Hey there,

What do you say we talk about the weird little trick that can make our ads drink whisky, piss gasoline, and suck in orders by the gajillion?

Up for that?

Okay, so there you are: You’ve given birth to your new ad. It’s sitting on your desk, steaming with sheer potential… if you put your ear close, and strain real hard, you can actually hear the torrent of orders building in the distance.

You’ve written a hot headline that speaks to the core of your prospect, and gets them all gooey about what you’re selling…

 … you’ve got tight body copy, ready to dazzle them with the raw unadulterated benefits of the product… it shows them exactly why life would be better if they could only get one of these sexy new widgets.

You’ve loaded up on bullet points, to deliver those benefits with, well, a bullet…

 … and you’ve got a close that squeezes so tight you almost ordered the widget for yourself while you were writing it.

 So you’re about ready to turn ‘er loose and watch the marketing world erupt as your sheer genius balloons into millions of dollars in new business…

 … But Wait…

 … because you’re probably forgetting something.

Even if you’ve got all that stuff nailed down at world-class levels, there’s one last thing that could quickly and easily multiply your results (and garner you a ton of recognition in the world of direct response copy, should other writers see your ad).

What am I talking about?

A big shiny Hook. See it right there, big, barbed end, shining in the sunlight with sheer wickedness?

A decent Hook like that can take your good salesletter and turn it into a great one.

Heck, a great Hook can make even a shitty ad do a decent job of bringing in the moolah.

BUT… an alarming number of ads are left Hookless. An even more alarming number of writers wouldn’t know a Hook if it leapt out of the bushes and sank its barb into their pale, pasty jugular.

To paraphrase my friend John Carlton, a Hook is “an incongruous juxtaposition of sales elements”.

In plain terms, it’s where you connect two things that don’t seem like they should be connected, so your ad flirts with being nonsensical or controversial.

Put bluntly, the Hook is the thing that makes you do a quick double-take at the page… a real “WTF?!” moment.

The best example of this is probably this headline from one of Carlton’s famous golf ads:

“Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged-Golfer
Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and
Slices… And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes
From Your Game Almost Overnight”

Now, lemme ask you…

… do you honestly think there’s a golfer in the world who wouldn’t stop dead and read that headline?

Of course there isn’t.

The idea is insane. It makes no sense. One legged people don’t play golf… do they? And surely a one-legged dude is going to suck at it if he does?

The challenging of common wisdom is what makes it work.

And that’s the incongruence we talked about.

At first glance it doesn’t make sense. So they have to look again… really read it.

And then what happens?

Well, any half-serious golfer is going to want to slash ten strokes from their game overnight… so suddenly not only did the Hook drag them in, but the rest of the headline has done its job and made them read further, into the body copy… 

… And When That Does Its Job, They’ll Be Calling Our Hotline,
Credit Card In Hand, Rabid To Buy This Amazing System

Hooks like this work so well because they rely on curiosity. I have no idea whether it’s ever been proved scientifically, but Gary Halbert once said curiosity was the strongest human motivator there is.

I’m inclined to agree with him.

Ever been surfing the web and seen those little banner ads with something like “Weird Trick For Burning Belly Fat”?

Well, those ads work like crazy – you can tell because they’re everywhere, and getting ripped left right and center…

… and they work because they rely on curiosity to get people to click.

It’s the same with Hooks… if you hit it just right, you can fire up your prospects curiosity gland enough to make them stop and take notice of your ad…

… and if you’ve done your job with the rest of it, pretty soon it’ll be raining gold bars.

Okay, well maybe not quite raining gold bars, but it’ll definitely be sunshine and lollipops.

More orders, happy clients… everything a savvy freelancer wants from a job.

So where do we find a Hook?

Not everybody has a one-legged golfer, right?

No, most of us aren’t that lucky…

… but the funny thing about Hooks, is that the harder you dig to find one, the luckier you’ll often get.

It starts with the client usually. Or at least, whoever put the product together. Time to roll up your sleeves, and put on what Carlton calls your “sales detective” hat.

You need to get them on the phone, or quiz them face to face. Get into their lives, open them up and shine a flashlight in their mind. What makes them tick? Where did the product come from? Whose idea was it? Why this product? What were they doing before they did this? What happened with their last product? What makes this widget bigger/better/faster/slower/morer?

And so on, and on, and on.

(Note: whoever you’re interviewing will never know the good stuff you’re looking for, those raw nuggets of gold, so it’ll often be like butting your head against a wall. Grit your teeth and keep butting. You’ll get there.) 

2 Things Will Happen During This Process:

The first, and most obvious, is that you’ll wind up with a MUCH deeper knowledge of whatever you’re trying to sell. This is never a bad thing.

It’s quite likely that angles and benefits you never even considered will start to surface… and you can use your hard-won skills as a direct-response sales sorcerer to cast some spells and shape them into big, immediate selling points.

The second thing, is where the magic happens.

If you’re lucky, a fully formed hook will just jump out at you – the product developer had the idea for the big selling point while he was skydiving or something – but most of the time it’ll be unearthed slowly, like ancient fossil being revealed by the careful scrapings of an eager archeologist.

The big trick is to keep your eye on the prize. Ask open, probing questions that make the subject talk more than you, and run everything they say through your salesman’s filter. Is it interesting to your prospect? If not, can you spin it into something interesting?

When you find the biggest, most dramatic piece of weirdness – that thing that doesn’t fit – that’s probably where your Hook lies. Like the priest teaching people how to get out of speeding tickets, or sex secrets being revealed by a 75 year old grandmother from Nebraska.

Once you find a suitable hook, all you need to do is polish it up, and fit it into your ad. The best hooks work great in the headline… some are headlines all on their own… but others you’ll need to polish and figure out how to best serve the ad. 

And Listen Up, Because This May Be The
Biggest Piece Of The Whole Puzzle:

Sometimes there just isn’t a Hook.

Most of the time there will be… and if you don’t find it it’s likely down to you not working hard enough, or not being able to pin the guy down for whatever reason.

