In Search Of Heroes Spreads Good News About Everyday, Real-Life Heroes Who Deserve Recognition For Their Good Works

Consider the humble hoola-hoop.

Sitting in a garage by itself, it's little more than than a large ring of plastic.

Put around the waist of a person who's willing to set it in motion, the hoola-hoop is a wonder to behold.

Just as long as...

... the hoola-hoop wearer keeps moving in the direction that makes the hoola-hoop spin.

So it is with copy. Have you ever thought about it?

Most people don't. That is why their copy is so perfectly clear... and explanatory... and dull.

Dull doesn't do it... not when you're trying to get prospects to take action, that is.

Here's a tip you may have never fully realized before:

Good copy is not: ... static... lethargic... motionless.

No. Good copy is: ... dynamic... energetic... kinetic.

In simple words, that means copy is in motion.

It starts in motion... and because it keeps going, right to the last word, it has momentum.

When people perceive or imagine motion, they get emotional. Think movies. Think a rousing, stemwinder speaker. Think of a large bear coming out of nowhere, running straight towards you.

Emotion: Fear

Motion: Running to safety

You don't need to scare people like a bear to get them emotional and prompt them to action. But you are well advised to get them to picture motion in order to emotionally motivate them to take action.

Here are some ways:

* write descriptive language to get your prospect to imagine using your product or service.

* talk about the actions taken by you, your company, or your client (if you're writing copy for someone else) that were necessary to bring the product or service to market

* ask the prospect to take the specific action you want them to take

Notice I do this, at the end of every post on this blog, because the action I want you to take is to subscribe to my World Copywriting Newsletter.

I write, "To subscribe, click here."

Does it work?

Of course!

But not just because I ask for action. The other reason it works is because I follow the same principles myself that I just outlined for you.

Remember: If you can keep their brains in motion, their hearts and fingers will follow.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:12 AM | Permalink

This weekend, lazily surfing the tube, I fell into the charms of an infomercial.

(They work especially well when you're drowsy, you know... )

This one was for the Magic Bullet, an ingenious little blender/chopper/mixer system that makes dips, shakes, sauces and more in 10 seconds or less!

This morning having coffee, I distinctly remembered what I saw and heard. The reason was...

... the particular way they demonstrated the product.

One of the hosts of this show would pour the ingredients for (for example, salsa) into the clear glass container, turn it upside down, screw it onto the base, and as they used it, say,

"... and in one... two... three... seconds... you have your chunkly salsa!"

... pressing the "bullet" down in the same rhythm as the words were spoken: "one... two... three."

Why did I remember that?

Because we remember rhythms!

I was talking to a friend this morning, and he said this reminded him of an infomercial about a rotisserie where the slogan was "Set it... and forget it!"

My friend pointed out that the host on this show got the studio audience chanting these words: "Set it... and forget it!"

Brand advertisers have known for years about the power of rhythmic phrases... and you can find examples of this in many other areas of persuasive speech.

But the same thing works in copy... albeit at a more subtle level.

Put a rhythm in your words, and you get a great effect.

One of my clients says the the right hemisphere is the "rhythm section" of the brain, and I believe this is true.

I also think that the right brain is the gateway to the unconscious... where feelings are stored and generated, and buying decisions are made.

So pay attention to the "beat," and you'll be pleased with the results.

Don't make your copy scream "remember me!" Let your rhythm do it for you.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:13 AM | Permalink

"It is not sufficiently recognized - especially by the critics of advertising - that romance in its broad sense is the most wanted product in the world."
-- James Webb Young, quoted in How to Write a Good Advertisement by Victor Schwab

This is so important, and many copywriters think there is no romance -- in selling tractors, or office machinery, or scientific measuring devices, or software.

But those copywriters are wrong. Listen to what Vic Schwab has to say:

"Some products are literally bursting with romantic and emotional connotations. Then it is wiser to stress the glamorous ideas assocated with them - to feature the fancies and subordinate the facts, using the latter only to buttress the copy when and if necessary."

Remember, "romance" doesn't just mean "love." Or "sex." It means fantasy of all type... excitement, danger, bliss, victory, dreams come true.

Believably (and legitimately) draw the connection between what you're writing copy about and this broad definition of romance, and watch your banker and your accountant get very lovey-dovey with you.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:20 PM | Permalink

How Customer Complaints Can Make You A Fortune:

Yesterday I went shopping for luggage. This has become an annoyingly familiar experience. I go through suitcases, roller-bars, what-have-you, in record time.

Am I harder on my luggage than other people?

I don't think so.

Here's why:

First, a little background. I thought of all the stores I had been to before, and the problem was either

a) low-quality luggage, or

b) too expensive for the value

A friend had recommended I join Costco (box store, huge selection, giant quantities) so I thought this might be a good time to check them out.

I did, and I found an "Executive 26-inch Expandable Trolley" for about half of what I would pay for a discounted TravelPro (which I like, and I own a carry-on, but I think they're overpriced).

