Copywriting secrets of the masters michael masterson compilation

Copywriting Secrets of the Masters:

Michael Masterson

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MICHAEL MASTERSON – There is no one more qualified and experienced
than copywriter, entrepreneur, and business-builder Michael Masterson to
teach you the art, craft, and business of copywriting.

Michael started his first business – a fifth-grade publishing venture – at age
11.

After finishing grad school at the University of Michigan in 1975, he spent
two years in the Peace Corps, where he began his writing career.

Several years later he was working as a writer for a small newsletter
publishing company in Washington D.C. Then, in 1982, he learned the art of
copywriting and launched the first of dozens of successful direct-marketing
ventures, many of which have become multi-million dollar companies.

All told, he‘s been directly involved in the generation of over ONE BILLION
DOLLARS of sales through the mail and online.

He‘s also a highly successful author. He‘s published more than a dozen
books, including several which have become Wall Street Journal,
Amazon.com or New York Times bestsellers.

Today, Michael consults mainly for newsletter publishing giant Agora, Inc.,
and writes regularly for Early To Rise, one of the most popular self-
improvement newsletters on the Internet, and for The Golden Thread,
AWAI‘s weekly copywriting newsletter.

But there‘s more to Michael Masterson than just his writing and business
skills.

Michael also has a knack for taking just about anyone with a burning desire
to upgrade his lifestyle – no matter what his background or education – and
transforming him (or her) into a top-notch copywriter:

 He‘s the one responsible for transforming Paul Hollingshead from a 35-
year-old minimum-wage grocery store stock boy into a copywriter
earning upward of $300,000 a year … and Don Mahoney from a
woodworker to a $300,000-a-year copywriter living in Miami Beach …


 He‘s mentored other copywriters who have gone on to generate
hundreds of millions of dollars in sales each year through their copy …
 He‘s shown people in their 50s and 60s – people preparing for
retirement – how to successfully change careers and become well-paid
freelance copywriters …
 He‘s taken young people fresh out of college – with no ―life experience‖
at all – and turned them into top-notch copywriters and newsletter
journalists …
 He‘s taught housewives, bartenders, and laborers to excel …
 He‘s even helped ―professionals‖ – doctors and college professors –
leave successful careers to enjoy the big money and stress-free
lifestyle copywriting offers

Discover how Michael can do the same for you with his
AWAI Accelerated Program For Six Figure Copywriting.
Michael Masterson

Fear and Greed: Two Overrated Emotions
How to Become a Smarter and More Powerful
Copywriter

Way back when I was learning how to write advertising copy, it was
commonly believed that the way to get high response rates was to appeal to
our prospects‘ greed and fears.

I don‘t know who first made this pronouncement, but it was practically a
commandment of direct marketing in those days.

All the ―experts‖ I listened to espoused it. All the copywriters I admired
seemed to do it. On the surface, it seemed to be a good, practical rule. One
I should follow.

But I thought it was stupid.


I didn‘t need a degree in psychology to know that reducing human
motivation to two, very obvious, emotions was wrong.

I knew in my bones — based on 30 years of experience (first with my
mother, then with my teachers and eventually my colleagues, wife, and
children) — that there were better ways to be persuasive than by stirring up
fear and greed.

Sure, using fear sometimes seemed necessary — to keep the kids from
riding their bikes in the dark without headlights, for example. But mostly it
paralyzed the person I wanted to motivate. I found it to be both heavy-
handed and clumsy. There were many other emotions and desires I could
stimulate that would get the job done.

And greed? I grew up in a household where greed was considered a deadly
sin — ―the devil‘s instrument.‖ I had no desire to use it as my own.

I wanted to build my career by working with, and selling to, people who, like
me, were subject to greed and fear but wanted to rise above those base
impulses.

I wasn‘t being altruistic. Not really. I didn‘t want to associate myself with
greedy, fearful people because I knew I couldn‘t trust them. I couldn‘t trust
them as friends. I couldn‘t trust them as business partners. And I couldn‘t
trust them as customers either.

So even before I got into marketing in a serious way, I knew something
about persuasion that most of the experts writing books and giving lectures
did not seem to know.

And I had enough common sense to recognize that just because something
is often said and generally believed doesn‘t make it so.

I‘m happy to say that the myth about fear and greed has been eroding. I
believe Bill Bonner had something to do with that. The great promotions he
wrote in the early 1970s relied on other emotions and instincts to sell his


products. Gary Bencivenga and Clayton Makepeace, too, wrote copy that
helped disprove this lie.

The biggest move forward came, ironically, from a man whose intention was
to warn consumers against marketing. In his book Influence: The Psychology
of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini, a professor of social psychology at Arizona
State University, analyzed dozens of very successful promotions. He didn‘t
choose the ones that relied on greed and fear. Instead, he focused attention
on those that used more subtle, clever approaches.

The consumers he was hoping to enlighten hardly read the book. But it
became a great hit with a lot of marketers who applied Cialdini‘s insights on
the psychology of persuasion to their promotions.

Among Cialdini‘s insights were these:
 We instinctively try to reciprocate when someone does something for
us.
 Once we‘ve made a commitment to do something, we strive to be
consistent with that decision.
 We tend to look to others to determine what our decision should be in
any given situation.
 We prefer to say yes to the requests of people we know and like.

Cialdini eventually crossed the river and became an authority on marketing.
His later books and seminars taught how to do the kind of subtle marketing
he had despised. Good for him. Good for us. (I say ―good for us‖ because I
believe this kind of marketing is not only more effective, it is more honest.
But that‘s another subject for another essay.)

As I said, the idiotic ―rule‖ about fear and greed has been eroding — but it‘s
never going to completely disappear.

Why? Because many marketers still believe that fear and greed are the most
motivating of all the emotions. And there is some evidence to support this.
Let‘s begin with fear.


Fear is a primal emotion — one that was inherent in man at a very early
stage of human evolution. It is also an essential emotion, one that is
necessary for survival.

Neurobiologists tell us that our primal emotions are rooted deeply in our
―reptilian‖ brains and are instinctive. Because they are instinctive, they can
be very strong and very difficult to overcome.

And there is no doubt that fear is effective in selling all sorts of products —
from burglar alarms to baby monitors to almost every form of insurance.
But just because an emotion is strong doesn‘t mean it should be used to
market everything.
The reason is simple. Human beings have three ―primal‖ responses to fear:
to fight, to flee, or to be paralyzed into inactivity. And a copywriter doesn‘t
want his prospects to do any of those things.

In selling investment advice (something I‘ve done a good deal of), fear has
sometimes been useful. But I‘ve noticed that if you crank up the fear, you
reduce the responsiveness to your ad. A little fear can go a long way when
you are trying to motivate people to worry about their savings or their job
security, for instance. But you must quickly follow that fear with hope of
some kind.

And that brings us to greed.
Proponents of the fear-and-greed approach often argue that the smart thing
to do is to follow a fear-based lead with an appeal to the prospect‘s greed.

But I have found that if you do that, you wind up attracting the kind of
customer you don‘t want: someone who is gullible and greedy.

You can‘t build a business by selling to the gullible and greedy. You can make
scores, sometimes big scores. But you will never have a sustainably
profitable business.

About six months ago, I had a conversation with a copywriter who‘d had
amazing success with several fear-and-greed promotions. In fact, his
commissions on all the sales from those campaigns should have come to


more than a million dollars. I say ―should have,‖ because his clients
discovered that many of the buyers brought in by his fear-and-greed
promotions asked for refunds. And those that stayed were not good buyers
of their other products.

So he made out temporarily, but eventually lost most of his clients.

I suggested that he learn to appeal to other emotions. He wasn‘t interested.
He just kept on using his credentials to snare new clients… until they, too,
experienced the same disappointing results. And now I hear through the
grapevine that he‘s finding it harder and harder to find anyone who will buy
his copy. (By the way, he sent me an e-mail this morning. I haven‘t read it
yet. I wonder if he‘s ―seen the light.‖)

Greed doesn‘t work because good customers, the kind that will stick with
you and continue to buy from you year after year, don‘t think of themselves
as greedy. They want to be successful. They want to make more money. But
they don‘t want to be greedy.

Here‘s what I want you to take away from this:

Use fear as a primary emotion to sell insurance products (which include such
things as burglar alarms, baby monitors, etc.). For other products, you can
try a little fear… but don‘t go too far with it. Then concentrate on giving your
prospects hope. Hope is far and away a much stronger selling proposition
than fear.

And never use greed. Greed-based promotions will only attract customers
who will ruin your business.
Let Michael take you by the hand and show you how to tap into the raw
power of human emotion to sell more products and services than ever before
with the AWAI‘s Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting. Use those
skills to sell your own products and services or get paid handsomely for
them by becoming a six-figure copywriter.


How to Enjoy the Writer’s Life Even if You Can’t
Write Like a Professional

The most productive and, next to JK Rowling, richest writer in the world is
James Patterson.
If you don‘t know him, he is the author of ―Don‘t Blink‖ and ―The Postcard
Killers‖ as well as 48 other best-selling books in the past 10 years.

By almost any perspective, Patterson is a hugely successful writer. But he
doesn‘t have the normal gifts that one would typically attribute to writers: a
brilliant mind, a passion for his work, etc.

Instead, he has a certain set of skills that he employs over and over again
and then leverages by hiring apprentice writers to do most of his work for
him.

They do 80% of the work, following his directions. Then Patterson edits their
manuscripts for pace and tension – key elements in narrative fiction.

By providing the outline and the editing, Patterson insures that his books
have the Patterson feel. This is something that any successful Master
Copywriter or Internet guru can do. In fact, I know quite a few well-known
gurus who have junior writers ghost writing their essays. In some cases
these ghostwriters are good, in others no. When they are not good they
degrade the reputation of the guru.

