{"id":7482,"date":"2013-08-15T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/?p=7482"},"modified":"2013-08-15T06:00:36","modified_gmt":"2013-08-15T13:00:36","slug":"why-copywriters-are-like-flies-on-the-same-turd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensettle.com\/blog\/why-copywriters-are-like-flies-on-the-same-turd\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Copywriters Are Like Flies On The Same Turd"},"content":{"rendered":"

“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.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Henry Chinaski<\/strong>
\n “Women”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’ve talked about the book “Women” before.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Very entertaining read.<\/p>\n

And, useful, too.<\/p>\n

Take the quote above, for example.<\/p>\n

(About writers being “like flies on the same turd.”)<\/p>\n

It’s 100% true.<\/p>\n

Especially for copywriters.<\/p>\n

You can make 10x’s more sales by spending 15 minutes<\/span> a day lurking in a forum filled with people in your market… than you can spending 15 hours<\/span> a day participating and trawling for advice in a forum full of copywriters.<\/p>\n

More:<\/p>\n

Many copywriters are comfy with lying in ads, too.<\/p>\n

Not maliciously, necessarily.<\/p>\n

But subtly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Yes, stories are fine.<\/p>\n

And, you should use ’em.<\/p>\n

But that ad is a phony testimonial.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It’d be a lie.<\/p>\n

It’d be illegal.<\/p>\n

And, it’d also be unnecessary.<\/p>\n

So watch out for some of them copywriters.<\/p>\n

The rationalization hamster is STRONG with them.<\/p>\n

A little half truth here…<\/p>\n

A little lie there…<\/p>\n

Pretty soon, you’re making real enemies…<\/p>\n

To learn how to write emails people \u00a0love to read and buy from, put away the dorky goo-roo tricks and check out the “Email Players” newsletter.<\/p>\n

Next issue:<\/p>\n