal prospect with too much geek speak or tactical issues? #wppundit

22) Decision makers often focus on at least one of 6 key benefits #wppundit

23) A white paper title page does tell a story with imagery… #wppundit

24) White paper mistake #4: I’m distracted, engage me n-o-w! #wppundit

25) The White Paper graphic landing page now being shown. #wppundit

26) White paper mistake #5: Too many distractions and/or overwhelming design. #wppundit

27) Solving white paper mistake #5 : Looks like a microsite landing page with related content plus return points to the original paper #wppundit

28) White paper mistake #6: too many reg fields on landing page.. but who does THIS benefit? Mktg CRM systems?? #wppundit

29) White Paper reg fields: Is family name even required? Maybe just email address is OK… test it IMO #wppundit

30) White Paper Mistake #8: To get the paper, here are the hoops to jump through… #wppundit

31) Getting that white paper – the rule of 3 #wppundit

32) White Paper Mistake #9: Pay here… #wppundit

33) Some ad agencies / industry consultants sell “research” as their business model #wppundit

34) Consider giving away 1/3 of your white papers for free, with no reg required. #wppundit

35) Free white papers and pull vs push marketing. #wppundit

36) The secret sauce is your content info in the free white paper. #wppundit

37) White papers, first impressions, and a younger gen of decision makers… #wppundit

38) Jonathan now talking about his 3 part white paper 201 course, starting in May. Similar to this call but in depth #wppundit

39) If you want a download link to Jonathan’s free webinar (this one!), DM me here and I’ll send you his email addr. #wppundit

40) Part 2 of @jonathan_kantor course covers “crafting a B2B White Paper Strategy” #wppundit

41) WP201 Course #3 covers “Next Gen white papers” #wppundit

42) wp 201 also gives download access to videos, presentations and transcripts. Good if want to listen on demand #wppundit

43) white paper 201 webinar course limited to 100 seats; offer closes May 6th or when all seats gone… and 300 on this free call #wppundit

44) Find out more about white paper 201 (and 101) classes from this (aff) http://bit.ly/90Q9pe or (non-aff) http://www.whitepapercompany.com/docs/wp201class.php

45) This ‘live’ tweet on “9 Ways to Overcome the Most Common White Paper Lead Generation Mistakes” is now complete. Thank you. #wppundit

- Mark ‘white paper writer’ McClure

If your white paper skills* could do with a shot in the arm from one of the top white paper copywriters in the US today, then check out this online master class from Jonathan Kantor.

TITLE: “White Paper 101: A Step-by-Step Approach to Creating Highly Engaging White Papers.”

WHERE: GoToWebinar.com

WHEN: 3 One-Hour Sessions: June 15th, 16th, and 17th. Noon Pacific/2pm Central/3pm Eastern

WHAT: When you attend the White Paper 101 course, you receive three full hours of training (taught by Jonathan Kantor), a copy of his eBook: Crafting White Paper 2.0, transcripts from past presentations, and an additional assortment of freebies worth over $497.

HOW: Registration is limited so act now! (The class is priced at $297 but will increase to $397 after June 11th, or when the first 100 places are gone. Yep, this is “time to take action” marketing in action; aka the early bird gets the worm.)

Having seen Jonathan’s webinar at Michael Stelzner’s White paper Success summit earlier this year, and attended his recent free white paper mistakes webinar , I was very impressed with the professional nature of the webinar format. They use GoToMeeting and I was able to watch and listen via the Internet – no travel or international call charges (not even Skype!) required.

A downloadable pdf version of the slides and a Quicktime video of the webinar were available after the events. This is great because I usually get a lot more value from listening to a class one or more times while commuting.

There are a number of bonuses available with the webinar offer – not least is Jonathan’s ebook, “Crafting White Paper 2.0: Designing Information for Today’s Time and Attention Challenged Business Reader”. This has been on my buy list for some time but I held off because I was still working through the Stelzner success summit course materials!

However, the bonus that’s really got me interested is the “1/2 hour phone consultation with Jonathan to review your completed white paper project.” This would cost a pretty penny ($200 of them, in fact), if you were to request it from him as a separate service.

So, what are you waiting for! Check out the sign up page for Jonathan’s course right here: http://bit.ly/90Q9pe

- Mark McClure

PS – White Paper skills* – the online course will cover the entire process from idea to research, outlining, interviewing, writing, marketing and lead generation. This is as much a course for business owners and corporate marketing folks, as it is for aspiring white paper writers.

PPS – Disclosure: I’m an affiliate for this course and recommend Jonathan’s teaching based on what I’ve experienced so far. Your mileage may vary but note that if you don’t think the course is for you by the end of the first day, just drop him an email and you’ll get your money back – the “24-Hour Sample It” Guarantee.
That sign up link again: http://bit.ly/90Q9pe

I’m always up for learning from established experts in the white paper arena.
That’s why I attended the White paper success summit 2010 earlier this year and why I’ll also be getting up for a 4am (relax, that’s Japan time) call with two top class white paper copywriters.

Michael Stelzner, of WhitePaperSource.com , and the author of the very popular book, Writing White Papers: How to Attract Readers and Keep Them Engaged, is hosting the free webinar, along with Jonathan Kantor, of Whitepapercompany.com.

(Both gentlemen have very targeted domain name selections!)

In addition to their words of wisdom, I’ll be very interested to learn more about white paper marketing (mistakes) in these tough economic times. Budgets have been slashed, consumers are retrenching and paying off debt and the “jobless recovery” is in danger of becoming the new economic status quo.

The free webinar will be held on Wednesday May 26th, at 12:00pm Pacific, 2:00 Central, and 3:00pm Eastern time. To attend all you need to do is register by visiting www.whitepaperwebinar.com for more information.

Of course you don’t have to attend the live call because all registered are promised a link to the recorded version for listening at their convenience.

However, in my case I’ll take advantage of the 5am Tokyo dawn by attending the call from 4-5am, then out for a quick trot around the park, followed by walking the dog around 6, and then into the day proper. It’s sometimes a nice feeling to have a good 1/2 day’s work under the belt before the standard 9-5 has even begun.

- Mark McClure

Jonathan Kantor is one of the top technology white paper copywriters around and his blog’s on my regular reading list at whitepapercompany.com/blog.

He’s been doing a series of weekly posts that list white papers found on Twitter within the previous seven days. They’re a varied bunch in both topics and quality but I’ve found it educational to pick one or two of the technology papers and see what I can learn as a copywriter.

This week I selected #25, “How the corporate data centre has become a cost black hole“, from UK-based IT Consultancy firm, romonet.

After reading it I posted a comment suggesting some improvements.
Presumptious? I don’t think so…

… why not see for yourself at FREE WHite Paper List 04.26.10

- Mark McClure

PS – Check out the Samurai Writer’s FaceBook ‘Fan’ page or whatever they’re calling it these days. (Oct 2011 Update: I took the fan page down while I figure out what social media presence I want as a freelance b2b tech writer. For now, Twitter, LinkedIn  and this blog are where I’m mostly spending time.)