But what Patterson does is smarter than that. He gives his apprentice a
byline. That makes the transaction more honest and it provides the
apprentice with a reward that is much greater than money.

Several of my clients – well known financial and health authors – could have
bigger businesses if they could produce more copy. But so far they have
refused my suggestions to do so. They don‘t want to use apprentices, they
say, because they don‘t believe anyone can write as well as they can.
Another reason – one they don‘t admit – is because they don‘t want to share
the credit with anyone else.


These are both ego problems. And as you‘ve heard me say many times, ego
and laziness are a writer‘s primary vices.

Patterson proves that you can maintain quality (such as it is) in your
product, continue to promote your name and expand your production in
multiples by using apprentices.

By taking advantage of competent researchers and writers who are willing to
work for him, Patterson puts out eight or more books a year. And in 2010 his
annual earnings are estimated at $70 million.

This essay, though, isn‘t about James Patterson. It‘s about Peter de Jonge
and Andrew Gross and Michael Ledwidge*, three of the many researchers
and writers who have earned lots of money and in some cases became best-
selling authors on their own simply by working as an apprentice to the
master.

I‘m talking about aspiring writers who, for whatever reason, never were able
to break through the glass ceiling that keeps more than nine published
authors out of ten to sell fewer than 100 copies of the books they write.

The opportunity to become an apprentice writer for Patterson at this
moment is limited, but there are hundreds or even thousands of chances
right now to make a very nice six-figure income helping professional writers
do their jobs.

I‘m talking about a new profession – one that before the Internet did not
even exist. I‘m talking about becoming an apprentice writer/researcher to
the direct response information business.

I‘m talking about a pretty exciting opportunity. It‘s exciting because it‘s
brand new and growing fast, which means the barriers of entering it are very
small and the rewards are still very great.

Let me give you an example.
Several years ago Judith Strauss and I wrote and published a little book of
diction calledWords that Work. It was a selection of words that appeared in


Early To Rise‘s ―Words to the Wise‖ column that has been running daily for
almost 10 years.

At the beginning of this year I wanted to do another edition but, for some
reason, Judith was not available to work with me on it. So I reached out to
AWAI to find someone to help me.

Typically when I call Katie, I‘m looking for a copywriter. But this time I
wanted someone who could do some basic research and compose simple
sentences.

Finding a skillful copywriter, even when you have Katie Yeakle next door to
you, is not easy. But it‘s a much simpler job to find someone who knows how
to track information down and summarize it in simple, concise sentences.

I found someone – a retired grant writer and sometime artist who began
working with me last month. Her job was pretty straightforward. I‘d send her
lists of words that I wanted to cover and she‘d look at several dictionary
definitions and craft one that was the simplest version she could of the
various iterations.

It was a three thousand dollar job and it would have taken her, I figure,
about 45 to 60 hours to complete the task. After I had edited a dozen or so
words she understood both what I wanted in terms of a definition and also
my style of writing, so I could see it was going to be easy for both of us to
finish the job.

Her compensation, because we were moving quickly, was going from $50 an
hour to $75.

In addition we have become language buddies along the way. We send each
other interesting articles on language (including whatever Bob Bly writes)
and have fun talking about usage.

From this good experience I decided to expand the book from just another
collection of words that work to something I‘m calling ―One Thousand Words
to Know Before You Die‖.


My idea is to present one thousand words or terms that comprise much of
the most important thinking in Western literature from the time of Homer to
the present. Instead of limiting my usage comments to diction and grammar,
I‘m going to talk about how these words added to or subtracted from the
history of knowledge from Greek times to the present.

It‘s a more ambitious book to be sure, but it‘s also a book that‘s more fun to
write. My researcher‘s job is pretty much the same, but she‘s having more
fun now in helping me select and cull words and in learning about the many
artistic, cultural, political and literary ideas that have shaped the way smart
people think today.

Plus, she‘s also got a bigger assignment now. I upped her compensation
from $3,000 to $10,000 and I‘m going to give her a percent of sales as well.

Her compensation has now gone up to about $100 an hour and it could end
up being two or three times that if the book sells well.

The point of this anecdote is to introduce you to a new industry that is
developing thanks to the explosion of information publishing since the
Internet exploded in or around 2000.

It‘s a new type of career, one that allows you to enjoy all the fun and
challenge of being a professional writer (and some of the upside income
potential) without having to have mastered the fine art of fiction or
persuasive writing.

I mentioned this idea to Katie and Rebecca several months ago when I was
looking for someone to help me with another book Don Mahoney and I are
working on, a monograph on Barnett Greenberg, an obscure painter whose
personal collection of works Don and I bought from his family‘s estate.

The person we‘ve selected to help us with that book will also be doing
research and writing sentences, but will not be responsible for shaping the
book or revising it. It‘s pretty much the same thing James Patterson‘s
apprentices do, but instead of fiction the subject is biography.


If Don and I make this artist a known and collected name among collector‘s
of Jewish art and artifacts (a very lucrative niche market) this person will
also enjoy a big pay check and plenty of perks including (if he wants)
appearing on radio and television programs.

In the old days (prior to 2000) researchers were drones that got paid little
for endless work and were never recognized for their hard work. In today‘s
world of information publishing there are tens of thousands of writers and
publishers looking for people who can help them produce the many
published products that proliferate the internet.

Just think about the demand: books, reports, essays, blogs, web content, e-
letters, e-magazines, surveys, research reports, scientific studies, marketing
studies, religious writing, non-profit pamphlets, annual reviews, critiques,
auto responder series – the list is endless.

And thanks to the Internet, the market is growing. According to Google, the
Web has already exceeded 1 trillion unique web pages (it‘s estimated they
index about 15 billion of those pages for search purposes). There are
millions more pages created daily.
If the market for professional writers has increased tenfold since 2,000 then
the market for Internet Research Specialists has probably increased a
thousand fold.

What does this mean to you?

If you‘re thinking about becoming a professional writer but haven‘t yet
reached the level of compensation you want, this is the perfect opportunity
to make great money as you go.

If you would love to live the life of a freelance writer but don‘t have the
patience or talent for it, this is also a great way to do that without mastering
the craft of writing.


One of the biggest future opportunities for Internet Research Specialists is in
the direct marketing industry. Based on sales, direct marketing, as you may
know, is a $2 trillion industry.

It is bigger than traditional Madison Avenue-style advertising, as well as
newspaper advertising.

And since 2000 it‘s growing at a rate of 5-7%, making it one of the fastest
growing markets in the world today.

If you read ―Automatic Wealth‖ then you know that the fastest way to
become rich is to become an essential employee or contract worker for a
fast-growing business in a fast-growing market. Information publishing is
exactly that.

Although many of them may not know it now, the easiest way for a
professional copywriter to double his income is to double his output. But
doubling your output without diminishing the quality of your work is not easy
because of the enormous demand of research.

I‘ve said this a thousand times to AWAI members over the past many years.
The most important single aspect of successful writing depends on the
production of good ideas and the production of good ideas depends almost
entirely on good research.

That‘s where the opportunity is for those who might want to get involved in
this wonderful new industry.

Gradually writers will begin to realize that they, like James Patterson, can
make much more money if they can have apprentices helping them with all
the research. And once they become comfortable using other people to do
the research, they‘ll ask for more (simple sentences) like Don and I are
doing.

Eventually, this will mean great, lucrative new careers for thousands or even
tens of thousands of smart, capable people who – for whatever reason –


have decided they want the benefits of the writers life without putting in all
the ―hard‖ work.

The job of the Internet Research Specialists will be largely tracking support
and documentation for the claims that professional writers want to make.

Again, this is especially true in the area of direct marketing of published
products. As Roy Furr recently pointed out in an essay in The Golden Thread:
"Because the average prospect is skeptical, proof is an important
part of any letter. People won't believe our claims just because we
say so. Unless we're established experts, our claims are just
opinions."

What kind of research are Internet Research Specialists likely to be doing?
Collecting and organizing information for:
 Media mentions of the client or product
 Prestigious publications talking about the product, idea, or industry
 Scientific studies to back claims
 Scientists' opinions related to claims
 Charts, graphs, and graphics
 Real or implied expert endorsements
 Real or implied celebrity endorsements
 Quotes from credentialed sources
 Process information, or how the product (or ingredient) works
 Other highly-specific supporting information

Here‘s what I‘m saying:
 There is already a market for Internet Research Specialists
 It is likely to be one of the fastest growing markets in the world
 By getting in now you can start making $50 an hour
 As your skills improve you can easily be making $100 or more in no
time

To get in now at the bottom floor you will need to do two things:
Quickly learn how to do quick and helpful research.


Find clients.
You can do the first by investing in AWAI‘s new program that teaches that. It
is called Secrets of Becoming an Internet Research Specialist: How to Surf
the Web for Freedom and Profit. It‘s an online program consisting of 13
chapters, split into two main parts.

The first part — Chapters 1-6 — is all about what to do and how to do it.
This is how you go from landing the gig to giving the client exactly what they
want. This is what you do in your everyday life as an Internet Research
Specialist.

The second part — Chapters 7-13 — is what it takes to get paid. This is how
to attract clients, get other people to sell your services for you, and develop
the client relationship so they'll come back over and over again.

It also includes:
 Access to AWAI's exclusive members-only DirectResponseJobs.com
Online Job Board. (Recently updated to include Internet Researcher
gigs!)