OK... to the point about complaints and disappointment:

I need two: one for me and one for products. (I'll be bringing about 35 pounds worth of information products as sales table display units to a conference I'm speaking at later this week).

Right on the front of the little brochure attached to the suitcase were the words "U.S.A. Cordura® by DuPont® Ballistic Nylon" (made in the U.S.A. to military specifications)"

Inside the brochure:
"Full honeycomb memory frame construction made of lightweight, industrial strength ABS composite material for maximum durability and strength."

On the back of the brochure:

"U.S.A. Cordura® by DuPont® Ballistic Nylon, invented by DuPont, was originally developed for bullet-resistant, military applications..."

Hmm... seems to me a LOT of people have trouble with luggage that doesn't go the extra mile.

My disappointment: On my last trip, the pull-out handle that you use to drag the luggage around, wouldn't pull out. And then one of the zippers snapped off.

It wasn't cheap, by the way, but it was something I bought at the last minute from an adventure-travel-goods store that really wasn't in the business of providing rugged or long-lasting luggage. (Unfortunately, this one wasn't a TravelPro... but anyhow, that's the way the story goes... )

So... here's the major point of all of this:

If you KNOW what your customers are upset about... ESPECIALLY with what they're getting from your competitors... and you can HIGHLIGHT a solution to that problem in your copy...

... it will get a lot of frustrated people to gratefully buy what you have to offer.

It did me.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 09:18 PM | Permalink

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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One of the things most if not all Internet marketers come across at least once in their lives is "spam." Whether they've used it, contemplated it, rallied against it, or received it, the deceptively appealing nature of unsolicited commercial email as well as the gut-wrenching, mind-numbing, nerve-racking person-hours it takes to manage spam makes it the most detested form of online marketing. But the question remains: Why is it still being used?

It's Like a Drug
Today, while driving to a client in my consulting practice, I listened to the audio version of one of my favorite books, "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Al Ries and Jack Trout -- the fathers of positioning. One of their laws struck me in a way it has never struck me before, for I realized, now that I am online, how much these laws apply to Internet marketing as well. It also struck me because the book was written in a time when email was relatively unknown and "WWW" was thought of as an acronym for some new sports organization.

Law number 11, the law of perspective, states: In marketing, "The long-term effects are usually the exact opposite of the short-term effects." Al Ries illustrates this law with sales promotions and the way they work -- and work against you. While sales do help to increase business in the short-term, in the long-term the effect wears off and, like a drug, one has to inject more price based incentives to keep the volume at a certain level. Ultimately, a discount driven company will see its business inevitably decrease. As Ries points out, "Sales tend to educate consumers over time never to buy at regular prices."

Sex, drugs, money, and crime are all typical examples in which short-term gains can lead to long-term losses. But these hedonistic-like marketing approaches are not limited to sales promotions. With the Internet comes along another -- this seemingly unstoppable barrage of unwanted commercial email called "spam." Obviously, spam is effective and very profitable since, if it wasn't, it would have stopped haunting our inboxes long ago. However, in addition to the potential infringement of new business-related laws, the negative consequences of spam with regards to long-term profitability far outweigh the short-term advantages.

Credibility is Crucial
A business' most important asset is its credibility -- and more so online, for the Internet lacks the human element. (By the way, it is this very lack that often makes spam so attractive if not addictive, as some people tend to forget that people receive the mail, not computers.) Nevertheless, credibility in the faceless world wide web is like oxygen in its offline version: It's critically important and inescapably essential. Therefore, a more profitable, long-term solution is the creation of one's own opt-in mailing lists or the use of others that are opt-in, responsible, and targeted.

Consequently, ezines are growing with astonishing fervor. Beyond the fact that they help build trust and credibility, ezines help you to stay in constant touch with your prospects. People want to get to know you. And the level of value they attribute to their purchase from you is -- as unrelated as it may seem -- inextricably tied to the level of trust they place in you.

Sure, short-term band-aid solutions can produce good results. Sales and profits can be made with spam (or without the need for prospects to know you, for that matter). But like drugs, these solutions are only short-lived, which is why they must be continuously repeated in order to remain viable let alone profitable -- hence, the reason why spammers keep spamming.

Knowing you is the basis of any long-term business success. If you're in it for the long haul and if you want to remain profitable for a long period of time, then consider the converse -- short-term losses versus long-term gains. In other words, don't spam. Find ways to stay in contact with eager, interested, and consensual prospects. Publish your own ezine. Buy or rent targeted opt-in lists from reputable mailing list brokers. Get linked on as many other sites as possible. Most important, advertise in ezines... It's your surest and safest bet.

Needless to say, it is commonsensical that, if you sell a product online that helps to make life easier for your prospects, don't market your product in a way that negates or contradicts that very point. Use responsible email marketing strategies. The pitfalls of spam marketing will, in the end, cost you much more than some of its more respectable alternatives.

