← the shelf

1. As idea after idea flopped, I started to realize that it wasn’t the product that made a company successful. It was that company’s ability to create a strong enough desire for that product that the customer would do anything to buy it.

2. Though it helps to read people’s books (obviously), one of the best things you can do is read any sales message that gets you to spend money. That is copy you should study because you’ve connected with it on an emotional level. We’ll talk more about this later.

3. The bottom line is sales copy is anything you put in front of people to get them to click stuff, fill out forms and spend money.

4. From my experience, the best copywriting occurs when people don’t realize it’s copy because it’s interesting to them. I used to read sales letters that came in the mail otherwise known as “free reports.” It’s funny to think that back in the day, you would request a free report. It was nothing but a 10, 20, or 30-page sales letter. Because it was on a topic that interested you, you didn’t see it as sales copy. You saw it as a free report. When people are interested, they’re going to read it and not think about the fact that it’s trying to sell them something. Now, what makes people pay attention? What makes people read and not think about the sales message? Your content addresses their fears. It speaks to their desires. It uses the words they use. It feels like a conversation with a friend or a trusted advisor. I think a lot of people also believe sales copy is something that magically makes people do what they wouldn’t ordinarily want to do. The reality is that people love to buy stuff. That’s why everybody has hellacious credit card bills.

5. Like the old axiom says, “people love to buy; they hate to be sold.” People buy when they feel like something will make them feel better or help them get what they want. Because it uses familiar, comfortable words. Again, sales copy is like a conversation with a friend or a trusted advisor.

6. What do I want someone to do as a result of reading, watching, or listening to what I’ve created? With that in mind, sales copy can be a tweet. It can be an article. It could be a content video. It could be a Facebook Live video. It can be a meme. It can be anything you put in front of a targeted prospect. You put value in front of them. Then you invite them to take the next step which is to buy the stuff they want to buy anyway.

7. a hundred more things fighting for their attention like social media, regular mail, TV, radio, communication devices like text, Instant Messenger and cell phones. These things compete for a finite amount of a person’s attention span. That’s why, at the end of the day when you are drained, you say things like, “I’m done.” It’s not that people are stupid or lazy. It’s not that people have become dumber. People have more things fighting for their attention. It’s important to understand this with your copy. In today’s world you must use a lot more curiosity to stop people in their tracks and get them to pay attention to you. Also, there’s a lot less buildup before you must get to the point.

8. My next-door neighbor is an old southern guy, super cool dude. He’s a builder who built my house. He is old-school. When you talk with him, before you can get down to business, you have to do 20-minutes of warmup. Hey, how’s the family? What’s going on? Talk about the weather, talk about politics, talk about the neighborhood, talk about this, talk about that. Then at some point there’s this deep breath. Then, what are we going to do here in this particular area? That’s the way people used to be. People aren’t that way anymore.

9. People have hopes, fears and dreams. They’ve always had hopes, fears and dreams, and they will continue to have hopes, fears and dreams. They love things. They hate things. They have opinions. The better you understand the people in your niche market, the more money you’ll make and the happier they’re going to be because your can communicate better with them.

10. When we talk about your avatar, we will talk about your ideal person, whom I like to call FRED. Understand these are people with hopes, dreams and worries. They are just like you. They want time off. They want to take care of their children. They worry about the future. They stress out over their credit card bills. They want to have a nice car. They want to provide a great future for their family. All these things are important to them. You need to know what’s important to them because you’re selling to people. You’re not selling to a niche.

11. In copywriting, there’s no prize for second place. Your copy either works or you starve. That was kind of like a smack in the mouth. You don’t make money when someone says, “Hey, great sales letter. Hey, I loved your video.” It’s nice to hear, but unfortunately, that doesn’t spend. You make money when you’re the one who gets people to click, buy and opt-in. That’s it.

12. Read the classics like Scientific Advertising.

13. Most people who create sales copy give prospects one reason to buy now. Usually, it involves saving or making money. That’s it. It can be about making money for some people, but it’s not all about making money for everyone.

14. People will buy because they want to: Make money

15. Avoid effort Escape mental or physical pain Get more comfort Achieve greater cleanliness or hygiene to attain better health Gain praise Feel more loved Increase their popularity or social status

16. The first five—make money, save money, save time, avoid effort, escape pain—resonated with me so well I committed them to memory.

17. The key here is to tie multiple reasons to why people buy, not just one.

18. Questions you can ask about your product.

19. Here are the questions: 1. What are five ways my product or service will help them make money? 2. How can I or my product or service help them save money over the next week, month, or year? 3. How much time can I save them and what else could they do with that time? 4. What is something they don’t have to do anymore once they get my product or service? (This is how you figure out how it helps them 25 avoid effort.) 5. What physical pain do I eliminate for them and what does that mean for their life and business? 6. How does my product or service eliminate mental pain or worry for them? 7. What are three ways I or my product can help them feel more comfortable? 8. How does my product or service make it easier for them to achieve greater cleanliness or hygiene? 9. How does my product or service help them feel more healthy or more alive? 10. What are three ways my product or service is going to help them be the envy of their friends and feel more loved by their family? 11. How will buying my product make them feel more popular and increase their social status? If you take each of those questions and ask it honestly . . . anticipating an answer, you will be amazed at the results.

20. Now, here’s how to put this on steroids. Force yourself to come up with ten answers to each of those questions. Your brain immediately exploded at this thought, didn’t it? I learned a problem-solving technique from a mentor of mine years ago. He said, “Take the problem you’re trying to solve and write it at the top of a piece of paper. Then write solutions to fill up the entire piece of paper. Then go to the next page and fill that page up.” The easy answers come in the first third of the page. Then once you’ve exhausted the easy solutions, you need to dig in and start solving your problem and thinking outside the box. It’s those answers that come later in the process that contain the real solution. If you answer each question even five times, you’ll see answers that aren’t obvious.

21. Here’s a technique I’ve learned to help you make your copy all about them. It’s a shortcut, a hack. Look for these words in your copy: “I, me, my, we, ours.” Why do you want to look for those words? Those words show where you’re talking about yourself. These are the words your prospects don’t care to hear because when you use them you’re usually not telling them things that will benefit them.

22. Example: “I want to tell you something here.” Changed perspective: “Here’s something you need to know,” or, “There’s something you need to know in this situation.” It sounds overly simplistic, but it’s not. People don’t want to hear about you. They want to hear about themselves. They want to be the hero of your sales message. Not you. They want to picture themselves getting the results, not you. They want the whole transaction to be about them, not about you.

23. the way you do this is to convert your copy from talking about yourself to talking about them. How will they be enriched? How will they 31 benefit? How will they receive what they want? Search through your copy. Look for “I, me, my, we, ours.” Then rephrase, rewrite, and reposition to use the words “you, your, and yours” instead. That’s it. Sometimes you’ll just rephrase a couple of sentences, or maybe only a half of a sentence. In other cases, you might look at this and say, “You know what? I’m talking about me here, and I’m getting off on a little bit of an ego trip that has nothing to do with them. I need to rewrite this to explain how this will benefit them. I need to show them how my breakthrough will help them to get the results they want.” It doesn’t mean you never use the words “I, me, my, we, ours,” but you consciously do it, making sure you’re making it all about them. That’s how you’ll make it work. It sounds harsh, but nobody cares about you. They only care about themselves when they’re buying from you.

24. While still talking, in the back of your mind you’re thinking, “It’s time for the close. Now I need to say something to invite them over here to do this. Let me give them a benefit and then let me give them an invitation statement.” I know what you’re thinking, “Damn, Jim, will I be able to do that?” Yes, you can! You can develop the discipline of the copywriting mindset and do it on the fly. For instance, when teaching you about sales copy, I might close with: “Those are the three reasons why you have to get good at copy. By the way, if you want a cool shortcut to create amazing headlines, I invite you to check out Funnel Scripts at funnelscripts.com. We have a really cool 60-minute training you can watch where we teach you 3 great secrets about copy. Also, you can see a demo of this amazing, push-button tool that gives you over 50 different copywriting hacks for everything from sales letters, to headlines, to bullets, to video sales letters, to stealth closes and more. Go ahead and check it out.”

25. Commit to getting good at it. Then do it and practice it. Before you can be great, you have to be good. Before you can be good, you have to be bad. Before you can be bad, you have to try. You have to do something.

26. The other way to get good is to learn with your wallet. I’m not telling you to spend a ton of money on courses on how to write copy. I want you to pay attention to the copy that either makes you spend money now or in the past. Think about it. If the copy in someone else’s funnel, video sales letter, or Facebook video makes you spend money, you need to dissect that. You need to learn which sales messages work on you and why.

27. Even though it’s a process of developing and keeping that copywriting mindset, you can hack the process. Here’s how: do it in stages. You don’t need to master everything. But you need to do certain things in a specific order.

28. First Step: Become great at creating headlines.

29. Second Step: Become good at writing bullets.

30. The purpose of a headline is simple: to get people to stop what they’re doing and to start reading (or watching) whatever it is you put in front of them.

31. The secret of a great headline is one that connects emotionally with the person who represents your perfect prospect. A well-written headline targets people emotionally, usually around either a fear or a desire. You headline targets either something they’re scared of or something they really want . . . and it does so on an emotional level.

32. A great headline targets your ideal audience. You don’t want people who aren’t in your target audience reading past the headline. And, when you think about online advertising where you have to pay money for people to read your ad or click your ad, a great headline can actually cut down on the numbe r of clicks that you get, but massively increase the quality of the clicks you get.

33. “5 Steps To Getting Anything You Want.”

    in the margineverything is a list ali abdaal was right

34. I had an infinite increase in sales because I went from zero to one sale and then to five sales with the same traffic and the same exact group of people coming through. The only thing I changed was the headline. The original headline I ran (I’m going to paraphrase because I don’t remember it exactly) was “How I Took Myself From Bankrupt Trailer Trash To Successful Online.” The final headline I changed to was “How To Gain A Positively Unfair Advantage In Business And In Life!” When 42 those sales started coming in after changing only the headline, the importance of the headline came home to me in a very real way. That first headline focused on me. Honestly, I think the whole bankrupt trailer trash idea was a turnoff. People couldn’t connect with it. But with the emotional benefit of How To Gain An Unfair Advantage In Business And In Life, people thought, “Yeah, I’d like an unfair advantage.” It’s almost a guilty-pleasure-type thing, a payoff where they can fill in the blanks for what an unfair advantage meant for them individually.

35. Acknowledge that you need to use headlines. That’s the number one thing. Most people forget or neglect the headline. Even if it’s not a formal headline like you would have on a sales letter, you need to think about the titles of your videos, blog posts, etc., the same way you would think about a headline. They are that important. Same thing goes for the simplest Facebook post. Anything you’re doing, you’ve got to have that mechanism to grab people’s attention, stop them in their tracks, and make them pay attention. The headline is how you do it.

36. you can develop your own formulas by developing what we call a swipe file. A swipe file is a collection of advertisements you like, and you say, “Okay, wow, that’s a cool headline I could use.” I found one of my most successful headlines from the cover of a video game magazine. The title on the front of Xbox: The Official Magazine was “The Grand Theft Auto 4 Secrets You’re Not Supposed To Know.” I took that and turned it into “The Ebook Marketing Secrets You’re Not Supposed To Know.” I used that headline, along with a $ 49 product, to create a six-figure business. A swipe file is just a collection of ads that grab your attention. I like to pick up the “Bottom Line” reports, People Magazine, the National Inquirer, direct mail, catalogs, and more. And, most importantly, any advertising that makes you buy (spend your own money) is something to 43 put into your swipe file.

37. Here are some headline templates you can use immediately.

38. Remember, people are avoiding pain; they’re seeking pleasure.

39. How To Get ________ How To Get A Better Score On Your Next PT Test How To Get Rid Of Acne Another thing that you can do is take a little riff on that how-to headline by giving people a timeframe. How To ________ In As Little As ________ How To Double Your Pushups In As Little As 10 Days How To Get Rid of Acne In As Little As 24 Hours It’s whatever appealing result they want—for how to do something or get something—in a timeframe that they go, “Oh yeah, that’d be cool!” Be careful that the timeframe is believable. Then you can take it even further. How To ________ In As Little As ________ . . . even if you ________! This headline template is where you take away a thing they think is stopping them, an objection they might have, or a barrier they see in the way. How To Pass Your PT Test In As Little As 2 Weeks . . . even if you can’t do a single pullup right now! How To Get Rid Of Your Pimples In As Little As 7 Days . . . even if you’ve tried everything else and failed! That ending is a great one to use by the way. You can use that for anything . . . even if you’ve tried everything else and failed. Here’s one more “how to” headline template that works really well. How Every ________ Can ________ How Every New Military Recruit Can Become A PT God In 12 Weeks! How Every Teenager With Pimples Can Have Clearer Skin Fast!

40. The key here is to use an odd number like 3,5,7,9—they seem to work better and 44 carry more credibility. These headlines work great for articles, blog posts, and videos because they arouse curiosity.

41. 5 Quick And Easy Ways To ________ 5 Quick And Easy Ways To Max Out Your Pushups

42. 3 Fast Ways To Get ________ And Avoid ________ 3 Fast Ways To Get A Better PT Test Score And Avoid “Fat Boy” PT Squad

43. Then we can ramp them up with an “even if” statement which lets them off the hook for past failure (something everyone wants)! 5 Quick And Easy Ways To Get ________ . . . Even If ________!

44. Which Of These ________ Mistakes Will You Make?

45. ________ Mistakes All ________ Need To Avoid! PT Test Training Mistakes All New Recruits Need To Avoid!

46. ________ Mistakes Every ________ Needs To Avoid! 3 PT Testing Mistakes Every Marine Needs To Avoid!

47. When one species of animal sounds a warning call, whatever it is, ALL animals respond and pay attention. But when the all clear sounds, it has to be specific to that type of animal. If a Macaw starts screaming that a tiger is about to attack, all the animals pay attention. But when the Macaw calls the all clear, the only ones that pay attention are the Macaws. Using a warning headline is a way to get everybody’s attention, even if they’re not in your direct target audience.

48. WARNING: Here’s What Every ________ Needs To Know About ________ WARNING: Here’s What Every New Recruit Needs To Know About PT Testing In Bootcamp

49. WARNING: Don’t Even Think About Trying To ________ Until You Read This WARNING: Don’t Even Think About Trying To Pass Your Next PT Test Until You Read This

50. Here’s The Perfect Solution If You Want ________ Here’s The Perfect Solution If You Want To MAX Your Next PT Test

51. Here’s The Perfect Solution If You Want ________ (even if 46 ________) Here’s The Perfect Solution If You Want To Be A PT God (even if you can barely do 20 pushups right now)

52. My Proven ________ Method To ________ My Proven “Pullup Push” Method To Double Your Pullups

53. The most significant piece of advice I have for you when it comes to headlines, besides acknowledging the fact that you need to use them, is to consciously spend time on your headline and not treat it as an afterthought like many people do. In many cases, I devote 50% of the time I spend creating the entire sales piece to the headline—whether it’s a sales letter, an e-mail teaser, a postcard, a Facebook post, or something else.

54. Never post anything online without a headline or compelling first statement. If in doubt, use curiosity to pull people in (Example: The 47 #1 Headline Mistake People Make That Bleeds Them Dry). Once you have a headline that works, TEST new headlines against that one to see if you can improve results. I’ve seen as much as a 500% improvement in sales just by changing a single headline.

55. Secret #7 It’s NEVER “One Size Fits All”

56. There is a mistake most people make, especially online. They don’t segment their traffic, which means they give the wrong message to the wrong audience.