 Special reports onHow to Deliver Superior Research by Learning One
Crucial SEO Skill…Proof and Credibility: 10 Ways Your Research Can
Make Your Client‘s Copy Sizzle… andFive Other Research Projects to
Boost Your Income

 A 3-part webinar series on marketing yourself as an Internet Research
Specialist

 A brand-new white paper you can use to market yourself to writers
called "Writers: How to Write Faster, Better, and Make More Money
While You Do."

I wrote the first draft of this essay in 90 minutes (as opposed to several
hours) by writing out the draft and leaving X‘s where I needed facts and

figures to support my argument. I sent it – as is – to my editor Jason, who
contacted one of the AWAI-trained Internet Research Specialists he has on
his contact list. That person got and finished the job in 24 hours and earned
about $75 an hour for his efforts.

It was good for him. It was good for me. And it can be very good for you if
you contact AWAI.
Find out more about AWAI‘s Internet Research Specialist Program

* Peter de Jonge is a former copywriter who spent several years on the
Patterson assembly line before writing his first solo novel (Shadows Still
Remain).
Andrew Gross is president of HEAD Ski and Tennis and co-wrote some of the
Women's Murder Club Series with Patterson before signing his own 3-book
deal with William Morrow in 2005.

Are You Honest, Hard Working, and Financially
Solvent? If So, Read This – You Won’t Like It, But
You Should Read It Now

Just about every adult I know is wondering about the economy.
MB, who owns a large furniture wholesaling business, is wondering when
consumers will start shopping again. ―I‘m just treading water now,‖ he says.
―But not making any profit. My employees are getting paid, but I‘m not.‖

PE, a real estate developer, fled the US after all his hundred million dollar
developments went bust. Now he‘s building homes in Panama. ―I wonder if
I‘ll ever get back home,‖ he said.


My sister, a high school teacher, has seen many of her friends lose careers
due to budget cutbacks. She wants to know whether we‘re in a ―recovery‖
that will protect her job or will things get worse next year?

Nobody knows for sure what will happen. But when I‘m not sure about the
future my rule is hope for the best but plan for the worst.

The best we can hope for? A gradually improving economy with full health
restored in 5 to 7 years.
Theworst? A massive, worldwide Great Recession as long and as bad as the
Great Depression.
In this essay I hope to do two things.
1. Show you why I believe the worst-case scenario is about 100 times
more likely than the best-case one.
2. Give you a three-part plan to survive and prosper.

Why Things Are Likely to Get Worse
Since the real estate bubble inflated and collapsed trillions of dollars have
disappeared from American households.
And millions of Americans – actually tens of millions – are now, for all intents
and purposes, bankrupt.
My view of what happened differs a bit from the story you‘ve been told by
our government and most economists.

Wealth didn‘t magically appear and disappear. What happened was that the
government, banks, brokers, and real estate professionals colluded in the
biggest wealth transfer in the history of the world.

Wealth (stored assets) shifted from the bank accounts of teachers,
plumbers, merchants, and people like you into the bank accounts of bankers,
brokers, lawyers, and others who participated in the scam.

The wealth I‘m talking about is not the tens of trillions in trumped up
property values that disappeared. That wealth never really existed.


The money that was cleverly shifted from one large group of people to a
much smaller one consisted of hard-earned savings and now-depleted
retirement accounts.

A significant portion of that transfer came from fees – the billions and
billions of dollars in fees charged by the bankers, brokers, and lawyers for all
the new and second mortgages, the appraisals, the insurance, the legal
vetting, etc.

But even more of it came from mortgage payments. While property values
were falling, millions of Americans did their best to keep up with mortgage
payments, often emptying their bank accounts in a futile attempt to
maintain ―good credit.‖

That transfer was probably in excess of a trillion dollars. And it hasn‘t
stopped. There are still tens of millions of Americans ―under water‖ who will
keep paying till they can‘t do it any longer. Eventually, they will enter into
settlements that will, essentially, leave them bankrupt.

So most Americans are poorer now or will be very soon, while the banking
and brokerage community – protected as it has been by the government – is
richer and will become richer still.

But that‘s not the entire problem.

Our government itself is bankrupt. Its debt far exceeds its assets and that
debt has been spiraling skyward since the Clinton administration.

Whether it was to fight the ―war‖ on terror, finance fraudulent brokerages
and irresponsible banks, the federal government has been taking on debt
faster than at any time in its history. We are talking about tens of trillions of
dollars.

And finally there are all the future financial obligations our legislators have
voted in. Financing the baby boomer‘s financial and retirement needs in the
next 20 years will cost additional tens of trillions of dollars.


The total, by any count, is more than a hundred trillion. And one way or the
other every single dollar of that must be paid back.

Who Will Pay That Back?
Not the financial masters of the universe that planned it all… .not the banks,
brokers and lawyers that promoted it… and certainly not the government
(which never pays back anything).

No, these trillions will be paid back by a small percentage of the population
who have been foolish enough to
(a) work hard,
(b) start businesses,
(c) employ other people,
(d) create new products and services,
(e) make profits,
(f) save those profits and
(g) not fall for stupid scams and schemes like the real estate bubble.

Those are the people who are going to have to pay back the debt. There
aren‘t many of them. They comprise less than 20% of the population. But
they will pay back 80% of the remaining debt. That is a 100% certainty.

And why will the sins of the 80% be paid for by the 20%?
Because no one else can pay it back.
Our government can‘t pay it back. It‘s bankrupt. The bankers and brokers
and lawyerswon‘tpay it back. They have been ―saved.‖ Eighty percent of the
population won‘t be able to pay it back because they don‘t have anything.

So it must be paid back by the honest, frugal taxpayers who still have
wealth – the middle-class and upper-class Americans who still have assets.

If you have assets that means you. It doesn‘t matter whether you are a
billionaire or have a net worth of $10,000.


They – the 80% of America that is (or will soon be) bankrupt are coming
after you. And they will have the government and the financial community at
their sides.

There are three ways they will come at you:
1. By taxing you more. If you have a good income, they will make you
pay more taxes. If you have assets, they will make you pay a higher
―wealth/property‖ taxes on those assets. And they will introduce
consumption taxes.

2. They will make create alternative, private taxes on every product or
service you purchase. (These private taxes will take the form of
increased banking, insurance, transportation, purchasing, and other
fees – all tied to regulations meant to ―protect you.‖

3. They will make your income shrink while your expenses rise, making
you ultimately poorer unless you do something radical. This is the
primary way they will make you pay back their debt. With many years
of stagflation. The economy will be sluggish. Income, on a relative
scale, will decrease. And prices will rise. Getting us 20% poorer is
really the best and surest way to pay back all the bad debt.

If you think this is crazy speculation, do this. Post this now on your calendar
for 2015 and then read it again then. See how crazy it seems then.

If you don‘t think I‘m crazy and want to do something to protect yourself,
pay close attention to the rest of this message.

Recognize that you will not be able to avoid the three-stage assault I
outlined above.
 You will not be able to avoid the extra taxes you will have to pay. If
you do try to get fancy with your taxes, you‘ll end up in jail. This is not
an avenue worth pursuing.

 You‘re not going to avoid paying all the extra ―private taxes‖ on
everything you buy from now on. These will all be buried in the fine
print. You won‘t find them. And even if you do, you‘ll be required to
pay them because the laws that are being written right now to


―protect‖ us contain clauses that allow banks and brokerages and so
on to pass along the extra costs to their customers.

 And finally, you are not going to be able to avoid the effects of
stagflation. The value of your cash-based assets (it doesn‘t matter
they are in dollars or Euros or what) will diminish. Prices will increase.
But your salary will not.

But there is something positive you can do. Actually, there are three things:
1. Keep your job. There is a good chance that the business you work for
will continue to make payroll cuts in the months and years ahead. That
means your income or possibly your job is threatened. The best way to
protect your job is to become an invaluable employee. When your boss
has to make the tough decisions about who gets cut, who gets cut
back, and who stays, you want him to want to keep you. You can do
that by becoming an invaluable employee.

2. Put your savings in tangible assets: gold, real estate and, if possible,
your own private business.

3. Create additional streams of income. This is the only way you can
actually hope to build your wealth during the coming Great Recession.
This is the most important of the three solutions.

I am a big believer in multiple streams of income. I started working on it
about twenty years ago. At first the streams were mere trickles. Now each
one of them is more than I need. And I have about a dozen of them.

That‘s why I‘m not personally worried about the great recession. But if you
don‘t have additional streams of income, you should be.
How to Create Extra Income
If you have at least a half million in cash, you can create income two ways:
1. You can invest in rental real estate. I‘m doing that now and I‘m getting
cash flow of between 5% and 10% on my money.
2. You can invest in quality, dividend-bearing stocks. I suggest you follow
Andy Gordon's recommendations in the Sound Profits newsletter.


3. If you don't have a hundred grand to invest, then you really have no
choice. To create a viable second stream of income you must start a
side business – something you can do evenings and weekends.
You could mow lawns or clean windows. But that's hard work for
modest pay. The kind of business I recommend is one that
(a) doesn't require very much start-up capital,
(b) provides you with job satisfaction, and
(c) could eventually allow you to quit your day job.

That‘s exactly what American Writers & Artists Inc. (or AWAI for short) can
help you to do.
AWAI specializes in helping people create multiple streams of income… all
from learning just one financially valuable skill. AWAI has more than a dozen
opportunities for you to choose from. Opportunities like
copywriting,
being an internet researcher or publicist,
writing resumes,
desktop marketing,
self-publishing,
writing grants
graphic design
becoming a travel writer
… to name just a few.
These opportunities can give you a sizeable second (or third) stream of
income doing something enjoyable. And more than that, they can be
leveraged into building even more opportunities.