But sometimes, there just isn’t.

And in that case, you just go to town with your regular trickbag, and pull out all the stops.

If you’re lucky enough to have one of those killer Hooks sitting there and ready to make the whole thing sing, get it out there, loud and proud, safe in the knowledge you’re probably about to bust open a cash tornado into your merchant account.

Good luck with it.

To the blank page,

-David Raybould

Hey there,

First up, belated Happy New Year to you. I sincerely wish you the best year you’ve ever had.

If you’re anything like me, you had a ton of different plans and ideas ready to go… all singing, all dancing stuff to make you more money in less time, with less stress than ever.

Am I right?

That’s just how it works. It’s your inner-entrepreneur struggling to get out.

January becomes a time of proto-evolution as you gear up for a year in the trenches, hip deep in what John Carlton calls Operation Moneysuck.

But then February wades in like the school bully – slapping your lunch out of your hand and grinding your face into the mess you left from 2010.

Reality can be a bitch, can’t it?

Well yes, it can. But personally, I won’t let it. You shouldn’t either.

2010 was a monumental year for me. My best biz year ever, I made a whole slew of interesting friends and had a lot of cool new experiences.

Best part of 2010 for me? Sitting down a few days ago with my calendar and working out that I took a total of 13 weeks vacation. Pretty cool huh? Especially when you consider I almost doubled my income from the year before.

Now, that may sound all blue skies and lollipops… but it didn’t happen by accident.

It happened because I had clear visions of what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to accomplish.

In a word, I had clarity… and scary as it may seem, clarity is something that most businesses are sorely missing.

Without it, you’re essentially hoping that you have a good year… relying on fate to not kick your ass and deal you a shitty hand at each opportunity.

Don’t know about you, but I’d rather not just wish for success… I’d prefer to make it happen.

So here’s what to do to make sure 2011 doesn’t crush you under its heel, tearing up your half-baked plans and laughing while it does so.

Sit down right now (seriously) with a pen and paper, and work out what it was you did in your biz that gave you the most monetary bang for your buck.

I’m talking about the things that generated great returns with the least effort, and stuff you can easily repeat.

Once you’ve got a few notes on that, move forward and make some notes on the opposite stuff. The things that hindsight tells you were a mistake, the massive time-sucks and projects that didn’t do well, or maybe weren’t even completed.

For example, 2010 was a banner year for me… but I still had one project that failed spectacularly… time-wise, income-wise, in just about every way you can imagine. I worked on it for seven whole weeks, only for it to tank on launch day due to decisions I wasn’t privy to.

Result? Lesson learned and I’ve moved forward. Time is everybody’s most valuable commodity, so I’ll make damn sure there’s no way I’ll ever find myself in a similar situation.

You see, every mistake you make, every bad choice, poor decision, downright DUMB thing you do is really just an accelerated method of learning. There’s nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. The only truly stupid mistakes are the ones you make over and over – and those usually come directly from a lack of this kind of clarity.

It’s surprising how much you can learn from a simple brainstorm sessions like this… even in as little as an hour you should wind up with way more clarity than you previously had.

Then, you go to work planning a year that lets you capitalize on the more profitable, fun stuff you did, and deliberately avoid the mistakes and bad situations you stumbled into.

The trick when doing this is to be as objective and logical as possible. Don’t let your feelings cloud your judgement. This is simply an exercise in finding out what worked for you last year, what didn’t, and how to maximize the good and minimize the bad.

A good solid hour doing this could easily be the most valuable business hour you spend this year, because it will affect every hour from here on out. Don’t skip it.

Hope that’s useful to you.

What are your goals for the rest of 2011? I’d love to hear some of them, so let me know what you have planned in the comments section below.

To the blank page,

-David Raybould

Hey there,

I’ve got something extra special for you today.

John Carlton is just about to go live with his world famous Simple Writing System.

If you don’t know who John is, he’s the go-to guy for internet marketing legends like Frank Kern and Eben Pagan – these guys have John on speed dial for marketing problems they can’t solve themselves…

And let’s be honest – guys like that probably don’t need marketing help from too many people, do they?

I’ve been lucky enough to spend some time with John, and he really is one of the smartest people I’ve ever come across.

Aside from that, he’s one of the most influential and success-inducing copywriters on the planet.

His ads and salesletters are swiped, studied and downright ripped off the world over…

… not to mention the fact that he’s generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the people and businesses he’s worked with over the years.

Yes, you read that right. I said hundreds of millions of dollars.

That’s what makes his Simple Writing System so powerful…

… it’s everything John’s learned in almost 30 years as a top copywriter/guru to the gurus, condensed into an easy 17 step process anybody can follow.

You don’t have to be a great writer, hotshot marketer, or anything else.

Regular people have made MILLIONS applying these secrets to their businesses…

Best part? It works for anybody, no matter what your market is.

It doesn’t matter how badly previous advertising attempts have failed for you either – this system shows you EXACTLY how to drill into your niche and scoop out handfuls of money on demand.

If you are a struggling business owner, and you’ve yet to find a way to reliably suck the cash from your customer’s pockets, this is what you need.

Same if you’re a freelancer.

If you want to be able to create sales messages that cut right to the heart of the prospect, get them hanging on your every word, and then have them scrambling to hand over their credit card, this is how it’s done.

 All That’s Great I Know… But It Gets Better

You see, Carlton’s 17 step system is super, super powerful – you could make millions with it, either by creating ads for your own stuff, or by being paid to write them for other people…

… but the real kicker, the thing that makes it far and away the best way to learn this stuff, is that you get PERSONAL tuition as you go through the stages.

John’s assembled an All-Star faculty this time around (including yours truly), and you’ll be taken through the course one step at a time, until you’re creating effective sales messages with ease.

Check it out below:

Click Here Now (spaces limited) 

When I say this system is amazingly powerful, I’m speaking from experience.

I graduated from the SWS last year – even though I was already a big-name copywriter with a ton of hit letters under my belt.

I’d always liked John’s stuff, so I figured I’d check it out – but I didn’t honestly expect to learn too much.