57. there are three different types of traffic you need to be aware of when creating your sales copy, especially headlines.

58. “If your prospect is aware of your product and has realized that it can satisfy this desire, your headline starts with the product. If he is not aware 49 of your product but only has the desire itself, your headline starts with the desire. If he is not yet aware of what he really seeks but is concerned with the general problem, your headline starts with the problem and crystallizes it into a specific need.”

59. In our online world, there are hot, warm, and cold traffic sources.

60. Somebody who is on your email list or follows you on social media and knows your name is a hot source.

61. Someone who is looking for a solution to a problem, but they don’t know about you yet is a warm source.

62. Someone who doesn’t even realize there’s a solution out there but knows they have a problem is a cold source.

63. Hot traffic source: People who know Stew, who are on his newsletter list, see specific copy every time he releases a new book about how to get ready for a PT test. It’s straightforward. All the ads, all the copy, all the social media posts say, “Hey, Stew Smith just came out with a new book called, “How To Pass Your Next PT Test In As Little As Two Weeks. You need to check it out because it’s going to show you how to do this, this, this, this, and this.” This direct message works well for those people who know Stew.

64. Warm traffic source: Stew targets people on Facebook who don’t know him, but are in the military or some other profession where they have to get ready for a PT test. 50 He writes ads about preparing for the PT test, getting in shape (in case you weren’t), what to do if you’re failing, and how to improve in specific areas. All of these ads and posts direct people to his book, but he needs to get their attention first with a solution they are already looking for. Then he leads them to the books. They know their need (get ready for a PT test), they know their desired result (pass the test), so they are receptive to ads and content around those topics.

65. Cold traffic source: This group of people is in terrible shape. They consistently fail their PT tests, and they don’t know what to do to fix the problem. Therefore, they get messages around topics like “Failed your last PT test? Don’t know what to do? You’re not alone! Here’s a solution.”

66. “We help people pass their PT test!” What’s wrong with this sales copy? People who already know you don’t need that information. They need specifics about how you can help them now.

67. If your traffic is cold, your message needs to focus on people’s problems. Then you transition from talking about the problem to the need 51 followed by your solution to that need.

68. By the way, the easiest place to segment your traffic using this approach is on Facebook. And, fortunately now with tools like ClickFunnels, it’s a lot easier to set up several different landing pages to steer each type of traffic to, so that you can put the right message in front of the right people. Segmenting your message makes all the difference when someone is looking at your headline and your ad. That person quickly decides, “Is this for me? Does this guy understand my problem or not?”

69. Your brand is not their focus! Your name is not their focus! You’ve got to get in sync with the conversation they want to have first, so you can steer them towards the solution you’re selling. So if they’re focused on problems, you start the conversation with the problem to get in sync with them. Then show them you’ve got the solution.

70. What would be the conversation with someone who knows who we are and what we do?

    in the margina hot lead/ close friend

71. What would the conversation be like with someone who is aware they have a problem, but they’re not aware of us?

    in the margina warm lead/ acquaintance

72. What would the conversation be like with people who know they have a problem, but they have no clue a solution even exists?

73. To put this into action on a website quickly, make three different copies of the webpage to create three different landing pages. Then, change the 53 headline of each page to match the traffic temperature based on the traffic source (hot, warm, cold). Then look at the sales copy from your audience’s standpoint and adjust the existing text to fit.

    in the margincold lead

74. For the sake of expediency, don’t try to target each group at the same time. Pick the one you think you can get the most mileage from the fastest and concentrate on them first. For example, if you have an email list, focus all your marketing on this hot traffic source first! Do the same thing with your followers on Facebook and other social media. After that, target the warm market, and then finally write copy for the cold market. By the way, the cold market is usually the largest. If you can connect with them, that’s how you break into the world of big sales!

75. Secret #8 Meet F.R.E.D. (Your Ideal Customer) “Mirror the reader to himself and then show him afterward how your product fits his needs.” Raymond Rubicam

76. When it comes to defining your niche, there are two schools of thought.

77. One is demographics. You measure and look at things like age (43-year-old white male). You look at gender. You look at the location. Demographics are numbers-based. The problem is that demographics are broad. Though I can tell you that the typical people who buy from me are between the ages of 40 and 65, 60% are women, 40% are men, and they live in the United States, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, and then smatterings all around the world, that’s still too broad to be able to sell anything.

78. I prefer using psychographics. Psychographics refers to what’s going on inside of a person’s head. What are they thinking? What’s motivating them? What are their attitudes or aspirations? I use psychographics first, and then I refine my niche with demographics. Psychographics are things I understand. Fred has specific problems. Fred also has interests, desires and goals. These are the things that matter in sales copy. If I know your problems, if I understand your interests, if I know your desires, if I know your goals, then I know how to communicate with you. I know how to put little presents out in front of you that get your attention. I know how to get in touch with your feelings. I know how to understand and identify various situations you’re going to find yourself in where I can put my sales message in front of you.

79. understanding your audience is more about excluding people than it is including people.

80. You need to define who your target audience is and you need a specific way to do that.

81. There are really three levels of definition.

82. The first is the idea of a niche. A niche is very broad. An example is real estate. Real estate is too general to be able to run ads and write meaningful sales copy. Secondly, we need to move into what I like to call a sub-niche. This is a narrower part of the bigger niche. In our example, a sub-niche would be a real estate investor. Within this sub-niche there are different types of real estate investors. I personally have been in several different niches. I’ve been a flipper. I’ve been a buy and hold. I’ve been a hard-money lender. Finally, we need to drill down even more to find our Fred. Now we look at a micro-niche where we get laser-focused. Again, as the sub-niche was a smaller part of the broad niche, a micro-niche is a narrower part of a sub-niche. In this case, we might talk about flippers—someone who buys a house, and turns it around in 30 to 60 days, hopefully, at a profit. Now this micro-niche person is Fred . . . Fred the Flipper. Fred the Flipper has very different needs than Ronnie real estate agent or Randy real estate investor, or Sue and Johnny home buyer.

83. How are we going to define our avatar?

84. I like to call my avatar Fred. Fred started as an acronym for Fears, Results, Expectations, and Desires (F.R.E.D.).

85. You need to give your avatar a name because when you sit down to either write copy from scratch or use a tool like Funnel Scripts, you need to have a specific person in mind. Remember, I said that you might sell to a million people, but they each buy one at a time. You need to communicate to a specific person instead of to a group.

86. our house flipper’s name is Fred The Flipper. If your niche is gardeners, are they green thumbs? I have a friend that sells workout stuff. He refers to his avatar as couch potatoes because they refer to themselves as couch potatoes. He helps them become reformed couch potatoes. Are they mommies? Are they sci-fi fanatics?

87. search Google for the name. See what pictures come up under Google images. Then, pick one and print it out. When you’re preparing your sales copy, you visualize talking to or writing to that specific person. It makes a huge difference in your ability to create quality copy.

88. people buy what they want, NOT what they need. You need to sell people what they want. You need to want to sell people what they want, not what they need.

89. from the standpoint of your copy, you only talk about what they want. Do not tell them what they need. Because just like telling a child they need to go to bed, they’ll think, “Screw you. I want to stay up, snort pixie sticks, and watch the all-night Barney tube marathon on NetFlix.” That’s what they want!

90. Don’t talk about what people need. Talk about what people want.

91. Include what they need in whatever you sell them or whatever service you offer them. But, when you write copy, you only talk, speak, show, and include what they want.

92. Here’s F.R.E.D. at the next level. PQR2 is the secret code to your audience’s brain. What does PQR2 stand for?

93. Picture this. Fred is at the top of a chasm on one cliff looking at another cliff across the way. Your people are here as well. He wants to be on the other side. How is he going to bridge the gap?

94. What’s going to help him do that (this is an important distinction) is your sales copy. It is not your product, service, or software.

95. He can’t physically make this leap until he makes it in his mind first. Your sales copy helps him do that. His problems, his questions, and his roadblocks have him firmly planted on the first cliff. What he wants are results which are on the other side. These PQR2s are what define your niche. You take these problems, questions, roadblocks and results and turn them into a sub-niche or micro-niche.

96. Fred only thinks about PQR. He wants results, but the vast majority of people are caught up in their problems. It’s like he’s stuck. On the first cliff, we have the stick. On the other, we have the carrot. The power of the stick is much more prevalent in his world than the carrot is. In fact, if you look at it, it’s 3: 1. Fred sees problems, questions and roadblocks on one side and his desired results on the other side.

97. This concept deals with cold traffic and some warm traffic. If you want to go crazy with your sales copy and make money, you have to address cold traffic. Well, this is how you do it. You understand your avatar so well that when they’re in the cold stage, you’re able to communicate with them through problems, questions and roadblocks.

98. How do you discover Fred’s PQR2?

99. 1. Live interaction. When you’re at a big event, listen to what people complain about. Where’s the problem? Where are they frustrated? Where’s their pain? What questions are they asking?

100. 4. Your website’s help desk. If you don’t have one, you should if you’re selling anything to anyone. Your help desk is a great place to look for the problems, questions and roadblocks. I’ve gotten some million-dollar product ideas out of my help desk. You see trends as well as specific questions. You may notice that five people had the same issue in the last two weeks. If so, you have a new product idea.

101. 6. Answer sites like https:// www.quora.com/ and Answers.yahoo.com. Sites like these are great places to look for questions people ask, especially if you’re not in the market to teach people the latest and greatest techniques for selling stuff on Instagram. For instance, my buddy Suzanne, does stuff around animal behavior. Animal behavior, questions, and problems have not changed in the last twenty years. The answers may have changed, but 64 the customer questions have not changed for your target audience.

102. 7. Surveys. I love to do surveys because you get up-to-the-minute thoughts and answers about people’s problems. These are especially helpful if your niche is continually changing.

103. How do you use these tools to find what you need?

104. 1. Answer sites. Go to answers.yahoo.com and type in “real estate flipping” and hit enter. You will see the questions people are asking like: Is real estate flipping profitable? What is real estate flipping?

105. 2. Surveys. You might not be interested in doing a survey yourself through a site like surveymonkey.com. The good news is you don’t have to. Here’s a cool thing. You can find other people’s surveys and look at the results. Just go to Google and do the keyword search plus the word “survey.” Ex: flip real estate survey. You’ll find data you can review to know more about what’s going on with Fred.

106. 3. Social media. Another way is to just ask people on Facebook a question. Personally, I think this is one of the smartest things that you can do. Ask in a group. Ask on a page. Ask on your profile page. Ask people what their hardest struggle is or what their biggest question is. People will tell you they’re concerns, questions, and roadblocks. A fun way to get people to answer questions is to use a little meme as part of your post on social media to attract attention. The bottom line 65 is that Facebook and social media are great ways to do surveys.

107. 4. Google search. Search for your keyword, plus the word FAQ, mistakes, questions, or top 10. You will get a ton of information that can help you. Look at the top results to see what questions people ask.

108. What these come down to and what you need to focus on in your copy is what people really want. Fred is on the first cliff. He wants to be on the other one. Fred wants to change the way he feels. He wants less of some emotion and more of another. He’s stuck in his head with PQR2 because of fear. He feels fear, stress, pain, or boredom. That’s his reality. That’s where most people are. Fred wants to change the way he feels.

109. But, you can’t change the way he feels by focusing on money. Most business people key in on the money. Well, the money isn’t it. What Fred wants is to change from fear to security. He wants to feel like things are going to be okay, and he’s going to be safe.

110. Paint the picture for your avatar of the cool stuff they will learn as well as the fun they will have. Don’t discount the fun part. How are we going to use PQR2 with your target audience? I want to hammer it one more time. Fred is 100% tuned in to what’s going on inside of his head. That’s it. He is tuned in to his problems, his questions, his roadblocks, and the results he wants, but hasn’t gotten yet. There’s a technical term for this called your Reticular Activating System. Basically, you tune in to and recognize what you’re already looking for at the exclusion of everything else.

111. All your content, whether it’s free or paid, needs to key in on the same thing. Your ads, your blog posts, your videos, Facebook and social media posts, live videos, memes and your webinars are all based around Fred’s PQR2. Your headlines focus on his problems, his questions, his roadblocks, and his results.

112. Your assignment

113. First, define your Fred. Go from a large niche down to sub-niches then to micro-niches. You can have more than one. Think of your niche like the circles on a dart board. When you throw the dart at the board, a regular niche is the outer rim. A sub-niche is the inner rim. The micro-niche is the bullseye. You need to identify who you’re going after. Next, identify and write down Fred’s top two problems. Then, what are 67 Fred’s top two questions? Then, what are his two big roadblocks? Finally, what are the top two results that Fred desires? Don’t be like most people and skip this assignment. Medium achievers will write down two for each area, but the overachiever will come up with five to ten. I want you to create a list of five to ten for each because the first two are the easy ones. Three to four extras you come up with will make you think. The fifth one is probably the magic connection. If you do the ten, that’s when you dig in and deeply connect with Fred.

114. Let me show you some headlines you can base on Fred’s PQR2.

115. You Don’t Have To Be A Pro Real Estate Flipper To Have Fun Doing Deals, Guaranteed. New, The Secret To Automatically Finding Great Deals Fast, Guaranteed.

116. All I did was take Fred the Flipper’s problems, questions, roadblocks, and results put them into those headline templates we discussed in Secret #6.

117. Let’s do some email subject lines based on Fred’s PQR2s.

118. Real estate investing hack. Find great deals, two great ideas.

119. A great house flipping resource I just found.

120. Here’s your house flipping checklist.

121. How about copy that uses curiosity-inducing bullets from Fred’s PQR2s?

122. Makes it easy to find the deals others missed.

123. Gives you the keys to make high profit off virtually all the deals you decide to do. Three steps to avoid chasing deals that won’t work.

124. The real secret for how to have fun doing deals.

125. Stop worrying about buying a poison house that will destroy your business.

126. Quite frankly, when you read those, there’s not a single thing about what’s in the product. That’s okay, because that’s how you use curiosity-inducing bullets. You will find out more in Secret #9: The Ultimate Bullet Formula.

127. Secret #9 The Ultimate Bullet Formula

128. Basic Bullet Formula Formula: It ________ so you can ________ Remember, Feature = what it is and Benefit = what it does.

129. Here’s the original bullet list from Amazon: One-piece set SAE sizes Chrome vanadium steel construction Stamped markings for easy wrench size identification Yawn. Not very compelling. But I want to want these wrenches, so let’s give them some help, shall we? One-piece set so you can keep all your wrenches together in one place SAE sizes so you have the exact size you need when you need it Chrome vanadium steel construction for strength and durability so you can work them hard Stamped markings for easy wrench size identification so you can quickly find the right size Already we’ve made a difference. That’s better than 80% of people do with their bullets just by adding the benefit. But we want to do better than 99% of people out there, and that’s where my Ultimate Bullet Formula

130. Feature + Benefit + Meaning Feature = what it is Benefit = what it does Meaning = what it means to the buyer / reader / prospect Formula: It ________ so you can _______ which means _______.