Let me give you a couple of examples of AWAI members who have done just
this:
Ann Kuffner originally became an AWAI member so she could promote her
retirement/relaxation development in Belize. But things changed – and
changed dramatically – after she attended her first Bootcamp last year.


While she remains Vice-President of Sales of the Grand Baymen
development, she also has become a full-fledged copywriter enjoying her
second stream of income…
―Earlier this year, I reached one of my primary goals. I landed a
significant assignment with a reputable international lifestyle
publication. I‘ve already completed and been paid for the job. And,
I‘m expecting more follow on work… I would never have come this
far, this fast, if not for Bootcamp…‖

Member Roy Furr wasn‘t expecting any big changes in his life last year. He
actually liked his job, but he knew he was limited there.

Today Roy‘s enjoying a recession-proof income stream and has no ceiling on
how much he can make…

"This time last year, I had no clue how my life would be changed
when I attended AWAI's FastTrack To Copywriting Success
Bootcamp and Job Fair. I was holding on to my full-time job, only
dreaming one day I'd tell my boss, 'Adios! I'm off to do what I want
to do and make myself rich!'

"I wasn't sure if I was ready, but I invested in Bootcamp anyway
and to my surprise (and my former employer's) I launched my full-
time freelance copywriting business 3 months and 3 days after
returning home.

"Now I can tell you flat-out: AWAI's Bootcamp was the best
investment I could possibly have made in launching my freelance
copywriting career.‖

Ann and Roy‘s stories are far from unique. They tell typical stories of doors
opening when you put yourself in the fast-paced, high intensity environment
of AWAI‘sFastTrack to Copywriting Success Bootcamp and Job Fair.
Bootcamp opens doors by providing master-level training, training packed
with copywriting and marketing secrets.
It opens doors by giving you opportunities almost every moment you‘re
there to network with other members and with master copywriters and
marketers who are presenting at Bootcamp.


And the most exciting opportunity of all: AWAI‘sFastTrack to Copywriting
Success Bootcamp and Job Fair opens doors by letting you meet face-to-face
with representatives from companies at the Job Fair… who are there
specifically to hire new writers. That‘s how Ann and Roy starting building
their second income streams and how you can too.
There are many others too. Like Susan Clark. from HawthorneCalifornia…
“Last month I made $13,210 from writing copy. I never could have
done it without AWAI's FastTrack to Success.‖

Or Eric Gelb…
"I attended my first Bootcamp last November. The event changed
my life. I learned new and essential techniques and skills. I became
friends with two copywriters and we brainstorm ideas that help me
make money. I landed two clients at the Job Fair. And the best
news is within six weeks of Bootcamp, I received $4,350 in fees."

This year‘s Bootcamp features an amazing lineup of professionals willing –
no make that eager – to share their insights, their lessons, and their secrets
with you so you can get started on building your second, third, or fourth
income stream quickly and surely.
These are pros like…
 Bill Bonner – whose famous International Living letter ran as a control
unchallenged for 30 years, and whose Agora Publishing is now one of
the largest publishers in the world…
 Ted Nicholas – whose copywriting has produced over $5.9 billion in
sales for his companies and his clients' companies, in industries as
wide ranging as candy products to incorporation to marketing to
natural health.
 Mark Everett Johnson – copy chief for legendary copywriter Eugene
Schwartz, his 15-plus year control for a major health provider has
generated over 3.3 million paid orders and over $80 million in sales.
And, of course, I‘ll be there too. This year I‘m teaching a systematic way to
write million-dollar copy again and again.
This is just a glimpse of what you can expect to experience at this year‘s
gathering of the greatest minds in direct marketing and copywriting.

Perhaps, you will walk away from Bootcamp this year with an experience like
Susie H‘s…
"My expectations for Bootcamp were that I'd learn loads, get
psyched up, be exhausted by the end, and meet plenty of eager


AWAI members, generous seminar leaders, and Bootcamp
coordinators. I was not disappointed in any of those expectations…

“What I didn‘t go expecting, even though I've read these stories
myself, was to walk away with a paid assignment from this
Bootcamp… but I did! Networking happens, whether you
consciously do it or not (unless you talk to absolutely no one while
you're there).

“Let it take you where it will, because you'll be thrilled when it
does. And, when you get home and the phone rings the next day
with another paid assignment, you can grin, make the deal, then
hang up and scream, and jump for joy. Go ahead. Expect it all. It
happens."

If you want to create an extra stream (or streams) of income for yourself,
your opportunity to start begins at the AWAI FastTrack to Copywriting
Success Bootcamp and Job Fair. It is the best way I know of to do it.
It works. It‘s worked for these copywriters you‘ve already heard from. And
it‘s worked for many others who‘ve used it to generate their own income
streams.
Bootcamp opens its doors in just two months. And when those doors open,
they will open doors for you… if you‘re willing to take the first steps.
Click this link to learn even more about the exciting adventure awaiting you
at Bootcamp. And the fulfilling life a second and third income stream can
provide for you.
This is a great chance – maybe the best chance you will ever have – to get
to the next level of financial success.
If you're serious about taking charge of your future, be there!

As I said, the most significant thing you can do to protect yourself from what
I predict will be a disintegrating economic environment is to get an extra (or
two) stream of income. But this is NOT something you should wait to do next
year. The longer you put it off, the more challenging it will be. There‘s still a
significant opportunity to create a lifelong cash stream if you act
immediately.


The Power of One – One Big Idea

One of the biggest lessons I have ever learned about writing came very late
– in fact, more than twenty years after I wrote my first piece of copy.

It happened about a year after I began writing the Early To Rise(ETR). I was
looking over issues I'd written that year and noting which ones readers rated
the highest. Without exception, those achieving the highest scores presented
a single idea.

It struck me that readers didn't want to hear everything I had to say about a
topic every time I wrote. They were looking for a single, useful suggestion or
idea that could make them more successful.

That was one of those "aha!" experiences for me.

As a reader, I had always most enjoyed stories and essays that tackled one
subject effectively and deeply. As a writer, I sensed my readers felt this way
too. But it wasn't until I looked at the ETR results that I recognized the
power of a narrow focus in writing.

I checked to see if this same phenomenon applied to advertising copy. I
pulled out my box of "best promotions of all time." While not all of them
were on a single topic, most of the very best hit just one idea strongly.

It seemed I was on to something. I presented this idea as one "powerful
secret to publishing success" when Agora had our first company-wide
meeting for publishers in France.

Bill Bonner reminded me he'd learned about the Power of One from the great
advertising guru David Ogilvy. Ogilvy's concept was that every great
promotion has, at its core, a single, powerful idea that he called "the Big
Idea."


At about that same time, John Forde was rereading the classic 1941 book,
"How to Write a Good Advertisement" by Victor Schwab – the man
Advertising Age called the "greatest mail-order copywriter of all time."

In that book, Schwab listed his choice for the "Top 100 Headlines." John
found that of those 100 top headlines, 90 were driven by single, Big Ideas.
Note how instantly clear and engaging these "Big Ideas" are…
 "The Secret of Making People Like You"
 "Is the Life of a Child Worth $1 to You?"
 "To Men Who Want to Quit Work Someday"
 "Are You Ever Tongue-Tied at a Party?"
 "How a New Discovery Made a Plain Girl Beautiful"
 "Who Else Wants a Screen Star Figure?"
 "You Can Laugh at Money Worries – If You Follow This Simple Plan"
 "When Doctors Feel Rotten This is What They Do"
 "How I Improved My Memory in One Evening"
 "Discover the Fortune That Lies Hidden In Your Salary"
 "How I Made a Fortune with a 'Fool Idea'"
 "Have You a 'Worry' Stock?"
At ETR, we made this concept a "rule" for writing. The mandate was clear.
Write about one thing at a time. One good idea, clearly and convincingly
presented, was better than a dozen so-so ideas strung together.

When we obeyed that rule, our essays were stronger. When we ignored it,
they were not as powerful as they could have been.

Here's an example of the Rule of One as applied to an advertorial taken from
ETR:
Subject Line: The Easiest Product to Sell Online
Dear Early to Riser,
Would you be interested in investing $175 to make $20,727?
That's exactly what Bob Bly just accomplished!
See how he did it below… and how easily you could do the same.
MaryEllen Tribby,
ETR Publisher

Dear Friend,
There's no product easier to create or sell online…


… than a simple, straightforward instructional or how-toe-book.
Why are e-books the perfect information product to sell on the Internet?
 100% profit margin.
 No printing costs.
 No inventory to store.
 Quick and easy to update.
 No shipping costs or delays.
 Higher perceived value than regular books.
 Quick, simple, and inexpensive to produce.
My very first e-book has generated $20,727 in sales (so far).
My total investment in producing it: just $175.

Now, I want to show you how to make huge profits creating and selling
simple e-books – in my new e-book "Writing E-Books for Fun & Profit."
Normally my e-books sell for anywhere from $29 to $79, and later this year,
"Writing E-Books for Fun & Profit" will sell for $59.

However, to make it affordable for you to get started in e-book publishing,
I'm letting you have "Writing E-Books for Fun & Profit" for only $19 today –
a savings of $40 off the cover price!

For more information… or to order on a risk-free 90-day trial basis… just
click here now.
Sincerely,
Bob Bly
P.S. But, I urge you to hurry. This special $40 discount is for alimited time
only.And once it expires, it may never be repeated again.

Let me explain how the Power of One operates here.
In the lift letter (signed by MaryEllen Tribby), Bob asks a question and then
tells a single sentence story. The question is an inverted promise. The story
validates the promise.
The sales letter follows. This, too, is a beautifully simple piece of copy. It
leads with a statement that expresses one clear idea: "The easiest way to
make money on the Internet it to market e-books."
That statement is supported by a number of bulleted "facts." Then, Bob
validates the statement by mentioning his own experience.
The reader is already sold. Bob makes the sale irresistible with a strong,
one-time-only offer.
Short, sweet, andsimple.


