10 Amazing Resources to Make You a Better Copywriter

Hey,

Do you want to be a better Copywriter without spending a lot of money?

Craig Balantyne recently interviewed one of the worlds top underground copywriters.

His responses will transform how you think about copywriting! Includes access to two free PDFs.

Enjoy

Barry Dunlop
Team IncomeDiary

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Underground Copywriter Interview
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I recently had the chance to interview a pro copywriter that travels the world with my friend, Simon Black. This copywriter gets to create his work wherever he wants, all because he studied hard to master a high-value competency. He shows you how to do the same today.

Q: Knowing what you know now with hindsight being 20/20 what steps should someone take if they wanted to become an expert copywriter – and all without spending a lot of money?

Answer:

The fastest way to become a good copywriter is to write copy… period. Reading books, buying courses, and attending events can’t hurt but you won’t get good until you actually write copy.

Think about it. You don’t become a good anything (golfer, basketball player, investor, etc.) by reading books and going to seminars. It can help but you won’t get better at anything until you do it and apply what you learned from books & events.

The best education is to get on as many lists as you can – not just any list though – the lists of people you know to be good direct response marketers. It could be an email list or a snail mail list or both. Then you study what they do. Over time you’ll notice commonalities.

You could also buy books. Books are cheap or even free if you can find them at the library. The first book I read was “The Ultimate Sales Letter” by Dan Kennedy. It’s a great start. There are many books written by great direct response copywriters. Read as many as you can. Here are a few in no particular order:

=> Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
=> Advertising Secrets of the Written Word and Triggers by Joe Sugarman
=> Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz
=> The Robert Collier Letter Book (This book earned Robert Collier the distinction of being one of the greatest marketing minds in history.)
=> Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples
=> The Gary Halbert Letter (TheGaryHalbertLetter.com) – Unfortunately, the “Prince of Print” passed away a few years ago but the archives are still online.
=> Gary Bencivenga – Bencivenga Bullets (Free at MarketingBullets.com)
=> Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
=> The ULTIMATE Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy – I already mentioned this one. It’s the first book I read… plus it makes the list an even 10 resources.
=> Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini – it’s not about copywriting, but it covers concepts every good direct response copywriter uses and should know.

I’m sure there are more but if you read all these and apply what you learn, you will be off to a great start.

You’re not going to become an expert copywriter in 6 months though.  Gurus say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything. There are about 2,000 work hours in a year so working 40 hours per week, it would take you 5 years to put in 10,000 hours. You can get there faster by working more but 10,000 hours sounds about right to me. If it was easy and could be done in 6 months, there would be a lot more experts.

Clients – I don’t look for clients but I remember how I found my first client back when I was broke. I was on a lot of lists and I responded to emails they had sent me asking if they needed any copy written. One of them hired me.

I know people who are on sites like elance - but I am not on those sites because everywhere you go, you hear people saying that’s where you go to find cheap [fill-in-the-blank] – copywriters, webmasters, programmers, graphic designers, etc. I don’t want to be found with all the people who will work for next to nothing.

The best way I found clients was to selectively introduce myself to people at live events. I don’t pass out cards to everyone with a heartbeat. I pick and choose people I think I might like to work with and I end up working with some of them. That’s a great way to find clients but it will probably cost you more than $300 to attend most of these events. Then again, one client will cover the cost of attending many times over – especially if it becomes a repeat client.

Q: Great, and if you had to list 5 proven letters (classics even) that I can copy by hand just so I can get better what would they be (I know Dan Kennedy said he copied more than 500 when he was learning)?

Answer:
I did this once or twice but not often. (my hand was killing me from writing so much). I think I copied a Gary Halbert letter and a Dan Kennedy letter by hand.

Something about writing the letter out by hand or even typing it out gives you a deeper understanding than just reading it. I can’t explain it but that’s what happens. Maybe it’s because you have to think more when you write it out than when you read so there is a deeper psychological connection with the words.

Any sales letter written by someone you know to be a good copywriter or a sales letter known to be a winner will do. You asked for 5 so here are some you can find online for free:

1) Wall Street Journal: Two Young Men

I’m not making this up. I started to search for this letter online but I decided to search for “great sales letters” instead. The first result is a 225 page pdf with “59 of the greatest sales letters ever written…” The second letter is “The Wall Street Journal’s legendary ‘Two Young Men’ Letter.” It follows a simple formula (Winners vs Losers) that’s easy to repeat. That’s probably why it’s one of the most copied sales letters I’ve ever seen.