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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Posted by ralph at 02:44 PM | Permalink

Does Copy Have to Follow The "Airport Rule" -- That Is, No Jokes?

Last night I spoke to the Laugh Lovers Toastmasters Club in Oakland, California. It was poignant for me because the club was founded, in another format, by a friend of mine who is no longer with us on this Earth, the legendary John Cantu.

Robin William, Dana Carvey, Paula Poundstone, Margaret Cho and many other comedy superstars of today got their start at Cantu's Holy City Zoo, a comedy room on Clement St. between 5th and 6th Avenues in San Francisco. Today the space is occupied by a fierce Irish bar called The Dogs Bollix.

I was invited to speak last night to commemorate Cantu (he went by his last name), and in dredging up memories, I thought of a story he told me once from his days as a carvinal barker.

Besides being a great humor resource, Cantu was also a very skilled salesman. Rare combo, don't you agree?

He used to sell the Veg-o-Matic, and he also sold a super-absorbent cloth called the Shammy. On tables at County Fairs. A real pitchman of the first water.

When selling the Shammy, Cantu would give examples of how you could use the product.
One piece of advice he would give his prospects:

"And if you have a Golden Reliever at home... oops, I mean a Golden Retriever... "

That would get a laugh, and that would increase sales.

While this great friend of mine was alive -- and I miss our wide-ranging conversations so much! -- he and I would talk about how most advertisers totally blow it with humor in sales copy (Cantu also wrote killer radio commercials, and had a lot of expertise selling over the telephone).

Now, throughout advertising history, there are legendary disaster stories about how humor has made copy reduce sales. Alka-Seltzer. Isuzu. I'm sure you can think of a few.

And in all the "below the radar" sales Web sites and direct mail letters that pull in the big bucks, humor is so rare as to be seen as an endangered species of communication.

The conclusion Cantu and I came to is, humor for humor's sake -- that is, to get attention for the copy itself -- was a sure-fire losing strategy.

But what worked so well with the Shammy could work in any piece of copy (spoken, as a pitch or delivered as an ad, Web site, sales letter, or email).

What Cantu did, perhaps not deliberately, but instead intuitively, was make fun of the problem that the product was promising to solve.

When you can render an annoying problem in your customer's life as a little less overbearing, by poking fun at it, you stand a chance of making a few more sales. Doing so is a way of creating empathy.

Now this can backfire. If you ridicule and dismiss a real and serious problem too cavalierly, you can end up looking crass and uncaring. And that doesn't usually help sales.

So, it's a fine line; it's still risky to use humor in copy. Like a comedian trying out a new line in front of a tough crowd, you can still bomb.

But at least you have the possibility of using humor, productively, in your copy, with this strategy.

Just don't read these last three paragraphs out loud at an airport. You might end up speaking one of those no-no words (hint: it begins with a "b")... and these days, there's nothing funny about pranks at airports, no matter how clever you are.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 03:19 PM | Permalink

In a few hours, my new friend Mike Lamb will interview me for his Moneyroom Internet radio show. Mike comes from the world of "real radio" -- he was a major-market DJ in several cities -- and I'm excited about the whole thing!

As I prepared for the interview, I dug deep into my memory and thought about what led me to where I am today. The most amazing thing I discovered was the powerful effect of the creative process has had across the broad span of my life.

Everything builds on everything else. What I'm doing today, and why I'm particularly suited for it, for example, traces back to age five when I created "The C&D Company" with my best friend Chris Soulen. I don't know what we were selling, but, it does let me say I've been a business owner for 46 years! :)

In writing copy, not only does everything build on everything else, but, you can ethically and profitably use simple creativity to shortcut the time and effort needed to come up with the words that sell.

Am I saying you build your life the same way you write your copy? Well... a life has far more to it than even the best piece of killer copy... but... in a sense, I am.

Because...

... one thing builds on another in copy, and when you get the right combination, 1 + 1 = 3.

At least.

For instance, if you are as "seasoned" as I am, you may remember the old ad campaign (I think it was in the 1960s) for Avis Car rentals:

We're Number Two... We Try Harder

From what I remember, those six words wrung a lot of money out of the market for Avis. Even to the point (and this is just a rumor I've heard, but it's very probable), Avis continued to use the "We're Number Two... " slogan after it overtook Hertz and was in fact Number One in its marketplace...

... just because those words worked so well.

I'm indebted to Gene Schwartz, author of Breakthrough Advertising, for explaining how this particular bit of creativity worked. He called it "emotional math."

The idea is that when you have two phrases that together leave a lot unsaid between them, you get people thinking... and if you can get them thinking in the right direction, that can turn into a lot of business.

You see, there's brilliance in that phrase, because it would make sense that the number-two player in a business would try harder, since they need to in order to reach the top spot.

And wouldn't you rather rent your car from someone who's trying harder? Don't you expect you'd be treated better? Given extra accommodations when you needed it?

In fact, wouldn't you expect the rates to be more competitive, the cars to be cleaner, the selection to be wider?

