Monday, 1:31 p.m.
Reno, NV
“Is there gas in the car? Yeah, there’s gas in the car…” (Steely Dan, “Kid Charlemagne”)
Howdy…
Some things are just important enough to go over several times.
Especially when FREE life-changing goodies are involved.
Here’s what’s up: Those of you in the loop know we’re launching the coaching program of the Simple Writing System again.
I’ve lost track of how many of these programs we’ve now hosted. This is the eighth or ninth one — we’re calling it the Fall 2010 edition.
We only offer this hand-holding, personalized, one-on-one mentoring rarely. The last one was all the way back in the Spring of last year. (They’ve all filled quick, too.)
No idea when another one will come around… if it even does.
We take this one program at a time.
One of the main benefits of this unique coaching program… is also why we focus only on the session we’re producing now: It’s extremely interactive.
Which is perfect for anyone who knows that hands-on mentoring is the best way to learn.
This is the simplest possible system (crammed with short-cuts) for creating all the sales messages you need for a profitable business…
… including all your ads, websites, video scripts, emails, AdWords, blogs and other social media broadsides…
… and everything else that pumps eager prospects into your Sales Funnel.
So you can close the heck out them. And get prosperous and happy.
Most marketers wander through the wasteland of Bad Business Practices their entire career…Read more…
Monday, 11:34pm
Visalia, CA
“I never drink… wine.” (Bela Lugosi, “Dracula”)
Howdy.
Special treat today. I’ve asked an old friend (and killer copywriter) to guest post on the blog here.
Jim Curley and I go way back (to, gasp, Before The Birth Of The Internets As A Marketing Force)…
… and he’s one of those Web-hip veteran copywriters who brings a healthy dose of old-school wisdom and experience to everything he does. He’s well steeped in all the manly markets (golf, self-defense, hot rod body artwork, family life, vampires, stuff like that). I’ve had him as a wingman at multiple seminars, and I’ve hired him as a writer for my own projects.
That’s how good he is.
I didn’t give Jimbo any directions on what he could write about, either. I trust the guy completely…
… and just told him to dig into one of the subjects he and I enjoy talking and bitching about when we get together.
This is a good lesson Jim’s sharing with you.
Enjoy… Read more...
Thursday, 11:49pm
Reno, NV
“Qu’est-ce que c’est?” (Talking Heads,”Psycho Killer”, ca. 1979)
Howdy.
Quick lesson today, which should help you understand one of the fundamental truths of kick-ass marketing.
That truth: There is almost always a way to fix or solve a marketing problem.
Actually, that truth is also functional in every-day life…
… but that’s a much longer lesson.
Here’s the quickie version, for marketers: I was just delivering this story in one of the Simple Writing System classrooms, and thought I’d share with you here, too.
As any decent marketer knows, the Prime Directive of a sales process is to discover your best possible prospect… and “reach” him with your sales message.
Seems simple enough. Sometimes, it is. If you’re selling hamburgers near a starving crowd, you’re set. Just open your doors and tell folks to line up.
For a while (back in the Good Old Days of Internet marketing), all you had to do was:
Step One: Be the first into a hot niche…Read more…
Thursday, 8:06pm
Reno, NV
“Here come Johnny Yen again…” (Iggy Pop, “Lust For Life”)
Howdy…
Oh, my God!
They killed the sales letter again!
Will this horror never stop?
Actually, you can relax. Just like Kenny in South Park, the traditional sales letter is on some kind of perverse “Permanent Hit List”…
… where every marketer trying to claim he just invented a new fad stands astride the image of a quaking letter…
… and slays it.
Huzzah! Death to you, vile long-copy sales letter! Take that… and that…
… and that.
This latest round is clever as hell, too. The new trend is putting your sales letter in a video, and reading along with it.
The irony: The dude selling you the “Magic Box” product that kills the sales letter forever…
… uses a sales letter to do the killing.
Hey — don’t get me wrong. I love video. Been using it in marketing since… well, since it was actual videotape on reels. (Yeah, shocking, I know. We were so backward in the last century.)
In fact, the “Magic Box” product I’m talking about is, I’m guessing, an excellent solution for many marketers who can’t figure out how to make a video sales letter work.
And all’s fair in love, war and advertising. So all the dudes out there telling you the sales letter is dead, and you can sell without selling, and the Web has changed everything…Read more…
Monday, 6:26pm
Reno, NV
“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals.” (David Ogilvy, “Confessions of an Adman”)
This is important:
This past weekend, I posted something on this blog that hit a freakin’ nerve among the throngs of entrepreneurs, biz owners and rookies who hang out on this site.
Comments started flooding in…
… and, as usual, I interacted with folks.
I’m just been told (by trusted inner-circle colleagues) that one of my replies in the comment threads…
… was perhaps the most vivid and impassioned point I’ve ever made about the raw seething power of honest kick-ass salesmanship to change lives.
So, I want to share that reply, here in a fresh post.
Let me set the scene for you: People were trying to make sense of the massive piles of hype still being disgorged by the Internet marketing community…
… and how all that hype soured good people on good opportunities.
“Hype”, and the dreadful sales pitches filled with it, really confuses people. To the point where it’s now cool to talk about “selling without selling”.
It’s clear that many people now struggling to make a business successful…Read more…
Thursday, 11:30am
Reno, NV
“You’re young, you’re drunk, you’re in bed, you have knives… shit happens.” (Angelina Jolie)
Howdy…
Did you go out and do any damage on New Year’s Eve?
Hope you got home safe, if you did.
The world turns into Crazy Town every 12/31, and you can’t projectile-puke in any direction without hitting people who seldom (or should never) drink pounding down Jagermeister and double-bourbons like they’re channeling Hunter S. Thompson in his prime.
It’s been years since I’ve ventured away from home for New Year’s…
… and even then, I only went out because I was sitting in with a band in some bar or club.
There’s a small bit of safety being on a stage while the rookies party below. Even in the sleaziest biker bar I’ve ever had the pleasure of performing in… the bad-asses never assaulted the band.
They might bust a tweaker’s head against the bar just to see what the dude looked like sprawled on the floor…Read more…
Saturday, 2:48pm
Tampa, FL
“Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean?” (Monty Python)
Howdy…
Special treat today on the blog.
Another guest post by our good friend, colleague and former stand-up comic (before his new career as killer copywriter), Kevin Rogers.
(Kevin is also the head writer for my Stable O’ Copywriters project, where you can find a recommended freelancer who meets my strict standards of professionalism — and who has my ear for consultations: www.carlton-copywriting.com.)
This cat is funny. And every time Kevin and I hang out, I’m reminded of two things:
1. Nearly every top marketer and writer I know personally… has a shockingly-acute high-end sense of humor. (This explains the comraderie you see among the best in the biz. We make each other laugh.)
2. And… there are awesomely valuable insights to life and success available in studying lessons in tales from the “vice squad”. (Meaning, that part of living well which includes hanging out, challenging the boundaries of sobriety, and squandering time laughing as hard as you can for as long as you can.)
Being funny won’t make you smarter. And it doesn’t bestow an automatic deeper understanding of human behavior.
However… if you pay attention… Read more…