I was already the go-to writer in some circles and let’s face it, most copywriting courses are just the same old basic stuff rehashed into a different order…

… but boy was I wrong about this one.

John’s system completely changed the way I approach writing copy, on a fundamental level.

No matter if it’s longform copy, email copy, or for writing a hit video salesletter, the first thing I do is go through the Simple Writing System first.

THAT’s how powerful it is… not to mention the added insights you’ll get by looking into your market from the angles John will teach you.

Here’s Where It Gets Interesting…

I’ve arranged a SUPER special bonus for anybody who signs up to the system through my link.

You see, tutor assignments on the SWS are random. They don’t take requests for certain teachers or anything like that.

If they did it would inevitably turn out with some classes being bigger than others, and that’s simply not fair on the students.

So the only way to guarantee a spot in my class is to go through one of the links on this page.

And for everybody that does, I’m offering three 20 minute consulting calls, to personally guide you through the system.

These are one to one, just you and I, and designed to help you get the most from your SWS experience.

The course usually runs for 8 weeks, so we’ll do one call in the first few weeks, one a few weeks later, and then a final wrap up call, once you graduate (and believe me, this will REALLY let you hit the ground running and start making money from your new skills).

I usually charge $500 – $1000 an hour for consulting calls like this, so you’re potentially getting up to a thousand dollars of personal coaching from me, for absolutely nothing.

Add that to the main course, and you have some serious value.

Click the link below to get in on it now…

Click Here Now 

Think about that for a second – you’ll have me teaching you the system in the classroom, and if you get stuck or want to go a little deeper, we’ll cover it in one of your calls.

Just you and I, one on one, completely no pressure.

Sound good?

There really is no better way to get to grips with what is probably THE most important business skill you can learn – persuading people to give you money.

And these skills aren’t just applicable to writing sales messages either – persuasion tactics like this are universal, which means you’ll be able to apply them to every aspect of your business.

So let’s do it – let me take you by the hand and show you how to create world class copy, whatever your medium.

Click the link below to get in now

Click Here Now 

Now Comes The Bad News…

Unfortunately, there really is bad news…

The spaces on the Simple Writing System really are limited. EXTREMELY limited in fact, and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Due to the personal nature of the coaching, there’s only so many students we can handle… once we hit that limit, the doors will slam shut.

Everyone who’s anybody in the marketing world is promoting this, so it’ll sell out FAST.

If you want in, you’ll need to act immediately.

I’d love to have you in my class, and this is how to make that happen.

Doors open at 2pm Eastern today.

Carlton’s lined up some excellent bonuses for anybody who takes fast action, so get over there now and check it out.

Click Here Now 

P.S.- Word is, this could be the last time the Simple Writing System runs. In fact, this one almost didn’t happen. It’s phenomenally difficult to assemble such an all-star faculty and get them to commit so much time to personal tuition, so the last session was very nearly the last one EVER.

And that means if you want in on this, there really may not be a next time. Move now.

Click Here Now 

P.P.S.- I just heard on the grapevine that everybody who pulls the trigger on this today will get a free ticket to Carlton’s Action Seminar early next year. I was at this year’s Action Seminar, and it was hands down the best marketing event I’ve ever attended.

John didn’t allow any sales pitches, so it was just the smartest marketers in the world sharing their biggest secrets.

That’s not just hype by the way – I made 13 pages of notes in the first 45 minutes of the first day – and some of those notes led to me making big changes in the way my business operates this year. That’s how good those secrets were.

Tickets to this thing will be $797 – but you get in free if you act now with the Simple Writing System, so move fast, before all the spaces are full:

Click Here Now

hey there,

This post may stir up a little controversy, so I’m going to come right out and say it…

Maybe, just maybe you’re not cut out to be a freelance copywriter.

Sorry, I know that’s not what you want to hear… but in many cases – probably the majority, even – it’s true.

The life of a successful freelancer is amazing. You can earn a great living, you can work from anywhere in the world… and the work itself is a lot of fun…

… and that’s completely forgetting all the cool people you meet, and all the other intangible stuff.

Yes, it’s great. I love my job.

And recently, I’ve had a few experiences with other writers that made me realize that not everybody gets to do it – not everybody manages to make a living at this…

… and fewer still will achieve the honest-to-goodness-riches that make you feel like a lottery winner who writes copy for fun.

Now I’m going to talk you through why that is…

Imagine the scene – you’ve spent months, years honing the craft. Analyzing winning ads, writing them out by hand, seeing why they worked…

… you’ve started writing ads of your own for mundane household objects (believe me if you’ve never done this, NOTHING sharpens your benefit-finding chops more than writing a salesletter about your kitchen knives, or shower curtain or whatever)…

Maybe you’ve even hung out your own shingle, and you’re currently deeply mired in what John Carlton calls the “shameless whore” phase.

(You do know what that is right?)

And heck, maybe you’re getting good… really good. World class even.

Excellent… those are all nice things.

But… (and this is a big but, so listen up)

… even if you’ve got all that in place, and you’ve worked like crazy, you could still fail.

Know why?

Writing skill alone won’t get it done. Chops are a great thing to have… but they’re not enough.

You also need a big juicy dollop of something else.

Know what it is?

Desire.

That raw, ugly kernel of emotion sitting in the middle of your soul, directing you to do all kinds of crazy shit that you’d never otherwise consider.

To become successful as a freelancer, you need to want to push yourself… you have to KNOW that you’re going to get somewhere in this business, or die trying.

Without that desire – without the NEED to advance yourself, to always move forward, your career will eventually sputter and die. You may enjoy it for a little bit, may even make some money… but sooner or later the piper must be paid.

The funny thing is, I wasn’t even aware of that desire until recently when I was on the phone with freelance copywriting superstar Kevin Rogers.

Kevin’s a good friend, and we were talking about how weird it is that some guys never seem to get off the ground in this biz, but others take off like they’re strapped to a rocket.

At first we were stumped… I mean, why are some guys just so much more successful than others?