All of those are things a customer might think, just from those six words.

Now, here are two important points for you to consider as you begin to expand your own creativity:

Creativity doesn't need to be exotic or unique. In fact, the best creativity comes from the unusual combination of fairly mundane or familiar elements. "We're number two" is hardly a stroke of genius; "we try harder" doesn't sound like that much, either. But put together in the way that they were, those words were an oil gusher for Avis.

It's all under your nose or behind it (in your brain). Creativity doesn't need to take place anywhere else, although it can. But it doesn't have to. You can find things right on your desk, or in your car, or from your car radio, or in your newspaper, or in a conversation with a loved on, or in your memory bank... and put them together in different combinations.
A lot of your potential for using your creativity to write better copy is shifting from the view that the world is a fixed place, set in its ways, with limited opportunities...

... to the more proactive view that the world is a treasure chest of ingredients, and you have the right and the power to recombine those ingredients so as to make money!

It sounds so simple.

It is.

Go ahead. Try it. You'll see.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:08 PM | Permalink

It cuts across all forms of personal communication: writing copy; speaking; face-to-face selling; chit-chat at the grocery store; even lookin' for love at the local saloon.

It's the need to put yourself in the story. To shed anonymity. To let people know who YOU are.

It's powerful.

When you don't do it, you're weak; and most people writing copy leave this part out. O shame! O missed opportunity! O self-sacrifice!

Because putting personal information in your copy, the right way, will add tremendous power to your copy and...

... increase your response rate and profitability by a wide, wide margin.

On Friday I was recording an exciting new product here in the San Francisco studio, with Working Solo guru Terri Lonier, who was in town from New York. I'll tell you more about it later this fall.

One section of our new product, naturally, was about copywriting. We were discussing how important it is in a sales letter to introduce yourself and at least summarize your relevant credentials early on in your copy.

Terri and I both shook our heads as we remembered all the Web sites we have seen that don't appear to be run by, or connected to, people. There's no mention of any human on them anywhere.

Of course I'm reluctant to do business with any company like that, unless someone I know and trust can vouch for this faceless, nameless entity.

Yes, we live in a very impersonal world. But no, we don't sell or buy that way.

People buy from people. It's always been that way; and there's a very good chance it will continue to be that way stretching out into the future, as far as the eye can see.

Now, to put this in perspective, your copy is not, and never should be, all about you.

Because it's all about your customer. And what you have to offer can do for your customer.

But remember... as your prospective customer is reading your copy, he or she will come to say (silently or out loud): "Who's saying all this stuff to me? Who are they, anyway? Why should I believe them? What gives them the right to say these things?"

That's real. You may not like it; you may not even believe it, yet.

But suppose for a moment that it were true, and introducing the person or people behind the business really would help your copy increase its results.

What would you say? How would you say it? How would you make it seem conversational, authentic, relevant?

The correct answers to those questions will put you in a higher tax bracket. And make your customers much more comfortable doing business with you.

You. Yes, you. Y-O-U!

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:12 AM | Permalink

My friend Craig Perrine and I were talking yesterday, and Craig told me about someone who had visited his Web site and sent him back a report card.

It's hard to send red marks through an email, but this well-meaning visitor told Craig about the misspelled words and grammatical mistakes on his site.

And, the dude had the audacity to remind Craig to never begin a sentence with the word "and."

Probably without realizing it, the well-meaning visitor entered a dialogue that has been going on for decades - between direct marketers and guardians of proper usage, punctuation and the language as a whole.

You might wonder which side of the fence I'm on, on this issue.

How's this for your answer:

Both.

No, it's not that I don't know how to take a stand. I have very strong and definite opinions.

But I do pick my battles these days. And this is not one of them.

However, it's an important point -- if for no other reason, because it comes up so much -- and that is why I'm writing about it today.

First, my fence-straddling:

My background encourages perfectionism. I once worked for the world's largest publisher of business information, McGraw-Hill, as a magazine editor; later as a field correspondent; and ultimately as a news bureau chief.

As a New York editor, I was very clearly told that any copy leaving my desk had bloody well be free of errors. Condition of employment.

Before that, I had been a French major in college. I even spent a year studying in France. If there's one language, and culture, that doesn't look kindly on spelling or grammar mistakes, that would be the language and culture of France.

And we could talk about the house I grew up in... but this is a blog, not public psychotherapy.

Now, truth be told, I like good grammar and correct spelling. But I don't think they're the end-all and be-all, especially in sales copy.

As for the other side of the coin, fault-free writing does not necessarily lead to breaking the bank with your results.

To give you a couple of examples, I've recently been doing some work in the business-opportunity field, where companies use pre-programmed email autoresponders to turn cold leads into warm prospects.

When you look at these autoresponders, you could easily get the impression that the people who wrote them went out of their way to make spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, leaps of logic and other stupid faux pas.

