Every time I receive a critique request from a
mentee I’m also asked this. What’s my overall
opinion on the copy?

To be of most help to my clients, I must point out
an important aspect of copy that in my experience
is not discussed by others.  And it’s perhaps the
most elusive aspect of copy to ever grasp.

However, no matter how creative the copy may be,
unless this aspect is present the copy simply will
not work.

The best way I know to understand this element is
to think about it in a special way.

Every student of a musical instrument knows this.
You need a tuning fork to accurately vibrate with
to capture the exact level of any particular sound.

When writing copy, it’s as though there are two
tuning forks that must exactly match their sound.
We must get the tuning fork within us to vibrate in
harmony with the tuning fork within those to
whom we are making an offer.

Otherwise, if you are not vibrating in tune with
prospects, they simply will not act on your copy.

However, if you are vibrating in tune, a majority
of your prospects will relate with your message.
And many will act on it.

How do I know if I’m vibrating with and on the
same page as my prospects?

It’s really quite easy. If the response is heavy in
both orders as well as comments and feedback, I
know whether I’m on the same page.

Response is the telltale sign. This is, of course,
the main beauty of direct response marketing!

When you completely miss the mark, it’s also
not hard to tell. There is very little response of
any kind.

So, when writing copy, your challenge is this.
To get your tuning fork vibrating in tune with
the majority of your prospects.

Admittedly, to make the judgment initially is
more of an art than a science. But you do get
better with experience. And actual results will
confirm whether your judgments are correct.

In any case, to succeed big, your copywriting
efforts should be directed toward really getting
in tune with your market.

Your correspondent,
Ted Nicholas

—————

“This article appears courtesy of THE SUCCESS
MARGIN, the Internet’s most valuable success and
marketing e-zine. For a complimentary
subscription, visit http://www.tednicholas.com/

About 80% of your blog’s success comes from “ass in chair” time. That’s the time you spend writing posts, editing posts, finding the perfect image, connecting with fellow bloggers, answering comments, shaping up your SEO, and all the other tasks we teach you about here on Copyblogger.

You’ve got to get that stuff right. But great blogs are not built by “ass in chair” time alone.

There’s actually a significant element to your success that you may be neglecting with all that work and focus.

Every once in awhile, you might consider getting out of the chair and physically setting eyes on a fellow human being. I realize this is a bizarre, arcane practice, but bear with me.

Social networking 1.0

Have you ever noticed that you don’t really know what a post is going to be about until you start writing? You throw something out there, and next thing you know, it’s gone in whatever direction naturally follows.

Believe it or not, you can actually replicate this phenomenon by physically locating yourself in close proximity to another person, with each of you taking turns speaking. This is called a conversation.

I know, you know all about conversation already. It’s answering blog comments, writing on your ex-girlfriend’s Facebook wall, and tweeting how cranky you are in line at the Genius Bar. But here’s something you might not know — “conversations” actually predate the internet.

Spend enough time in these “real world” conversations, and you actually trigger the growth of new neural connections. You come up with new ideas. You challenge your existing ideas and take them in new directions. You learn.

This phenomenon is improved by another old-school technique, called listening. It’s like lurking, except the other person can see you standing there, so at some point you should probably say something.

Conversation and listening can, if you let them, become awe-inspiring weapons in your blogging arsenal. They’ll give you a virtually endless supply of post ideas, angles for content, and insights into human psychology.

And they’ll improve the quality of your thinking, getting you out of the same stale perceptions and approaches to your writing.

Do enough of this and you will make friends. These are similar to Facebook friends, except a) you actually like them, and b) if they poke you, you get to smack them in the head and tell them to quit being a jackass.

Advanced stuff

Once you’ve mastered these fundamental tools, you may be ready to move forward to a more advanced practice.

You can practice conversing and listening with more than one person at once.

One place you can try this is an entrepreneur’s group in your local community. Generally the way it works is that you show up, pay something, they serve you a really bad lunch, and the real estate guy hits you up for business within the first 2 minutes.