131. One-piece set so you can keep all your wrenches together in one place which means you’ll never be left high and dry with the wrong wrench SAE sizes so you have the exact size you need when you need it which means you can get projects done faster and move on with your life Chrome vanadium steel construction for strength and durability so you can work them hard which means you‘ll spend a LOT less money on tools over time Stamped markings for easy wrench size identification so you can quickly find the right size which means no more pulling your hair out over stripped nuts When you start talking about benefits and meaning, your sales copy bullets (and your sales copy in general) will take a quantum leap in 75 effectiveness. And when you start thinking in terms of benefits and meaning, the sky is the limit as far as your selling power is concerned. So, as we wrap up this secret, when writing bullets, get the momentum going. It’s kind of like headline brainstorming. As you make bullets, you’ll have ideas pop into your head for other bullets. As you focus on the different features, benefits, and meanings of whatever it is you’re selling, your bullets will get better and better. It’s kind of like warming up from a run or exercising where the third or fourth or fifth set is when you get into a groove. Your first bullet isn’t nearly as good as your fifth, sixth, or tenth!

132. You can build up a very effective swipe file for bullets. I would highly recommend you start creating a clip file of bullets you see that catch your attention. Just like having a swipe file of headlines, having a swipe file of bullets can come in handy when you need to brainstorm a bunch of them quickly.

133. How do you find the meaning? Easy! Every time you see a claim, feature, or benefit, ask yourself some questions: “Why is that important?” “Why does that matter?” “Why is that a big deal?” Now you might ask, “Why would I want to make a drill emotional?” And my response is if you sell drills and want to sell a lot of them, get people emotional about the drills. Make them feel cool by owning that drill. Make them feel smart by having that drill. Make them feel like they’re a member of the tough-guy-club or popular by owning that drill. Make them feel like they love their kid by having that drill. Do that, and you’ll sell more drills!

134. Now you might be saying, “Man, that’s stretching it.” Is it? When I say, “The drill has a magnetic plate on the front so you can keep screws secure while doing your job. That means there’s no chance of those sharp screws dropping and hitting somebody on the head while you’re ten-feet up on a ladder. That one feature could keep someone from getting a screw embedded in their head . . . maybe even your kid.”

135. As soon as you can make that connection, your sales will get pumped up! The consequences of not doing this are severe. If you can’t connect on an emotional level, then you’re the same as everybody else. Then people evaluate your product, coaching, software, or whatever you sell based on price alone because that’s all they have to go on. You haven’t made them feel anything! But as soon as you make them feel something, that’s when you have them. They need a powerful WHY if you want them to buy because WHY creates emotion.

136. Here’s the reason I signed up to do physical coaching with a guy named Stew Smith. He sends me workouts through email, even though I’ve been working out already and own plenty of books with exercises. Stew lets me call him on the phone and ask him questions about workouts, but I had other people I could call for free. The reason I initially signed up with him was the emotional motivation of, “Hey, my trainer is a Navy SEAL. That’s pretty badass!” Initially, I enjoyed the emotional ego hit of telling people, “Hey, my personal trainer is a Navy SEAL.” And I let that slip every once in a while, maybe more than I should because it is pretty cool. But here’s the interesting thing. That emotionally charged reason for signing up with Stew got me motivated enough that, now in my 50s, I’m in better shape 79 than most 25-year-olds. (I can do 33 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, and 100 sit-ups in a row without stopping.) All because of that emotional connection to my trainer being a Navy SEAL, I’m A. Not going to let him down by slacking on workouts. B. Not going look like Mister Potato Head ever again, especially if I want to tell people my trainer is a Navy SEAL. That emotional reason for signing up/ buying/ clicking has all types of consequences for your sales funnel as far as your prospect is concerned. You’ve got to find that emotional connection and amplify it. The more emotions you can tie your product or service to like love, fear of _____, hate, and hope, the better off you are.

137. As soon as you make a statement about what something is or what it does, you use those two magic words “which means ______.” “. . . which means you will _____.” “. . . which means you will be able to go sit down and relax.” “. . . which means you can _____.” “. . . which means you can enjoy spending more time with your family.” “. . . which means you don’t have to _____.”

138. And the more emotionally charged you can make that meaning, the more sales you’ll make! Tie your product to: Love for _____ (family, self, country, community, etc.) Hate Fear of _____ (failure, making mistakes, death, loss, etc.) Vanity Pride Longing for _____ (fulfillment, peace, completion, etc.) 80 Greed Freedom Tie your product or service to the things people want at their core, and you’ll be able to connect emotionally much more quickly.

139. As soon as a feature comes out of your mouth, imagine a customer asking you “Why?” “Why is that important?” “Why should I care?” “Why does that matter to me?” “What does that mean to me?” Almost like an annoying child who just snorted a Pixie Stick at midnight on Halloween who now has a case of “why-a-rhea!” Imagine that incessant, why, why, why, why, why, and it’ll force you to come up with the answers.

140. Write out ten, twenty, or thirty reasons why a feature or benefit matters to them. It is that important to your business and your ability to create awesome copy. Find that emotional connection.

141. Now the truth is, when you do this exercise, you don’t find the emotional connection with the first thing you write down. It happens after you work your way through the easy ones and force yourself to keep going. When you get past the superficial level and start drilling down below the surface, then you will tap into the true emotions.

142. Summary: People buy on emotion and then justify with logic. The primary emotional motivations to buy are fear and desire. You should strive to make an emotional connection with your prospects and buyers by tying your product or service to as many different reasons why as you can.

143. $ 100 Product Example For example, you have a $ 100 product for sale with a 1% conversion rate on your sales letter. That means you make $ 100 for every 100 visitors who come to your website. (100 visitors x 1% conversion = 1 sale at $ 100). Let’s say it costs you $ 90 to get 100 visitors to your website resulting in one sale. (I’ll assume you’re selling an e-book or something with no physical delivery costs.) That means you spent $ 90 on traffic. You made $ 100 in sales. Your gross profit is $ 10. 83 Now, let’s start testing. You test your headline and increase your conversion from 1% to 1.2%. That measly little .2% increase in conversion can’t mean much, can it? On the contrary, for every 100 visitors that come to your website, you’re now making $ 120, but you’re still just spending the same $ 90 (your cost didn’t go up). You just tripled your profitability! How? Instead of making $ 10 profit, you’re now making $ 30 profit. Same traffic. Same advertising expense.

144. “Your job is not to write copy. Your job is to know your visitors, customers and prospects so well, you understand the situation they’re in right now, where they’d like to be, and exactly how your solution can and will get them to their ideal self.” Joanna Wiebe

145. What do they want more than anything?

146. What are their big desires? What are their fears? What scares them? What are their objections to buying stuff like what you’re trying to sell? You need to find out these things: What do they want? What are their fears? What are their objections to buying either what you sell or what anybody is selling out there?

147. Look at the number one bestselling books on Amazon that target your audience. Read the back cover copy. Look at the chapter titles. See the sales messages used to get these people to buy. This process is called “funnel hacking.” Look at what’s already working with an offer, sales copy, and product, then apply that to what you’re doing with your products and services.

148. the real gold when you’re looking at reviews is in the two, three, and four-star reviews. Why? Because those are the people who liked some of it and didn’t like other parts. Those are the most helpful people because, 88 quite frankly, the five-star people are often fanboys and the one-star people are just bitter “know-it-alls” who hate life. The two, three, and four-star people explain, “Hey, it did this, which was good, but it didn’t do this, which upset me.” Use their words to help write your sales copy.

149. When you sit down to write your copy, research needs to be part of your planning process. Say, “Hey, I’ve got to write a sales letter, a postcard, or an email. Let me designate a couple of hours to do some research. If I’m selling a book, let me research popular books. I’ve got to write a sales letter for my software, let me go research software.” Make this part of the copywriting process. Instead of opening your word processor and staring at the blank blinking cursor, wondering what to 90 write, do some research! Get your mindset in the right groove, and some amazing copy will result.

150. When you are making a sale that involves a lot of emotion with a person who is scared, feels self-conscious, believes they’re going to get ripped off, or is afraid of making a mistake, it is critical that your communication is crystal clear. Be very conscious of what you say to people.

151. I’ve also heard people say to give your sales copy out to a bunch of people, and if they come back to you and say, “Ah, it’s pretty good,” that means it’s not good at all. Why do these experts say that? Because what they want is for everybody who reads it to say, “Wow, that sounds cool. Where can I get one?” If people come back and say, “Hey, it’s pretty good,” then you still have work to do on your copy.

152. Now, of course my wife’s not going to buy anything I’m selling, so that’s not a good litmus test, but you get the idea. Also, unless the people you hand the copy to are in your target audience, they aren’t EVER going to say “Hey, where can I get one?” So that old saying only holds so much water in my book.

153. If I had to boil all this down to one big takeaway, it’s this: Write or create your sales copy so it speaks directly to your ideal prospect. Write to a single person; don’t write to a group. Write to someone you know who represents the perfect person in your target audience (remember Fred from Secret #8). This trick works exceptionally well when you are stuck.

154. True story: My buddy George, represents my audience. If I’m stuck writing a sales letter, video sales letter, or any piece of copy, then I say, “Hey George, I’ve got something you need to hear about.” Writing to George works well for e-mail teasers because I have a tendency to get detailed in my emails and make them fifty pages long when they only need to be five lines. When I find myself doing that, I’ll throw it all away and just start typing an email to my buddy, George. Subject: Cool software I just found Hey George, I just found this cool piece of software. I know you’re really interested in _____ and this is really neat. You want to check it out because it does this, this, this, and this. Here’s the link. LINK I’ll talk to you soon. Bye. Jim 95 Emails you compose as if to a specific person will outperform everything else 99% of the time. Always remember that millions might read your sales message, but you’re selling to one person at a time. Talk like them. Use words they understand. Never make them feel stupid!

155. When most people read your sales copy, at some point their brain says, “Okay, sounds good. But why should I believe you? Will this work for me? Has this worked for other people? Do I really need this?” Lack of proof is the real reason why you think you need testimonials and freak out if you don’t have any.

156. Results-oriented testimonials are the types you want. But you have to be careful, especially in the areas of health, finance, banking, investing, and things like that. There are specific requirements for testimonials like that. There are disclaimers and disclosures you need to provide (you can investigate those on your own). But the authorities are particularly concerned with any claims made about health or finances. Bottom line: be careful and never manufacture a results-oriented testimonial.

157. The next type of testimonial is about you and your company. These are relatively easy to get. You just ask people you’ve done business with or people who know you to provide a testimonial about you or your company so you can have testimonials on your website. Simply ask them what they would say to a friend or colleague about you and if it would be okay to put that quote on your site. It’s that simple.

158. For example, in 2001, when I published the e-book that launched me into the online business arena, I received an endorsement from a gentleman named Jay Conrad Levinson who wrote the Guerilla Marketing books. I sent him a copy of the book, asked him if he’d say a couple of words about it, and he endorsed it. That was huge!

159. After celebrity endorsements, the next thing you can use is statistics that support what you’re telling people. There are tons of studies and statistics out there on anything you can imagine. Go to Google and enter your topic plus the word “statistics” or “study.” Here’s an example: We want to find some proof to support the sales message for my book Selling Your Home Alone. You would go to Google and search for “for sale by owner statistics.” According to the National Association of Realtors, nine out of ten for-sale-by-owners will fail, give up, and list with a real estate agent within thirty days. So you can play that up in the proof section and say, “The truth is, according to statistics, nine out of every ten for-sale-by-owners will fail. Don’t let that be you. That’s why you need this book!” Leverage those statistics to give you the proof you need for the claims you’re making.

160. You can also leverage quotes to help build your proof. Find some 99 quotes that apply to what you’re trying to get people to do or buy. Use those quotes in the appropriate places to instill trust and to reinforce the idea that to buy what you’re selling is a good decision. So if you don’t have any testimonials yet, you now have a bunch of different options for getting proof elements into your sales copy.

161. The fastest way to get testimonials is to hand out something to different people and ask for a testimonial or an endorsement either for the product, for you, or for the topic in general. Don’t let the lack of testimonials stop you. People get all worked up and say stupid stuff like, “Oh, I don’t have any of these things, so I won’t be able to sell.” That’s not true. Will results testimonials help you sell more? More than likely, yes! But you can’t sell more until you’ve sold some. And you can’t sell some until you get the damn thing up there and offer it for sale in the first place!

162. Understanding how to structure a sales message.

163. 1. Formula #1: Problem/ Agitate/ Solve. This formula is my favorite because you can use it for anything. You construct your sales message in three parts: a. You define the problem they face b. You agitate it, make it worse, make it hurt c. You solve it by presenting your product or service as the solution Now, the key is to make it worse. A LOT worse! Agitate is the magic in this formula, which works for a 20-page sales letter, a one-page letter you might even send through the mail, or for an email. It works anywhere. You meet them with the problem they face, but don’t leave it alone.

164. Let’s use dog aggression as our example. State the problem: “Here’s the problem. If your dog barks or acts like it’s going bite other people, this is something you need to get under control quickly.” Agitate it. “If you don’t, you could be subject to a lawsuit. Your dog could mutilate a child. You could carry the guilt as well as the financial burden of a single, instantaneous dog attack for the rest of your life. So no matter how innocent, cuddly, and friendly your dog is, if you don’t have them properly trained, it could cripple you financially for the rest of your life.” Remember, agitating is the secret sauce in this formula. Introduce the solution. You can say, “Luckily for you, there’s now a solution. The Complete A-to-Z Puppy-Dog Training Guide helps you not only with aggression, but also with potty training, learning tricks, and socializing your dog to be a happy, healthy member of the 102 family.”

165. Let’s look at another example: real estate flippers. State the problem. “You want to flip real estate, but so does everybody else.” Agitate it. “To make matters even worse, every time one of those flipping seminars comes through town, a thousand people are fighting to find the deals you’re out there every day trying to get. Which means, not only is it harder for you to be able to find deals, but also the deals you do find are getting thinner because all these newbies are willing to pay more money for these flips. So all the profit is gone out of the deal before you can even make the deal.” Introduce the solution. “Well, luckily for you, there’s now a solution. It’s The Hidden Flippers’ Detective which helps you find the deals before they ever come on the market. It shows you how to find deals, how to finance deals, how to get deals done before anyone even knows there was a deal to be had.”

166. Third example: marriage counseling. State the problem. “You and your spouse don’t talk the way you used to, and it may just seem like things are a little weird right now.” Agitate it. “But here’s the real problem you’re facing. If you don’t reconnect now, statistics say there’s a high probability that you’ll end up in a divorce. Even if you don’t, you’ll live unhappily day-to-day, not with a lover, not with your best friend, but with a roommate. The only reason you’re staying together is for the kids or to pay the mortgage.” Introduce the solution. “Well, luckily for you, there’s now a solution, The Marriage Revitalization Guide. It helps you reconnect, keep communication open, and learn to appreciate each other again. It helps you reignite the fire that got you together in the first place. You’ll become a team that takes on the world together. Get back to how you felt about each other before you got married.”

167. 2. Formula #2: If you want 3X benefit, then do this. This is a positive message bent. Use this when you’re focusing on the desire and not a problem per se. You talk about benefit, benefit, and benefit, then whatever action you want them to take.

168. Real estate investing. “If you want to find great deals, if you want to find deals before anybody else, and you want to create a steady stream of new deals you don’t have to chase, then you need to check out Flippers’ Paradise. Here’s why . . .”

169. This second formula is that simple and usually works well with hot and warm traffic.

170. 3. Formula #3: The Before/ After/ Bridge. This formula uses some NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming—the study of how language gets people to take action). a. Start with the before. Talk about the way things are now. Typically, there’s a problem, a question, a roadblock, or something in the way that makes them unhappy.