Like:

"It's not hard. just show people the savings they can enjoy and get paid.. Can you handle that??
If yes, then take that next step and let’s get going... You deserve a vacation dont you?"

or

"Make a Fortune while Traveling to Exotice Hot Spots..."

Hey -- not major errors, but so far from word-perfect, we won't even go there.

And yet, these are sales messages that just happen to be making the people who use them, thousands upon thousands of dollars.

Now, these are not isolated examples. I have one friend, a copywriter and entrepreneur, who is wildly creative and yet points out every typo in everything of mine he sees.

He's as successful in business as anyone I know. Let's just say, "mega-successful."

And I'm always glad to get his feedback. I know he's trying to help, and he does.

I have another friend who writes million dollar sales letters, who keeps getting pulled off his own projects with irresistible offers from other big-name marketers.

He can't get the difference between "your" and "you're" right.

One friend, a best-selling author and frequent media guest. I've never seen her make a typographical error, even in an email.

Another friend, also a best-selling author, who teaches prospective authors how to get published. Can't spell her way out of a paper bag. Well, she can... but not all that well. :)

So, what's the answer? Does spelling matter? Does grammar count? Will your copy sink if your syntax stinks?

I think it's all about what's behind what you write.

Atrocious spelling and illiterate sentence structure won't necessarily pry dollar bills out of your prospects... but...

You can make mistakes -- plenty of them -- and still make a fortune.

If...

You understand what people want, how they talk about it, and how to offer it to them in an appealing way.

There's an ancient understanding among those of us who sell with the written word:

A good offer with imperfect copy will far outdo an inadequate offer with copy that would get an A-plus from the English teacher.

I have one client who has made millions before and is building new empires today.

He hired me to mentor him in writing copy. It cost him a lot of money and he has put in a tremendous effort.

His copy's gotten pretty darned good. His spelling is for the birds.

So I told him, maybe he should hire a proofreader.

Or maybe not.

See, he knows what people want... knows how to offer it to them, in an appealing way, and with integrity. So it's good for them and profitable for him.

He'll make money either way. Plenty o' money.

I hope this gives you some things to think about... and a renewed sense of hope if you can't spell your way out of a paper bag.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:20 AM | Permalink

Fortune Magazine Names Meg Whitman, ebay CEO, as the "Most Powerful Woman in Business."
What This Means to You as a Marketer and Copywriter...

Congratulations to my San Francisco Bay Area neighbor Meg Whitman for receiving this honor.

Not only is it a major achievement for her, but, since ebay is a totally Internet-based company, it's a landmark event for the Internet business community as well.

I was editor of a very expensive printed and mailed newsletter during the dot-bomb era called "What's Working Online," and it was all I could do, as a direct marketer, not to end nearly every story with the assessment: "This company is a joke."

With $3.2 billion in projected revenues for 2004, ebay is no joke.

But when you look at how ebay makes its money...

... you realize that its success is proof positive of something I have been saying for a long time:

The Internet is a direct-marketing, direct-response medium.

And companies' fortunes will live and die online by the quality and sales effectiveness of their copywriting.

Lord knows we have enough negative examples to fill several books... and indeed those books have been written.

But now we have the first of many positive ones: ebay.

Postive in that the whole business model, at the foundation, is based on copywriting.

Here's why I say that:

You can put the same item up for sale on ebay, with the same pictures, and with

a) a neutral, wimpy or skimpy description, you'll get a modest amount of money,

b) but with a winning, desire-inducing, action-stimulating, feeding-frenzy-causing description, you'll get a much larger sum of money.

The difference? The description.

And what is the description? It's copy. Plain and simple.

Headline.

Benefit statements.

Bullet points.

Proof of claims.

Call to action.

So here's my call to action to you: whether you want to be the next most powerful woman (or man) in business... or you just want to make a few more bucks on the Internet (or elsewhere)...

... sharpen up those copy skills.

Starting now.

There's a new literacy today. No federal programs supporting it (except the one that prints small green bills with pictures of dead presidents on them). No commissions studying it (except the dispersed aggregate "commission" known as "the marketplace"). No statistics officially available (but you would find those statistics in the closely-guarded sales conversion numbers of Web sites with good copy).

What is this new literacy?

It's copywriting literacy.

For your own economic future, make sure you get some.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:11 AM | Permalink

I know a copywriter who's so good he got me to write a check for $5,000 today before I even knew what he was really selling.

I have absolute faith and confidence that it is money well spent. Well, not just spent. Invested.

This is not some cute little story I made up for my blog. It's true. I have taken some liberties, because...

... the copywriter in question -- I'll be telling you about him in a future rant -- wouldn't actually let me send him a check. He said he might be doing something and it would cost $5,000 to participate. I told him my credit card was ready the minute he was ready to accept it... and I meant it.

What was he selling? You think it matters, but it doesn't. What matters is that he knew how to create value in my mind.

It didn't hurt that two street-smart sharp cards, guys coincidentally both from Brooklyn (yeah, I have roots there... that's where my Mom's from), had both asked me in the last 24 hours, "Did you hear about so-and-so's seminar? Are you going?"