Once you’ve detached the real estate guy, these can be quite fun. You can engage in listening and conversations with other people who are facing the same issues you are. Some stuff you’ll know a lot about, and you can teach them. Some stuff they’re going to be a lot smarter about than you are, which is when you want to shut up and take a few notes.

You can also go to parties. These are gatherings of people in one place for multiple real-time instances of conversing, listening, and friending, often accompanied by beer, tequila, and possibly pretzels.

These “parties” often include music, dancing, and laughter. Things may even liven up thanks to the noisy presence of one or more highly intoxicated people, who provide entertainment and a comforting sense of moral superiority.

What do I know?

I’m writing this post based on a dim memory of these old-school practices, since I haven’t done them for months. (OK, I did a warmup and had coffee this week with Grandma Mary, which was delightful.)

I’ve developed quite an impressive blogger’s tan. In other words, I’m about the same color as the surface of the moon. I’ve developed it by holing up in my basement office recording and writing content, editing posts, coordinating transcripts, and other 80% activities.

So I thought I’d try something radical. I’m going to work on my 20% and fly out to Austin today to hang out with Brian and lots of other friends for a few days at the South by Southwest Interactive conference.

Maybe you’ll bump into me having a margarita with a pal, crashing a party or two, or just wandering around the streets of Austin enjoying some unobstructed solar radiation.

We’ll be back next week. Maybe.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and a co-founder of Inside the Third Tribe. She solemnly promises this is the last “funny” post you will see on Copyblogger for at least one month.

In May 1998 I went for a job interview with a small computer-engineering firm.  I got the job.

My interviewer told me that, after three days of interviewing, I was the first person he’d met who actually knew what I was talking about.

That was quite funny.

Because I knew next to nothing about computers at the time.

Here’s what happened:

Up to that point I was working for a very small engineering firm for about two months.  Before that I worked for six weeks for another firm – for nothing – just to get some experience.

Anyway, while I was at this firm, a friend called from an I.T. recruitment firm and asked if I wanted to work for Sun Microsystems.

Like he had to ask.  Of course I did.

It turned out this engineering firm had an account with Sun Micro.

He told me what the job would entail, and what they expected me to know for the interview.

The interview would be in a week’s time.

And I knew absolutely nothing about the things he mentioned.

So, over the next few days, I started to read.

I read everything I could get my hands on related to the particular topics.

I read on the train home.  I read on the train to work.  I read during my short breaks.  I read at home.

In fact, I read everywhere… all the time.

By the time I got to the interview, I knew a heck of a lot more than I needed to.

And the questions the interviewer threw at me were, by then, relatively easy.

I’d thought about all the different questions he’d ask me based on what I’d read.  I thought about all the objections he’d throw my way.  And I prepared the answers in my head.

Come to think of it, I could have written a letter… a sales letter… based on everything I had prepared and thought of.

Just as in a sales letter you have to enter the conversation your prospect has been having with himself (who said that?), I had to think of everything my interviewer may have been thinking.

It turned out I was pretty much on the button as I’d taken the time to do the research and prepare properly.

As he asked my one question after another, all through the interview I was getting hints I may be getting the job.

He started of by saying something like, “If you get the job what would you..?”

The it went to, “Assuming you’re successful..?”

Then it was, “When you get the job..?”

Finally it was, “When you start working for us..?”

Subtle hints like that.

He finished off by saying, as they all do, that I would hear by the end of the week whether or not I was successful.

And then he asked me if I had any questions for him.

Having paid attention to the clues, I said I had none… except one…

“Is there any reason you can think of why you would not give me this job… right now?”

He smiled.

And said he couldn’t think of any reasons, then congratulated me.

I got the job, there and then.

What I learned pretty early on is this: Sometimes you have to be direct.  You have to ask for the sale.

It’s no use going through a brilliant sales spiel, only to lose the sale at the end because you’re afraid to ask for it.

I’ve been direct throughout my life.  Sometimes I got the ‘job’.  Most times I did not.

However, when I did get it, I got it BIG.

That was the highest earning job I’ve had in my life.