171. b. Introduce the after. Tell them to imagine what their life will be like. In NLP, this is referred to as Future Pacing. “Imagine your life, circumstances, business, marriage, or whatever, once the negative is gone.” Once you’ve painted that picture where they’ve solved the problem, answered the question, or removed the roadblock, they’ve gone from unhappy to happy. Now it’s time to bridge your product to this happy feeling. c. Bridge. “Here’s the path to get there. Here’s the product. Here’s the service. Here’s the method. Here’s how you’re going to bridge that gap of where you are now to where you want to be.”

172. Let’s look at our dog training example. 106 Start with before. “Your dog’s not listening. You’re worried that he’ll get loose and run down the street, maybe even run into traffic and get hit. He might get in a fight with another dog. Or, he might bite a neighbor’s child, which could lead to some serious legal problems.” Introduce the after. “Now, imagine what it would be like to have your dog listen to you. Not because he’s scared of you but because he loves you. He walks with you down the street without a leash. Your dog does all kinds of fun tricks, and you enjoy your time together. You’re not at all worried about your dog being aggressive or exhibiting any other negative behavior towards other people. And you’re extremely happy together and have a great relationship.” Bridge. “Here’s how you get to that point. It’s called Dog Training Secrets which helps you get (this benefit), (this benefit), and (this benefit). Here’s how . . .”

173. Marriage counseling. Start with before. “Here’s the way things probably are right now. They’re not too good; they’re not too bad. They just are. You and your spouse pass each other in the hallway, you talk, you hug, occasionally you make love. But overall, things aren’t the way they used to be, and you’re starting to wonder why you are even together.” Introduce the after. “Imagine what your life would be like if every 107 time you saw your spouse, you felt the same feelings you felt when you first met? When you courted? When you dated? And when you were together, it was the most special time you ever felt. You couldn’t wait to see your spouse every night when you came home from work. You couldn’t wait to spend time with them on the weekend and do things together.” Bridge. “Well, that doesn’t have to be a fantasy. It can be your reality. And here’s how to get there.” Then you tell them how to achieve their goal with your product, service, etc. as the bridge to get them there.

174. 3. This formula can work with all traffic temperatures!

175. When it comes to sales letters, you might ask, “What should I use: a video sales letter, a long sales letter, or a short sales letter? Which do you think is best?” Some people think that length matters.

176. Personal Answer Start with a video sales letter. Why? For me, it’s the fastest way to get an offer up when I want to test an idea, to sell something, to make an offer, or to launch a new funnel. Any time I go into the marketplace, a video sales letter is the fastest way for me to do this. 109 Here’s how I structure the page. Start with the headline. Seems obvious, doesn’t? But as we discussed in Secret #6, the headline is your most important piece of sales copy. Insert your video. Add a Buy button, placed right under the video. In some cases, I will stop right here. In others, I’ll add the following: Add 4-6 awesome, curiosity-inducing bullets under the buy button. Give the guarantee. Summarize what they’ll get. Insert another Buy button. Closing copy. The Postscript (P.S.). Restate the main benefits stated in the video sales letter.

177. That’s the pattern I use for anything under a couple of hundred bucks.

178. Does that mean long-form sales letters are dead? Absolutely not. Do not believe anybody who heralds the end of long-form sales letters. I still use them because they are effective.

179. You use the long copy to sell a higher priced item and if people need more information to make a purchase decision. In my experience, nobody wants to watch an hour-long video sales letter. They’ll attend an hour-long webinar, but they won’t view a lengthy video sales letter. So, in some cases, you have to give people more information using long copy.

180. Typically, the two reasons you use long copy are when what you’re 111 selling costs more, or people need more information to make a decision. So in this case, typically what we’ll do is start with a headline. We’ll still do a sales video. Then we have the Buy button and then we have the long-form sales letter underneath all of that. So just because you’re using the long-form sales letter doesn’t mean that you don’t use the video too.

181. By the way, it’s okay if the long-form sales letter duplicates what you share in the video sales letter.

182. Why would you want to have both the video and the long-form sales letter on the same page? Because people either watch the video, or they read the long-form copy.

183. When would you use a short-form sales letter? Typically, you would use it to sell something relatively inexpensive. You don’t need a 30-minute video sales letter or a 30-page sales letter to sell something for 15 or 20 bucks. Typically, you’re overselling if you use a longer sales message in those cases, and people can get suspicious.

184. Bottom line: My first option in 99.99% of the cases is a video sales letter.

185. One more example: Up-sells or one-time offers (offers made after the initial sale as part of a “sales funnel” to increase the overall profit per customer). I do these consistently now. Why? Because after ten years of selling the same product, I added a one-time offer to it, and immediately saw a 30% increase in profits. When that happened, I wanted to slam my head in a car door. Why? Because I saw the sales jump from the one-time-offer, mentally went backward ten years, and calculated all the money I had left on the table (to the tune of $ 980,000 over the years).

186. Secret #17 How To Write An Amazing Sales Letter—

187. Example: Attn: All Funnel Hackers How To Get ALL Of Your Sales Letters, Scripts, And Webinar Slides Written (In Under 10 Minutes) WITHOUT Hiring An Expensive Copywriter! (This Works Even If You HATE Writing And Never Want To Know ANYTHING About Copywriting!) Just remember, the purpose of the headline is to attract attention from the right people.

188. Now, in a video sales letter, what matters most are the first words that come out of your mouth. Example: Do you need to write an amazing sales letter? Hi, my name’s Jim Edwards. In the next couple of minutes I’m going to show you how to write great sales copy fast. Your headline in a video sales letter or a spoken script are those first couple of sentences. So the first part grabbed their attention, then you identified yourself, and finally you let them know what to expect.

189. The second block is a shocking statement. Most people operate in a hypnotic state. They barely pay attention to what you’re saying or what they’re seeing or reading. Their mind is distracted by things like, “I should go check out Facebook;” “Hey, I wonder what’s going on over on Twitter;” “Hey, I wonder what’s for dinner tonight.”

190. Use a “Did you know?” statement.

191. Did you know the average for-sale-by-owner sells for over $ 59,000 less than homes sold by realtors? Oh, crap! That’s the reaction you want your reader or listener to have. You want them to STOP what they’re doing and pay attention to every word you’re sharing.

192. Define the Problem Defining the problem uses a formula called Problem, Agitate, Solve, which we discussed in detail in Secret #15. Are there other formulas? Yes.

193. When you define the problem, you tell them in no uncertain terms the exact problem they face. Here’s the problem you face ___________. You can use that exact wording and fill in the blank. You state it in no uncertain terms. Here’s an example from the military fitness niche: Here’s the problem you face: as a society, we’ve become so sedentary that young people don’t know how to get into shape and stay there. Here’s an example from the author niche: 118 Here’s the problem you face: most people think that writing a book is so hard and takes so long they can’t imagine becoming an author.

194. Agitate You’ve told them the problem, but that’s not good enough. You want to make it hurt because, the more it hurts, the more they need a solution and are willing to pony up with their time, money, and attention to solve it. If you leave it at the problem stage, they’ll say, “Well, I’m not that fat.”

195. This step is where you pour on the pain. You make it worse by using a statement like, “which means you _____.” Notice this is the same statement used to elicit emotion in the Secret #9: The Ultimate Bullet Formula. However, instead of evoking a positive feeling, in this case, we use it to crush their soul! Examples: Which means you’ll never get a chance to serve in the armed forces and serve your country. Which means you’ll struggle with being a fat couch potato for the rest of your life and never live up to your full potential. Which means you’ll never share your message with the world and when you die, your message dies with you. You want them to say “Oh dang! That hurts. That stings. Okay, you got my attention. All right. I don’t want to die like that. Save me now!” This process does not have to take pages. It’s a one-two punch in a bar fight they didn’t know they were having!

196. Present The Solution Now you introduce them to your product or service that holds the solution they need to the problem you just made worse in the last step. 119 Once you’ve smacked them in the mouth and made it worse, say, “Luckily for you, there’s now a solution. Let me introduce you to _____.” Examples: Luckily for you, there’s now a solution. Let me introduce you to the PT Test Survival Guide , a brand new book to help everyone pass their next PT test. Luckily for you, there’s now a solution. Let me introduce you to The Seven Day E-book , the revolutionary course that helps anyone write and publish their own book or e-Book in less than a week, starting from scratch. That’s all you have to do.

197. Use Bullets To Arouse Curiosity This sixth block uses bullets to arouse curiosity. (See how everything you’ve been learning so far is coming together?) Once you’ve introduced the solution, take your features, benefits, and meanings and use them to build curiosity and desire for your solution. How many bullets do you need? In my opinion, for most purposes, you need about six, eight, or ten rock-solid bullets. Nobody wants to read a hundred bullets. They need to see your six, eight, or ten best bullets. Am I saying you’ll never use a massive list of bullets? No. But in the workaday world of sales copy, ten solid bullets pull the weight of fifty mediocre ones. If you want to get good at bullets fast, review Secret #9: The Ultimate Bullet Formula.

198. Credibility Statement About You Tell people about you and why you are qualified to bring them this solution. Again, depending on what piece of copy you’re creating, this 120 could be one sentence or a whole page listing your education, qualifications, and how you got to be where you are today. It depends on the length and purpose of your sales message. If you need a long sales letter to sell a high-ticket item, where the sales copy carries the entire weight of the purchase decision, people will want to know the who, what, where, when, why and how of your qualifications to bring them this solution. On the flip side, the guy who invented The Perfect Push Up and The Perfect Pull Up covered this credibility statement in a one-minute infomercial by saying, “invented by a Navy SEAL.” Those five words were enough to establish all the credibility he needed to sell $ 100 million of fitness equipment.

199. Proof Proof answers the question “Why should I believe you?” Use your testimonials and endorsements now. Use whatever you have at this point (statistics, quotes, government studies, etc.) to establish proof. It’s easy to introduce this by saying, “But don’t just take my word for it. Take a look at this.” That’s always a great segue into this section. One type of proof we haven’t talked about is pictures or graphics. Images are one of the best forms of evidence, but they are also one of the most regulated. Why? Photos are compelling but are also easy to fake. Think about weight loss. The before and after picture is super powerful. Many of those pictures are fake. A dirty little secret is that the before (fat) picture is actually the after picture. In other words, people grab an old image of themselves when they were skinny, take a picture of themselves now as heavy, and then flip the pics. Nasty little trick! By the way, don’t do this. If you’re making an income claim, you could show pictures of bank statements. People show pictures of checks all the time, especially in real estate investment sales copy. People will show pictures of people with whom they’ve done business. My best advice: always tell the truth and back it up. If someone said, “Hey, you need to prove this is real in a court of law!” could you do it?

200. Sum Up The Offer And Give Price 121 In this section, tell them exactly what they’re going to get, how they’re going to get it, when they’re going to get it, and how much it costs. Coaching Example: This is a six-part coaching program that starts on this date It will be delivered weekly There will be time for Q& A Drill Example: 18-Volt Drill Comes with bonus 20-piece drill and driver set Delivered via UPS and arrives in 3-4 days Whatever it is, tell them exactly what they’re going to get, when they’re going to get it, how they’re going to get it, and how much it costs. Let’s talk about pricing here. Some people who say you should do a dramatic price drop when you reveal the price. In some cases, people are immune to that, especially if you are not selling in-person or on a webinar. For instance, in a text ad or on a web page where you aren’t present to close the deal, if you tell somebody, “Regularly, this is $ 399.00, but today you’re going to get it for $ 2.50!” that’s not going to work. Their BS detector goes off before they finish reading the sentence. To see great examples of price drops for everyday product sales, look on Amazon. Virtually every single product they sell will have a regular price that’s crossed out, and there’s a reduced price. It’s usually somewhere around a 10% to 30% discount. Also, look at the colors they use and how they cross out prices, etc.

201. Warning: Usually, those who live by the price die by the price. If the whole justification for buying what you sell is a low price, you’ll rarely make money. Provide value pricing, but don’t fall into commodity pricing where the price alone wins the battle.

202. Bonuses And Pot Sweeteners 122 If you have bonuses, special savings, extra service included, or anything else to put them over the top, this is where you tell them about it. In this section, you add more value to the offer. Maybe you throw in an extra something like a bonus report, an individual consultation with you, or anything that will make them feel like they are getting a fantastic deal on your offer. Be sure to build up the value of the bonuses and show why they are such a valuable addition to the offer.

203. Marlon Sanders, a man I deeply respect, told me something that caught my attention and has stayed with me for going on twenty years now. While standing in a hotel lobby in Boulder, Colorado in February 2001, he said, “Jim, the easiest thing in the world is to sell dollars for dimes.” To increase the effectiveness of your offer, you pile on the bonuses until the total value of your offer is 10X the price you charge. That was cool advice. Then Marlon said something that changed my life. To this day, I remember the Lipton tea bag tag hanging out of the side of his teacup as we stood there talking while all the attendee’s at the event filed back into the meeting room. He and I were the only ones standing there when he dropped this knowledge bomb on me. “Jim, if you really want to make your offer amazing, take your competitor’s USP (unique selling proposition) and turn it into a free bonus with your offer.” In other words, whatever your competitors are offering that makes them unique, provide the same thing as a free bonus when people buy from you.

204. I was selling a mortgage education product that was doing okay. My main competitors at the time were mortgage software calculators. So I went and found a piece of mortgage calculator software I could buy the rights to and started including it as a free bonus with my offer. I told people they didn’t have to buy a calculator from anyone else because I was giving one for free. My sales took off, and I never looked back. CAUTION: Don’t pile on a bunch of crap bonuses for the sake of piling on bonuses. Be strategic about it. Use those bonuses to create an offer that makes so much sense and feels so right people would be insane to say no.

205. Guarantee The guarantee is where you take away the risk. Again, it could be a paragraph or a single sentence. You could simply say 30-Day No Questions Asked Guarantee. You might also do a guarantee where you restate every single one of the benefits you sold them on before. Example: Not only do we guarantee this unconditionally for 30 days, but if it doesn’t show you exactly how to pass your next PT test, if it doesn’t help you to get in shape in the next two weeks, if it doesn’t give you a plan to get ready if you’re not ready right now, we don’t want your money. We’ll give it all back. No questions asked. No hard feelings. Again, whichever way you do it, this is the time to take away all the risk.

206. Call Them To Action You’ve told your buyer everything they need to know about the product. It’s time to call them to action. It could be a button that says, “Click here to buy now!” At this point, you can also give them another reason to buy right now. “When you order today, we’ll give you another 10% off as part of a special marketing test.”

207. Example: P.S. This gem will sell for $ 49. This introductory price of $ 29 is a “Buy it now before it’s gone” offer, so act fast! P.P.S. Let’s be blunt: If you pass on this offer, in a week from today will you have an e-book written or not? Probably not! You’ll still wish and want it, but you won’t write it or make money from it. Face it. Most of what you need is instruction and encouragement. Get this book now and have your e-book as fast as one week from today! Wouldn’t you like to be making money and bragging about your passive income within a week? Act now! Buy now! Your satisfaction is guaranteed. Click here!

208. By following this thirteen-step process, you’ve addressed all their objections. You’ve solved all their issues by walking them through this psychological process of evaluating whether to buy or not. Each of these sections could be pages, paragraphs, sentences, or a few words. Remember to hit all the points, in order, if you want to make more sales.

209. Most people make the mistake of selling the offer in the email teaser. Don’t! Your sales letter or video sales letter will sell them. The email teaser has one purpose: to get them to click to the website so they can: Read your sales message Watch your sales video Absorb your content Read your blog posts Watch your content video (which in turn refers them to your sales website) The only purpose of an email teaser is to get a click and to prepare the viewer for what they will see once they click.

210. There are only a few parts to a great email. The first part is the subject line. The subject line serves the same purpose for an email as the headline serves on your sales message.