Both of these dudes are friggin' geniuses. They have made millions for their clients with the copy they have written (they're both copywriters, too). The more successful of the two told me he was going. One specific result he was pretty sure he could get, he told me, would more than pay for the event in toto.

Now in case you think this whole rant is about copywriters who make a lot of money for other people spending a lot money on other copywriters...

... may I invite you to think again?

Because what this is really about is value. How it's created and how it's perceived. And what it causes, sometimes forces, people to do.

Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. But as a copywriter, value for someone else starts in your mind's eye.

Hey, I'll give you an example. A friend of mine told me today he's going to put a comment on one of my other rants in this blog about a single piece of advice in that other rant, that he said was drenched with value. He said the advice I gave solved a problem he had had in an earlier business...

... a problem he and a partner had paid marketing consultant Jay Abraham $10,000 to solve. My friend told me my solution was better, in the way I conceptualized, templated and articulated it, than all the advice he and his partner had gotten from Jay in two hours... which, he said, was well worth the money all the same.

Now the question is: What is value? I urge you to go back to Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and read about the exercise the author's Rich Dad used to give him.

The exercise was to take a blank balance sheet, and within it, draw up a plan to create a money-making business without having to invest any capital.

Sound like sorcery? Financial bullshit? An old master giving a young kid a task he knew he couldn't complete, just to teach him the importance of plowing through frustration?

I suppose you could look at Rich Dad's assignment to young Robert in any one of those three ways.

But as a copywriter, you should consider looking at it in a fourth way: He was teaching Robert to create value first in his mind's eye, so that later he could realize it as cash in the physical world.

I promise you, this is an ethical, viable skill you can learn and bring to term. For yourself. For your clients. For people who are neither copywriters nor protegés of Rich Dad.

You can do it for every consumer, client and business-to-business customer on the face of the planet. It is the mental skill of millionaires, fund-raisers and the visionaries who midwife businesses into being.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:03 AM | Permalink

As we Americans prepare for a day of edible abundance, it's good to think about the currency that puts the food on the table -- financial abundance.

Not just money. Profit.

I bring this up because yesterday I was talking with a client who is has over a quarter-billion dollars' worth of sales to his credit. He's savvy. But he's starting a new business, and he's in learning mode about the Web.

I asked him if he knew about Direct Marketing Math. You don't need graduate degrees in statistics to understand this. You don't even need to have finished high school.

Direct Marketing Math is very simple... and yet it is basis for fortunes. Countless millionaires; maybe even some billionaires.

It works like this:

You put a dollar in, and you get more than a dollar back. You've made a profit.

Systematize that. Scale it up. Keep control of your costs and watch the profitability of each ad like a hawk.

And that's all there is to it.

Now, while it's simple, it's not necessarily easy. But it's a heck of a lot easier than textbook accounting.

And, if you like direct marketing, I think it's easier - or at least more enjoyable - than other ways of making a living and accumulating a nest egg or two.

What I find amazing is not that my client grasped this instantly - as a natural-born businessman, he found it right in line with all his experience -- but what I find amazing is how few other people can grasp this at all.

I blame the school system, the media, Wall Street and the pervasive need for looking good over getting results.

I have yet to find a school that teaches entrepreneurship that has anything to do with the entrepreneur I am, the ones I know as friends and peers, and the ones I mentor and write copy for.

The only places where Direct Marketing Math is discussed with any degree of fluency and practicality is in private newsletters, high-end seminars, and non-institutional blogs and Web sites.

Wall Street has undoubtedly created the underpinnings of the greatest economy in the history of the world. But there are no instances I'm aware of where The Street has promoted the understanding of, and proficiency in, Direct Marketing Math.

Looking good? I won't blame Elizabeth Arden or Giorgio Armani. They're the effect, not the cause. If you have any ideas why the vast majority of people would rather look good than get measurable results they can put in the bank or take to Hawaii, please leave a comment. I'd really like to know.

Now's a good time for me to express thanks to the people, some of them, anyway, who have helped me learn Direct Marketing Math:

Dan Kennedy
Denny Hatch
Perry Marshall
Jay Abraham
Gary Halbert
Ted Nicholas
Mark Joyner
Jim Edwards
I have a confession to make: Though I got 782 on my Math SATs, I have never been able to pass an accounting course (a traditional one) -- and I've tried almost a dozen times.

I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't a blessing that traditional accounting doesn't compute.

However, as a Direct Marketer, I have learned (to steal a line from a Wall Street Journal ad), "to teach nickels to become quarters."

And, I have one of the world's best accountants, H.M. of Hollywood, Florida, to help me figure out how to allocate those quarters.