Let’s face it: When you write a sales letter, or send out an email, how often do you get a 100% conversion rate?

Come to think of it, how often do you get 50%? Or 20%? Or even 10%?

Using my direct approach in life I’ve probably managed about a 25% conversion.

And it’s always been the biggies.

Now that ain’t bad, is it?

Best,
Rezbi

How d’you like the sound of this?

I read it and wept.

“At a 5% royalty, my income from a single ad often exceeds $1,000,000. How long does a winning piece of copy take me to write? Less than two weeks.”

The man who wrote it is Ted Nicholas, who may be the highest-paid copywriter in America right now.

One or two others lay claim to that crown – Clayton Makepeace for instance – but who’s arguing when it comes to that kind of money?

Now contrast it with what I heard in the last week from two highly competent English writers I know.

“20 years ago I was getting £2,500 for a mail pack. Now I’d be dancing in the street if I got that.”

“People are moaning at paying more than £1,000 for a mail-pack.”

Well, as more than one person has observed, if you pay peanuts, what you end up with is monkeys.

But having delivered myself of that bit of waggery, let me make a serious point.

Virtuous circle versus vicious circle

Ted Nicholas makes big money because he gives people what they want – results.

They are so keen to get them that they pay royalties – a common practice in the U.S. So he can afford to spend two weeks on a mailing.**

It’s a virtuous circle. If you have enough time, you’re more likely to create a winner – and the more winners you create the more people pay, the more time and money you get – and so on.

But some people in this country do get fancy money for creative work. One agency less than half a mile from my offices was charging £15,000 for mailing packs two years ago – and if you see their gorgeous offices, you know they need the money.

What might surprise you is that their work was so disastrous that even their big client’s board noticed it eventually – – and fired the marketing director.

How do people like this get away with it? I’ll tell you.

Because strangely enough, results are not what some people want. I don’t just mean those impressed by smart offices or who like a lot of entertaining.

It’s more complicated than that.

One marketing man with a huge company told my partner Marta that good results meant their budgets were cut. And you may recall my story about the marketing director whose love of brand values far exceeded any trivial concerns about response.

But here is the start of a vicious circle. People are chosen for reasons other than results. Then those on high decide, quite reasonably, direct marketing doesn’t work … and next time it’s harder to get the budgets.

If you want results, give people the time and money to deliver them.

Let me end with three pieces of news for you – but let me guess which you will decide is good and which is bad.

1. This series of 51 is now coming to an end. (Sighs of relief all round).

2. So many people have said they like these ideas – and quite a few have said they want me to carry on – that I will. (Mixed feelings all round).

3. Many of you find it hard to keep up with them all, so I’m just going to do two a week. (More sighs of relief – especially from me).

Please tell me if you have any topics you’d like covering, and I’ll try.

** Here’s another reason why I sometimes cry into my beer.

For over two years the control mailing and door-drop for our biggest client, who sends them out by the million have been ours.

They keep testing them against other people’s efforts; nobody has ever beaten us. Their second best producer is also ours; and it looks like their third best will be, too.

If only we were on a royalty!

That is what I call a return on investment – but you won’t get it for £1,000 – or £2,500, for that matter.

Best,
Drayton

P.S.  This is number 45 of Drayton Bird’s 101 free helpful marketing ideas.  You can sign up on the link below for the rest.

—————————————–

Website: www.draytonbird.com / www.eadim.com

Click here to get 101 free helpful marketing ideas. Marketers from all over the world think they’re a pot of gold.

The Drayton Bird Blog – please do not visit if you are easily offended.

I’ve written a few contrarian things lately.

Specifically, I ranted a bit about why I think the most common “make money online” technique doesn’t work for most people, and about how, really, the most important ingredients of success are persistence and grit.

Then, on my own blog, I ranted about why “systems” for achieving specific results don’t work.

I got a lot of comments, emails, and tweets agreeing — too many people are looking for a quick fix, and we need to remember the basics: hard work, and good old-fashioned stick-to-it-iveness.