But we worked out the answer by retracing our own (very similar) paths to becoming successful writers.

It turns out that thousands of miles away from each other, and a few years from becoming friends, both of us stumbled onto the world of copywriting at about the same time.

And we both had the same reptile-level gut reaction:

“I’m going to learn how to do that. I don’t care what it costs, how hard it is, or how long it takes. I’m not quitting until I’ve got it.”

Ever feel that? The naked, unflinching need to know something… to immerse yourself in it… to butt your head against it until somehow, you actually begin to learn?

And begin to learn we did, with years of practice, sharpening the blade, breaking down successful letters, and mentoring under the best guys around.

Since that conversation a few days ago though, I’ve had the chance to mull it over. Let my subconscious go to work deconstructing it, and putting it back together in a way that suits my Fisher-Price level mind.

And I’ve come to a further conclusion.

There’s another skill that’s intrinsic in almost every single successful freelance copywriter I know. This, coupled with that cell-level desire is what separates these people from the poor $500 a job guys languishing on Elance and places like that.

The second essential skill is Opportunism.

Great freelancers can see the big chances coming. They jump on them with both feet, while the rest of the world snooze.

Let’s look at Kevin Rogers again.

Recently he was behind the biggest hit salesletter in Clickbank history – Mobile Monopoly.

It was HUGE, reaching heights that most product owners don’t even dare hope for… even becoming one of the top ten most visited websites in the whole world for a brief period…

… but realistically, Kevin had no idea it was going to be so big. He’s not psychic. He didn’t know the client wasn’t going to flub the launch, or any number of other disastrous things wouldn’t happen.

He just did the same superb job on the launch and the copy that he always does, shook the client’s hand, and moved on to the next one.

But when launch time came, and the world starting taking notice of the product, and the Clickbank gravity figure began its meteoric rise, Kevin made some very astute judgement calls. In fact, what he really did was start jumping on opportunities.

He immediately put together and launched a new copywriting site – LaunchCopyGurus.com…

Then he went to work letting the world know that he was the guy responsible for one of the biggest salesletters/launches of all time…

The coup de grace?

Kevin also put together a screen capture video, breaking down EXACTLY what made this letter and this launch so special… and that video very quickly started making the rounds on the various marketing forums.

Smart moves indeed, and moves that have no doubt helped him book an extra few spaces in his calendar, and probably already put money in his pocket – money that wouldn’t have been there if he hadn’t acted on this.

And that’s the real secret ingredient – the ability to spot and act on a great opportunity. It’s also something shared by savvy business people the world over.

In fact, to become a successful freelancer, you need to be a smart business person too. Somebody needs to steer the boat, and if you’re a one-man shop, by default that somebody is you.

So let me ask you a question…

Would you have done the same in Kevin’s shoes?

Do you recognize a fat-with-cash opportunity when it taps your shoulder?

Most people can’t. They’re too busy getting through the day to day. They’re stuck in the engine room, stoking the furnace to make the ship move. They don’t have time to steer the damned thing too.

If you CAN see opportunity coming though, my advice is to act on it every single time. The rewards will far outweigh the failures… and the failures will provide lessons that are every bit as valuable.

So there you are – the two vital, yet intangible qualities that are exhibited by every copywriter worth his or her salt.

Tell me – when was the last time you jumped on an opportunity? And if you didn’t jump on it, why not?

I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.

To the blank page,

-David

Hey there,

Unlike most people, I took to the whole online marketing thing immediately.

I made money the very first day I started out, using Adwords of all things (way back in the glory days – remember those?).

Looking back, it was a little crazy, and I had no idea how lucky I was.

I’d literally picked an affiliate offer at random through Commission Junction on Friday morning, spent 2 minutes writing an ad, and then left the whole thing running while I went off to work (back when I had a J.O.B.)…

When I got to work though, the suspense of not knowing what was happening was almost killing me — so I finagled my way into an early lunch, and almost ran the half mile back to my apartment…

… and to my utter surprise, I’d made a $150 affiliate commission. From selling language software, through CJ, with a direct affiliate link.

The best part?

I’d only had 3 clicks on my Adwords ad too…

So I’d made $150 from 3 clicks that cost me the princely sum of 22 cents.

That was my first day as an affiliate. Not bad huh?

Unfortunately, my next foray into the world of online business didn’t do so well.

After seeing so many people making millions as product vendors (or at least claiming to), I decided I wanted to carve a piece of that big green pie for myself.

I mean, it sounds great doesn’t it? We see all those pictures of the guys posing in front of their 5 million dollar house with their Italian sports cars…

… who doesn’t want that?

Well, I found out pretty quickly that it’s not all popcorn and fizzy drinks.

In fact, I wasted about 6 months of my life creating a product that made me a grand total of something like $68.

It tanked… and I mean TANKED… we’re talking about making maybe 3 or 4 sales out of the first ten thousand or so visitors.

It was awful… watching all that wasted time and effort just slip away…

Do you know the scary part though?

I had no idea why it failed. I had literally no clue… in fact I put it all down to a case of bad luck…

But it wasn’t bad luck at all.

It was bad MARKETING.

Or, to be more specific, bad TARGETING.

You see, in my haste to be a product vendor (and become on of the guys that takes pictures of himself in front of his house), I’d gotten the whole order of things confused.

I’d created a product on a random subject, and expected to find an audience for it after I’d created it. Like the perfectionist I am, I created the SHIT out of the thing too – I spent months researching, literally months before I ever put pen to paper and started writing.

Was that time wasted?

Well… yes and no. Financially, and business-wise, it was a complete washout. Personally though, I learned a hard lesson, one that I’m not likely to forget.

Here’s what I would have done differently, if I knew then what I know now…

First, I’d hit Google, and start seeing what’s up. I’d look for popular trends, what niches are being widely advertised for, stuff like that.

Then I’d start diving into specific niches… think about things that give people pain – what makes people desperate?