Happy Thanksgiving. Don't give money another thought, until it's time to make your next marketing investment. Then, remember Direct Marketing Math.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:06 AM | Permalink

When Your Headline Sucks, It Doesn't Really Matter How
Good The Rest Of Your Copy Is. Here's What Not To Do:

1. Don't be clever. Most of the time, the urge to be clever is a short-cut to avoid doing the work of creating an enticing promise that will prepare the reader to take the action you are looking for. Resist the temptation; a straightforward headline almost always works better than a clever one.

2. Don't be boring. Remember that ultimately, what you are looking for is action. Action involves motion. Motion is prompted by emotion. And emotion is generated by excitement. Don't settle for a headline that is more likely to produce a yawn than anything else.

3. Don't assume your prospect knows what you know. It's easy to fall into the trap of forgetting all the time and effort you put into building the knowledge and expertise you have on the product, service or information you are marketing. Make the effort to turn back the clock, in your mind, to when you knew far less. Don't write your headline for sophisticated people; write for the person who needs to learn more.

4. Don't focus on your process. The founder of Scott's, the company that sells lawn care products, once said "People aren't buying grass seed from us. They're buying greener lawns." What this means is, people are not interested, initially, in how the seeds are selected, or developed, or, for that matter, stored or shipped (the process). People are interested in greener lawns (the end result). Don't focus on your process; focus on what the prospect gets.

5. Don't merely try to arouse curiosity. You have to do better than that if you want your prospect to get up enough of an emotional head of steam to be ready to buy, or take some other crucial action, after they finish reading your copy. Curiosity at the outset won't do it. Curiosity's good, but what's more important is desire. And intrigue.

By the way, you'll learn how to write great headlines (in minutes) and a whole lot more at the Breakthrough Copywriting Seminar in Las Vegas February 18-20. This small-group, high-powered, exclusive program is only for people who really want to take their copywriting to the next level... and are willing to learn (and do) what it takes to get them there!

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 07:54 AM | Permalink

The not-so-secret code of a fast-food restaurant offers a value meal of ideas for great copywriting:

If you live almost anywhere in the U.S. but California (where I live), you know what Waffle House is.

In case you don't, it's a fast-food restaurant franchise open 24-hours-a-day. In Atlanta, where I had Sunday morning breakfast at a Waffle House with friends one week ago today, everybody loves Waffle House.

Well, maybe not everybody. But I see more people drinking Coke in Atlanta than anywhere else. And on this Sunday morning, we waited a good 25 minutes, sitting in a line of chairs, to get our table. This is typical, I was told.

Now Waffle House has a special language for when you order, and they use the language they way I have seen other million-dollar copywriters use words for copy... and the way I have used it myself.

At the top of this little rant, you saw a picture of four mushrooms. Now at Waffle House, you can order your hash-browned potatoes with mushrooms, but don't use that word to describe them -- you'll be corrected.

To order hash browns with anything extra, you have to say "scattered" (since the hash browns are "scattered" among the other ingredients). So if you want to order hash browns with mushrooms, tell your waitress "scattered and capped."

"Smothered" means with onions; "covered" means with melted cheese.

Rock band Hootie and the Blowfish released a CD in tribute to Waffle House called "Scattered, smothered and covered" in 2000; the chain was founded in 1955 and buying a Waffle House franchise is considered getting a license to print money.

So... copywriting?

Wayull, it just turns out that there are a few dozen words and phrases that work really, really well in sales copy. Words like "new." "Amazing" "Value" Phrases like "And here's the best part... " "Not only that... " "And what you'll really like, is... "

Two years ago, I wrote a book called Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich, which revealed these proven phrases in headlines, and showed how to adapt them to your own copy.

A friend of mine, who just happened to have degrees from among the most prestigious business and law schools in the world, wondered (as many people do) if the world would tire of these words and they would lose their effectiveness.

The continuing success of a fixed menu and a fixed vocabulary at the Waffle House is one indication that the basics of direct marketing copy - including the words and phrases themselves - will never change (much, that is).

I cover the surprising reason for this in the free bonus teleseminar you get for signing up to my also free newsletter, The World Copywriting Newsletter.

It's the fifth of the 11 secrets about copy I reveal in that teleseminar.

I miss the Waffle House, now being home in San Francisco this fine Sunday morning. But we have something even you guys in Atlanta don't have ... the actual diner where George Lucas filmed American Graffiti ... Mel's!

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:10 AM | Permalink

Do you know the way to Trader Joe's?

The California-based grocery chain has outlets in 19 U.S. states. Yesterday I got their catalog in the mail and it is as rich with copywriting tidbits as it is with tempting teriyaki and appetizing ales.

I don't like to go to the Trader Joe's in my neighborhood -- on Masonic Ave. in San Francisco -- because it's almost impossible to park there. They have a good-sized parking lot and there's always a wait... just to get a parking space!,"

But I like the way they market. Here are some of the things I saw in their catalogue, called "Trader Joe's® Fearless Flyer®," that I thought were good examples for everyone who writes copy:

1. Trader Joe's marketing has a personality. This is important, and believe you me, it's rare. In San Francisco, we also have Trader Joe's advertising on the radio. The announcer announces his or her name and then tells a story about a special... and thanks you, the listener, for listening.