And there are 58 more great sales letters you can copy. You’ll find them here:

http://www.tvisuals.net/100GreatestSalesLetters_PDF.pdf

The second result in my “great sales letters” search is another pdf with 5 great sales letters – and there’s the WSJ “Two Young Men” letter again. You’ll find the pdf here:

http://www.merlesworld.com/e-books/Greatest-sales-letters.pdf

Anyone that reads the books, study the books, reads them again, and writes out these 250 pages of great sales letters by hand will be a good copywriter. You might even be able to do it in six months… but I would still say it takes 10,000 hours to become really good or even great.

+++

Go and get great,

Craig

PS - Here's one more thing I learned from Dan Kennedy...

"They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." - #TRUTH

PPS - More Cool Links (Yep, a whole lot more than 10 resources - but we like to over deliver!)

10 Article Headline Examples That Got Us 10 Million Readers

Copywriting Guide Fascinations By Clive Cable

 

 

 

IncomeDiary, Midascode Ltd.
2nd Floor, Afon Building, Worthing Road
Horsham, W Sussex, RH12 1TL
UNITED KINGDOM

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

17 Powerful Reasons Why You Need To Join A Mastermind Group

Hey,

‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’

Tony Robbins, Eben Pagan and Tim Ferris have all said it but I believe the originator was the late great Jim Rohn.

Another way to put it is that your wealth and your success is dependent on the people you keep company with!

Todays post details 17 powerful Reasons why you should join a Mastermind Group.

If you want to change the average of the five people you spend most time with, a Mastermind Group is a good place to start.

Check out this Important Post!

Warmly,

Barry Dunlop
Team IncomeDiary









 

IncomeDiary, Midascode Ltd.
2nd Floor, Afon Building, Worthing Road
Horsham, W Sussex, RH12 1TL
UNITED KINGDOM

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

18 Things Making Your Website Slow

Hey,

Most websites are slow because you make them that way.

Nobody likes a slow website. It means visitors are less happy, conversions are lower and Google doesn’t rank your site as high as it could.

We asked our resident expert on website speed optimisation to give us a list of things that are making your website slow.

Yet again… he’s over delivered!

Check out todays post:

18 Things Making Your Website Slow

Enjoy,

Barry Dunlop

Team IncomeDiary







 

IncomeDiary, Midascode Ltd.
2nd Floor, Afon Building, Worthing Road
Horsham, W Sussex, RH12 1TL
UNITED KINGDOM

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

How to Create a Killer Offer That Converts Like Crazy!

Hey,

How to Create a Killer Offer That Converts Like Crazy!

Craig Ballantyne and Bedros Keuilian reveal their formula for creating a killer offer PLUS why you should use StorySell to sell your product.

As Bedros puts it: “People resonate and learn from stories much better than facts and figures”

Check out todays post to discover more!

Warmly,

Barry Dunlop

IncomeDiary Team











 

IncomeDiary, Midascode Ltd.
2nd Floor, Afon Building, Worthing Road
Horsham, W Sussex, RH12 1TL
UNITED KINGDOM

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

$100K in 12 Months (Part 4)=?UTF-8?B?IOKAkyBUaGUgTGF1bmNo?=

Hey

Today we have the fourth in a series of four articles by Craig Ballantyne - focused on building to a $100K income in 12 months

Your 12 month plan culminates in a final “year end launch” where we hope you’ll finally breakthrough the $100K barrier.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
$100K in 12 Months  – The Launch
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Let’s take a closer look at:

Months 10-12

1) The Product Launch

As mentioned in the last lesson, you’ll have recruited all of your affiliates for a 3-day launch. Now outlining a complete product launch will take more than a couple of paragraphs in this email, so we’ll have to save that for another day.

However, the basics are that you want to have:

– An incredible offer
– Built up anticipation
– Affiliates forming a “unified front” and all ready to mail at once
– Incentives for affiliates to mail at least three times (could be extra bonus commissions or a cash prize for your top affiliates)
– High converting upsells to maximize your average transaction
– Extreme value so your customers are happy
– A plan to provide more value to your customers in the weeks after so that you maximize revenues

Simply having this “3-day launch” system in place with a couple of big affiliates could help you earn 6-figures in just a few months.

It’s powerful, powerful stuff.

2) Plan Your Recurring Revenue Product

While there really isn’t a way to “make money on autopilot without any work at all”, having a product line that enables a guaranteed sale each month is a great way to add stability to your business.