(General rule of thumb – if you can create an info product that genuinely helps people that are desperate, you’re onto a winner…)

It’s up to you how deep you go from here – you could start with something broad (dog training), or even delve into a niche-within-a-niche (dog training for Irish Wolfhounds)

Next, it’s time to check out the competition. That’s the thing a lot of people miss. We WANT competition. It means there’s money being made. And don’t worry, even if there’s of people competing with you – we can always outmarket them. Most people (even in the world of info products) have no idea what they’re doing.

With all that stuffed into my trusty notepad (you have one, right?), I’d then start narrowing down the main product idea. Things to think about here are pricing, follow-up products, and potential JV partners…

And I’d only start on the product itself AFTER I put in all that groundwork.

Do you see how that’s different from starting at the product, and trying to fit everything else around it?

It’s been said many times, but all you need to do to make money in this business is find a hungry market, and feed them.

I failed because I was trying to feed a market that wasn’t hungry… or even a market that was non-existent.

The difference between embarrassing failure and massive success can sometimes be that simple.

Now, let’s try and get some interaction going… I’ve showed you mine, time to show me yours.

What was your first attempt at making money from marketing? Did it work? What lessons did you learn?

Lay it all out for me in the comments. I’ll chime in with some insights if I think I can help.

To the blank page,

-David

Hey there,

Been a while since my last post, so I must apologize.

The reason for my absence is in fact my subject today.

You see, I’ve just returned from a meeting with John Carlton’s Mastermind Group in San Francisco.

It was a fascinating, eye-opening affair, with more marketing expertise and insight flying around than you could possibly imagine without being there.

I came back with fundamental strategy changes that I plan to implement immediately, and I’m expecting them to make huge increases to my bottom line.

You see, copywriting can be a lonely gig. We spend hours upon hours locked in our office (dungeon/laboratory/whatever), working alone, with little to no human contact.

And so most of the time, our business strategies and systems exist almost in a vacuum, no matter how inefficient or costly they may be.

That’s why I want to share with you my 3 big takeaways from the meeting. I think just about every marketer/copywriter out there could benefit from being involved in a situation like that, so I’m going to put my money where my mouth is, and show you what I got from it.

(Note- I’m pretty sure that these kinds of lessons would be applicable for just about any decent mastermind group you joined)

Big Takeaway 1-

This hit me as a revelation – - and it was so big and obvious I can’t believe it never occurred to me before.

The revelation was that I REALLY should have joined something like this a long time ago.

There’s something almost magical about spending time with a group of like-minded professionals in the same (or a similar) business as you. You get insights, ideas, and all kinds of happy accidents take place. In fact, get a bunch of smart people together in the same room, and you never know what kind of creative sparks will fly… especially when they’re all focussed on the same or similar goals.

Of course, the mean, unflinching by-product of this is commitment.

Once you publicly commit to your goals and aims in a setting like this, then you’d better by God start taking massive action to meet them…

If you don’t, your new buddies won’t hold back in kicking your ass… (in fact they’re already looking forward to it)

… or even worse, next time they see you they’ll give you the look of sympathy that says they know you’re the guy who didn’t “get it”. The one guy who can’t take all this expertise and conjure it into more money…

Seriously though, if you’re at all lacking motivation in any aspect of your business, joining a mastermind group could be just the thing to shove a candle under your ass.

Big Takeaway 2-

You know, there’s a lot to be said for the self-respect building that goes on when you’re involved in something like this.

Working in this business can be a tenuous thing – we often don’t have to answer to anybody, and can twist our roles and our business into all kinds of shapes, often trying to fit into someone else’s idea of how it should be.

This will change completely the very moment that you’re around a group of people in a professional capacity.

Aside from the fusion and outbreak of ideas you get from rubbing your fertile mind against another person’s fertile mind, the introspection that comes afterward will almost always be useful.

Seriously — it sounds like new-age woo-woo bullshit, but until you shake somebody’s hand, look them in the eye, and tell them what you do for a living, on some level you’ll always believe you’re faking it.

So if you’ve yet to do that, go and do it at your soonest opportunity. A lot of people operate their copywriting business completely under the radar – even their friends and family won’t know what they do.

And whenever they meet someone new, they’ll explain their business away with an embarrassed cough or a glance at the floor.

Don’t do this.

Instead, firmly shake their hand, and with a smile, tell them what you do. Don’t hesitate, and have no fear. Shame on them if they don’t applaud you for seizing the day and shooting for the moon.

Be proud of what you are, what you’re trying to achieve.

Oh and hey, there’s a big secret by-product to this too…

The more people you tell about your business, especially other professional people, the more exciting things will start to unfold for you. Partnerships that you wouldn’t dare hope for will just fall into your lap.

So do it.

Even if you need to join your local chamber of commerce, take part in free local marketing seminars, whatever.

Just go and shake some hands, see what happens. I promise it will be good things only.

Big Takeaway 3-

The last takeaway is a little simpler, and a lot more fundamental.

I realized how much more effective I am in business if I immerse myself in my market.

I’m English. I live in London.

But nearly all the copy I write is aimed at the huge American market. That means I have to write in an American “voice”.

And hey, it’s not as tough as it may sound – American culture is all over the world, and many of us wallow in it daily, through the TV we watch, the movies we see, and the books we read.

BUT…

Until I spent a good deal of time over there, like I have this year, I didn’t realize how many subtleties and language issues I was tripping over.

And that’s the takeaway – there’s simply no substitute for truly delving into your market, whatever it is. You’ll uncover the solutions to problems you didn’t even know existed…

… and you’ll gain million dollar insights just by watching as daily life unfolds around you.

For a marketer, these insights are invaluable – they’re the difference between monster paydays from each project, and the kind of profits that make you shrug your shoulders and hope for better days.

Seriously, I can’t stress this enough – go bury yourself in your market, as deep as you can. Good things will come of it.

Those were my 3 biggest takeaways from meeting with John Carlton and his mastermind group in San Francisco a few weeks ago…

… and now I’d like to turn the floor over to you.

What was your first marketing event like? What were your 3 big lessons?

I’m dying to know, so lay it out for me in the comments below.