The Power of One is not only one big, central idea. It's a fully engaging piece
of copy with five necessary elements. Using Bob's example:
 One good idea: "There's no product easier to create or sell online than
a simple, straightforward instructional or how-to e-book."
 One core emotion: "It is simple! I bet I can do it!"
 One captivating story: Told brilliantly in 11 words: ―My very first e-
book has generated $20,727 in sales (so far).‖
 One single, desirable benefit: "Now, I want to show you how to make
huge profits creating and selling simple e-books"
 One inevitable response: The only way to get this book for $19 is "click
here now."

To create blockbuster promotions time after time, you must understand the
difference between good copy and great copy. The Power of One is the
driving force behind great copy.

Veteran advertising consultant James Loftus, who's worked with Anheuser-
Busch, Holiday Inn, McDonald's, and many other clients, agrees:
"Also keep in mind that the more points you try to cover, the less effective
each point, and therefore your ad, will be. An effective ad will actually have
only one central focus, even if you discuss it from two or three perspectives.
If your points are too diverse, they compete with each other, and end up
pulling the reader's attention in separate directions."

When challenged with an advertising assignment, most writers conjure lists
of features and benefits, then mention as many as possible. Their thinking
goes, "I wonder which of these benefits will really push the buttons I want?
I'll throw them all in. That way if one doesn't work, another one will."

This is B-level copywriting. It's not the way to create breakthrough
advertising.
The Power of One is commonplace now at Agora… it‘s taught by AWAI… and
you‘ll see that most top copywriters follow it.
You can use the Power of One to create your own blockbuster copy. Ask
yourself: "What is the Big Idea here?" "Is this idea strong enough to capture
the hearts of my customers?" Or "Are my ideas all over the place?"
The challenge is to find that one good idea the reader can grasp
immediately. And stick to it. So the idea has to be strong, easy to
understand…and easy to believe.

Put the Power of One to work for you in all your communications. You'll be
amazed at how much stronger – and successful – your copy will be.

For more breakthrough copywriting tips and tactics check out the AWAI
Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting.

Making Omelets, Breaking Eggs and Sexist Ads

Katie sent me some of the comments given byGolden Threadreaders of an
essay I wrote on ―The Most Interesting Man in the World.‖
The ad reminded me of David Ogilvy‘s classic advertisement campaign for
Hathaway Shirts. It propelled Hathaway from a local company with no
reputation at all to the most recognized shirt brand in America.

I said that while the Dos Equis ad was in many ways a creative knockoff, it
fell short of the Ogilvy classic by failing to make the brand name itself a
prominent feature of the commercial.

For Ogilvy, the name of the product was critical. It was so important to him
that he put the brand name in almost all of his headlines.

One reader, Christine, had this to say: ―While this may have worked for a
men's shirt in Ogilvy‘s day this present ad "The Most Interesting Man in the
World" is disgusting and painful to watch.

She found it ―offensive to women.‖ Besides the content (a bearded man
surrounded by beautiful women) it suggests, she said, that women don‘t
drink beer when they do.

Christine says she would ―go out of (her) way NOT to buy this beer.‖


―Some ads are just too offensive. Copying old ‗Mad Men‘ ads per se without
a few updates is ‗madness.‘ If I were this guy's wife and I found this beer in
the fridge, I would throw it out! Let's get 21st century.‖

I think it‘s interesting that Christine imagines herself married to ―this guy.‖ Is
it possible that the most interesting man in the world got her pulse racing,
even though she objects to his image?

That‘s the thing about edgy advertising. It offends as many people as it
attracts. But does that mean it shouldn‘t be done?
It reminds me of the scene from Howard Stern‘s movie, ―Private Parts‖. Pig
Vomit, the network executive who has been trying to get Stern fired, finds
out that the ratings for his show have shot sky high, despite his puerile,
offensive-to-some humor.
―Howard‘s fans,‖ he is told, ―listen to him for two and a half hours.‖

―Well what about all the people who hate him?‖ he asks.
The researcher looks at his notes, ―People who hate him listen to him for five
hours.‖

There is no question that if you want to grab attention, being outrageous is
an effective tactic. But the question still needs to be asked: How far should
you be willing to go to sell your product?
What boundaries, if any, should you be willing to cross? Is it okay to be
sexist if it sells more beer?

Moral issues aside, the criterion for making such a decision has to be the
advertisement‘s effect on sales. Looks like Dos Equis made the right
decision:
According to Dos Equis brand manager Ryan V. Thompson, since Dos Equis
introduced The Most Interesting Man in the World in 2006, sales have shot
up significantly every year, leaping 26% since January alone. He recently
told Austin Carr of FastCompany.com. "We're now the fastest growing beer
import in the country.‖

To create breakthrough-advertising campaigns you must be willing to break
through convention. You have to be willing to offend some people so long as


the increase in sales that you stimulate is greater than any loss of business
you get from the offense.
It‘s not that you want to offend anyone. You don‘t. But you recognize that in
a world as diverse and opinionated as ours is, some breakthrough ads will
offend.

Elsewhere I have explained that the two greatest vices of a marketer are
laziness and egotism. And the two greatest virtues are empathy and
courage.
You must be empathetic enough to understand what your core customers
think and feel and believe (their Core Complex). And, then you must have
the courage to use that empathy to create an ad that tells them you
understand.

That, in my view, is what the Dos Equis commercial does. It ―gets‖ guys.
And it has the courage to tap into what motivates them most of the time.
It‘s not sex, by the way. And it‘s not the objectification of women. It‘s much
more about a man‘s relationship with other men. Thus, the most interesting
man in the world.
It reminds me very much of the new viral marketing campaign to sell Old
Spice. In that, ex-football player Isaiah Mustafa stands topless, showing off
his six-pack, promising women ―he‘s the man your man could smell like.‖

Last time I checked the original ad had attracted 13 million hits.
Christine‘s mistake, if I can judge from her short message, was that she let
her own feelings and thoughts and beliefs (her own core complex) interfere
with her ability to see this ad for what it is.

It‘s no more sexist than the Old Spice campaign. It‘s clever. It‘s compelling.
And it‘s full of self-referential humor.
If Christine thinks this ad is offensive, what must she think of the blue-jeans
ads that Calvin Klein introduced in 1980. Older readers will remember the
15-year-old Brooke Shields telling the world that ―nothing comes between
me and my Calvins.‖ People were offended by the millions. But the campaign
not only put Calvin Klein on top of the heap, but also virtually created the
multibillion-dollar designer jeans market.


There is something else that needs to be understood about this ad. It not
really about attracting women per se, but about becoming more interesting
than other men. Men are very competitive. And in the world of wooing
women, their desire to compete is at its evolutionary height. The liminal*
promise of the ad is a competitive one: to be more interesting than other
men. Yes, the payoff is being surrounded by beautiful women. But the real
issue is other men.
Marketers of women‘s clothing sometimes make the same mistake. They
incorrectly believe women dress to impress or entice men, when in fact they
dress to impress and entice other women.

The point I‘m getting to is this: if you are empathetic enough to really
understand what motivates your core customers at a very basic level, then
you will be able to create outrageous, breakthrough ads that work.
Ask yourself: what is it that my customer really wants?

And don‘t be satisfied with the first or second answer that pops in your head.
Spend some time thinking or talking about his core emotions. Figure out
what he desires, what he thinks and what he believes.
And finally, don‘t forget about the product. It‘s great to get the attention you
want but you don‘t want to forget the product.
Here are some other comments on the essay:
“Excellent. Michael Masterson is spot on about the Dos Equis ads. I
love the ad but am always left wanting to know what the product
is. I had to actually force myself to concentrate on the commercial
so I could know what the product is. Further I enjoyed the Golden
Thread example. I've been struggling with that in my writing but
with this concise example I now fully understand the Golden
Thread.”– Shawn Maus

“Excellent. Inspiring and great information!! I will read this article a
dozen times and when I get home. I will pull out my AWAI books
and start changing my career… with results this time!”– E.Oneill

“Excellent. WOW I love those Commercials so that was number one
when I saw "SAW" the "GUY" I was compelled to read on and now I
understand some more about this business I love but never knew
how much until this article.”– Dan Slaughter Jr


“Excellent. Great article Michael. Makes perfect sense and a very
interesting insight into David Ogilvy as well!”– Gus G.

“Excellent. What a gift… Thank you Michael!!! There is so much
marketing wisdom in this simple article… Thank you for sharing so
generously.”– Laurie Attwood

“Excellent. Very Interesting and informative. Also reminiscent of
Commander Whitehead's beard. ”– Mike Rodriguez

“Excellent. What a wonderful and insightful piece! You have written
this piece like a good painter that paint work of art you are the
masters. The sequence from thought to purchase and how to
influence elegantly if there is such a word.”– Avihu Kiselstein

YOU‘RE INVITED to continue this discussion with Michael at this year‘s Fast
Track to Copywriting Success Bootcamp and Job Fair.
Anything else you want to talk to him about? You‘ll have plenty of
opportunities during the 3-day event. Plus, you‘ll have access to Bob Bly,
John Forde, Ted Nicholas, Bill Bonner and the dozen other master
copywriters and marketers who will be there… ready and eager to share
their experiences and strategies with you.
*Ed Note: In case you‘re curious about the meaning of the word ―liminal‖, it
means just at the edge of consciousness. It‘s not to be confused with
―subliminal,‖ which means just below the threshold of consciousness.