For example, let’s say you have a business that offers gift baskets online. If you can encourage your customers to join your “Gift Basket of the Month” program, where they are automatically charged each month for the basket you send out, then you’ll have almost
guaranteed income each month – of course you’ll have to plan for customer drop-off…but you’ll be working hard to get new clients each month as well.

You can create monthly programs for all businesses, and it is quite easy if you are selling information, like I do by providing my clients with a new workout each month.

The key of course, as with EVERY aspect of your online business, is to be providing extreme value for your customer’s investment.

**********************

And so this wraps up your “$100K in 12 Months” program, and I want to leave you with the following checklist that you’ll need in place in order to achieve your goals.

If anything is missing from this list, go back and make it your top priority to check it off, and you’ll be another step closer to achieving financial freedom and Internet Independence.

10-Step Checklist for $100K in 12 Months (in order of importance)

1) Main Product (that gives your clients what they do NOT have)
2) Sales Page
3) Free Report (that instantly solves a big problem for readers)
4) Lead Generation/Traffic System (based on your personality)
5) Upsell Product (that offers more extreme value)
6) Daily task list (list of things to do)
7) Daily, Weekly, & Monthly Sales Goals (i.e. 3/day, 20/week, 80/month)
8] Outsourced Customer Service System
9) Recurring Revenue Product or High Priced Product Bundle
10) Mastermind Group/Peer/Affiliate Network

Whew. There you go.

Almost at $100K,

Craig Ballantyne

“Get your idea out there as fast as possible even if it’s not quite ready by setting must-hit deadlines. Let the market tell you if you have a winner or not. If not – move on and fail forward fast! If it’s got potential – then you can make it better.” – Yanik Silver

10 Ways to Get More Optins




 

IncomeDiary, Midascode Ltd.
2nd Floor, Afon Building, Worthing Road
Horsham, W Sussex, RH12 1TL
UNITED KINGDOM

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

$100K in 12 Months (Part 3)=?UTF-8?B?IOKAkyBUaGUgUmlnaHQgQXR0aXR1ZGU=?=

Hey

You will frequently read that you need to have a winning attitude - but what exactly is that and how do you apply that?

Today Craig Ballantyne is focusing on ATTITUDE in your 12 month Plan to building a $100K earning business.

Some people will get lucky with a business idea, right place at right time - but for long term success a WINNING ATTITUDE and thinking right is essential.

Craig has a LOT of politically incorrect opinions on success - we like them!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
$100K in 12 Months – The Right Attitude
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

But first, the winning strategies for Months 7 through 9.

1) Plan a Product Launch

You might not make a lot of money in month’s 7 through 9, but that is okay, because you’ll be working on setting up for a big money product launch in the final quarter of the year.

Here’s what you need to do to make this happen:

a) Pick a 3-day period, generally Tuesday through Thursday works best, at a time when no other major affiliate promotions are planned for your niche market. Do your best to investigate this as far in advance as possible. You may even want to plan your launch 6-9 months early.

b) Create new bonuses for your launch. You will add these to your current product (and you’ll give them to past customers for free). Make sure their is a powerful reason why you are having this promo for your prospects.

b) Massive affiliate recruitment time. Go back to all past affiliates and tell them about this new launch. Remind them to save the date.

c) Dedicate a significant amount of time to new affiliate recruitment, using the strategies I provided yesterday – such as promoting their products to your list (this will also help bring in cash while sales of your product are down).

2) Increase Value & Price of Your Product

At the same time as you are working on your promotion plans, you will also be adding value to your current product so that you can increase the retail price to $39.95 from $19.95.

NOTE: The $19.95 and $39.95 prices are “arbitrary numbers”. Your industry may differ. In the end it is up to you to determine a fair price for your product. The point of the example is to show you how to make sales immediately. One of the biggest hurdles is getting an initial and consistent set of sales, and that often happens because people charge a high price without the credibility to back it up. By charging a low price, we overcome this obstacle for the first 6 months.

If possible, add a $19.95 product as the first 1-click upsell and a $9.95 product as the second 1-click upsell.

Finally, if possible, offer a recurring revenue product. That means offering a membership site or monthly newsletter, etc.

3) Plan to Make More Money

Organization is essential as you grow your business, and you need to plan out your email and promotional schedule in advance. I like to have at least the next 3 months planned.

So sit down, create a spreadsheet or use a wall calendar, and plan out your product promotions for the next 12 weeks.