211. So work on your subject line! The best subject lines I’ve found are short, concise, and often phrased in the form of a question. Let’s look at my buddy Stew with the PT testing examples: Worried about failing your next PT test? Failed your last Pt test? PT test coming up?

212. then I put in something like, “Hey everyone,” or “Hi Fellow Funnel Hacker,” or something like that. Make people feel like they’re part of the group and being acknowledged. You always need to have some salutation to start it off. Don’t just dive right in. Then you want to hit them with a shocking statement. There it is again, something to pop the reader out of their hypnosis. Something like: Hey Craig, Got a great new video for you Got an exciting new announcement Got something that’s going to blow your mind Cool new, free webinar on (fantastic topic) You can also ask a question to start your teaser and shock them out of hypnosis.

213. Once you have their attention, hit them with three or four bullets to arouse curiosity. Then tell them to click the link. Example: Subject: Want to be a published author? Hey Craig, Did you know that 99 out of a 100 people who try to write a book fail? Yep. It sucks. The main reasons why they fail are: They don’t know how to create content that sells. They don’t know how to get it formatted. They don’t know how to publish it. The cool news is I have a great new video that shows you exactly how 129 to solve all those problems—fast and easy! Click here right now to see it. LINK I’ll see you over there. Thanks, Jim

214. One of the most successful email teasers I ever sent to my own list of prospects was only a few lines. Subject: This blew me away Hey Craig, This was totally unexpected. Somebody just did a review and it’s amazing! You’ve got to check this out. LINK See you over there, Jim

215. A great email teaser breaks down like this: Great subject line Salutation Shocking statement Two, three, or four bullets or 2-4 sentences to build curiosity Specific call to action for what you want them to do Close with a personal note like “Hey, I’ll see you over there. Thanks, Jim.” That’s it.

216. You think, “How in the world am I going to go from this blank screen to a sales message, a headline, a sales letter, or a video sales letter script? How in the world am I going to do that?” The answer is to think and write in chunks. Going back to Secret #17, a sales letter is nothing more than a series of pieces. Don’t think, “Hey, I have to write a sales letter.” Instead, think through the chunks needed to create whatever it is you need. In the case of a sales letter, first you need a headline. Then you need a couple of bullets followed by an introduction. Then you do the Problem, Agitate, Solve formula. Next, write a description of your product followed by some bullets explaining the benefits. Next, tell them a little bit about yourself. Now, provide the proof that what you’re telling them works. What bonuses can you add to sweeten the pot? Next, build up the value, name the price, and then give a price drop. Now clearly state your call to action. It’s time now to summarize your fantastic offer and conclude the letter. Don’t forget the P.S. where you briefly restate everything and send them back to the call to action. Yes, that’s a bunch of parts, but when you think about it as parts instead of as a giant whole, then it’s more manageable.

217. An email also has chunks. They are a subject line, salutation, Problem, Agitate, Solve formula with the actual solution waiting on the other side of clicking the link in the email.

218. A video sales letter is nothing but a series of chunks. It’s your grabber on the front, a Problem, Agitate, Solve formula, the solution, five cool 134 bullets about the solution, three reasons to act now, and a call to action.

219. Remember that all sales copy jobs are combinations of building blocks or chunks. A sales letter is a headline package, your sales story, some bullets, a guarantee, and your call to action. Are there other little parts in there? Of course, but if you think about these main building blocks, it takes away the anxiety of writing a big sales letter.

220. Your number one job when creating a piece of sales copy is to get the first draft or version done as fast as you can. That is the key to your success.

221. Stories make people “thirsty”. Then your sales copy tells them where to go to buy a drink.

222. There are four different types of stories you tell people.

223. Fourth, you can use what I call The Three M’s of Content, which are pure gold that could potentially change your life. People are always looking for ways to give valuable content that doesn’t completely solve a problem, yet creates the need for what you are selling and increases the urgency to buy right now. The first M stands for dispelling a myth. People believe many myths. You can create massive amounts of content, such as blog posts, articles, videos, and entire webinars. In fact, whole books are written around myths people believe and the debunking of those myths. The second M stands for misconception. Myths are basically untruths people believe, whereas misconceptions involve incorrect ideas about something. You can clear up misconceptions—including false beliefs—and replace them with correct views and clear understanding. The third M stands for mistakes. Mistakes are where you point out where other people are going wrong. Mistakes are the most powerful of the three because nobody wants to make a mistake.

224. And, as a bonus for you (I said there were 4 stories you can tell), there’s actually a fifth way to make people even more “thirsty” using stories created from what’s called “future pacing.” These types of stories explain what life will be like when they take specific actions. You explain how your product, service, software—whatever—will help them achieve those results. You paint the picture by telling the story of their life when they do this.

225. Here’s an example: “I want you to imagine having your own unique book with your name on it as the author. You hold that book up. You show it to people. They leaf through the pages. They see your name on the front as the author. It has the same quality cover design as any New York Times bestseller. Now, imagine handing that book to someone you’re trying to get to hire you to provide a service. During a job interview, you include a copy of your book with your resume. You are at a trade show handing out autographed copies of your book while everybody else hands out business cards. Think about what your life would be like when you have your own book to give out to people. How will this boost your credibility? What will your business look like? How will you feel about yourself? Obviously, having your own book is something that’s important and valuable to you and your business.” What have I done there? I told a story which could be used as a Facebook post, a blog post, or even a live video. There are pictures, emotions, and all kinds of things in this story. But I haven’t actually taught you how to write a book. I haven’t done anything other than just make you “thirsty” to create your own book, if you haven’t already, or create your next book.

226. Let’s discuss the four ways you can sell when you’re creating content (free or paid).

227. The first way is to give something valuable for free that naturally leads to an additional purchase.

228. You can give something for free. Your client will love it, but you do it in such a way that sets up the need for what you’re selling.

229. John was an excellent trainer. This principle came home to me when John trained because his whole speaker training was about how to make money from your speaking gigs. He taught an excellent free training on how to create a high-dollar product you would sell from the back of the room at your speaking gigs. He showed you how to organize your own program. He explained in explicit detail the type of microphone you needed, how to set it up, how to use it. He described the software required to record your product. He showed you how much money you could make selling your own product from the back of the room. He was very specific about how to create the product you were going to sell from the stage to make all your money. He gave real content. However, to sell the product you’re going to create with everything he taught, you needed his speaker training to learn how to give a speech that would sell your product.

230. He made you “thirsty” by teaching you something great that required you to buy the next step so you could put it into action.

231. Basically, you teach somebody something or provide something that automatically creates the need for what you’re selling. But what you’re giving away is so valuable and good that people don’t think, “Oh, this was just a come on for them to sell me something.” Instead, they think, “Damn, that’s good. I want to do that. The next logical thing is to buy what they’re selling so I can use what I just got here.”

232. The second way is to tell them what to do, why they should do it, and then sell them how/ what they need to do it.

     in the marginthis is powerful

233. An example is how to write a book. I created a webinar training that details the steps to write a book: Step one: Define your target audience. Step two: Understand you can “create” your book’s contents faster than writing it. Step three: You’re going to create that content via a phone interview. Step four: You’re going to create the cover using a designer on Fiverr. Here’s the link. 140 Step five: You have your phone interview transcribed. Step six: You do a light edit. Step seven: You contract somebody on Fiverr to format your book. Step eight: You publish it on CreateSpace (print) and Amazon Kindle (ebook). Those are the exact steps you need to write a book. Now, this is why you want to write a book, and all the ways it can help you. It gives you credibility. It gives you authority. You can use it as a business card when you’re meeting people at trade shows. You can use it as a self-liquidating offer. You can use it as the front end of a funnel. You can use it to get more consulting clients, to get more speaking clients, to get more of anything. Now that you know the steps, either you can do it manually, or you can save time by using the software that does all the steps for you. It’s called The 3-Hour Kindle Book Wizard.

234. The third way is to teach all the steps leading up to what you want them to purchase.

235. The fourth way to make them “thirsty” with content is to teach them the manual or hard way to do something. Then sell them the tools, or the easy button, to do it for them. This one works so well it is almost like cheating. It is like showing somebody how to dig a well with a shovel and a ladder. You teach every single step necessary to hit the water table. At the end, you say, “Congratulations! You are fully capable of digging a well. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take five minutes to tell you about this thing we have called a backhoe. It can scoop out three cubic yards of dirt at a time. Instead of digging this well over the course of a week or two by hand, and risk serious injury or death with the thing collapsing in on you, I can show you how you can dig it in about two hours using this cool tool.

236. Secret #21 Love Me; Hate Me. There’s No Money In The Middle “Every product has a unique personality and it is your job to find it.” Joe Sugarman

237. to get results, you must force people to decide about you. You do this in your content and sales copy. You do it by taking a position and being consistent with your message, your methods, your opinions, who you like, and who you don’t. Even though you don’t talk smack about people by name, you can talk about behavior. You can discuss practices. You can talk about methods. You need to have a position. “This is right; this is wrong. This is good; 144 this is bad. This works; this doesn’t work.” People are looking for a leader, for someone to blaze the trail for them.

238. I heard this saying, “Love me; hate me. There’s no money in the middle,” from Matt Furey at a mastermind meeting in Tampa Florida in February of 2003. When Matt spoke to the group, he looked at me and said, “I just bought your book, and you’re selling it way too cheap.” My eyes got wide because this is a pretty impressive guy. I thought, “This guy forces you to form an opinion about him.” Then he said, “The other thing that’s made a big difference in my business is operating with the philosophy, “Love me; hate me. There’s no money in the middle.” It floored me. I’ll never forget hearing that for the first time. It’s made a dramatic impact on my business because this philosophy gave me the 145 courage to stand up to people who were saying things that weren’t true.

239. Secret #22 “Oh Damn—I Got To Have That!” “It has long been my belief that a lot of money can be made by making offers to people who are at an emotional turning point in their lives.” Gary Halbert

240. The promise of any product or service, often contained in that headline, is the number one key to selling like crazy. As with any sales copy, there’s a formula for creating a profitable promise. In this case it’s a four-part formula. They are 1) the hurdle, 2) the prize, 3) the timing, and 4) the eliminator. Let’s take a look at each of them.

241. Part One: The Hurdle

242. When someone looks at your product, while you tell them, “Hey, this will help you get the result you want,” they think, “Okay, but what do I have to do to get that result?” Your job is to 147 understand the thing they want but see as a hard thing to do, which is the hurdle. The result is the thing they see on the other side. It’s where they get what they want. To understand their obstacle, pay close attention to the action words they use. 99% of the time, the hurdle is some action that needs to get taken.

243. You need to pay attention to the differences, like “how to drive a golf ball” versus “how to hit a golf ball” versus “how to strike a golf ball”. Or “how to meet beautiful women” versus “how to date beautiful women” versus “how to find beautiful women”. Do you see the hurdle, the action? The ability to take the action to get the result is what they see holding them back. This action creates a mental image. People visualize actions best because they involve motion, and 80 percent of your brain focuses on handling what you see.

244. Therefore, we want to give people mental images to literally and figuratively turn their head inside their mind. So: “How to do or accomplish something.” It’s something they want done for them. So how to get, how to have, how to claim, how to write, how to publish, how to create, how to use, or how to access. What do they want to do? What is the action or the verb they desire? “How to lose 20 pounds. How to paint your house. How to train your dog. How to teach your kid to lift the toilet seat.” The actions are the hurdles.

245. Part Two: The Prize

246. pay close attention to the result keywords your niche uses. Some examples: 148 How to drive a golf ball like Tiger Woods How to hit a golf ball like Arnold Palmer How to strike a golf ball like a veteran PGA pro For some audiences, they know who Arnold Palmer is but they’re more familiar with Tiger Woods or Sam Snead. You need to understand the words they use for the prize when you start crafting and using the formula to create your profitable product promises.

247. Part Three: The Timing

     in the margintry to understand the comparisons that resonate with your target audience

248. Answer the question When will I get what I want? Basically, many of us are highly-functioning five-year-olds, wondering when Santa Claus will show up and give us what we want. So even though you’re an adult, your inner youth is screaming, “Well, when will I get it? When will it show up?

249. First, you reference the time it takes for them to get the prize by taking action themselves. The key is that it should be almost unbelievable, but within the realm of possibility so they can only blame themselves if they don’t do it. Examples: Timing: Write a 100-page book in about a week. To write a hundred page e-book in seven days is very possible. It can be done in two to three days if you sit down and do it. But if you don’t do it, then you know you didn’t do the work.

250. A. How to improve your golf swing in two 30-minute sessions B. How to improve your English in one hour C. Give me 17-minutes, and I’ll show you how to start a conversation with the most beautiful woman in the room The timing can be either how long it takes for them to do it, or how long it takes you to teach them.

251. Part Four: The Eliminator

252. The eliminator lets them off the hook, as in “it’s not their fault” they don’t have what they want yet. Everyone puts up mental barriers about what’s stopping them, such as stumbling blocks, or obstacles, or painful actions, or they don’t know the next step, or other perceived barriers holding them back. Whether they’re real or imagined, these are real barriers to them. It’s going to take too long, cost too much, be too hard, or they don’t know what to do. If you don’t eliminate the excuse that holds them back, then you’re screwed.

253. Remember that you never say it’s their fault. Let me repeat that. Under no circumstances do you 150 tell them it is their fault for not getting the results they want. Yeah, I know the reason many people can’t lose weight is because they don’t have enough sense to push back from the table before they eat that third cheeseburger. But I won’t tell them that. I will tell them, “It’s not your fault because you’ve been lied to about how carbs and proteins and vegetables interact. And if you will just change your strategy for how you eat, you will start losing weight.” When it comes to sales copy, it’s not their fault. Ever.

254. This last part of the formula forces you to make a better offer. You have to remove what’s holding the person back in order to get the sale. And when you remove what’s holding them back, your offer will be incredible because this formula forces you to think creatively.

255. Let’s look at a quick example that starts to pull it all together: “How to write and publish your own outrageously profitable e-book in as little as seven days.” That has three of the parts, but no eliminator. The reader says, “Oh, that’s awesome. But I’m not a writer, so this won’t work for me.” So we add this little bit at the end: “. . . even if you can’t write, can’t type, and failed high school English class.” That’s your eliminator. Notice the use of the transition “even if,” or “even if you can’t” to let them off the hook. Or you can add the phrase “without _____” and you have, “How to write and publish your own outrageously profitable eBook in as little as seven days without typing a single word of it yourself.”

256. There are some promise superchargers you can add to make this formula even more powerful.

257. The first is the money promise, but be careful with this one. “Make as much as an extra hundred dollars a day.” “How to make a thousand dollars as a _____ or with _____or doing _____.” And you can forgive past mistakes. “Even if you’ve tried before and failed.” “How to write and publish your own outrageously profitable e-book in as little as seven days, even if you’ve tried to publish a book before and failed miserably.” Or “Even if you hate writing and can only type with two fingers.”

258. The second is with a timeline or with timing. “In 60 minutes or less;” “In seven days or less;” “in less than a week;” or “in less than an hour.”

259. The third is a cost modifier. “For less than $ 50;” “For less than the cost 151 of a cup of coffee at Starbucks;” “For less than a medium everything pizza every month.”