The Man in the Hathaway Shirt
Have you seen The Most Interesting Man in the World?
I'm referring to the TV commercials for Dos Equis beer. They star a
rugged-looking, silver-haired man who is always surrounded by
beautiful women.
In one version of the commercial, he arm-wrestles a Third World general and
releases a grizzly bear from a trap. In another, the narrator relates that even
his enemies list him as their emergency contact and that the police often
question him just because they find him interesting.
If you are a student of advertising, you know this is a knockoff of David
Ogilvy's famous ad campaign: The Man in the Hathaway Shirt.


If you don't know the history of this ad, you should.

In Brief: It was 1951. Ellerton Jette, a shirt maker from Waterville, Maine
wanted to grow his little business into a national brand, but he didn't have
much money. He had heard about the advertising prowess of David Ogilvy.
So he booked a meeting with him.
"I have an advertising budget of only $30,000," he told Ogilvy. "And I know
that's much less than you normally work with. But I believe you can make
me into a big client of yours if you take on the job."

If he'd stopped there, Ogilvy would have thrown him out of the office. But
then he said something that sold the great salesman.
He said, "If you do take on the job, Mr. Ogilvy, I promise you this. No matter
how big my company gets, I will never fire you. And I will never change a
word of your copy."

There is a big lesson here. So let's stop for a moment and talk about it.
What Ellerton Jette did was a little bit of genius, in my opinion. In two short
sentences, he changed the mind of one of the most powerful men in the
world of advertising. At the same moment, he made himself a very rich man.

Not a week goes by when I don't get a letter from a complete stranger who
sees me as his David Ogilvy. They are direct and to the point. "I know I can
get rich if you help me, Mr. Masterson," they say. "So how about it?"
What makes them think I have the time, if not the inclination, to help them?
It never even occurs to them to offer me something in return for what they
are asking.
Jette's $30,000 budget might have put $3,000 in Ogilvy's pocket. Though it
was a paltry sum then and a mere pittance now, at least it was something.
But what really cinched the deal was the two promises Jette made.

Going into the meeting, Jette knew he had one chance to forge a
relationship with Ogilvy. He somehow understood that Ogilvy, as successful
as he was, had two big problems. He worried that his biggest clients would
walk away from him. And he hated it when his clients screwed with his copy.
So, instead of thinking only of his own goals, Jette took the time to figure
out how he could offer Ogilvy something that would be of immense value to


him. (This, by the way, is one of many lessons I teach in mySpecial Theory
of Automatic Wealth.)

When Jette made his two promises, Ogilvy realized that he was talking to a
businessman who would eventually become a partner. He could see that
Jette was a man of good faith who would let Ogilvy be in charge of his
marketing. And that he would reward Ogilvy with a lifetime of loyalty.

Now, let's get back to the story of the Hathaway shirt ad…

After accepting Jette's offer, Ogilvy spent days doing in-depth research on
Jette's client base. He came up with dozens of ideas. The one he settled on
was a campaign built around the image of a distinguished man in a romantic
location dressed in a Hathaway shirt. He selected a model that looked like
William Faulkner and booked the first photo shoot.
On the way to the shoot, he passed a five and ten cent store where he
bought a few cheap eye patches. At the shoot, he asked the model to wear
an eye patch for a few shots.
The moment he saw the photos with the eye patch, he knew.

The Man in the Hathaway Shirt campaign was an instant success. The ads
were carried in papers around the country, and were mentioned editorially in
Time, Life, and Fortune. Before long, hosts of imitators appeared. Other
companies ran ads featuring eye patches on babies, dogs… even cows. A
cartoon in The New Yorker shows three men looking into the display window
of a shirt store. In the second panel, they are coming out of the store, with
eye patches on.

Ogilvy got the idea for the patch, he said, from a photo of Ambassador Lewis
Douglas, who had injured his eye while fishing in England. But he got the
idea itself – the idea of this aristocratic man with a romantic life – from the
James Thurber story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." (Actually, Kenneth
Roman pointed out inThe King of Madison Avenue, it could have been from
the secret life of David Ogilvy. As a young executive, Ogilvy was prone to
wearing capes and bowties while everyone else was in grey flannel suits.)

Of course, it wasn't just the eye patch that made the ads work. It was the
combination of the model, the situation he was in, and the copy itself.
And the copy was brilliant. Here's the first line of the first ad:


"The melancholy disciples of Thorstein Veblen would have despised this
shirt."

Most readers of the ad had no idea who Thorstein Veblen was. But they got
the idea. Veblen was some sort of snobby aristocratic. By posing a
handsome, silver-haired model with an eye patch in a Hathaway shirt and
putting that line underneath the photo, Ogilvy struck a chord in the
American imagination. We all hate aristocrats, but we would like to be one.
There was another brilliant thing about the ad. Putting the model in a
romantic location gave the pitch a fictional element. It had "story appeal," as
Ogilvy put it.
Ogilvy said he discovered the concept of story appeal in a book by Harold
Rudolph, a former ad agency research director. This was the first time,
Roman says in his book, "that shirt advertising focused as much on the man
wearing the shirt as on the shirt itself."

And now, back to The Most Interesting Man in the World…
I am a fan of these Dos Equis commercials. I like them both because they
are a salute to David Ogilvy and also because they successfully replicate the
key elements in Ogilvy's ads for the Hathaway shirt. They have the
handsome, silver-haired model. They have the eye patch. And they have the
anti-aristocrat touch. (The product is beer, after all.)

They also have the romance and the story. Each new edition of the
commercial is another episode in this most interesting man's life.

They fall short only in one respect. They don't do a great job of equating the
product with the concept.

When I remember a Dos Equis ad, I remember the actor's face. I remember
the pretty girls in the background. I'm aware that he is a man that women
find irresistible. And that when he drinks he drinks… Wait a minute. What
does he drink?
There's the rub.
We find out that The Most Interesting Man in the World drinks Dos Equis. But
he could just as well drink Pabst Blue Ribbon. The creative people behind
this very good ad campaign get a big demerit for that. Ogilvy, on the other


hand, put the name of the product in the headline. The fact that his man
was wearing a Hathaway shirt was integral to the story.

Grabbing the prospect's attention with an entertaining story or idea or photo
is essential for any sort of advertising campaign. But you have to do more
than that. You have to sell the product. And to do that, you must link the
initial sentiment created in the headline with the final emotion needed to
close the sale at the end.

In AWAI's copywriting program, I call this "the Golden Thread." It's pretty
simple. The product is at one end of the thread. The prospect's heart is at
the other end. Every element of the copy must be connected to the product
as well as to the prospect. And the connection must be taut. If the thread
goes slack, even for a second, you lose the sale.

I will end this essay by saying this: You have just read about half a dozen of
the most powerful marketing secrets I know. If you put this essay down and
forget about it, you will be making a terrible mistake. Read it at least half a
dozen times and think about it. If it doesn't make you a multi-millionaire, I'll
eat my shirt. Hathaway, of course.

How to Write Well:
The World’s Simplest Formula

My income is based almost entirely on writing. And it has given me a very
rich life – rich in every sense of the word. It can do the same for you.

I spend half of my working time coaching writers on how to write better. I
spend the other half writing memos.
My memos are almost entirely persuasive: their object is to encourage my
clients to make business and marketing decisions that will make them more
profitable. If I fail to persuade them then my ideas don‘t get tested. If they
don‘t get tested, then I can‘t help them make money. If I can‘t help them
make money, they will stop paying me. To date I have never lost a client.


(Knock on wood.) I attribute my track record to the persuasiveness of my
memos.

Over the 30 odd years I‘ve been doing this, I‘ve developed many
complicated theories about what good writing is. But now I‘ve jettisoned
them all in favor of a very brief, straightforward definition.

My definition of good writing applies to every sort of non-fiction writing that
I can think of. It applies to writing books, magazine articles, and direct-mail
sales letters. It applies to business correspondence, telemarketing scripts,
and speeches.

Here it is:
Good writing is the skill of expressing
compelling thoughts clearly.
That‘s it.

When I say this to writers, I get incredulous looks. ―How could it be that
simple?‖ I can hear them thinking.
And then I explain. And re-explain. And eventually some of them get it. And
when they do, their writing gets much, much better. And their income gets
better too.

Let‘s go over that definition in detail. It has two parts:
Compelling Thoughts and Clear Expression
By compelling thoughts I mean ideas that make the reader think, ―Boy,
that‘s interesting!‖ Or, ―I never thought of that before!‖ Or, ―I‘ve got to
remember this!‖
Good writing, then, has nothing to do with correctness. It doesn‘t matter if
the idea you are expressing is well reasoned or even factual. What does
matter is that your writing engages your readers intellectually and
emotionally and then motivates them to do or think what you want them to
do or think.


Notice I said intellectually as well as emotionally. I have Don Hauptman, a
living legend in the advertising business, to thank for that additional word.
After a speech I made once to a group of 300 writers, he wrote me to say
that I had reiterated a common phrase he objected to: that people buy for
emotional reasons.
“This lie,” he says, “just invites all the leftist critics of advertising
and capitalism to charge that everyone is „manipulated‟ by
evildoers who exploit our emotions and irrationality. So we‟re
cutting our own throats if we perpetuate the „it‟s all emotion‟
fallacy. I know you don‟t want to encourage that, any more than I
do.

“FYI, there‟s an old adage that expresses the point of your article
another way: „Write the way you talk, if you could edit what you
say.‟ DM agency panjandrum Emily Soell once said something like:
„Write it square, then add the flair.‟ I‟ve found these tips useful
throughout my career.”