Oh and I’m sorry it took me so long to get this latest post live. Won’t happen again, I promise.

To the blank page,

-David

Hey there,

A couple of posts ago, I was talking about how important it is for copywriters to have a mentor.

Even the best writer, the best salesman, will multiply their progress by working with a good mentor.

You’ll shave years off the learning curve… maybe even decades.

There’s simply no substitute for the kind of knowledge imparted when you’ve got a grizzled pro looking over your shoulder and tearing apart everything you do…

… someone who knows what’s up, telling you straight when you suck, and when you nailed it.

I mean, think about it – wouldn’t it be cool to pass your work to a proven veteran BEFORE it goes live?

Of course it would. Not only would it be cool, it would be invaluable for you as a writer.

Trouble is, mentors cost money. Real money. Four figures a month at least, and often way, way more.

But you know the funny thing?

The right mentor is always a bargain.

Thankfully, for the average freelancer just trying to hone their skill and get some big converting letters written, there’s an answer.

Click Here To Check It Out

John Carlton’s Simple Writing System is probably the best way for a writer or business owner to quickly learn how to craft an effective sales message. Salesletters, emails, video scripts, whatever. If you want to sell stuff, this will help you.

Just what is it that makes it so darned effective?

Hands-on teaching.

When you take the SWS course, you’re put in a “classroom” with a big name world-class copywriter, and you get their one on one input on everything you do.

The revelations come thick and fast, and even the most bloated, ineffective writing can be turned into lean, muscular, money-getting copy.

This course is a life changer… you’ve only got to skim the testimonials of all the previous successful students to see that.

John Carlton has been at the top of the freelance copywriting game for over 25 years. If you’ve ever read his stuff, you know the guy has writing skills that make mortal writers throb with jealousy.

And the Simple Writing System is the 17 step system John developed through decades of writing big winners and being the go-to marketer for some of the most competitive markets in the world.

The Simple Writing System will show you how to write copy that homes in on the “money-spending” nerve-centers in your prospect’s brain, and squeeze every cent out of them.

It’s that effective.

Check it out here

I’m not just spinning a line here either… I took the course last year, and what happened blew my socks off.

I was already a successful writer, a string of big hit letters under my belt and clients lining up for months on end to work with me… and if I’m honest, I didn’t expect to learn anything. Truth is, I did the course for the opportunity it presented (more on that in a second).

Do you know what happened though?

I actually LEARNED. And not a little either. The stuff I did during the SWS course changed the whole way I approach writing copy, and in a fundamental way.

I’m not kidding. I’ve got a “go-to” bookshelf in my office. It’s where I keep the good books… Schwab, Caples etc… so I can easily reach for them. I fully expected Carlton’s Simple Writing System to end up there too.

Truth is, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Simple Writing System has proved itself to be so useful to me, that I’ve given up putting it away. It just sits on my desk, waiting for me to pounce on it every couple of days.

And it helps me every single time.

Now, John’s system is always a bargain, no question… but this time around, it’s a little more spicy.

Why?

Because John personally asked me to tutor on the course.

It’s an honor, true, but it also means that for the first time ever, you can actually get one-on-one guidance and mentorship from me.

I don’t take personal students, so if you want my input, my advice… if you want me looking over your shoulder while you write, this is the only way to get it.

In fact, the best way to guarantee that happens, is to buy through the link below.

>>SWS<<

And if you DO buy through my link I’m going to sweeten John’s already great deal a little more.

Anybody who joins the Simple Writing System through me will get a completely FREE half hour telephone consultation (probably through Skype) once the course ends.

So if you want to go over the letter you wrote as part of the course, we can.

If you want advice on another letter, we can go over that.

If you just want tips on your freelance career, or general business consulting, we can do that too.

It’s your thirty minutes, we can spend it talking about whatever you want.

Usually I bill clients $700-$1000 for an hour of phone consulting, but you’re getting my time free.

There’s no other way to get consulting or tutorship with me, so hit the link below and sign up now.

Do it fast though. Due to the nature of the course, there are only so many places. Each tutor only has a handful of students, and once these spots are full, the doors are closed. No exceptions.

John has already said that this may be the last ever SWS, so if it’s been one of those things on your to do list for a while, do it now. You may not get the chance again.

>>SWS<<

I wholeheartedly recommend this to writers and business owners of ALL levels…

Always Bigger Conversions

-David Raybould

PS- I’ve just learned that John is including FREE admission to his next Action Seminar for every SWS student. This is priceless. I was lucky enough to have attended the last one, and I can honestly say what I learned there will DOUBLE my income this year.

No joke.

Do it now : >>SWS<<

PPS- Did I mention there was a pricing plan? You can pay in instalments if you prefer, and that makes this thing unmissable.

Hey,

I’m approached by starting-out copywriters pretty frequently, looking for coaching, guidance, mentorship, stuff like that.

While it’s always flattering, I always refuse.

Not for any real reason, other than the fact that I don’t have the time. I’d probably like nothing more than to take on a couple of hungry young writers who’re eager to learn and advance…

… but right now it’s not happening. A cosmic impossibility.

But actually, now that I think about it… there is something else holding me back.

Obsession.

The fact is, to get anywhere in the world of writing copy (unless you’re extremely lucky), you need to be obsessive. You need to be an obsessive bastard, is actually how I think of it.

You need to eat, sleep and breathe copywriting. Not forever, but for a period of time. You see, that’s how you get good. By obsessively studying, writing, re-writing, then starting the whole thing again.

Without that kind of obsession, it’s going to be tough to get what you want from this business.

How do I know?

Because every hard-core, hot shit writer has it. In spades.

You know the guys whose copy you read and think “Man, I wish just once I could write something like that…”

Well, they got those skills through hard work and diligence.

Sure, some people will pick it up faster than others. People learn at difference paces, and some (lucky) people even have natural writing talent to supercharge everything they ever put down onto paper.

Get rid of all that though, all the details, and you’re usually left with one thing.

The sick, twisted obsession, the deep seated NEED to get serious with this business.