But believe it or not, there’s actually a problem with taking that train of thought too far.

Yes, a lot of the marketing for how-to-start-your-business products preys on the naive and is motivated by greed. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t good information out there — information that could help you move forward, remove roadblocks, and arm you with new skills.

No, there is no magic bullet

But that doesn’t mean that you should become a business isolationist, figuring everything out solely on your own, wary of anyone, anywhere, who sells information.

The most sensible approach — as is usually the case — is somewhere in the middle.

Spending money on a fool’s dream is akin to gambling, hoping that some “system” will pay off big. By contrast, spending wisely — with a decent chance of a solid return — is more like an investment.

Obviously, the best way for me to explain the difference is by talking about my grandparents.

Gambling vs. investment

My grandparents used to go to Las Vegas a few times every year to play the slots. Every once in a while, they’d win, and come back with a few thousand dollars more than they left with.

More often, they’d come home having lost some or all of what they’d budgeted as their “fun money.” No matter what happened, they always returned happy, with new stories to tell, and couldn’t wait to go again.

So the question is: Were they gambling while they were in Vegas?

And the knee-jerk reaction is, “Of course they were. What kind of dumb question is that, Truant?”

Well, I don’t know. I’d define gambling as risking an asset that you can’t afford to (or don’t want to) lose because you’re hoping it will multiply. Investment, on the other hand, is spending an asset for a defined purpose to receive a return that you have good reason to believe you will get.

If my grandparents went to Vegas, plunked down their pension checks, and then hoped like hell to hit a jackpot so that they could at least recoup the money they put in, I’d say they were gambling.

But that’s not what they did. They set a budget. They “spent” that budget on the slots. If money came back? Aces. But if not, they wrote it off as part of the trip cost and still came home happy.

They went in with a defined goal: Have a fun trip pulling levers and watching things spin and light up. That’s what they got. They were investing in their entertainment, and in their own enjoyment.

Similarly, I’d argue that what makes a business expense gambling versus an investment is the intention you have when you make it.

How to invest in your business

Are you gambling on schemes, or are you investing in information you can use? The line can seem fuzzy, but I’ll bet it’s obvious once you start looking for it.

Ask yourself what you hope to get out of a purchase. You can buy the craziest, most harebrained get-rich-quick course out there, but you’re investing if you have a realistic outcome you want to see from that purchase. (I’ll talk later about some ways that could happen.)

Or, you can buy the most conservative, reputable, boring instructional course in existence and be gambling, if you spent your rent money on it because you hoped that it would revolutionize who you are and what you do, and fix all of the problems in your life.

If you find yourself thinking things like, “Maybe this course will work,” you’re gambling.

Because courses don’t work; students do. No one course or product will “do it” for you.

If you don’t know anything about a topic, yet think that buying one product will make you a ninja master at it, you’re gambling.

If you have a deadline in mind for how fast a course’s content “must work, or else,” you’re gambling.

If you’re spending money that you cannot afford to lose on the hope that you’ll quickly earn it back, you’re gambling.

Investing in information, on the other hand, is slower-paced and more laid back. An “investment” goal should feel reasonable. It shouldn’t make you overly nervous. It should be something you could tell your mother about without her suspecting that you’re one of P.T. Barnum’s famous suckers.

And the interesting thing? There are a bunch of ways to invest, and a bunch of desired outcomes. It’s not always about a cash return.

• Some people will invest in a course specifically to see how the creator put the course together, and how he is able to justify the cost.
• Some people will invest in a product simply to get on the radar of the seller, to set up a connection that they might later be able to turn into a working relationship. (This wasn’t my intention when I bought Naomi Dunford’s Online Business School, but that’s what happened. How much did I get from the course? Who knows? But how much did I gain from meeting Naomi? Um, a whole lot.)
• Some people will buy a product with the intention of learning only ONE tiny tip from the whole thing, and then applying that one tip to make back the price of the course. It might be a quick return, but it might also be over a long time.
• I even heard a story once about a person who bought a very expensive product so that once inside the circle, she could have prospecting access to . . . well, to the kind of people who could afford to buy a very expensive product.