Don is absolutely correct. Not including the intellect in this discussion is
incorrect and potentially harmful. It invites critics of advertising to accuse
persuasive writers of pandering. And it encourages writers to believe that if
they pander, they are writing well.

The most successful marketers and copywriters know that good writing
requires that we engage our readers on both plains simultaneously. Ezra
Pound had the same theory about writing poetic images. He called them
―emotional and intellectual complexes in an instant of time.‖
Creating the Ah-Ha! Effect
And that is what I mean by a compelling thought: an emotionally and
intellectually engaging idea expressed clearly and succinctly so that the
reader can apprehend it in a moment of time. That is what provides the ah-
ha! effect.
Malcolm Gladwell is an expert at this. And that is why he has become a
multimillionaire writing books about arcane and academic subjects. His
critics naively knock him because they argue that some of his ideas are
incorrect. I made that point before: the correctness of the idea is not what
makes for good writing. It is the effect it has on the intellect and the heart of
the reader.
If you want to be a wealthy marketer, copywriter or businessperson, you
must be able to come up with compelling thoughts. You must be able to
recognize ideas that are intellectually and emotionally engaging, ideas that

arrest and charge up your readers and make them think, ―That‘s good! I
never thought of that before!‖
How do you find intellectually and emotionally compelling ideas?
In all the years I‘ve been struggling to answer this question, I‘ve found only
one answer: you must read.

Successful writers are all voracious readers. Their ideas don‘t spring fully
formed from the thigh of Zues, they come from hours of reading – reading
vertically and horizontally about the subject at hand. They read and read
until they come across something that gives them theah-ha! experience.

I‘d like to tell you there was an easier way. There are some well-known
copywriting gurus who will tell you that you can steal good ideas from swipe
files taken from successful advertisements past or present. This is horseshit,
plain and simple. Stolen ideas are like luxury cars. They lose 40% of their
value the moment you take them out of the showroom.

The reason that my number one client is the dominant publisher in the
information publishing industry is precisely because their 100+ writers have
had this definition of good writing drummed into their heads. They know that
they can‘t expect to write blockbuster promotions consistently without
compelling ideas. And they know how to find those ideas.

Ask any of them how they come up with all their great ideas and he or she
will tell you: ―I read and read until I find one.‖

Where to Place the Compelling Thought
The compelling thought must be placed in the lead. It cannot be lingering on
page three or thirty-three. It must be up front so the reader can have his
ah-ha! moment before he tosses the copy away.

It is the same for writing essays or memos. Put your most compelling idea
very early and your readers (prospects, clients, whatever) will be excited. If
they are excited, they will read on with enthusiasm. If not, you will lose
them.


If you have the good fortune to discover several compelling ideas, put the
best one first and let the others follow as soon as you can. Don‘t make the
mistake of ―leaving the best for last.‖ You don‘t have the liberty to do that.
Hit ‗em quick and hit hard with your best stuff and spend the rest of the
advertisement/essay/memo proving your points.

After you have put your compelling thoughts out there, then it‘s time to
make supporting claims and promises and prove that each one of them is
valid.

You must do this because your reader is naturally skeptical. His intelligence
requires him to weed out most of the advice and information he receives. If
it weren‘t that way we could never get anything done. We‘d be eternally lost
jumping from one idea to another. Our brains are hard wired to be skeptical
of ideas – and that goes for compelling thoughts as well. The reader‘s
subconscious tells him: ―You have just been seduced by an intellectually and
emotionally compelling thought. Before you act on it, make sure it makes
sense.‖

So this is where the good writer elaborates on his compelling thought by
providing compelling proof of it. He knows he must support his ideas
rationally by providing proof that they are ―true.‖
Truth, of course, comes in many shapes and sizes. And so does proof.

The Three Faces of Proof
There is factual proof. There is anecdotal proof. And there is social proof.
 Factual proof is easy to come by if your idea has been well researched.
Anyone with an Internet connection can find all the factual proof he
needs on most any topic if he knows how to do online research. And if
you don‘t know how to do it, don‘t worry. AWAI is developing a product
that will teach you.
 Anecdotal proof includes stories — factual and non-factual — that
support an idea by ―showing it‖ instead of ―telling it.‖ Anecdotal proof
is very powerful, because it appeals so immediately to the emotions.
People are not critical when they are reading a story. Their purpose is
to be entertained. This gives you, as the writer, a strong advantage.


 Social proof refers to the influence that other people have on our
opinions and behavior. As a writer, a good way to support your ideas
with social proof is to use testimonials and expert endorsements.

So that‘s how you incorporate ―good thinking‖ into your writing. Now let‘s
talk about the second part of my definition of good writing: clarity of
expression.

Clarity of Expression
By that I mean the ease with which your readers can ―get‖ your compelling
thought and the proof that follows. This is a very important part of the
definition. It is just as important as the compelling thought.
Memorize the following sentence: The easier it is to comprehend, the more
likely it is that your reader will find it to be true.

There is a new science called Cognitive Fluency that supports this assertion.
Among other things, it studies the effect of simple language on readers.
What researchers have found is that a simpler statement has more
credibility than a more complex one — even if they both mean the same
thing. It appears, the scientists say, that our brains are hardwired to trust
simpler (and familiar) things.

New writers don‘t understand this. They operate on the theory that good
writing is pretty or impressive. They strive to make their copy intellectually
and emotionally impressive or even intimidating. They have been
miseducated into believe that complexity is a sign of good thinking. And so
they complicate their writing with complex sentences and arcane diction.

This is a big mistake – a mistake that is obviously foolish if you think about
it for a moment. After all, if you have gone to the trouble of coming up with
a really good idea, why would you want to hide it from them with obscure
words and references?

The best tool I have found to help writers keep their language clear and
uncomplicated is the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test. The FK (as it is known)
looks at the length of your sentences, how many syllables there are in each

word, and other data. The result is a score that indicates how easy the text
is to read. At Early to Rise, our policy is to keep the FK under 7.5 — which
means the average seventh-grader should be able to read and understand it
easily.

Let me give you an example of what I‘ve been talking about here. What
follows is a paragraph by a seasoned financial writer. I had asked him for a
brief summary of the ―big idea‖ for his next essay. Here‘s what he sent me:
―Simon Properties is making good on its promise to swallow up the
minnows. It‘s buying mall owner Prime Properties for $2.3 billion
and not even using up all the cash it‘s been hoarding to take
advantage of opportunities in the marketplace. Simon is big and
flush with cash. And it‘s doing what big bad companies should be
doing… beating up their little brothers, grabbing the best deals out
there… getting bigger… and capturing market share from other
companies.‖

I emailed back, telling him that I could see, by reading between the lines,
that he had a good idea in his mind. But he had failed to identify the core of
it. He had failed to turn it into a ―big idea‖ that he could base his essay on.
Here‘s what I said in my e-mail:
―You say that Simon Properties is a good buy because it is buying
up smaller, cash-starved businesses. This is a sound proposition,
but it‘s not a compelling idea. It‘s really just an assertion. To make
it emotionally compelling, you have to make it both more universal
and more unique. You have to find the idea behind your idea.

―In short, you have to find something that would make your reader
sit up and take notice. You have to give him an idea — preferably in
a single phrase — that he could repeat that night at a dinner party,
something that would launch an interesting discussion.

―For example, you might have said, ‗There are companies — I call
them Sharks — that outperform the market by three to one by
eating up good profitable companies that are small and easy to
‗eat.‘

―That is an engaging idea. The reader gets it immediately. He
wants to know more.


―But to make this work, you would need to prove to your reader
that, in today‘s market, Sharks are good investments. Only after
you have done that will he be interested in your assertion about
Simon Properties.‖

To help writers understand what I mean by a compelling ideas I ask them to
write their compelling idea on top, above their copy. What I often get in
reply is a full paragraph that explains the idea. When I see an entire
paragraph above the copy, I know — without even reading it — that the
writer hasn‘t identified a truly compelling idea. And if that paragraph
contains long, complex sentences, then I know he‘s off base.

Since recognizing the two key components of good writing — a ―big idea‖
and clarity of expression — I‘ve insisted that all essays or promotions given
to me for review have at the top of the page a one-sentence explanation of
the main idea and the FK score.

If that one-sentence idea doesn‘t impress me, I send the piece back without
reading it. I know the writing that I‘m being asked to review is muddled. And
muddled writing is never good.

If the one-sentence idea is good, then I look to another signal that I insist
on: that the FK rating is posted just below the one-sentence idea. And if the
FK score is above 7.5, it gets rejected too.

I reject it because I have found over many years that essays and
advertisements that have high FK scores don‘t get results. I used to think
that was because they don‘t get read. That is certainly part of the reason.
But now I understand from learning about Congnative Fluency, that it is also
because they don‘t get believed.

So that is the definition: Good writing is the skill of expressing compelling
thoughts clearly. To come up with compelling thoughts you must read until
you experience an ah-ha! moment. And then you must prove your promises
and claims with clean, simple language – language that scores 7.5 or below
on the FK score.


This discipline has saved me lots of time and has accelerated the learning
curve of every writer who has worked under my direction. I recommend it to
you.

Using Daily Task Lists to Accomplish
Your Goals

I didn‘t always plan my days. For most of my career, in fact, I didn‘t.
I had written goals. And I referred to them regularly. My goals kept me
pointed in the right direction, but I was always moving back and forth. Often
for no good reason.

Driving to work in the morning, I would think about my goals. That helped
motivate me and often gave me specific ideas about what tasks I should
accomplish that day. I‘d walk into work meaning to complete those tasks…
but by the end of the day, many of them were not done.