And going back to my mention of students, or wannabe students, that’s what’s missing. For the most part, I can’t smell that kind of obsession on them anywhere…

Usually I get one email from these guys.

Just one. It goes something like “Dude please teach me… I need to know the secrets… I’ll do whatever it takes.”

So I reply, letting them know I don’t take personal students, but I usually take the time to give them the best advice I can, along with a reading list, and also the contact details of some good guys who I know will coach them and turn them into hotshot writers in record time.

And what happens?

Nothing.

I usually never hear back… and the guys I refer them to don’t hear from them either.

Sure, I’m busy enough that it’s probably better these people don’t get back to me…

… but it also seems to me that if they did have the obsession necessary to get good in this business, they’d jump at the advice I gave them.

I know I would have back then, when I was starting out. Because I was an obsessive bastard.

Truth is, if a known writer had given me the time of day back then, I’d probably hound the poor guy until he regretted ever answering my email and took out a restraining order…

… and then I would have moved onto the other guys he put me in touch with.

I’m not kidding.

Life’s funny… in the western cultures especially. We’re taught that it’s bad to obsess over things… that we should have some kind of overtly balanced outlook, everything in moderation, all that jazz.

The truth is, if you want to succeed (and this counts for just about everything… everything worthwhile at least), a little obsession can work wonders.

Think about that.

Before I go, I want to leave you with a quick tip. My aim for this blog is to not only give me an outlet for the endless rants that run a perpetual loop inside my head, but also to give some help and advice to those that need it.

I REALLY needed such advice when I first got into copywriting, but I had no idea where to get it. So I guess this blog is my way of giving back…

If you really, truly want to get good at this game, use your obsession. If you don’t have it, that’s probably a pretty good indicator that this isn’t the business for you.

But if you DO have it, congratulations. You don’t need to feel like a freak or some kind of outsider because of it, so work it.

Study, practice, just absorb good copy on a cellular level. Do it every day, preferably at the same time each day.

And write.

As often as you can. As much as you can.

If you don’t have clients yet, write letters for random products. Heck, write salesletters about everyday household objects…

Take as much care over it as you would if some client were paying you $20k for the privilege.

Oh and last thing… always, always obey the laws of good writing as you know them. Edit every single thing you write so you can say what needs to be said in the minimum number of words. Your writing should be muscle and bone, nothing else.

And that goes for everything… copy, forum posts, blog posts… even notes to Moms back home.

Relish the empty page. Relish it, because it sets you free.

Get into that mindset, and you’ll see sharp improvement…

Obsession is your friend.

Always bigger conversions,

-David Raybould
www.DavidRaybould.com

Hi there…

I sold my first salesletter for a pittance.

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you what a tiny sum it was.

And I’d like to say it was long enough ago for it to be a serious amount of dough back then, but it really wasn’t.

I wrote slower then too… so it took me 3 or 4 weeks to earn that pittance.

Not exactly the glamorous, high flying copywriting world I’d read about… but you know what?

I enjoyed every single second of it.

That in itself is priceless, the joy, the love of your art, whatever you do.

But that’s not the point.

The point is, I priced it that low because I didn’t know what I was doing.

Not the actual writing part… I had that handled, through obsessive studying of every course and book I could get my hands on.

Aside from that though, I was clueless. I had no idea what I was bringing to the table, and what my skills were worth.

That’s what got me working for so little. It’s also what made me commit dozens of other bungling mistakes in those early days.

You see, there’s just stuff you don’t get told. All the book learning in the world won’t prepare you for what’s going to jump out at you during your freelance journey.

I feel pretty lucky to have gotten this far in my career this fast… but I can also see it would have been even faster if I’d been aware of just a handful of simple facts.

So those facts are what I wanted to share with you today…

… and without further adieu, here are the 5 things that you absolutely MUST know, to get maximum benefit from your freelance career, in minimum time.

Read them, internalize them, and they’ll definitely accelerate your path. I promise.

1 – Your Clients Will Sabotage Your Letters.

They will. Not knowingly. But they’ll do it all the same. They’ll change the copy without consulting you. Rip out the headline and put in their own at the last minute. Hack up your carefully paced letter and reorder it. All kinds of bizarro stuff… and they’ll do it all having never written a successful ad in their life.

Or my personal favorite, they’ll take advice from people who have no business even having an opinion – and they’ll follow that advice, against your wishes… despite hiring you as an “expert”.

And guess what?

Even after they completely ruined the letter, tanked the launch with shoddy mailouts, and staunchly ignored your hard fought expertise… even after all that, when the letter fails, they’ll blame you.

It will be 100% your fault. No exceptions.

It sucks when this happens… and that’s why you have to work hard to defuse the potentially-career-ruining situation long before any of this stuff even has the chance to become reality.

You see, aside from stringing words together in a way that whips mere mortals into a buying frenzy, part of our jobs is client wrangling. At some point in your relationship, you need to let the client know what happens if they don’t follow your advice to the letter.

And you have to be harsh. Leniency here will bite you on the ass in 3 months, or 6 months, or whenever the project goes live.

Remember, you’re not being paid to be the client’s friend.

You’re being paid to write a winner. And if you let the client stop that happening, YOUR reputation will suffer. Not his.

So even if you need to use a contract to make sure that your letter goes live… not the hacked-up bastardized version the client and his JV partners have cobbled together, do it.

2- Remember To Balance Your Life.

When you’re deep in the game, it’s easy to lose track of everything but the game.

After all, we spend weeks at a time working on one single thing, obsessing and thinking about it every waking hour. This isn’t a 9 to 5 job. Hard as it may be to shut down the laptop for the day, sometimes it’s even harder to shut down the old noggin.

This is especially true once you see a little success, and you’ve got people waving dollar bills in your face all day every day.

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of  just jumping on that treadmill and churning out copy, day after day… but beware. Your skills will suffer, and if that happens, suddenly people aren’t so keen to throw cash at you.

Pace yourself, balance your work with life. Do stuff. Play instruments. Socialize. Read books that have nothing to do with marketing or writing.