Compare that to Safeway or Albertson's or other big grocery chain's ads. First, you can't tell one from the other. Second, they have campy and witless little skits that get you to hear something about a special. And third, they have no personality.

2. There's a congruency in the message, the method and the medium. Trader Joe's is known for cheap gourmet stuff. (The headline at the top of the front page of the Fearless Flyer is "Red Wines from Villa Mt. Eden Just $2.99 a Bottle.") The entire 24-page catalogue has low-end, silly graphics and is printed on newsprint.

It works. It's congruent. And I still can't get into the damned parking lot.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:02 AM | Permalink

A bullet (bullet point in copy) is a short phrase, sometimes as long as two or three lines, that in a very concentrated, power-packed, and dynamic way sums up what’s really powerful or exciting, usually about one aspect of what you’re writing your copy about. It stokes desire while, at the same time, it builds confidence and comfort with what you're offering.

And the interesting thing is, the bullet doesn’t just lie there on the floor like a glob of goo. A bullet is something in action.

Let me give you a very easy way to understand this. This is important because a lot of people have good headlines, or decent headlines, and their copy is okay.

But, when it comes to the bullets, the whole thing just falls apart. You can really do well with your bullets once you understand this:

Think of a hot summer day.

Now on this summer day, I want you to forget for a moment about air conditioning here and instead think about a simple table fan.

OK. The blade of the fan – that’s not a bullet. That’s a piece of the fan – it’s a feature, a component.

You plug the fan in, push the switch, the blade starts spinning. A breeze starts going through your house, and now there’s this cool breeze blowing on you.

You are all hot and sweaty, and the breeze starting to cool you off now. That breeze is the bullet. It’s the air in motion. It’s the satisfying, relieving result that the fan provides for you.

If you ever get stuck on bullets, think of your prospect as someone who’s hot and sweaty, and uncomfortable. And your product, your service, or your information product is the fan that’s going to cool them off and make them feel comfortable again. You have to get them to imagine that comforting, soft breeze that’s calming them down. That’s what a bullet is.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:21 AM | Permalink

A long time ago, I thought I might become a screenwriter. In the Hollywood sense.

(I guess anyone who writes to be read on someone else's computer screen could be called a "screenwriter"... but... I had something else in mind at the time.)

Agents and lawyers and stars, o my! Hey, it hasn't happened yet and, the more I learn about the way Hollywood works, the more I think I'm in the right business as a copywriting mentor and educator (and copywriter).

Anyway... one time I took this screenwriting class in Marin County, California. It was back in the '90s, and we had the most interesting assignment -- one that would work exceptionally well for copywriters, too.

The assignment was basically to snoop.

Yeah, snoop.

We were supposed to hang out somewhere in public, with a notebook and a pen, and eavesdrop on conversations. Then, transcribe them word-for-word.

It's an amazing exercise in tuning up your hearing. You'd be surprised how you don't hear exactly what other people are saying, the way they are saying it -- until you really start listening, that is.

The purpose of this exercise was to discover the way people actually say things. Word for word. In real life.

So that when you wrote your movie dialogue, you'd have a base of authentic talking to draw from.

Most amateur dialogue sounds corny and awkward. It's neither entertaining, nor believable.

Movie dialogue is not exactly what people say in real life, either -- it's stylized, compact, rhythmic, clever, sometimes memorable and profound.

But it starts as authentic speech, and gets refined -- goes Hollywood -- from there.

Now... how does this all relate to copywriting?

Simple.

Good copywriting is the spoken language in written form. I was the first person to say that, back in 1999. In the first five minutes of Killer Copy Tactics, the audio/workbook program that Mark Joyner's company aesop.com put on the Web.

Some people still haven't gotten the message about spoken language in written form. So I'm putting it out in this free format, for all to see.

You might want to try some public eavesdropping yourself. Amazing exercise.

Just don't be too obvious about it.

Paranoid people might get the wrong idea.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

E-book Secrets Exposed
By David Garfinkel
This incredible ebook explains things nobody else has ever published before! This ebook explains the real way to make real money online with ebooks... Finally! Somebody gives people the truth about what it takes to make massive amounts of money with your own ebook... whether you wrote it or not!

KillerCopyTactics.com
By David Garfinkel
A fully interactive multimedia course by David Garfinkel, the man many call "The World's Greatest Copywriting Coach." David will show you "how to turn words into cash" in this groundbreaking tour-de-force. This course sets the bar for what Internet based learning should be.

AdvertisingHeadlinesThatMakeYouRich.com
By David Garfinkel
This ebook makes it unnecessary to write another headline ever again. David Garfinkel has been described as, "the world's greatest copywriting coach." He's a successful results oriented copywriter and his new ebook shows you exactly how to adapt proven money-making headlines to your business.

Posted by ralph at 08:15 AM | Permalink