By the way, this is how your big affiliates operate, and that’s why you have to contact them well in advance of your product launch. You can’t just email them the night before and expect them to drop everything and send out an email to their list for you.

POWER EXERCISE: Brainstorm how you can make an extra $3000 per month?

I want you to do this whenever your creativity energy is at its peak.

I do this exercise 2-4 times per year because it works amazingly well.

And it’s quite simple…its just that no one ever stops to think about it. Simply ask yourself this question:

“What can I do to add another $3000 to my income this month?”

That’s it. Then write down every idea you have…from the small ones to the crazy ones.

Now of course, you don`t have to use $3000. You can use $300. But I bet that whatever number you use (within reason), you’ll find a way to create that much money.

Brainstorm the possibilities. Again, make sure you do this when you are at your most creative…not at the end of a 14-hour workday.

I guarantee you’ll uncover some gems.

4) Build Your World

At this point you should be consistent with:

– Your traffic strategy
– Affiliate recruitment
– Emailing your list
– Blog posting

Keep consistent. Keep building your daily habits. Keep working on your time and energy management. Track and test. Find what works and do more of it.

There are no magic bullets. If one existed, I’d sure as heck be able to sell it to you for more than $1995…a true magic bullet could go for $100K or more, but I don’t see anyone selling that…so let’s face it, one does not exist.

5) Develop The Right Attitude

On Sunday afternoon, while reading yet another business magazine, I stumbled across this powerful quote:

“Achievement has everything to do with creating a failure-resistant brain and thinking your way to success…you can take charge of the process…Winner’s brains actually operate differently than the average brain.” – Mark Fenske, Neuroscientist

That’s not politically correct, but the truth about success never is.

So here are 3 rules to success. They aren’t the only rules for success, but probably the most important.

Rule #1: Everyone struggles, so don’t despair. Just realize you must always maintain an attitude that you are going to succeed come “Hell or High Water”.

All of the people I know who are successful at making money online didn’t even let it occur to them that they would fail.

Failure was not an option. It’s not just a cliche, it’s true.

I knew when I started my website that I would eventually be doing online marketing full-time. I allowed my mind no other option.

The most successful people I know are “all in”, as they say in poker.

And they never, ever, EVER give up.

Rule #2 – You must have extreme self-confidence. It attracts others to help you and it attracts success. On the other hand, people who are timid always seem to struggle. This is politically incorrect, but true.

As Dan Kennedy says, “You must have a sense of superiority”.

If you don’t truly believe that your product is the BEST – and superior to all others – then it will show in everything you do, from writing sales copy to attracting affiliates.

So if you don’t believe that, go back and work on your product until that is fixed.

Rule #3 – You must be ruthless with your time. This means continuing to eliminate the minutia from your life, and working only on the big projects that move you closer to your goals. Remember to always ask yourself, “Where is the profit in this work?”. Improve your time and energy management everyday. Fight that email. Fight against checking Facebook…and fight to get more work done in less time.

You must also develop “immunity to criticism”.

Listen, at some point someone on the internet is going to call you names because they don’t like the fact you are making money with your knowledge. Too bad. You can’t let that bother you – you have too much work to do.

Now this doesn’t mean ignoring valid customer feedback on your product, you want to pay attention to that. Never ignore your clients.

But personal attacks from people who don’t know you must be ignored. It’s not easy at first, but if you turn off the internet and go for a walk, you’ll realize that what a stranger says about you doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are creating value for your clients.

Let those rules sink in. Print them out and keep them by your computer as you keep working.

Craig Ballantyne

“Never, ever, EVER give up.”

PS: "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it." - Henry Ford

"Winners don't make excuses. The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost." --George Shultz, former United States Secretary of State

25 SEO Tools For Successful Blogging







 

IncomeDiary, Midascode Ltd.
2nd Floor, Afon Building, Worthing Road
Horsham, W Sussex, RH12 1TL
UNITED KINGDOM

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

$100K in 12 Months (Part 2) Getting Affiliates

Hey,

We covered a lot of ground in Part One of your “Blueprint to Making $100K Online in Just 12 Months."

Timescale wise - Part One should take you around 3 months to complete.

The aim of those first 3 months is to lay a super-strong foundation to build your future success on.

But to really automate your business and take it to the next level, you need to cover the steps in the next 3 articles - to take you to $100K per year and beyond.

So over to Craig Ballantyne again.....