Still not sure? Here are my three big rules for the “right” way to invest in an information product, a course, coaching, or a service:

1. Know your intended outcome

Even the most expensive, overhyped purchase isn’t a gamble if you enter into it knowing what you can reasonably expect to get out of it.

It almost doesn’t matter what that outcome is, as long as you know it in advance.

Maybe you want to make your money back over either a short or a long time.

Maybe you simply want to see the seller’s marketing sleight of hand.

Even if you say, “I’m pretty sure I already know most of this information, but spending $2k on it will force me to use it,” you’re going into the game with your eyes open.

Obviously, if you buy better stuff, it’s easier to go in with reasonable expectations of what you’ll get out of it.

2. Buy on value, not price

Dave Navarro took some flack in certain circles over his product How to Launch the **** Out of Your E-Book. The program cost $97, and people were outraged that a PDF could be so expensive. After all, you could go down to the local Barnes & Noble and get an actual paper book for $20!

That’s looking at price, rather than the value of the information being sold.

(And by contrast, because an information product consists of slick-looking MP4s with better special effects than Avatar doesn’t make it worth a dime.)

Don’t look at a file or a stack of CDs and ask, “Is this collection of pixels or bytes, in and of itself, worth X dollars?”

Instead, ask how much having this new information will, over time, allow you to earn. (And I can tell you without a doubt that if you read How to Launch and you actually take the advice he gives, you’re going to learn something that can improve your sales by a lot more than $97.)

3. Take responsibility

The hallmark of gambling may be high risk, but investment has risk, too. Even the soundest purchases can bomb on you.

When you decide to make any investment, own up to that risk. Be willing to lose what you spend.

Not everyone agrees, but my own philosophy is, I don’t hedge my bets going in, saying that if it doesn’t work out, I’ll ask for my money back.

I know, I know . . . this is heresy, but think about what the unconditional guarantee mindset says. It says that you’re putting the onus on the product to work for you, rather than on yourself to implement what’s in it. You’re saying to yourself, “I’ll give it a shot, but no promises.”

I always thought that it would be really annoying to own a restaurant, and have someone send a $30 steak back because they didn’t like it. Was it burned? No. Tough? No. So what was wrong? The customer just decided he wasn’t that hungry. Well, if the problem is on the customer’s end, then why should the restaurant have to eat the cost?

I’ve paid for products, coaching, and services that didn’t work for me, or that I just plain didn’t like. Unless a provider has deliberately lied or unless it’s obviously, demonstrably terrible, I don’t ask for my money back. I’m looking at one such product right now, on my shelf. It cost $1500, and had an unconditional money-back guarantee. I won’t ask for my money back, though, because there’s nothing wrong with the course. The problem is on my end, in lack of implementation.

You take a risk when you invest in anything (or, for that matter, when you eat at a restaurant). If you want to be 100% sure about everything, then honestly, you really shouldn’t be in business.

I don’t want to understate this: Investment is really important. You need helpers and partners if you want to be efficient and effective. You need information on topics that you don’t already know well. You need advice in order to grow.

And let’s not forget that the mere act of putting your money where your mouth is tells your brain that what you’re doing is a livelihood, not a hobby. Investment is a way of pushing yourself to take your business seriously.

Just know what you want to get out of a purchase before pulling the lever on the metaphorical slot machine.

P.S.

Nobody point out that my slot machine metaphor for business is flawed. Of course it is; I’m just being colorful. How exciting would it have been for me to tell the tale of when my grandparents went to Duluth to put a hundred dollars into a low-yield federal bond?

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant drives a flying saucer and invests in low-yield federal bonds. If you dig his mojo, you should join the Charlie and Johnny Jam Sessions for more monthly mojo than you can handle.

I guess Cameron thinks he could do a better job – but I’m not impressed with him either, are you?

Happily, I have two candidates who would surely suit us better, brought to my attention by my friend Michael Rhodes, to whom all praise.