Just be.

And you’ll find your writing is even better as a result, too.

3- Learn The Carlton Rule of Food Chains

This one simple fact can change every aspect of your freelance career, almost instantly. Quicker than overnight.

I got it from John Carlton’s freelance course (get it), and it’s a game-changer. As soon as I read it, I instinctively knew that every single aspect of my career from that point would be different.

Ready?

“You are the food chain”

Seriously. You are.

Clients will want to treat you like just another service provider. They see a dentist when they have toothache, they call Dominos when they want pizza… they want a salesletter, they come to you.

It’s a nice way to compartmentalize stuff, but it’s flawed.

You see copywriters… good ones at least, get paid on potential. We get paid for what the client hopes will happen when they hire us.

And rightly so.

If you let a skilled, driven copywriter loose in most businesses, she could multiply the profit by ten times, without even breaking a sweat.

Now, it’s hard to know this when you start out. You’re trading your stuff for peanuts, working with clients whose biggest concern is usually cost.

And that’s fine… after all, everybody has to pay their dues.

But while you’re paying them… while you’re working for cheap with people who don’t appreciate it, remember that it all comes down to you. You can make or break this guy’s business.

The first time you really hit a home run… you know, your letter makes a million bucks, converts like a rabid missionary, whatever – the first time you do that, you’ll know that you’re the whole food chain…

… or you’ll at least get an inkling.

Without you, it wouldn’t have happened. A lesser writer may have blown the whole thing… and sure, a better writer may have hit a bigger home run… but all that’s irrelevant, because you made it happen. You’re the guy who made the client a million dollars. You’re his food chain.

Once that happens – once you realize that you created that situation – it really will change the way everything works from there on out.

Just remember it. You’re the one with the skills these guys need, so don’t be afraid to call the shots.

(Funny thing is, once you internalize this, it helps with points 1 and 2 also)

4- Get A Mentor

Seriously. Get one. If you don’t have one, do it right now. Approach writers you see online, forums, Facebook, Twitter, whatever, and just flat-out ask them to mentor you. The worst they can say is no, and in my experience, it’s rarely a bad thing to put yourself on their radar like this.

The right mentor will accelerate your career more than you’d probably believe if I told you here. I say the right mentor, because it’s important to find someone you can trust, whose personality works for you.

This is very important, because otherwise, it will almost certainly hold you back.

I had one good mentor, Vin Montello, and he pushed my career into overdrive almost immediately, from the first day.

Before Vin though, there were 2 others, and they were awful. I can see now that neither of them could write their way out of a paper bag – but that didn’t stop them both giving me months and months of bad advice, or taking thousands of dollars from me.

I’m not bitter, things turned out great for me… but I hate to think of anybody else getting into that situation.

If you’re at all serious about your career, get a mentor. It may be expensive, but I promise it will be the best money you ever spend. It would have taken me 4 or 5 years to get to where I am now, without having a good mentor. Maybe even longer.

And always, always do your homework on the mentor, before getting involved.

5- Forget About The Money.

Seriously. Forget it.

After a certain point, it’s just numbers. Get paid every single cent that you’re worth, but don’t make the money your goal… it’s a great way to keep score, but this business should be about more than that.

If you can’t make it about more than money for yourself, then you really will struggle to shut down at the end of the day, and that makes everything suffer.

Your relationships, hobbies, friendships, all of it…

… seriously, if it’s just a numbers game, you run the risk of turning into a kind of addict. Nothing will get you the rush you need from closing big deals or writing big winners, and everything else in life will pale in comparison.

That road leads to burnout central my friend. Turn around and kick back with the rest of us slackers.

… so there you are.

5 fundamentals for more success, and happier life.

Read them. Re-read them. Absorb them on a cellular level.

They’ll help you every single day of your freelance career.

I really do consider myself blessed to get this far… but with those 5 nuggets of knowledge, I could have done it without the blessing.

Wouldn’t you rather take luck out of the equation?

Always bigger conversions,

David Raybould

www.DavidRaybould.com

Hey,

Welcome to the blog.

And congrats on getting in on the ground floor. You’ll find real, hardcore secrets here. Marketing and copywriting stuff that others straight up don’t know, or wouldn’t share if they did.

Let’s start by talking about copy itself.

Regardless of your business, learning the art of selling in greater numbers, more often, is just about the most powerful thing you can do.

Don’t believe me?

Think about it for a second… you want to come out at the end of the month having made money right? That’s the whole point of the game, isn’t it?

So doesn’t it kinda make sense to learn the only skill that will let you increase that money at will?

Aside from the sheer financial bliss that can occur when you’re getting the right hungry prospects looking at the right sizzling copy, there’s a whole ‘nother angle to it too…

… the angle of leaving your fate to other people.

Whether you can accept it or not, unless you’ve got the skill to put pen to paper and lay down a string of words that makes complete strangers whip out their wallet and hand you money, your business will ALWAYS be in someone else’s hands.

Think about that – seriously… what happens if the next freelancer you hire screws the pooch on the letter? What happens if your next email blast just tanks? Or your review site just doesn’t convert?

Nothing happens. The slow, painful nothing of no money being made, and zero profit being had.

And it even goes beyond that… until you’ve got the skills to straight up persuade people with your words, you’re leaving money on the table every damn day. You’re missing out on joint venture opportunities, networking, all kinds of cool and profitable stuff. Stuff you don’t even know you’re missing out on.

So do it. I’m not saying you’ve got to be world class, but just understand the basics of writing solid copy, and you’ll be a country mile ahead of every other business in your zip code. I guarantee it.

And hey – if you’d like me to post some kind of reading list, let me know in the comments section.

Thanks for stopping by, and listen- there are some real sizzling posts on the way for this blog. I’ve been planning this out for the best part of a year, so I have about 365 days of hot ideas just about burning their way through my skull.

Nothing will give me greater pleasure than getting it all out here, laid down in black and white for you to read.

I’ll write it if you’ll read it.

Deal?

Always bigger conversions,

David Raybould
www.DavidRaybould.com