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
$100K in 12 Months (Part 2) Getting Affiliates
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1) Get 2-3 New BIG Affiliates

Time to hunt down those big affiliates…the whales. You’ve got the sales snowball rolling and you have data you can bring to the bigger affiliates to PROVE that promoting your product will make them money.

You need to have these 3 things in place to attract affiliates:

a) High affiliate commissions (both % of sale and total $$$ amount)
b) Sales copy that converts
c) Low refunds

And preferably recurring commissions, too. Oh, and a good answer to this question:

“Why should someone promote you over everyone else out there?”

And you want to show affiliates these numbers from past promotions:

a) How much money is made per click
b) The open rate of the emails you have written for them.

This info proves it is worthwhile for them and makes it easy for them to promote. All they need to do is copy and paste your email.

Now, how do you contact affiliates? Well, it’s simple.

Find people with relevant websites and products and ask them to take a look at your work. If it's a good product and a good fit, chances are you’ll have a new affiliate.

POWER MOVE #1: Promote their product first.

If you make a few affiliate sales of their product, you can email them and say:

“Hey, I love your product and so do my readers. I sent out an email for it last week and made __ sales. It really goes well with my product because _____. If there’s anything I can do to help you out, please let me know. By the way, here’s access to my product if you want to check it out. It would help your readers achieve ____. And if you’d like to share it with them, I have pre-done proven emails used by affiliates to make $___ per click.”

POWER MOVE #2: Here’s a politically incorrect tip for affiliate whale hunting: Wear them down. Never give up. Most affiliates will say yes to a decent offer if you ask them enough. Seriously.

Now that said, you always be working on building relationships with potential affiliates. Help others as much possible. Go to the internet marketing seminars and meet them. Be a good person.

I guess the truth is, ATTRACTING affiliates is much better than hunting affiliates.

This was the biggest thing I did from day one in my online business. I interviewed others, submitted articles to others, promoted others who I thought had good stuff. Eventually, some of that good will found its way back to me.

POWER MOVE #3: Don’t forget to look outside the industry. Look for other businesses that serve the same demographic, even if they are in a different industry. For example, I’ve had successful affiliates who sell business advice to busy executives.

Attract affiliates by making a name for yourself…and remember yesterday’s POWER STRATEGY: Act as if there is no such thing as an affiliate willing to promote your product. Work as if YOU had to make ALL sales of your product.

But that said, I suggest one more POWER MOVE: Make a goal of contacting one new affiliate everyday.

Whew, that’s just a start of working with affiliates, but that`ll keep you busy for 6 months.

2) Get Traffic Based on Your Personality

You’ve probably never heard this strategy before, but look at it this way. I know successful business owners who get their traffic from all sources.

Some guys are SEO-based. Others do only product launches. Other guys are some of the best at pay-per-click.

But none of them are an expert at ALL of them.

They succeed at the strategy that best suits their personality.

Figure out what fits you…because you’ll be more likely to stick to it.

POWER STRATEGY: One of the most unexploited method of getting traffic is doing live events. If you can create opportunities to speak in front of your prospects, do it. You’ll be seen as a big-time expert and you’ll build a stronger connection with clients than you could through email or even video. Plus, filming a live event is one of the fastest ways to create a high-value product.

3) Work the System

Your work will never be done – if you want to improve or even to just maintain. If you try to coast, your business will slowly decay.

But hey, this stuff is fun, right? Set up a system so that you are consistently blogging, improving your writing, tracking-testing-planning, and increasing conversions on your site. Rinse and repeat. Kaizen. Whatever you want to call it, get it done.

4) Maximize Your Time & Energy

You can make a few bucks online – about $3K per month – even if you are disorganized. But if you want to breakthrough the 6-figure ceiling, you must use your time wisely.

I’ve talked about this again and again…for more details, read my posts HERE and HERE

5) Delegation/Customer Service

Time for you to stop doing $10 an hour tasks. After all, you’d have to work 20 hours a day at $10 an hour, 5 days per week, just to make $52K per year.

Obviously you can’t be doing customer service, editing videos, setting up your websites, etc., etc.

To make $100K you have to dedicated your time to what brings IN the money…and that’s selling, first and foremost.

*******************************

Alright, that’s next level stuff, and will take you from the $30K per year level to the $100K per year.

In the next article, we’ll hit mindset and a new POWER EXERCISE for rapid cash flow.

The Best Ways To Grow Your Email List





 

IncomeDiary, Midascode Ltd.
2nd Floor, Afon Building, Worthing Road
Horsham, W Sussex, RH12 1TL
UNITED KINGDOM

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options