Cast your votes for a) Les, the Late Guineapig or b) Mystic Mary.

Here is a little background info from www.pickmeupmagazine.co.uk/psychics/ – a publication with about ten times more intellectual rigour than both Houses of Parliament. It is in the form of question and answer.

Is Les at peace?

Wednesday 19th August 2009

I lost my guinea pig, Les, a while ago, while he was in the vet hospital.

I miss my little man, and am desperate to know if he’s OK, and whether he forgives me for the fact that he wasn’t at home when he died.

Josephine, Crewe, Cheshire

Mystic Mary replies:

I have a message to you from Les: ‘Dear Jo, there’s nothing to forgive because you were a wonderful mum.

When it was time for me to go, I just saw a door, and beyond it was a big, green field with lots of animals in it.

Everything was peaceful and now I’ve been here a while, I know that every one of us lives together in harmony.

I’ve met a cat and a hamster who say they lived with you too, and we all agree that you’re the best.

So don’t worry any more, Jo. We’re OK.’

Who would make a better economic manager, do you think, gentle readers? Les can do no damage, being distinctly defunct.

On the other hand, Mystic Mary is even better at making up Fairy Tales than the Lying Toad. Tricky, eh?

By the way, I happened to see Boris Johnson on TV the other night. It was an Any Questions programme where they were discussing the Bliar’s wars.

There was a man called Lord Adonis on who was a total waste of space – never answered any questions, just kept on reading his party line script like a talking clock. Obviously got his title for arse-licking.

Boris J was even worse. He just kept on blathering on about what he was doing in London. Doesn’t he know that’s in England , the idiot? The programme was about Iraq and Afghanistan. What a berk.

What’s REALLY worrying is that he’s reckoned to be brighter than Cameron.

2. Meaning: Getting ahead by slashing prices is cutting your own throat. You MUST take a lead from Starbucks and deliver an entire customer experience. Move UPSTREAM, not down.

3. Your marketing plan MUST include Google. Love 'em, hate 'em, Mother's Milk or Big Brother, there is no avoiding this fact.

4. If your marketing plan ONLY includes Google, you're an accident waiting to happen. You must invoke the Unlimited Traffic Technique and elevate your conversions to a level where you can compete on any level playing field. Once accept this reality, you liberate yourself from the mosh pit of misery and mediocrity.

5. If you have a successful affiliate business and it's still standing, congratulations. You still have time to move to higher ground. Time to move NOW.

6. After 3 days in Maui (one of the most intense learning experiences ever) one conclusion everyone reached at the end of day 3 was this: *Regardless of where you buy clicks, if you don't have an Autoresponder sequence, you're leaving 2/3rds of the money on the table.* Social Media is a freaking a waste of time compared to just TEN well-written emails. In my opinion if you don't have AR's in place you're lucky to still be alive.

7. The principle of the Slight Edge says: If you're just 5% better than everyone else you get 50% more of the spoils.

8. There is no such thing as One Single Ideal marketing message, anymore than there is One Single Ideal shrub in the jungle. What you need is a toolbox of effective hooks that work with different kinds of people. That is the premise of the Swiss Army Knife.

9. Market Research is crucial. In 2004 you could afford to sling mud against the wall. Not in 2010. Ask your prospects the right 3 questions and sort the data right and your chances of success in a startup go from 5% to 50% overnight.

10. Most people now are on the defensive. They've shuttered their doors and windows and they're trying to ride out the recession. That's just slow motion suicide. Those who prevail have decided to be 21st century alchemists and every single day they're trying to figure out how to deliver a more awesome customer experience.

11. Today's Pay Per Click landscape is a repeat of high school. My 1984 marketing story: www.perrymarshall.com/1984

Perry Marshall

First you drive Traffic (to your site); then you monetize that traffic; then you re-invest profits (into your business). Those are are three basic steps to building and using a list.

Listen and watch as Clayton goes further into how to achieve these aims.

As the title says, Rich Schefren interviews Clayton Makepeace.

Clayton discusses all aspects of copywriting and direct mail.