260. Let’s look at some examples. 1. Dating: “How to use online dating sites like match.com to find the love of your life in 30 days without wasting time on the wrong people.” “How to use online dating sites like match.com to find the love of your life within 30 days and it costs less than an everything pizza to join.” “How to use online dating sites like match.com to find the love of your life within 30 days, even if you’ve failed at online dating before.” 2. Real estate: “How you can use eBay Real Estate to cash in with your first money-making deal within 72-hours, no matter where you live in the world. All you need is internet access and a desire to make money.” “How you can use eBay Real Estate to cash in on your first money-making deal within 72-hours, even if you’ve never bought a house before in your life.” “How you can use eBay Real Estate to cash in on your first money-making deal within 72-hours, even if you have no money of your own to invest.” 3. Marital advice: “How to get your spouse or lover talking again and save your relationship with one 15-minute session, even if everything you’ve tried in the past didn’t work.” “How to get your spouse or lover talking again and save your relationship in one 15-minute session, even if you’ve experienced a failed marriage in the past.” 4. Dog training: “Seven cool tricks every dog can learn in a weekend. Fun, fast, and stress-free.”

261. Secret #23 Put Lipstick On The Pig “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.” Howard Gossage

262. Here’s what to do if your copy isn’t working: ask yourself a series of questions.

263. Look at the headline. Do you have a headline? You’d be surprised how many people don’t have a headline.

264. Is your headline about you or your audience? Once I had a headline about how I went from trailer trash to piles of cash. I thought it was an amazing headline. It fell flat on its face! But when I changed it to how to gain a positively unfair advantage in business and life, then my sales took off by over 500 percent.

265. Is there a big, bold benefit or promise? You can always create a headline that causes people to stop what they’re doing. A great example is saying something like, “Sex!” Or, “Emergency!” The problem is that it makes the wrong people stop.

266. Is the offer clear? Does the buyer understand what they will get? Is it crystal clear? “You’re going to get this, this, this, this, this and this.” How do they get it? Is it delivered digitally? Does it come overnight? Is it a physical product? Is it an electronic product? Is it coaching? What is it? When do they get it? Do they get it instantly? Do they get it tomorrow? Do they get it next week? Do they get it once a month for the next 12 months? Is it on-demand? How much does it cost? If they can’t tell how much it is fairly easily by reading your message, you turn people off, because they feel like you’re hiding something.

267. Is there a clear reason to buy now? Is there a clear reason for them to buy right now? You can have the greatest offer in the world, but if there’s no urgency to buy now, then they won’t. Traditionally, these are the three ways to get people to buy now: Bonuses. Stack on added value to your fantastic offer if they buy right now.

268. Time deadline. People often use this with large product launches. They set the deadline and shut down the offer on that Friday. The problem comes in when, next Tuesday, they tell you their buddy emailed them, “Hey, please can you open this up just for my people for 24 hours?” The person thought, “Well, that’s not fair. So I have to open it up for everybody for 24 hours. So in case you missed it, or in case you waited, you have 24 hours again.” If you do that, you just blew your integrity.

269. Limited quantities. This is a double-edged sword. You have a high performing offer, but when you run out of limited quantities, that’s when people see if you have any integrity. If you magically add more quantities, and the offer keeps going, the people who bought realize you lied.

270. When the time deadline came that I promised to stop selling the product, I was bummed out. My wife asked, “What’s wrong?” I said, “I’ve got a perfect offer and a great product. And I can never sell it again.” To keep my integrity, I had to respect the time deadline and never sell the product again. I learned my lesson. When I came out with my next big product, I did not use time deadlines or limited quantities. Instead, I used the fear of losing out, which is a much better reason for them to buy now.

271. How do you use this technique? You use what’s called future pacing. “Hey, if you don’t buy this, here’s what’s going to happen: You won’t be able to do this or have that. You won’t have the ability to (whatever).” And if you lay on three, four, or five reasons why waiting will result in their lunch eaten by a competitor or be stuck where they are, you don’t have to depend on things like time deadlines and limited quantities. You can do a lot better for a lot longer.

272. Is there an emotional driver in the copy?

273. Do you have an emotion to grab people right at the beginning of your copy? It can be fear, desire, curiosity, pain, pleasure, satisfaction, or dissatisfaction (when you talk about problems). There has to be emotion infused into your copy. You create it by circumstances they either want to get rid of or want to create.

274. So, if your copy’s not performing, you need to look at it and say, “Is there something here that grabs people emotionally other than the promise to make money?” And nine times out of ten, from my experience, people buy out of dissatisfaction with their current circumstances. 157 People may be driven, or at least somewhat motivated by, what they want, but what gets people to act is dissatisfaction. Because, if things are good enough, people will sit on the crappy couch, eating Cheetos, watching a TV that is sort of tuned in, because, until it hurts enough to make a change, people don’t change.

275. Do your bullets suck?

276. Are your bullets curiosity drivers, or are they boring, bland, and read like a technical manual? We’ve done an entire secret on bullets and the proper bullet formula (see Secret #9). So the question is, are you featuring features, or are you highlighting benefits and payoffs?

277. What about the price?

278. Is the price too high relative to what others are charging? Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t charge a premium price as long as your offer justifies charging a premium price. On the flip side, is your price too low, creating the perception that you’re too cheap?

279. Think about it. For example, if you had a course on how to do options trading focused on a biz-op, work-at-home market for $ 97, you might do very well. You have a very different price than if you focus on a group of experienced investors looking to branch out into an options or futures market. If they saw your product was $ 97, they would laugh and think it wasn’t even worth their time. They’d think it was way too cheap and wasn’t worth anything. So your price can be too high, but it can also be too low. How do you find out? Test. When you look at your price, ask if the value is there. Does it feel like a great deal? Does it feel like, “Wow! This offer is amazing. I need to buy this before they raise the price or change their minds.”

280. There’s a concept called selling dollars for dimes that I learned from a man named Marlon Sanders. In the prospect’s mind, your offer combined with your bonuses must be worth ten times what you charge. That seems to be the magic number. 158 Now, whether it needs to be ten-to-one or twenty-to-one or five-to-one or thirteen-to-one isn’t the issue. Your offer must feel like you’re selling dollars for dimes.

281. Are you using the right graphics and colors?

282. You do want to use graphics appropriately. Each major point or idea in your sales copy should have an accompanying graphic.

283. What about proof?

284. It could be that people don’t believe you. Do you offer proof, especially around your claims? Any time you make a claim, you need to have something to back it up. It could be a testimonial, a case study, some statistics, or an expert endorsement.

285. you need to be careful that you can genuinely substantiate these kinds of authentication. The FTC loves to come after these claims.

286. Secret #24 Should I Join The Dark Side? “Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires that already exists in the hearts of millions of people, and focus those already existing desires onto a particular product. This is the copy writer’s task: not to create this mass desire—but to channel and direct it.” Eugene Schwartz

287. The good way to go negative is to meet people in their internal conversation. You talk about their problems, their mistakes, their fears, and their enemies (real or perceived). You warn against adverse events and advice. Use the negative going on inside of their head to get in sync with them. Because until you get in sync with them, they won’t pay attention to you. Let’s look at a couple of examples. What problems would dog trainers have? Perhaps getting more clients. A negative could be, “Are you having trouble attracting good clients for your dog training business?” “Are you dealing with problem customers?” You lead with a negative like this. How about real estate investors? What negative could you lead with? “Having trouble finding good deals?” “Having trouble with no money for down payment?” “Do you have bad credit?” “Is bad credit holding you back from finding or financing your deals?” “Can you find deals, but you can’t find any way to fund them?”

288. How about doctors? “Has malpractice insurance crushed your profitability?” Whoa, now that’s something to think about. Maybe a doctor has staffing problems. Maybe a doctor has issues with patient satisfaction. “Have a problem with health insurance not paying out on time or cutting your fees?”

289. How about funnel hackers? “Can’t get enough traffic?” “Ads not converting?” “Trouble getting all the mechanics set up for your funnels?”

290. Use the negative to get in sync with somebody. Once you get in sync with them, then you transition to your solution. Nobody cares about your answer until they know you care about their problem. There’s an adage that says, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

291. Those are all excellent negatives to include in your copywriting, content, and communication. They are like public service announcements. You can think about it this way, “I’m helping you avoid problems. I’m helping you overcome roadblocks. I’m answering the questions that are holding you back.” You are performing a public service for your target audience, whether it’s through your copywriting, videos, or content. So that’s the good way to go negative. Use the bad to get in sync with where your potential customer is right now.

292. Bottom line: you never outright attack somebody. You can attack behavior. If you see something that somebody’s doing, say, “You know what? I’ve seen people doing this, and I don’t think it’s right. Here is why and what people should do instead.”

293. You can attack behavior. You can attack results. You can attack a method. But you never attack a person or a company by name. You never, ever call somebody out. It never pays off. It only creates problems. And it will come back and bite you ninety-nine times out of a hundred.

294. You want to say something like this, “Now some of our competitors will tell you _____, but that’s just not true. Here are the facts you need to know.” You don’t mention anybody by name. For instance, “Some of our competitors will tell you it’s okay to use a choke chain when training a large dog, but that’s not true. Here are the facts you need to know.” “Some of our competitors will tell you to use a third-party email service provider to send your email, but that’s not a good idea. Here are the facts that you need to know.”

295. “Some of our competitors will tell you they have great deliverability rates just like us, but that’s not true. Here are the facts you need to see.”

     in the marginsome of our co.mpttrs comprte on price heres the facts. their clients leave after just 3 months. we compete on relationships.

296. “You may have noticed some people are _____, but we don’t think that’s right. Here’s why.” “You may have noticed some people charge extra for _____, but we don’t think that’s right. Here’s why.” “You may have noticed some people make you pay for a separate third-party email relay service, but we don’t think that’s right.

297. Here’s why.” You’re getting the message out there, but you’re sweeping it out of the way and saying what you think is essential for them to make a good decision (which is to buy from you).

298. Whatever your target audience has experienced, you can key in on a negative without being confrontational or combative or attacking someone by name.

299. Secret #25 “Stealth” Closes—The Secret To Selling Without Selling “Tap a single overwhelming desire existing in the hearts of thousands of people who are actively seeking to satisfy it at this very moment.” Eugene Schwartz

300. How do you put sales into content like info videos, articles, and stuff that’s not sales-oriented? The answer is Stealth Closes (aka The Columbo Close). In the TV show Columbo, the main character was a police detective who investigated murders or heinous crimes. Because he appeared humble and bumbling, nobody took him seriously. The bad guys didn’t see him as a threat but more of a nuisance. In every episode, the bad guy or gal thought they had gotten away with the crime. In the last 30 seconds to five minutes, Columbo would show up, ask a few questions, act like everything was fine, and then say, “Oh, by the way, what happened with that drink or 165 empty cup I saw on the bar?” Or, “Whatever happened with that?” The person’s guard was down, so they would answer the question which would convict them.

301. A Stealth Close is a very subtle way to direct someone where you want them to go without them realizing what you are doing. Often, you start a Stealth Close with these three words: “By the way.”

302. Let me show you a real example from an email teaser I sent. Subject Line: Hey, [first name], the perfect picture. Jim Edwards here with an article below that will get published in my newspaper column tomorrow, but you get the scoop today. So if you make websites, mini-sites, content sites, brochures, fliers, e-book covers, DVD covers, or anything else that requires images, this article has some excellent information for you that will save you both time and money. By the way, it’s still not too late to sign up for the Website Video Secrets workshop in LA next week. Get all the details here at websitevideosecrets.com .” Now, what does the Video Secrets workshop have to do with the newspaper column? Absolutely nothing. But I whack them out of the blue after I’ve given them value.

303. The Stealth Close also works well in the P.S. of a message. Here’s another example: “I’ve got an article for you about how people are fencing stolen goods on eBay, and you need to be careful.” And then, “P.S. We have a few seats left for our live Website Video Secrets Workshop in Atlanta on April 5th and 6th. If you want to discover the secrets to making simple little videos that drive traffic, make people click, and generate fat commissions, get more information here right now.” Then I included the link. Again, it’s a pivot. Think about a judo jiu-jitsu move. The person comes at you with one thing, you step to the side, and they get flipped.

304. how does this work? There are two parts. In part one, you give some value. In the above example, I gave value. “Hey, here’s a cool article. Here’s a video. Here’s (what-have-you).” Then in step two, you invite them to another level by merely using the words “by the way.” Where do you use a Stealth Close to get the best results? They work exceptionally well in email teasers. Often, I will send the email with the value just so that I can give the Stealth Close. It’s like the value I offer is the toll I pay to deliver the Stealth Close message.

305. As an example: “P.S. We have a few seats left for our live Website Video Secrets Workshop in Atlanta. If you want to discover the secrets to making simple little videos that drive traffic, make people click, and generate fat commissions, get more information here right now.” You can use the Stealth Close technique verbally, in text, or anywhere. First you deliver value and then pivot to get a signup, a subscriber, whatever you want to get done. You can also use this type of close in articles. At the end of a pretty long article I published, it says, “By the way, if you’d like to sell more, promote your books, and create incredible content using interviews, The Expert Interview Wizard helps you make everything you need to create and promote amazing, profitable interviews in just three to five minutes flat. Watch the demo and get a special price, but only for a limited time, interviewwizardspecial.com. ” On the surface, does that appear to be an ad? No. It just pivots from content to the next step I want them to take. Also, (and this is key) it’s not formatted any differently from the rest of the material. That’s important.

306. You can also do this in blog posts. In a blog post all about Evergreen Products, I taught how to create them, how to make them, and why you want to have them. And then the pivot is, “By the way, one of the easiest and most useful Evergreen Info Products you can create is an interview with an expert. Either you as the expert providing information or you as the host interviewing someone else. Interviews are not only easy to create, but you can publish them as books, e-books, DVDs, webinars, 167 teleseminars, home study courses, and more. Interviews are like the Swiss Army Knife of the info product creation world. One more thing, if you’d like to sell more, promote more . . . .” It is formatted the same as the rest of the blog post.

307. You can use Stealth Closes in your Kindle books. So if you’re publishing Kindle books, regular books, or e-books, you can use Stealth Closes any time you mention a resource. You can even do a Stealth Close at the beginning of your book to get more subscribers, including the people that don’t buy. At the beginning of that book, have a page that says, “By the way, if you’d like a free audiobook version, head on over to mysite.com/ audiobook and register your copy now.” This is a great example of how you can leverage copywriting in something where people aren’t expecting sales copy.

308. This format works in Facebook posts, YouTube videos, Pinterest, or anywhere you create and share content. This method also works well on Facebook live videos. End every video with a “by the way” statement and direct them to something that makes you money or gets you a subscriber.

309. that phrase, “Click here now to _____.” It has its place, especially on a sales letter or on a sales page, where someone knows they’re in a sales situation.

310. But what if they don’t know they’re in a sales situation? Or they don’t want to be in a sales situation? Or they don’t want to go from Facebook, where they’re getting all this free content, over to somewhere else where you might try to sell them something? That’s when the Stealth Closes come in because people’s defenses are up. A Stealth Close allows you to slide in under their defenses just like a Stealth Bomber. We use Stealth Closes to drive traffic from free content to paid offers. You don’t use a Stealth Close on an actual sales letter or in a video sales letter.

311. Let’s talk about how to use Stealth Closes to drive traffic from free content to paid offers. Step one is to teach them something, to offer value.

312. My buddy, Mike Stewart, likes to call them “Didja Knows?” So, “Didja know there are three ways to create and publish a book without writing? Absolutely. Here they are.” You solve problems. “Hey, are you having trouble figuring out how to get a great-looking cover for your Kindle books? Not a problem. I will show you right now how you can get a great-looking cover made for five dollars.”

