True story:<\/p>\n
Once upon a time the late great copywriter Gary Halbert was hired by Entrepreneur Magazine as a consultant. And he said he was writing an ad for one of their reports and said he packed it full of bullets. But, there was one bullet he said created such a flurry of buyers that calls came in for almost a YEAR straight to buy the product.<\/p>\n
What was the bullet?<\/p>\n
This:<\/p>\n
“FAKE COCAINE: a legal substitute that fools almost everyone!”<\/p>\n
Now, the point isn’t that it was cocaine.<\/p>\n
(Or to start “swiping” this bullet without context.)<\/p>\n
No, the point is this:<\/p>\n
Bullets are the heart and soul of a good ad.<\/p>\n
(What is your headline but your best bullet?)<\/p>\n
There have been expensive (very expensive) products sold to people who didn’t even know those product existed 5 minutes earlier because of a single bullet buried in an ad that created an itch that just had to be scratched.<\/p>\n
Another true story:<\/p>\n
After doing a copywriting assignment for Ken McCarthy several years back, where he hired me to write the bullets (just the bullets) for one of his products, he was so pleased with the work he called me “the bullet man”, and offered to transfer “thebulletman .com” domain to me.<\/p>\n
Alas\u2026 I refused.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Because, as I told him, HE is the bullet man, not me.<\/p>\n
I learned what I know about bullets from him (and by studying the ads of a few other hardcore bullet writers \u2014 like Mel Martin, Gene Schwartz, Gary Halbert, Scott Haines, John Carlton, etc).<\/p>\n
And you know what?<\/p>\n
In this second part of our interview we rap ALL about bullets.<\/p>\n
Many of Ken’s best bullet tips and secrets.<\/p>\n
All yours.<\/p>\n
And, yes, all freely taught to you.<\/p>\n
(If you heard the first part of the interview yesterday about headlines, I am sure you will agree we could easily charge for this interview, it’s pure gold for anyone wanting to get better at copywriting.)<\/p>\n
Here is the link to part 2:<\/p>\n