What happened? The same thing that may be happening to you right now.
You sit down at your desk, and there is a pile of new mail in your inbox. You
pick up the phone, and 15 messages are waiting for you. You open your
computer, and find that you‘ve received 50 new e-mails since you last
checked. You tell yourself that you will get to your important tasks later.
Right now, you have to ―clean up‖ all these little emergencies.

Before you know it, the day is over and you haven‘t taken a single step
toward achieving your important goals. You make an effort to do something,
but you‘re tired. Tomorrow, you tell yourself, you‘ll do better.

Does that sound familiar?
If so, don‘t feel bad. You‘re in good company. Most people deal with their
work that way. Even people who set goals and achieve them. Over the long
term, they get everything done. But on a day-to-day basis, they are
constantly frustrated.


Youcanbe successful without planning your days… but you will have to work
a lot longer and harder. The reason? When you don‘t plan your days, you
end up working for other people – not just for yourself. You feel that before
you get to your own work, you should first deal with their requests.

Starting your day by clearing out your inbox, voicemail inbox, and e-mail
inbox is just plain dumb. Most of what is waiting for you every morning has
nothing to do with your goals and aspirations. It‘s work that other people
want you to dofor them.
If you want to be the captain of your soul and the master of your future, you
have to be in charge of your time. And the best way to be in charge of your
time is to structure your day around a task list that you, and only you,
create.

As I said, simply writing down my goals helped me accomplish a good deal.
But my productivity quadrupled when I started managing my schedule with
a daily task list. If you use the system I‘m going to recommend, I‘ll bet you
see the same improvement.

I have used many standard organizing systems over the years, but was
never entirely satisfied with any of them. The system I use now is my own –
based on the best of what I found elsewhere.

At the beginning of the year, I lay out my goals for the next 12 months. I
ask myself ―What do I need to achieve in January, February, etc. to keep
myself on track?‖ Then, at the beginning of each month, I lay out my weekly
objectives. Finally, every day, I create a very specific daily task list.

Here’s how I do it…
I begin each day the day before.
What I mean by that is that I create my daily task list at the end of the prior
day. I create Tuesday‘s task list at the end of Monday‘s workday. I create
Wednesday‘s at the end of Tuesday‘s workday.
I begin by reviewing the current day‘s list. I note which tasks I‘ve done and
which I have failed to do. My new list – the next day‘s task list – begins with


those uncompleted tasks. I then look at my weekly objectives to see if there
are any other tasks that I want to add. Then I look through my inbox and
decide what to do with what‘s there. I may schedule some of those items for
the following day. Most of them, I schedule for later or trash or redirect to
someone else.

I do all this in pen on a 6‖ x 9‖ pad of lined paper. I divide the paper
vertically to create columns for the tasks, for the time I estimate it will take
to do each one, and for the actual time it takes me to complete it. I also
create a column for tasks I will delegate to my assistant.

On most days, I end up with about 20 15-minute to one-hour tasks.

Here is a typical daily list.
I like doing this by hand, in pen and ink. You may prefer to do it on your
computer. The point is to enjoy the process.

Because longer tasks tend to be fatiguing, I seldom schedule anything that
will take more than an hour. If you have a task that will take several hours,
break it up into pieces and do it over a few days. It will be easier to
accomplish. Plus, you will probably do a better job because you‘ll be doing it
with more energy and with time to review and revise your work as you go.

A typical day for me includes two or three one-hour tasks, three or four half-
hour tasks, and a dozen or so 15-minute tasks. The kind of work you do may
be different, but I like that balance. It gives me flexibility. I can match my
energy level throughout the day to my task list.

Ideally, you should get all of your important tasks and most of your less
important tasks done almost every day. You want to accomplish a lot so you
can achieve your long-term goals as quickly as possible. But you also want
to feel good about yourself at the end of the day.

You may find, as I did, that when you begin using this system you will be
overzealous – scheduling more tasks than you can possibly handle. So set
realistic time estimates when you write down your tasks. And double-check
them at the end of the day by filling in the actual time you spent on each
one.

When you complete a task, scratch it off your list. One task done! On to the
next one!
I‘ve been doing this for years, and I still get a little burst of pleasure every
time.
Creating each daily task list should take you less than 15 minutes. The
secret is to work from your weekly objectives – which are based on your
monthly and yearly goals.

This system may not work for you, but I urge you to give it a try. I think
you‘ll like it.

Before your colleagues, competitors, and coworkers are even sipping their
first cup of coffee, you‘ll have figured out everything you need to do that day
to make you healthier, wealthier, and wiser. You‘ll know what to do, you‘ll
know what your priorities are, and you‘ll already be thinking about some of
them. You‘ll not have to worry about forgetting something important. And
you‘ll have a strong sense of energy and excitement, confident that your day
is going to be a productive one.

Heisting Hall of Fame Headlines

Old-time copywriters like yours truly enjoy a walk down Memory Lane now
and then. We do it for fun, but it can be profitable, too.
I‘m talking about rereading the best-known direct-marketing ads of the past.
Copy written by such luminaries as Gene Schwartz, Claude Hopkins, and
John E. Kennedy.

It‘s fun to read through these old ads. Looking at them now — with their
dated language and primitive graphics — you might think they could never
work in today‘s hypercompetitive market.


Yet some of them are still working. And, most of them live on as the arms
and legs or blood and bones of many modern ads written by copywriters who
understand their value.

There are many ways to learn from these time-tested ads.

One way is simply to read them — over and over again. Maybe even copy
them down by hand or say them out loud. I‘m convinced that‘s the only way
to understand all sorts of important but subtle things about good copy —
diction, pacing, phrasing, etc.

But the best way to learn from them is to analyze them from the inside out.
Ask yourself: ―What is going on here beneath the surface? What are the
psychological triggers that are going off in the reader‘s heart and mind as he
reads this?‖
This is what I call determining the DNA of an ad. If you get the core
structure right, you have a template — invisible to everyone else who looks
at the same ad — of what really makes it work.

So today, I want to introduce you to that kind of deep structure analysis.
And I‘m going to do it by applying it to headlines — the smallest piece of the
advertising puzzle, yet the most powerful.

The headline you use has an enormous impact on the effectiveness of your
ad. Pick the wrong headline and your response rate could drop by more than
half. Select the right headline and you could double or triple response, and
even create an ad which will last for decades.

The Best-Known Headline Ever Written
Several years ago, Raphael Marketing compiled a list of 100 of ―the best
print advertising headlines ever written.‖ As a group, these ads sold
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products and services. (That would
be tens of billions of dollars today.)

I looked through the list this morning and thought, ―Boy, these are really
good. I bet I could use some of them right now to improve my clients‘ copy!‖


I‘m not talking about copying them verbatim. A word or two or three,
maybe. (And for a headline by a living writer, I wouldn‘t even do that.) But
more than that is just plain dumb, because it doesn‘t work on so many
levels. For one thing, it‘s cheating. And, it makes you a weaker
marketer/writer.

What I could do, though, is figure out what is going on beneath the surface
(determine the DNA of those headlines), and then inject that into my clients‘
copy to invigorate it.

With that in mind, let‘s take a look at one of the ―top 100‖ headlines. In fact,
let‘s look at the headline that came in at number one. It was written in 1925
by John Caples for a correspondence course from the U.S. School of Music:
They laughed when I sat down at the piano…
But when I started to play!
This headline instantly conveys all the key elements of a successful ad:
 One strong idea
 One desirable benefit
 One driving emotion
 One inevitable solution

In just 15 words, Caples tells a powerful story. You can see someone
approaching a piano in a crowded room — perhaps it‘s a dinner party. You
can see the look of disbelief on people‘s faces as he nears it. When he pulls
back his cuffs, a twitter of laughter starts. Before his fingers touch the
ivories, there is a chorus of abusive cackling.

How can you not feel sorry for this guy? Surely you have experienced,
sometime in your life, a similar moment of embarrassing derision. (Who
hasn‘t?)

Imagining this situation, you feel his need for revenge and approval — two
of the deepest and strongest human desires.

Now comes the second line — ―But when I started to play…‖


You can see the shock and disbelief on the faces of those who were laughing.
Our hero has begun playing, and the music is flowing like wine. Men grow
pale with admiration and jealousy. Women glow in appreciation.

And then the thought hits you: ―Wouldn‘t it be wonderful if I could play the
piano?‖
Based on Caples‘s headline alone, the reader of this ad is already half-
persuaded to sign up for the course it is selling. As I suggested above, this is
an astonishing amount of work to get done with 15 simple words.

What’s Going on Here?
One of the most important discoveries I ever made about advertising came
to me years after I first read this wonderful headline. But, it could have been
inspired by it. I call it the Rule of One.

I said this about theRule of One:―Write about only one thing at a time.
Because one good idea, clearly and convincingly presented, is better than a
dozen so-so ideas strung together.‖
Caples‘s headline is a beautiful example of that. Had he taken the salad bowl
approach — so popular with the whippersnappers who write copy today — it
might have read as follows:
Now You Can Learn to Play the Piano Quickly and Easily!
After years of research, musicologist discovers the world‘s most efficient
method for teaching the piano.
Using this unique new program, you can master the piano
in less than a year!
You will amaze your friends and neighbors!
Some may even be shocked at how well you can play!
Plus, you can earn extra income on the weekends!

This headline doesn‘t have nearly the force of the original because it has too
much going on. Too many unnecessary details, too many unrelated
emotions, and too many damn words!

Another reason Caples‘s headline is so strong is because, as I pointed out, it
tells a story. Of all the ways to get your readers emotionally involved in your
copy, nothing works better and more consistently than the story lead.


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Copywriting secrets of the masters michael masterson compilation

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