313. Answer questions. “Hey, have you ever wondered how I make sales of my Kindle book once I post it to Amazon? Well, you know, a lot of people have that same question. Here are five things to help you answer that question.” Then step two is to say, “By the way, did you know _____? Well, _____ and _____, it’s true. Check it out.” Example: “Hey, by the way, did you know that 3-Hour Kindle Book Wizard will help you create and publish your book in less than three hours of total effort? It’s true. Check it out.” Or, “Hey, did you know there is a software you can fill out in about 10 minutes that will create everything you need to create and publish your book on Amazon? It’s true, and you can check out a demo right here at 3-169 Hour Kindle Book Wizard.” Whatever you teach them, use a “by the way” statement to tell them where they can get a benefit. You tie it into an advantage they want, that goes along with whatever you taught them.

314. The easiest way is to tie them to the ten reasons why people buy anything from Secret #3. 1. Make money 2. Save money 3. Save time 4. Avoid effort 5. Escape mental or physical pain 6. Get more comfort 7. Achieve greater cleanliness or hygiene to attain better health 8. Gain praise 9. Feel more loved 10. Increase their popularity or social status Hopefully you see how these Copywriting Secrets play off one another and help you to get better at copywriting.

315. Here’s your rule to live by. Any time you publish anything, take the words—by the way, did you know—and tell them something. By the way, did you know that you can _____ with _____? Yep, it’s true. Go here for more information. By the way, did you know _____ will help you _____? Yep, it’s true. Go here for a quick demo. By the way, did you know we still have _____ available? Yep, it’s true. Go here to find out more. By the way, did you know _____ is on sale for _____? Yep, it’s true. Go here to find out how you can grab one for 75% off. Stealth Closes could be the most potent secret weapon in your content marketing arsenal because hardly anybody knows about them. They don’t 170 even think about it. Everyone uses that direct frontal assault as a call to action. The other reason you should use them is they work great.

316. Now, if you’re thinking, “Well, if I say ‘by the way’ all the time, people will begin to recognize that and see it coming, and it will be just like any other ad.” Maybe. But there other things you can say like, “Oh, before I forget;” “Oh, one more thing;” “Hey, by the way;” “Hey, did you know?” “Hey, did you realize?” There are so many different ways to make that segue and do the Stealth Close to get surprising results.

317. Commit that nothing you do goes out without a close, no matter how unlikely it might be. When you do this consistently, you will see an amazing transformation in the number of people who do what you want them to do as a result of viewing your content.

318. Secret #26 The Hired Gun “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” Red Adair

319. Nobody knows your market as well as you do. So half the problem, or the challenge, of hiring somebody to write copy for you is that you have to teach them all they need to know about your product and your market to be able to figure out how to write sales copy for you.

320. To have somebody write copy for you, they’re going to ask you lots and lots of questions. You will do at least one big, extended interview with them, if not more, which is a lot of work. You have to sit down and identify your market, what are the benefits, what are the payoffs, what is your audience’s motivation, what is the emotional impact, what is their reason to buy, how to get them to buy now, and what the limited time bonus is, etc. Then you must communicate all that information to someone else who is unfamiliar with your market and audience. In the end, if they’ve done their job right, you get back sales copy that spits back what you told them.

321. The first truth about ads Again, the only purpose of an online ad is to get the right people to click your link. I would rather have a hundred of the right people click my link than ten thousand people who aren’t the right fit. That’s how you waste money on ads.

322. The second truth about ads Curiosity is key. It is the number one way you get the right people to 186 click. If your ad makes someone curious, you’ll get the click. That’s it. Make them curious. The whole purpose of an ad is to get the right people to click. In our attention deficit, attention-starved world where people give you less time because they don’t have time to pay attention, the number one thing that will get anybody to click your ad is curiosity. What is it? How do they do that? Typically those are the two questions you want to create in the mind of your potential customers so they will click your ad.

323. The third truth about ads If you don’t know where to start when writing an ad, ask a question. That’s all you have to do. Three basic questions serve me well when crafting ads. Are you tired of _____? Would you like to _____? Have you ever wanted to _____?

324. A little side note for you. One day, I saw a graphical ad on Facebook that blew my mind. It was a graphic with a one-line question in plain black text on a white background. No image. The text was the image. It grabbed my attention, so I clicked it. The person running the ad was a friend of mine. His picture was plastered all over the front of the landing page. I 187 called him and asked, “Hey, dude, I saw your ad. How’s that going?” It was offhand conversational, like guys do. He told me he’s slaying it. I’ve adapted this technique to my existing knowledge about using questions in my ads. In the past, I used pictures with text to ask the question, but up to that point, I had never made the text the image. Try it and see what kind of results you get.

325. Think about Facebook. Think about Instagram. Think about Twitter. Think about LinkedIn. What makes you stop when you’re scanning through those sites? It’s not the headline. It’s the picture. When watching a video, your decision to keep paying attention happens in the first few seconds. That’s why Facebook measures the metrics of success for a video ad in three second views.

326. Whether people stick around or bail depends on what you say and show in the first three seconds. Use emotion 188 to grab their attention. Talk about payoffs or penalties. Talk about outcomes or obstacles. Talk about the things they want or don’t want. You want to go after emotion when you’re grabbing attention. You can’t be in the middle. You can’t play it safe. You can’t try to be relevant to everyone. You must force people to make a decision. You do that by showing emotionally charged imagery, by using emotionally charged statements and headlines. Emotion is key. Step number two is to create curiosity. Show them a picture or text designed to make them ask, “What is this? How can they do that?” Step number three is a call to action. Tell them to do one specific thing. Most of the time, online you’ll say, “Click here to _____.”

327. Let me give you some examples. Let’s say your target audience is people who need help with financial planning. Their desire is financial peace of mind or to get higher returns on their money. What’s their problem? Wading through the confusing financial jargon or getting ripped off by inept financial advisors. Here’s some example ad copy: Want the 3 financial planning secrets every successful entrepreneur needs? Free webinar helps you achieve total financial peace of mind and get high returns on your money without knowing all the confusing financial jargon. Register now. There you go. If they say yes to the question, they’re thinking, “What is it?” Get higher returns on your money without knowing all the confusing financial jargon or getting ripped off by inept financial advisors. “That’s me. I want higher returns on my money. Yeah, I want to see that.” Click here now. Don’t hate yourself for getting ripped off by inept financial advisors. “What? Oh my God. I hated that last guy we had!” or “I hate this guy that we have now. What are we going to do?” Free webinar reveals how to get higher returns on your money without having to become a full-time investment manager yourself. “Oh, damn. I would love to get higher returns on my money.” Three small business financial planning secrets every successful 189 entrepreneur needs now. Click here now. “I have a small business. What are the secrets?” You can laugh at financial planning problems if you follow this simple plan. What is it?…

328. Here’s another example. The target audience is coaches who want to market better to find more clients. They desire to get more coaching clients, to make more money, and to enjoy more freedom as a coach. What’s their problem? They’re losing money on marketing and wasting time on prospects who won’t sign up for coaching. Let’s look at some example ad copy. Five marketing secrets every coach needs. Five _____ secrets every _____ needs. Think about how you could apply these proven formulas to your business. Five ways to stop wasting time on prospects who will never sign up for coaching. Click here now. Is this emotionally charged? Yes. Does it focus on some problem they have? Absolutely. Remember, the whole purpose of this ad is to get somebody to click. How to get more coaching clients. How to get more _____. How could you say this another way? Want to get more. Want more. Want more coaching clients? Want a higher return on your investment? Want < whatever it is > . Five secrets to make more money and enjoy more freedom as a coach without wasting time on prospects who won’t sign up. Click here now. Boom.

329. The fifth truth about ads It’s a numbers game. Selling more and making more money online with ads is nothing more than a numbers game. From my experience, it can take ten to fifty ad tests to find one that works well enough to be profitable. Most people stop before they find the one that works. They give up too soon. “Oh, man, I ran every ad under the sun.” “How many different ads did you run?” “I ran a bunch.” “Exactly how many campaigns did you run?” “A couple.” “Okay, how many ads were within each of those campaigns?” “Two.” They run two ads and decide ads don’t work. People who do that are dumb. It is nothing more than a numbers game.

330. Most of the people selling courses on ads don’t want to tell you it can take ten to fifty ad tests because they know that sounds like work. Nobody wants to buy work. The best thing you can do is burn through those ten to fifty ads as fast as you can. Then, eliminate the poopers, find the few that convert well, and scale those.

331. That’s the magic formula. I just boiled down everybody’s thousand dollar writing ads course to: write ten to fifty ads using emotion, curiosity, and drive to action, and run them. Get rid of the ones that don’t work. Find the ones that do work and scale the crap out of those. The fact is nobody ever runs one ad that is an instant hit. That’s not how it works. If you’ve tried to run ads in the past and failed, don’t feel bad. Nobody knows which ads will work until they finish running all the ads that don’t. Oh, by the way, you never finish. It’s a never-ending process. Your ad won’t work forever. Think of it this way: you have ads coming; you have ads going; you have ads running right now. Think of it like a bucket brigade. You have ads you are testing, ads you are running, and ads on their way out the door. Don’t get emotionally attached to that process. It’s just how it works. In the old days, could you successfully run a single ad in magazines and 192 newspapers for years? Absolutely. Could you still do that today in print publications? Absolutely. Online, though, ads have a limited shelf life, especially on Facebook and other social media. Just because your ad is working doesn’t mean you get to retire next Tuesday. You need to keep testing. You need to keep figuring out new angles and emotional hooks to use with your audience because it’s never over. Change your copywriting mindset to one where you want to “fail fast” with the losers and don’t give up until you find the…

332. A hook is not a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). A Unique Selling Proposition, also seen as Unique Selling Point, is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors. This differentiation could be the lowest cost, the highest quality, or the first-ever product of its kind. Think of a USP as what you have that competitors don’t. But that is not a hook.

333. Now a USP can be significant to your success, especially when you’re in a market with several competitors. A USP differentiates you as a business. A hook distinguishes your sales message from all others. So a Unique Selling Proposition is what makes your product or service different from similar items. A hook is a lightning-fast story that creates curiosity about that difference.

334. So here’s an example. Here’s the hook: “One-legged golfer outdrives Tiger Woods.” The USP could be, “Our three-minute video fixes 90 percent of long drive problems.” Another example. Hook: “The story of a 76-year-old man who got me into the best shape of my life.” Because it’s an exercise product, the USP might be, “Special bodyweight exercise you won’t see anywhere else but in this course.” We capture their attention with the hook. But the USP differentiates the actual product from all of our competitors.

335. Hooks are often “hidden” stories or angles. It’s important for you to look for these. When it comes to your story or product, the hook is sometimes difficult to identify because what other people think is cool, you take for granted. Look for the hidden story in your offer that would get people excited or at least curious.

336. Here are some hooks I’ve used through the years. “Rebel Real Estate Agent.” Used to sell my book on how to sell your house yourself on fsbohelp.com. “Mortgage Loan Broker blows the whistle on industry corruption.” I used this for a mortgage product based on my past life as a mortgage broker. The whole hook was blowing the whistle on people doing shady things. Which, by the way, some of the practices I detailed in my product ultimately were what brought about the financial crisis of 2008. That’s not revisionist history; it is the truth. I blew the whistle on practices like charging extra fees or getting people loaded with variable rates they couldn’t afford, ten years before it happened. “From dead broke with a heart condition and living in a trailer park with no heat and a leaky roof to internet millionaire.” Now, that’s a hook I’ve used which has produced mixed results, but it’s got its place.

337. How do you create a hook? The process is as much art as it is science. I’ll give you a quick overview, and then I’ll show you a bunch of examples because that’s where the art versus science comes in. A hook is often a one-sentence story about you, about someone else, even about a fictional 195 character that’s like your prospect. It can also be a combination of elements. Think of it this way: an unlikely character plus timing plus results. Or, a result without pain plus timing. So what do I mean by this? Let’s talk about the one sentence story real fast. “How I used a simple hack to go from bankrupt and living in a trailer park to become a successful real estate investor.” That’s a hook I could use for a real estate investing course. “Rookie realtor takes 52 listings first year in the business using this 15th century discovery.” You’re probably thinking, “What in the heck is that?” That’s the hook I could use to talk about the fact that every realtor needs to have a book. And what’s the 15th-century discovery that this rookie realtor used? In 1440, Gutenberg invented the printing press. You might say, “Man, that’s a stretch.” That’s a hell of a good stretch. It’s finding the creative story to go with the hook. Any realtor will read that and say, ”A rookie took 52 listings their first year using a 15th-century discovery? What is this? I need to read more.” That’s all we want. Here’s another: “Ex-pizza delivery guy shows you a weird trick to become a bestselling author in a…

338. So let’s 196 look at an example of an unlikely character plus timing plus results. “Former janitor goes from bankrupt to paid-off house in eighteen months with profits from his e-book business.” That is a hook I could use. I was a janitor at Giant Food during the summer of 1986. When I was in college, I was a janitor. I used to get up at four in the morning, ride my bike five miles, open up the grocery store, and sweep and mop an entire grocery store by myself before they opened at seven o’clock. And I did pay off my house with the profits from my ebook business. Granted, I was a janitor in 1986 and paid off my house in 2002. So I’m combining these different things. But it’s an authentic hook to use. It will create an intense amount of curiosity. Let’s look at another one. “Part-time chicken rancher loses 30-pounds in two months thanks to the unlikely combo of Oprah Winfrey and a former U.S. Navy Seal.” Now again, this hook is my story. Part-time chicken rancher? Yep, we have twelve chickens that I take care of every day. I did lose 30-pounds in the last two months. As of this writing, I am 30-pounds lighter than I was two months ago. But what’s with Oprah Winfrey? Oprah Winfrey is a big supporter and business partner of Weight Watchers, and I used Weight Watchers to manage my diet and lose the weight. And then the former U.S. Navy Seal is Stew Smith, my friend who has been training me for the last five years. 197 Do you see the art in taking these elements and combining…

339. Let’s look at another formula. Result plus timing minus pain. “Lose all the weight you want in the next thirty days without diet or exercise.” What? That’s what they’re looking for! Or that’s what they think they’re looking for until they find out it’s the methamphetamine diet. “Create and publish your outrageously profitable book in just three hours without writing a single word.” That’s a great hook as well and entirely possible to do.

340. Where and how do you use a hook? Use it as your headline. You can use it in your sales copy. Use it at the beginning of your sales copy. You can use it in the first paragraph. Use it in your stories. You can use it in your ads and social media posts. Use it in your memes and infographics. You can use it anywhere you want to grab people’s attention. That’s the beautiful thing about a hook; use it anywhere and everywhere. Use it anywhere to grab people, pull them in, and move them on to the next step.

341. Secret #30 Create Your Own Swipe File “Get yourself a collection of good ads and DM (direct mail) pieces and read them aloud and copy them in your own handwriting.” Gary Halbert

342. Whether you’ve heard of it or not, all copywriters worth their salt maintain something called a “swipe file”. What is a swipe file? A swipe file is a collection of advertisements, postcards, direct mail, catalogs, posters, flyers and anything that has to do with selling somebody something. In the past, it was built around direct mail, brochures, or something you received in print.

