“The worst thing for a writer is to know another writer, and worse than that, to know a number of other writers. Like flies on the same turd.”
– Henry Chinaski
“Women”
I’ve talked about the book “Women” before.
It’s from the late (great) writer Charles Bukowski, about a 50+ year old alcoholic writer who gets famous and is suddenly getting contacted by an endless parade of hot, sexy women wanting to, uhm, meet him.
Very entertaining read.
And, useful, too.
Take the quote above, for example.
(About writers being “like flies on the same turd.”)
It’s 100% true.
Especially for copywriters.
You can make 10x’s more sales by spending 15 minutes a day lurking in a forum filled with people in your market… than you can spending 15 hours a day participating and trawling for advice in a forum full of copywriters.
More:
Many copywriters are comfy with lying in ads, too.
Not maliciously, necessarily.
But subtly.
For example:
I recently attempted to edu-ma-cate some copywriters in a LinkedIn group on why the famous John Caples “They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano But When I Stared To Play!–” ad is blatantly unethical.
Yes, stories are fine.
And, you should use ’em.
But that ad is a phony testimonial.
It’s no different than if I changed my “Email Players” sales letter to a story about a dude (I made up out of thin air), saying my newsletter made him $100k in his first year.
It’d be a lie.
It’d be illegal.
And, it’d also be unnecessary.
So watch out for some of them copywriters.
The rationalization hamster is STRONG with them.
A little half truth here…
A little lie there…
Pretty soon, you’re making real enemies…
To learn how to write emails people love to read and buy from, put away the dorky goo-roo tricks and check out the “Email Players” newsletter.
Next issue:
- A secret way to use social media to build your email list
- Clever (and very sneaky) ways to profit from your competition by brutally mocking them
- A Mensa genius’s “big secret” behind the world’s most profitable emails
- An ingenious email strategy (used in Stephen King’s highest selling books) that can make your emails more profitable the first time you use it
- The startling reason why you should avoid most auto-responder company email advice (Hint: Their agenda is NOT the same as yours)
- And a ho’ bunch mo’
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Ben Settle