343. How do you keep it? Well, there are two ways. You can create a digital file folder or a print one. You can quickly develop a digital swipe file, and I encourage you to do so. Capture screenshots of things you see that you like or save the entire webpage. I use a program called Snagit by TechSmith, who also makes Camtasia. Snagit allows me to capture everything from just a single image to an entire scrolling webpage. I save those in folders with sub-folders like 200 ads, headlines, calls to action, stories, and bullets. When I want to get my warmup, I flip through these quickly and view them as graphics on my hard drive. For a print file, I keep them in manila folders organized into emails, headlines, sale’s letters, my stuff and other people’s stuff. I’ve even bound some things with a comb binder. You don’t have to do that. How do you use it? Use it as a mental tickler file every time you need to do something. If you need to write headlines, look at some headlines. If you need to write bullets, look at bullets. If you need to write a sales letter, look at the sales letters.

344. When do you add to your swipe file? The answer is whenever you see something that grabs your attention! I remember seeing a video game magazine, on the front row in Books-A-Million in Williamsburg, Virginia. One of the bullets said, “The Grand Theft Auto Vice City secrets you’re not supposed to know.” My brain immediately replaced the Grand Theft Auto Vice City secrets with e-book marketing. I used the headline, “The E-Book Marketing Secrets You’re Not Supposed To Know” to help launch a six-figure website. I still remember the picture on the cover. It was a cartoon of a woman eating a Tootsie Pop. It was a very provocative cover that grabbed my attention. Any time you see something, take a picture of it with your smartphone, email it to yourself, and add it to your digital swipe file. It’s never been easier to create and maintain a swipe file than it is today. Finally,

345. Secret #31 Polish Your Sales Copy “‘ Finish your first draft and then we’ll talk,’ he said. It took me a long time to realize how good the advice was. Even if you write it wrong, write and finish your first draft. Only then, when you have a flawed whole, do you know what you have to fix.” Dominick Dunne

346. The next thing you want to check is the secondary reading path. With text, this means you scan your copy and see if you can get the basic message. Read the headline, your sub-headlines, and the P.S., which is the secondary reading path for long-form sales copy or print sales copy. People scan; they don’t read. Can you get the gist of your sales message from reading the headline, scanning any sub-headlines, scanning the bolded words, looking at the pictures, and reading the P.S.? If not, you have some work to do.

347. All videos on Facebook start playing with the sound muted. You want to have subtitles for your videos. Rev.com will do those for you for a dollar a minute, which is well worth the investment. All your video sales letters from now on should have subtitles so when people watch your video with the sound turned off, they will get the message.

348. Go back and review Secret #3 for the top ten reasons why people buy. That was a game-changer for me in my copywriting career. Instead of talking in generalities, if I knew why people were going to want to buy, that made writing copy a lot easier because it gave me a focus, a filter, and a framework.

349. What, in your opinion, makes the copy so good they can’t refuse to buy? The short answer is your copy makes them believe they’re going to get the result they want from what you’re selling. So, if they believe that they’re going to solve their problem, going to get their desire, going to make that money, save that money, save that time, avoid that effort, escape that pain, or whatever it is, they can’t refuse to buy . . . if they believe.

350. Sometimes it can be as simple as a demo. The person sees how the product works and believes they could push the button that way or use the product that way. Other times, it’s as complicated as having the proper case studies, using the right words, and having data to back you up. But mainly it’s the mental checklist people run down. “Do I believe it’s possible to get this result?” “Have other people gotten the result?” “Do I believe that I can get the result?” So that’s the short answer.

351. Should you write the copy before you make or create or manufacture the product or service?

352. I believe whenever possible, you should craft the perfect offer before you create whatever it is you’re going to sell. 209 When you write copy for a product that already exists, your critical brain kicks in and says, “Does it do that?” Or, if you make a claim about something or give information, you think, “Well, yeah, I guess it does that, but am I stretching it?” These thoughts cause you to equivocate in your copy, which is a fancy way to say you tone down the promises in the copy because you’re worried the product won’t live up to the promise. So I’m a huge advocate of creating the ultimate offer, the best sales copy, and then developing the product that meets or, preferably, exceeds the promises made. The copy becomes the blueprint for the creation of the product rather than a spec sheet.

353. This is a wonderful strategy for creating copy that sells like crazy. If you create your offer, write your sales copy, your sales letter and your sales video before you create an information product, this is an easy process. You just create the ultimate offer and then fulfill it. It’s the same thing with software. It’s better to build the sales copy for a piece of software before you develop it because that forces you to make sure all the features you needed to sell it are in there. It gives you the strength and purpose when you inevitably run into a programmer who says, “It would be easier if we didn’t have this. Is this feature essential?” If you have it as part of your public sales plan, you say, “Yes, this feature is necessary; let’s get that done.”

354. Do the same thing with a service. A service doesn’t get delivered until after you’ve sold it. So make it sound amazing in your sales copy, and then deliver on the promise you’ve made to sell it.

355. That’s it. That’s what you need to do. If you want to get good, you have to be bad. Before you can be bad, you have to try. That means putting stuff out there, trying to get people to take action, and then measuring and observing. Observe, “When I do this, this happens; when I tweak this, this happens.” That’s how you get better. It becomes an upward spiral.

356. Remember, trying leads to bad, which leads to good, which leads to great.

357. Also, operating from the standpoint of “How can I help people?” instead of “How can I sell people?” “How can I add value to the point people want to pay me? So they feel compelled to pay me? Or feel guilty if they don’t pay me?” Those are great questions to ask.

358. How do you structure sales copy and headlines for a seriously boring commodity product with no obviously result-based opportunity, like credit card terminal paper rolls?

359. What are their problems with this commodity that make whatever it is even worse? This reminds me of a one-sided conversation I had with my homeowner’s insurance agent. We met the guy once, signed all the paperwork, had three houses with him, four cars, a boat, a four-wheeler, a tractor, and an umbrella policy. It was a massive amount of insurance. I received a letter from the insurance company directly, not from him, that told me they were canceling the insurance on one of my investment houses. I called him and asked, “Why are they doing this?” It was some stupid thing that could be easily corrected. I said to him, “Your job is to stay off my radar. I shouldn’t have to think about what I’m doing with you. I should not have to worry about what the insurance is covering and whether it’s working or not and whether you’re going to give me any crap or not.” He said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Your job is to stay off my radar. That’s your job. I know that you’re there if I need you, but you should not be causing me one iota of a problem.” I was a jerk about it, but it pissed me off that they sent me a letter telling me they were going to cancel the insurance on one of my houses, when I had been paying them $ 10,000 a year in premiums for over 15 years. The reason I tell that story is because when it’s something that’s boring, perhaps the angle is, “We do what we need to do, we don’t aggravate you, and we make it so you can move on with your life with one less thing to worry…

360. Does fear-based negative headline/ copy content convert better than positive headline/ copy content?

361. When you are talking about cold traffic, yes, a negative headline or fear-based headline, a headline that enters the conversation that’s already going on inside of their head revolving around their problem or pain, will typically convert better. Why? Because it grabs and holds their attention. Remember, cold traffic is people who know they have a problem but have no idea if there’s a solution out there. Also, they don’t know about you or your product (yet).

362. When we’re talking about warm traffic, these are people who are looking for a solution. They know there has to be a solution out there somewhere. So you can’t lead with fear-based, because they’re looking for a solution. You have to phrase your headline around the solution, so they know they’ve found what they are looking for.

363. With hot traffic, you not only phrase it around the solution, but also you phrase it around yourself and your product. They already know who you are and what you’re offering. You’re trying to get them to make that buying decision now.

364. Now, with the warm and the hot, you can then use a takeaway close, where you say something like, “Now, this isn’t for everybody. We’re only looking for specific people who want to _____.” And they think, “Whoa. Wait a minute. what do you mean this isn’t . . . ?” This type of takeaway is popular now and referred to as FOMO—fear of missing out. However, you induce this fear of missing out, that’s where you can use a negative later in your sales copy to get people to take action because they’re afraid they will miss out.

365. How to take a client’s boring offer and sexify the living poo out of it?

366. When I look at most people’s sales copy, they talk about features. Sometimes they talk about benefits. But, rarely do they talk about meaning, which is where all the emotion is located. Find the meaning and the emotion, and amp it up. Turn up the volume to either push them or pull them. The emotion creates motion.

367. How do I ensure my copy flows from step to step in the funnel and is consistent without being repetitive? How much of the same language should be used at each level?

368. you want to have a consistent message. You want to use the same words. The funny thing is, your emails can have the same language as your sales copy. The words on the page can be the same words that are in your video sales letter. 215 Don’t reinvent the copy wheel. Use the same copy over and over. The more they see it, the more there’s a level of familiarity and comfort that reinforces the message. The other thing is to make sure that, as you transition from your confirmation or your one time offers, to your down sells, stylistically, everything looks the same. It’s obvious the person is still on the same website. It’s obvious it’s still the same person talking to them. It’s obvious this is still part of the same conversation. It needs to look the same, read the same, and work the same all the way through your funnel, even beginning with your ads, emails, or however you’re driving traffic. It should all be congruent, using the same words, similar pictures. Stylistically everything looks the same. Otherwise, you create confusion. And not just confusion, you cause uneasiness.

369. Why do some words or phrases connect better with some people than others?

370. Some other things you can do to connect better with people is to use verbs in your headlines. Why would you use verbs in your headlines? Verbs create mental pictures, which force people to imagine something. Here’s a quick example: “How to write and publish your own outrageously profitable e-book.” “How to write” and “publish” causes you to visualize it. Now think about another headline. “How to be a published author.” That’s a little bit harder to visualize. This comes down to active versus passive writing. Search Google for active versus passive writing. Active writing uses active verbs; passive writing uses verbs such as is, am, was, were, and be. The to be verbs don’t create motion inside people’s heads. Instead, you come across as wordy and unclear. An active voice is clear, direct, and doesn’t beat around the bush. People get the message quickly. There are many courses available on active versus passive writing. Go check them out. I’m sure there are some free ones.

371. The other thing is to use copy connectors, which are transitions between blocks of copy. What do I mean? I used a copy connector there with the phrase what do I mean. Let me explain. That’s another copy connector (let me explain). Use little phrases like that to connect various parts of your copy. Another one is for example. For example . . . When you transition between the part of your copy where you introduce the solution with several bullets, then you might have a transition like, “At this point, you might wonder, who am I to make these claims about being able to help you with writing your book?” That’s a copy connector. You would then show them, demonstrate, or tell them about yourself and your accomplishments. After you do that, you might use a copy connector like, “But don’t just take my word for it, take a look at this.” Or you might say “But I’m not the only one . . .” That connector introduces the testimonials or case studies section of your copy. “Now, at this point, you might wonder how much this will cost?” That’s where you introduce the price, do the price drop. Then you can say something like, “But before you make a decision, let me sweeten the pot even more,” and you introduce your bonuses. Now you transition from the bonuses to your final call to action or the guarantee. Let’s say you want to go to the guarantee. “Now, you’re 100% covered with our money back guarantee.” Then after the guarantee, you could say, “The choice is yours. It’s time to get started.”…

372. Bait and switch uses curiosity in a way that pisses off people. So don’t do it. Use curiosity to make people more “thirsty”, more excited, and more interested in whatever you sell and whatever is in your sales message. A good example would be, “Could you write a book in three hours? Is that 218 possible? Believe it or not, it’s true and entirely possible. Let me show you how.” That’s curiosity-inducing and real. Ask a question that seems beyond the realm of reality, but ask it in a what if way. “What if you could have the credibility of being a published author and only take three hours of total work to do it? Would that be cool or what? Well, believe it or not, it’s true, and I can prove it.” That will get some people interested in your sales copy. Lead with a question that has an outlandish, but supportable, claim. As an aside, by asking it as a question, you can avoid trouble with the censors over at Facebook and Google because all you’re doing is asking a question rather than making a claim.

373. Write what the target needs wrapped up in what they want, so it resonates. People buy what they want. Rarely do they buy what they need. Examples: “I want the latest Xbox game.” “I want to lose weight, but I need to eat healthily.” “I really want to eat a cheeseburger more than I want to lose weight.”

374. You just sell them what they want and include what they need to get results (if they’re willing to take action).

375. What can we do to keep people engaged and reading our copy?

376. Don’t have big blobby paragraphs. Paragraphs should only be two, three, or four lines long max. Pretty much a sentence is a paragraph when I’m writing copy for the web. Keep it moving.Keep it about them, meaning it’s focused on them, their story, their needs, their desires, and their problems. Phrase everything about yourself and your product as it benefits them, how it helps them, how it enriches them, how it will improve their lives, and how it will alleviate pain or dissipate fear. Just keep it about them, keep it moving, and don’t drone on. Talk about meaning and focus on emotion.

377. If you want to dictate something, I suggest you use a service like Rev.com, where you truly dictate it. Then you send it to a human being who transcribes it. Rev.com charges $ 1 per minute. So, if it’s 30-minutes, it’s a $ 30 bill. There are other services out there like Dragon Naturally Speaking on steroids, where they work, but it’s an automated thing, and they charge 50 cents a minute. If I want to dictate something short (60 seconds or less), the best transcription option is to use my iPhone and record a note. For whatever reason, the iPhone does a better job of transcribing than any other software I’ve ever used. You can record little snippets this way.

378. If something is on the top of your mind, you need to capture it. I was on a Zoom meeting with somebody, talking about creating an email follow up sequence. I started to say, “You know, the email needs to say . . .” and I clicked the record button. In 58 seconds, I said what the email should say and turned off the recording. I sent the recording to Rev, they charged me a dollar and sent it back. All I did was format it.

379. I help people beat their addiction, but is beat addiction a good enough hurdle, or should it be more direct like how to stop struggling with alcohol?

380. As with anything, when you talk about something like beat addiction, it’s level one. That’s the buzzword stuff people use. The problem is they’re used to it. It lets them off the hook. “Yeah, I need to beat my addiction.” So, now we take that down a level, and we say, “Stop struggling with alcohol.” That’s more specific and creates more emotion. But you want to take it to a level three or level four. Talk about destroying your family, your life in shambles, the financial wreckage, all your money’s gone, you have no friends, your life sucks, and you’re standing on the edge of a cliff. Now the question becomes, will you jump, or will you turn around and do something about it? Now, please understand that what I just said should not be used in any way, shape, or form. I’m not giving legal or counseling advice. For God’s sake, don’t ever tell anybody who’s standing on a cliff they either have to jump or fix this, because that is a stupid thing to say. This is why I’m not in any form of counseling. Figuratively, that’s what you have to do. You have to access those levels of emotion. As you tap into that emotion, using those emotionally charged words, you will get more sales . . . as opposed to keeping it at the top level where it doesn’t hurt. In this case, you want it to hurt. You want pain because real pain spurs them to take action.

381. Do you have a list of takeaways that you like?

382. The easiest takeaway to use is: “Now, this isn’t for everybody. This is only for people who are _____.” Then you fill in the blank. That’s the type of takeaway you want to use. You say, “This is only for people who are seriously motivated to change their life. We can’t do this forever, so we’re putting a limit of 50 people on this.” Whatever it is, that’s how you do it. Don’t over-complicate it or over-think it. Tell them you can’t do this for everybody.

383. After you launch, what’s a reasonable time frame to deliver 223 the physical product to the customer? If you don’t have it yet to ship, have that upfront in the sales copy for sure, but was wondering what’s too long for delivery.

384. you can set it up to test if people will buy whatever you’re selling. Set up your whole funnel, run ads and get people to the point where they click the buy button and think they are about to put in their credit card. But when they click that last button they see a message that says, “Hey, we’re temporarily out of stock, but put in your email address and we’ll put you on the priority notification list to contact you when we’re in stock.” That’s how you can test whether it’s working or not. Especially for a physical product, you don’t want to take people’s payment if you don’t have the product ready to ship. There’s too much that can go wrong.

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